Camera lens assembly

• US 8,811,808 B2
• Filed: 10/21/2013
• Issued: 08/19/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cooke Optics Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Cooke Optics Ltd.
• Inventors: Zellan, Les, Pope, Steve, Wang, Huiyang, Sheret, Ian
• Primary Examiner(s): FULLER, RODNEY EVAN
• Application Number:
  US14/059,111
• Publication Number:
  US 20140147103A1
• Time in Patent Office: 302 Days
• Field of Search: 396/50
• US Class Current: 396/50
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 17/14 interchangeably
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 17/18 Signals indicating condition of a camera member or suitability of light indicating depth of field G03B13/30
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 17/24 with means for separately producing marks on the film, e.g. title, time of exposure
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 2206/00 Systems for exchange of information between different pieces of apparatus, e.g. for exchanging trimming information, for photo finishing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/66 Remote control of cameras or camera parts, e.g. by remote control devices

Abstract

A camera lens assembly comprising a lens assembly housing and a compound lens and a motion sensor arrangement within the lens assembly housing, wherein the motion sensor arrangement comprises: angular rotation sensors configured to detect angular rotation about three orthogonal axes of rotation; and linear acceleration sensors configured to detect linear acceleration in three orthogonal directions.

Claims

1. A camera lens assembly comprising a lens assembly housing, a compound lens, angular rotation sensors configured to detect angular rotation and to generate a detect signal when angular rotation is detected, linear acceleration sensors configured to detect linear acceleration and to generate a detect signal when linear acceleration is detected, a control circuit comprising a lens assembly clock generating a lens time signal and a data storage device, wherein said control circuit is connected to receive said detect signals from said sensors and wherein said data storage device is connected to record said detected signals and a corresponding time-stamp based on said lens time signal from said lens assembly clock.

2. A camera lens assembly according to claim 1, wherein the lens assembly comprises a no-parallax point and the sensors are located proximate the no-parallax point.

3. A camera lens assembly according to claim 1, wherein the lens assembly comprises a mount configured to detachably connect to a camera body and a non-rotating part configured not to rotate relative to the mount, wherein the non-rotating part comprises the sensors.

4. A camera lens assembly according to claim 1, wherein the sensors are provided on a circuit board that has an annular shape.

5. A camera lens assembly according to claim 1, wherein the lens assembly comprises optical setting sensors.

6. A camera lens assembly according to claim 1, wherein the lens assembly comprises a no-parallax point or a range of no-parallax points, and the data storage device comprises calibration data corresponding to the relative orientation and relative physical locations of the sensors and the no-parallax point or range of no-parallax points.

7. A camera lens assembly according claim 1, wherein the lens assembly is configured to detect signals from the sensors in correspondence with a control signal received from a camera body connected to the camera lens assembly.

8. A camera lens assembly according to claim 1, wherein the lens assembly is configured to connect to a camera body having a camera body clock, to receive a synchronization signal from the camera body having a time-stamp from the camera body clock, and to record correlation data in the data storage device corresponding to a correlation between the camera body clock and the lens assembly clock.

9. A camera lens assembly according to claim 1, wherein the control circuit is configured to transmit a stream of data from the data storage device.

10. A camera lens assembly according to claim 1, wherein the sensors comprise one or more sensors selected from the group consisting of:

a magnetometer;

a barometer; and

a global positioning system.

11. A camera lens assembly according to claim 1, wherein the lens assembly is a cinema camera lens assembly configured to mount onto a cinema camera body.

12. A camera lens assembly according to claim 1, wherein the lens assembly comprises a range of no-parallax points and the sensors are located the mid-point of the range of no-parallax points.

13. A camera lens assembly according to claim 1, wherein the sensors are provided on a circuit board that has the shape of part of an annulus that curves about the light path through the lens assembly.

14. A method of tracking the motion of a camera lens assembly for use with a camera body having a camera body clock, said camera body being capable of generating a control signal and a synchronization signal including time-stamp information from the camera body clock, said camera lens assembly including angular rotation sensors adapted to generate a signal when angular rotation is detected, linear acceleration sensors adapted to generate a signal when linear acceleration is detected, a lens assembly clock for generating a lens time signal and a data storage device, the method comprising the steps of:

connecting the camera lens assembly to a camera body;

detecting signals from the sensors in response to a control signal received from the camera body and recording data corresponding with the detected signals in the data storage device;

receiving a synchronization signal from the camera body having a time-stamp from the camera body clock and recording data corresponding to a correlation between the camera body clock and a lens assembly clock in the data storage device;

analyzing a plurality of film frames to determine the position, motion and orientation of the lens assembly during the filming of a first frame; and

determining the motion and orientation of the lens assembly during the filming of further film frames based upon the recorded data in the data storage device.

15. A method of tracking the motion of a camera assembly comprising a lens assembly for use with a camera body having a camera body clock, said camera body being capable of generating a control signal and a synchronization signal including time-stamp information from the camera body clock, said camera lens assembly including angular rotation sensors adapted to generate a signal when angular rotation is detected, linear acceleration sensors adapted to generate a signal when linear acceleration is detected, a lens assembly clock for generating a lens time signal and a data storage device, the method comprising the steps of:

connecting the camera lens assembly to a camera body;

detecting signals from the sensors in response to a control signal received from the camera body and recording data corresponding with the detected signals in the data storage device;

receiving a synchronization signal from the camera body having a time-stamp from the camera body clock and recording data corresponding to a correlation between the camera body clock and a lens assembly clock in the data storage device;

analyzing a plurality of film frames to determine the position, motion and orientation of the lens assembly during the filming of a first frame; and

determining the motion and orientation of the lens assembly during the filming of further film frames based upon the recorded data in the data storage device.