Autofocus device of a camera and method
First Claim
1. An autofocus device for a camera, comprising:
- a defocus amount detector;
a memory to store a plurality of consecutive immediate past data sets including detection amount data obtained from the defocus amount detector and data corresponding to a lens forwarding amount; and
an autofocus processor section to process the data stored in the memory to predict a future predicted image composition plane at a specific time based on a specific function that includes a term that is the square root of the image plane velocity statistically manipulated from past data sets, and current movement of the image composition plane, wherein a change in a position of the image composition plane is defined by the specific function derived from regression analysis of image plane movement described by the consecutive immediate past data sets so that driving of a focus lens can be controlled based on the future predicted image composition plane and the current movement of the image composition plane.
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Abstract
An autofocus device and method for a camera that can process statistically the tracking and focusing of an object in high velocity motion. The device and method corrects the acceleration of the motion and computes a lens forwarding amount and an absolute position of the object. This is achieved by a camera system including a camera body and a focus lens. The camera body includes an autofocus detector, an autofocus processor section and a main CPU. The focus lens includes a lens, a lens driving gear, a lens CPU, and a motor. This structure, having an improved autofocus processor, enables highly accurate prediction tracking and autofocus control that accommodates fluctuations in an autofocus operation.
52 Citations
23 Claims
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1. An autofocus device for a camera, comprising:
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a defocus amount detector; a memory to store a plurality of consecutive immediate past data sets including detection amount data obtained from the defocus amount detector and data corresponding to a lens forwarding amount; and an autofocus processor section to process the data stored in the memory to predict a future predicted image composition plane at a specific time based on a specific function that includes a term that is the square root of the image plane velocity statistically manipulated from past data sets, and current movement of the image composition plane, wherein a change in a position of the image composition plane is defined by the specific function derived from regression analysis of image plane movement described by the consecutive immediate past data sets so that driving of a focus lens can be controlled based on the future predicted image composition plane and the current movement of the image composition plane. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. An autofocus device for a camera, comprising:
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a defocus amount detector; a memory to store a plurality of consecutive immediate past data sets including detection amount data obtained from the defocus amount detector and data corresponding to a lens forwarding amount; and an autofocus processor section to process the data stored in the memory to predict a future image composition plane based on the detection amount data, wherein the autofocus processor section obtains a regression line from the stored consecutive immediate data sets using a function having a term that is the square root of the image plane velocity and, based on a forwarding amount at a certain time, including the current time, one or more of an image plane velocity at that time, an absolute image plane position, and an image plane acceleration is computed. - View Dependent Claims (13)
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14. A method of accurately predicting tracking of a moving object in an autofocus device of a camera having a focusing lens, a defocus amount detector, a memory to store a plurality of past data sets including detection amount data obtained from the defocus amount detector and data corresponding to a lens forwarding amount, a driving control, and an autofocus processor section to process the data stored in the memory, the method comprising the steps of:
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(a) obtaining a predetermined plurality of defocus amounts from the defocus detector taken at predetermined intervals of time and storing the predetermined plurality of defocus amounts in the memory; (b) obtaining relative lens forwarding amount data, one for each of the predetermined intervals of time; (c) normalizing and standardizing the lens forwarding amounts data as position data cn ; (d) computing an image plane velocity from at least two previous defocus amounts, two corresponding lens forwarding amounts taken at the same time as the defocus amounts, and the actual time at each defocus amount detection; (e) converting the lens position data cn and the computed image plane velocity to a unified dimension; (f) storing a square root of the image plane velocity (vn) of a specified number of data sets in the memory; (g) performing linear regression on the position data cn and the square roots of the image plane velocity vn to statistically determine a slope and a y-intercept of a function defining the image plane velocity; (h) obtaining current image plane velocity by substituting a current lens forwarding amount into the function defining the image plane velocity determined in step (g); (i) determining the current image plane acceleration from the current image plane velocity obtained in step (h); (j) obtaining a predicted image plane velocity from the current image plane velocity and the current image plane acceleration determined in steps (h) and (i); (k) obtaining a current defocus amount from the latest defocus amount, the lens forwarding amount from the time when the latest defocus amount was obtained until the current time, and the image plane velocity; (l) outputting the current defocus amount and the predicted image plane velocity to the driving control; and (m) controlling the velocity of the focus lens using the driving control based on the outputted current defocus amount and the predicted image plane velocity. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. An autofocus device for a camera, comprising:
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a defocus amount detector means for detecting a defocus amount; a memory means for storing a plurality of consecutive immediate past data sets including detection amount data obtained from the defocus amount detector means and data corresponding to a lens forwarding amount; and an autofocus processor means for processing the consecutive immediate data sets stored in the memory to predict a future predicted image composition plane at a specific time based on a specific function that includes a term that is the square root of the image plane velocity statistically manipulated from past data sets, and current movement of the image composition plane, wherein a change in a position of the image composition plane is defined by the specific function derived from regression analysis of image plane movement described by the consecutive immediate past data sets so that driving of a focus lens can be controlled based on the future predicted image composition plane and the current movement of the image composition plane. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22)
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23. An autofocus device for a camera, comprising:
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a defocus amount detector; a memory to store a plurality of past data sets including detection amount data obtained from the defocus amount detector and data corresponding to a lens forwarding amount; and an autofocus processor section to process the data stored in the memory to predict a future predicted image composition plane at a specific time based on a specific function, statistically manipulated from past data sets, and current movement of the image composition plane, wherein a change in a position of the image composition plane is defined by the specific function derived from regression analysis of image plane movement described by the past data sets so that driving of a focus lens can be controlled based on the future predicted image composition plane and the current movement of the image composition plane, wherein the autofocus processor section predicts the image composition plane using the following function as the specific function when an image plane position is below a vertical midline of a curve defining the image composition plane;
##EQU14## where y is a y-intercept position, a is a slope of the function to is a time at which a peak of the specific function defining the image composition plane occurs, t is the time lapsed until that time, and C is an offset constant.
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Specification