Camera control system having list of camera names updated in accordance with frequency of use and other ease of use features
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A camera control system having at least one camera unit connected to a predetermined line, and at least one control unit for controlling said camera unit via said line, said camera unit comprising:
- a camera capable of being panned, tilted and zoomed; and
management means for managing said camera and controlling said camera in accordance with a control command from said control unit; and
said control unit comprising;
display means for displaying a user interface which includes symbol buttons for controlling said camera unit;
memory means for storing camera names of connectable cameras and address information for specifying each camera unit on the line;
accumulating means for accumulating, for each camera, time during which a camera is controlled, so as to obtain the total time period of controlling each camera in the past;
sorting means for deciding an order of displaying of the camera names on a list based upon a length of time period accumulated by said accumulating means;
list display means for displaying a list of the camera names that is in accordance with the order of display decided by said sorting means;
detecting means for detecting whether any camera name in the displayed camera list has been designated; and
sending means for converting input information, which has been designated on the displayed user interface, to information having a predetermined format and sending the information having the predetermined format to a camera unit designated by address information corresponding to a camera name detected by said detecting means.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The name of one camera to be controlled is displayed in a camera-name display field of a camera control interface displayed on a screen. When a prescribed operation is performed, the names of cameras capable of being controlled are sorted in accordance with the degrees of frequency of use thereof so that the camera names are displayed in a list in order of decreasing frequency of use. By selecting one of the displayed camera names, the camera is selected as the camera to be controlled.
-
Citations
23 Claims
-
1. A camera control system having at least one camera unit connected to a predetermined line, and at least one control unit for controlling said camera unit via said line, said camera unit comprising:
-
a camera capable of being panned, tilted and zoomed; and management means for managing said camera and controlling said camera in accordance with a control command from said control unit; and said control unit comprising; display means for displaying a user interface which includes symbol buttons for controlling said camera unit; memory means for storing camera names of connectable cameras and address information for specifying each camera unit on the line; accumulating means for accumulating, for each camera, time during which a camera is controlled, so as to obtain the total time period of controlling each camera in the past; sorting means for deciding an order of displaying of the camera names on a list based upon a length of time period accumulated by said accumulating means; list display means for displaying a list of the camera names that is in accordance with the order of display decided by said sorting means; detecting means for detecting whether any camera name in the displayed camera list has been designated; and sending means for converting input information, which has been designated on the displayed user interface, to information having a predetermined format and sending the information having the predetermined format to a camera unit designated by address information corresponding to a camera name detected by said detecting means. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
-
-
7. A camera control system having one or more camera management units for connecting and managing a camera capable of being at least one of panned, tilted and zoomed via two communication channels, one being an image transmission channel for transferring a sensed image, the other being a control channel for controlling a camera, and a controller for controlling the camera connected to said camera management unit, wherein said controller comprises:
-
designating means for designating a desired camera management unit, said designating means including; determination means for determining whether or not a camera management unit for which the image transferring channel and the control channel have already been established exists; and issuing means, if said determination means determines that a camera management unit for which the image transferring channel and the control channel have already been established exists and this camera management unit differs from the designated camera management unit, for issuing a disconnection of only the control channel to said camera management unit for which the image transferring channel and the control channel have already been established, while maintaining the connection of the image transmission channel; and means for establishing connection to the camera management unit designated by said designating means. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
-
-
16. A method of controlling a camera control system for controlling a plurality of cameras, comprising the steps of:
-
displaying a list of names of said plurality of cameras; accumulating, for each camera, time during which the camera is controlled so as to obtain the total time period of controlling each camera in the past; changing the camera list in an order in accordance with a length of the total time period accumulated in said accumulating step; and selecting a camera to be controlled from the camera list which has been changed in said changing step so as to display the camera names in the order of length of time period.
-
-
17. A method of controlling a camera control system having one or more camera management units for connecting and managing a camera capable of being at least one of panned, tilted and zoomed via two communication channels, one being an image transmission channel for transferring a sensed image, the other being a control channel for controlling a camera, and a controller for controlling the camera connected to said camera management unit, said method comprising the steps of:
-
designating a desired camera management unit; determining whether or not a camera management unit for which the image transmission channel and control channel have already been established exists; disconnecting only the control channel for the camera management unit having the established image transferring channel and control communication channel while maintaining the connection of the image transmission channel; and establishing connection to the camera management unit designated in said designating step.
-
-
18. A camera control system for controlling a camera capable of being at least one of panned, tilted and zoomed via a network, comprising:
-
operating means for operating the camera; acquisition means for acquiring status information of the camera operated by said operating means; memory means for storing said status information of the camera at the time when the operation of said operating means is completed; and issuing means for issuing a command to the camera so as to restore the status of the camera to the status corresponding to the status information stored in said memory means when re-connecting the camera to operate the camera. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
-
-
21. A method for controlling a camera control system for controlling a camera capable of being at least one of panned, tilted and zoomed via a network, comprising the steps of:
-
operating the camera; acquiring status information of the camera operated in said operating step; storing said status information of the camera at the time when the operation in said operating step is completed; and issuing a command to the camera so as to restore the status of the camera to the status corresponding to the status information stored in said storing step when re-connecting the camera to operate the camera. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23)
-
Specification