METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DETERMINING SPATIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF A CAMERA

• US 20160343137A1
• Filed: 05/17/2016
• Published: 11/24/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Axis AB (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Axis AB (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Skans, Markus, Ard, Bjrn, Gurovski, Igor
• Granted Patent: US 10,373,035 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06028 using bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06037 multi-dimensional coding
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0614 the marking being selective to wavelength, e.g. color barcode or barcodes only visible under UV or IR methods or arrangements for sensing record carriers using a selected wavelength, see G06K7/12
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10722 Photodetector array or CCD scanning
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1095 the scanner comprising adaptations for scanning a record carrier that is displayed on a display-screen or the like
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30232 Surveillance
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30244 Camera pose
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/74 involving reference images or patches
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/80 Analysis of captured images to determine intrinsic or extrinsic camera parameters, i.e. camera calibration
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72403 with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters

Abstract

A method and system for determining a position of a camera is disclosed. The method and system includes determining and registering geographical coordinates of a mobile device in the mobile device itself, presenting on a display of the mobile device a pattern representing the geographical coordinates of the mobile device, capturing by the camera an image of the display of the mobile device when presenting the geographical coordinates, translating in the camera the pattern in the captured image of the display of the mobile device into geographical coordinates, and determining in the camera the position of the camera based on the geographical coordinates translated from the pattern in the captured image.

Claims

1. A method for determining a position of a camera, the method comprising:

determining and registering geographical coordinates of a mobile device in the mobile device itself,

presenting on a display of the mobile device a pattern representing the geographical coordinates of the mobile device,

capturing by the camera an image of the display of the mobile device when presenting the geographical coordinates,

translating in the camera the pattern in the captured image of the display of the mobile device into geographical coordinates, and

determining in the camera the position of the camera based on the geographical coordinates translated from the pattern in the captured image.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising presenting on the display of the mobile device a pattern representing a value identifying a distance between two distinguishable features of the pattern presented on the display of the mobile device.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising presenting on the display of the mobile device a pattern representing a geographical direction in which the mobile device is directed.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the pattern is a two dimensional code and wherein this pattern is representing said data that is to be represented by a pattern on the display of the mobile device.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the pattern is a QR-code.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

presenting on the display of the mobile device a pattern representing a value identifying a distance between two distinguishable features of the pattern presented on the display of the mobile device; and

presenting on the display of the mobile device a pattern representing a geographical direction in which the mobile device is directed;

wherein the act of determining the position of the camera includes calculating the position of the camera by adjusting the position retrieved from the pattern presented by the mobile device based at least on physical features of the pattern which are measured in the captured image, on the value identifying the distance between two distinguishable features in the pattern of the captured image, and on the geographic direction of the mobile device.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining the position of the camera includes the act of determining the position of the camera as the position presented by the mobile device.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising storing the position of the camera in the camera.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising storing the position of the camera in a camera managing server.

10. A system for determining spatial characteristics of a camera, the system comprising:

the camera; and

a mobile device, wherein the mobile device comprises a positioning sensor, a pattern generator arranged to generate a pattern representing a position detected by the positioning sensor, and a display arranged to visually present said pattern;

wherein the camera comprises an image sensor for capturing images of a scene, a pattern interpreter arranged to interpret the information in the pattern generated by the pattern generator of the mobile device and captured by the image sensor, a position extractor arranged to extract the position information from the interpretation by the pattern interpreter, and a camera position setter arranged to set the position of the camera based on the position extracted by the position extractor.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the pattern generator is arranged to generate a pattern comprising information identifying a distance between two distinguishable features of the pattern presented on the display of the mobile device.

12. The system according to claim 10, wherein the mobile device further comprises a direction sensor arranged to detect the direction in which the mobile device is directed and wherein the pattern generator is arranged to generate a pattern comprising information identifying such detected direction.

13. The system according to claim 10, wherein the mobile device is a smart phone or a tablet computer.

14. The system according to claim 10, wherein the camera position setter comprises a position calculator arranged to calculate the position of the camera based on the image of the pattern, on the information of the distance between two distinguished features of the pattern, on the direction of the mobile device, and on the position of the mobile device.

15. The system according to claim 10, wherein the camera position setter is arranged to set the position of the camera to the same position as the position presented in the pattern displayed by the mobile device.