Optical: systems and elements – Lens – With support
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-31
2001-09-18
Epps, Georgia (Department: 2873)
Optical: systems and elements
Lens
With support
C359S696000, C359S825000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06292313
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lens drive unit, more particularly to a lens drive unit to be attached to a side of an electronic news gathering (ENG) lens.
2. Description of Related Art
A drive unit for motor-driving an operation ring such as a focus ring, a zoom ring and an iris ring is attached at a side of a lens barrel of an ENG lens used for an ENG TV. camera. A seesaw switch (a bidirectional switch) is disposed to the drive unit, and a connector for connecting to an external controller so that the lens control in focussing, zooming, iris, and so forth, can be performed with the external controller.
A necessity has recently arisen to control the drive unit by digital communication, rather than an analog signal, through a serial interface especially by a personal computer in order to use the ENG lens at a virtual studio or to control the ENG lens over long distances. However, the conventional drive unit has no connector for the serial interface, and it is spatially difficult to equip the drive unit with a special connector for the serial interface.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been developed in view of the above-described circumstances, and has as its object the provision of a lens drive unit that is capable of lens control by a computer without having a special connector.
In order to achieve the above-described object, the present invention is directed to a lens drive unit which is arranged at a side of a lens barrel, the lens drive unit comprising: a motor which is operatively connected with an operation ring on the lens barrel to drive one of a zoom lens, a focus lens and an iris within the lens barrel; a control device which controls the motor in accordance with a control signal to control the one of the zoom lens, the focus lens and the iris; a connector to which one of an external lens controller and an external computer outputting the control signal is connected; a connection determining device which determines which one of the external lens controller and the external computer is being connected to the connector; and an input changeover device which receives the control signal through the connector from the connected one of the external lens controller and the external computer, the input changeover device sending the received control signal to the control device through a first signal pass when the connection determining device determines that the external lens controller is being connected to the connector, the input changeover device sending the received control signal to the control device through a second signal pass when the connection determining device determines that the external computer is being connected to the connector.
According to the present invention, the connector to which the lens controller is normally connected is made connectable with the computer, so that the lens drive unit can be controlled with the computer without providing a special connector to which the computer is connected.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5731920 (1998-03-01), Katsuragawa
patent: 6035137 (2000-03-01), Kaneko et al.
patent: 6167208 (2000-12-01), Satoo
Kanayama Atsushi
Kaneko Keiji
Epps Georgia
Fuji Photo Optical Co., Ltd.
Seyrafi Saeed
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