Iris pickup apparatus

• US 6,591,064 B2
• Filed: 07/19/2002
• Issued: 07/08/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Ikoma, Ken, Higashiyama, Seiji
• Primary Examiner(s): GRAY, DAVID M
• Application Number:
  US10/199,682
• Publication Number:
  US 20030021598A1
• Time in Patent Office: 354 Days
• Field of Search: 348/78, 348/143, 348/373, 382/117, 396/18, 396/336, 396/427
• US Class Current: 396/18
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/19 Sensors therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/37 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voice recognition

Abstract

An iris pickup apparatus includes: a wide-angle camera for picking up the image of a photographic object, a telephotograph camera for picking up the enlarged image of an iris of a photographic object by focusing the lens of the camera on the iris of the photographic object, a panning mechanism for panning the telephotograph camera, and a tilt mechanism for pivotally tilting the wide-angle camera and the telephotograph camera. The wide-angle camera and the telephotograph camera are arranged so that their optical axes cross each other at right angles. The tilt mechanism operates to pivotally tilt the wide-angle camera and the telephotograph camera on the same plane as the optical axis plane.

Claims

1. An iris pickup apparatus comprising:

a first camera for picking up the image of a photographic object;

a second camera for picking up the iris of the photographic object;

a panning mechanism for panning the second camera; and

a tilt mechanism for pivotally tilting the first camera and the second camera on the same plane as the optical axis planes of the first camera and the second camera.

2. The iris pickup apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the tilt mechanism includes:

a tilt stand for holding the first camera, the second camera and a panning motor;

a tilt motor for pivotally tilting the tilt stand; and

a support table for holding the tilt stand and the tilt motor.

3. The iris pickup apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the panning mechanism is arranged to pivot the first camera and the second camera on a panning shaft perpendicular to a tilt shaft for pivotally tilting the first camera and the second camera.

4. The iris pickup apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising cleaning brushes provided on a pivotal orbits of these lenses to clean lenses of the respective first and second cameras when the first camera and the second camera are pivotally tilted.

5. The iris pickup apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the optical axis of the first camera and the optical axis of the second camera cross each other at right angles.

6. The iris pickup apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a controller which detects the position of the eye of the photographic object based on the image picked up by the first camera, and which controls the second camera to pivoting toward the position of the eye of the photographic object and to pick up the iris of the photographic object.

7. The iris pickup apparatus as claimed in claim 6, further comprising a range finder which measures a distance to the iris of the photographic object and transmits a data of the distance to the controller, wherein the controller controls the second camera to pick up the iris of the photographic object based on the data of the distance.

8. The iris pickup apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first camera is a wide-angle camera, and the second camera is a telephotograph camera.