Motion control system for cinematography
First Claim
1. A motion control apparatus for controlling a motor means which drives at least one degree of motion of an object over a predetermined period of time, said apparatus comprising,a motion description means for accepting at least two position and velocity set points to be traversed by said object,a motion curve calculation means which receives said set points which calculates the coefficients of a cubic parametric motion curve representative of said position and velocity set points,a curve generation means adapted to accept said coefficients to generate digital values representative of said motion curve, andan axis model means which accepts said digital values applies a correction factor to said digital values, the correction factor being representative of the physical arrangement of the motor means which drives a degree of motion of said object and converts said corrected digital values into signals to drive said motor means to control the position and orientation of said object.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A computerised motion control apparatus for controlling a plurality of degrees of freedom of the positioning and orientation of a camera. The apparatus including a dolly (71) positionable by drive means along an extensible track arrangement (72), having a camera (73) mounted thereto and provided with motors to orientate the camera (73) by varying its pan (76), tilt (75), and roll (74). An operator interface device (15) is used to define position and velocity characteristics of the desired motion of each of the camera'"'"'s axes of motion and a motor driver module (69) calculates a parametric cubic polynomial representation of the desired motion curve. The calculated coefficients of the motion curve parametric cubic polynomial representation are easily stored and used to regenerate the values of the curve for the purposes of display and providing motion curve values for each axis of motion of the camera. These calculations can be performed upon command and in real-time. Motion curve characteristics may be modified by way of redefining the position and velocity parameters and the values generated by a curve generator (50 ) may be digitally processed by a signal processing module (57). A variety of signal processing functions may be performed upon the motion curve values generated, including summation, filtering and multiplication. Digital values representative of random, periodic and aperiodic signals may be combined with each of the motion curves generated. Additionally, values of camera characteristics such as focus, film pull-down rates, shutter speed, etc. are recorded for reproduction in synchronism with the replay of the camera motion. The provision of a camera motion control apparatus having the described facilities, enables accurate repeatability of camera motion and scene recording for digital image integration to real-life recordings, multiple time scale motion and film recording techniques for special effects.
72 Citations
11 Claims
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1. A motion control apparatus for controlling a motor means which drives at least one degree of motion of an object over a predetermined period of time, said apparatus comprising,
a motion description means for accepting at least two position and velocity set points to be traversed by said object, a motion curve calculation means which receives said set points which calculates the coefficients of a cubic parametric motion curve representative of said position and velocity set points, a curve generation means adapted to accept said coefficients to generate digital values representative of said motion curve, and an axis model means which accepts said digital values applies a correction factor to said digital values, the correction factor being representative of the physical arrangement of the motor means which drives a degree of motion of said object and converts said corrected digital values into signals to drive said motor means to control the position and orientation of said object.
Specification