Television – Camera – system and detail – Remote control
Reexamination Certificate
1997-11-19
2001-05-29
Garber, Wendy R. (Department: 2612)
Television
Camera, system and detail
Remote control
C348S014030, C348S014050, C348S333020, C348S552000, C345S215000, C709S204000, C725S116000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06239836
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Field of the Invention
The present invention relates t o a camera control system arranged to capture a video signal from an image pickup apparatus and distribute the video signal to clients through a network, and also relates to matters concerned with the camera control system.
Description of Related Art
There are known systems in which a video image obtained from a video camera connected to a network such as the Internet is rendered viewable at a number of remote places (clients). In some of such systems, the clients are enabled not only to view the video image from the video camera but also to remotely control the video camera in such a way as to vary its panning and tilting angles and its zoom magnification. For example, a camera control system has been developed by the assignee of the present invention, in which a video camera which is controllable by computers is connected to a server connected to a WWW (world wide web) of the Internet, a video image picked up by the video camera is distributed in real time to clients so as to display the video image, and in addition, the panning, tilting, zooming, etc., of the video camera are enabled to be controlled by the clients. In such a camera control system, only one of the clients is allowed to acquire a control right to control the video camera, so that only the client having acquired the control right can perform a camera control, such as panning and tilting of the video camera, at a time. Further, in the camera control system, if a plurality of clients wish to control the video camera, the clients wishing the camera control may be given the control right to the video camera one after another at intervals of a predetermined time.
However, with one video camera arranged to be accessible by a plurality of clients through a network, the above-stated arrangement for enabling only one client having the camera control right to control the video camera for panning or tilting in a desired direction or for serially shifting the camera control right from one client to another tends to make the video image extremely disagreeable to most of clients other than the client who is controlling the video camera. Therefore, in cases where a great number of clients are viewing a video image obtained from the video camera, the arrangement for granting the camera control right to a specific client or clients does not always give a good result.
Further, when the camera control right is shifted from one client to another, a video image picked up by the video camera as desired by many other clients might be suddenly changed over to another video image directed in a very different direction. Such a change is extremely disagreeable to the other clients viewing the video image.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention is directed to the solution of the above-stated problems of prior art. It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide a camera control system which is arranged to be capable of preventing a video image obtained from a video camera from becoming disagreeable to clients in a case where a great number of clients are in access to the video camera.
It is another object of the invention to provide a camera control system which is arranged to be capable of adequately controlling a video camera according to the number of clients viewing a video image from the video camera.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a camera control system which is arranged to be capable of adequately grasping the status of control over a video camera even when the right to control the video camera is not shifted to any of clients.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide a camera control system which permits clients to continuously view a desired video image even when the camera control right shifts from one client to another.
To attain at least one of the above objects, in accordance with one aspect of the invention, there is provided a camera control system capable of controlling a video camera connected to a camera server in accordance with a control command from clients, which comprises the clients each including access means for requesting the camera server to allow access to the video camera, and control command output means for outputting a control command for controlling the video camera, and the camera server including video image output means for outputting a video signal from the video camera to the clients which are in access to the video camera, determining means for determining whether the number of the clients which are in access to the video camera is not less than a predetermined number, control means for controlling the video camera on the basis of the control command from the client, and restraining means for restraining the control means from controlling the video camera, in accordance with a result of determination provided by the determining means.
Further, in accordance with another aspect of the invention, there is provided a control method of controlling a camera server which controls a video camera connected thereto in accordance with a control command from clients, which comprises a video image output step of outputting a video signal from the video camera to the clients which are in access to the video camera, a determining step of determining whether the number of the clients which are in access to the video camera is not less than a predetermined number, a control step of controlling the video camera on the basis of the control command from the client, and a restraining step of restraining the video camera from being controlled by the control step, in accordance with a result of determination provided by the determining step.
Further, in accordance with a further aspect of the invention, there is provided a camera server which controls a video camera connected thereto in accordance with a control command from clients, which comprises video image output means for outputting a video signal from the video camera to the clients which are in access to the video camera, determining means for determining whether the number of the clients which are in access to the video camera is not less than a predetermined number, control means for controlling the video camera on the basis of the control command from the client, and restraining means for restraining the control means from controlling the video camera, in accordance with a result of determination provided by the determining means.
Further, in accordance with a still further aspect of the invention, there is provided a storage medium in which is stored a program for causing a camera server to execute processing for controlling a video camera connected thereto in accordance with a control command from clients, the program comprising a process of outputting a video signal from the video camera to the clients which are in access to the video camera, a process of determining whether the number of the clients which are in access to the video camera is not less than a predetermined number, a process of controlling the video camera on the basis of the control command from the client, and a process of restraining the video camera from being controlled on the basis of the control command from the client, in accordance with a result of determination provided by the determining process.
The above and further objects and features of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of embodiments thereof taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5550982 (1996-08-01), Long
patent: 5577107 (1996-11-01), Inagaki
patent: 5617312 (1997-04-01), Iura
patent: 5625410 (1997-04-01), Washino
patent: 6067624 (2000-05-01), Kuno
patent: 6088737 (2000-07-01), Yano
patent: 6122005 (2000-09-01), Sasaki
patent: 6133941 (2000-10-01), Ono
patent: 6137485 (2000-10-01), Kawai
patent: 0 734 157 (1996-09-01), None
Kawai Tomoaki
Suzuki Kazuko
Tanaka Koichiro
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Garber Wendy R.
Robin Blecker & Daley
Vu Ngoc-Yen
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