Television – Special applications – Observation of or from a specific location
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-05
2004-05-04
Le, Vu (Department: 2613)
Television
Special applications
Observation of or from a specific location
Reexamination Certificate
active
06731331
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a remote-controlled shooting system, a video camera apparatus and a remote-controlled shooting method for shooting a disaster-stricken area from a helicopter or the like in response to an instruction from the ground.
2. Description of the Prior Art
To keep the damage to a minimum by an earthquake, fire, typhoon, tsunami or similar major disaster, it is absolutely necessary to grasp the situations in the stricken area quickly and accurately.
FIG. 29
is a diagram depicting the general outlines of a conventional remote-controlled shooting system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. 10-257474. Reference numeral
7
denotes a ground base station which calls for the transmission of disaster information, and
8
a video camera apparatus loaded on, for example, a helicopter
9
to shoot the disaster area.
Reference character L
1
denotes a first radio channel which is used to transmit speech signals between the ground base station
7
and the helicopter
9
or shooting instruction information to the video camera apparatus
8
and its response information; and L
2
denotes a second radio channel which is used to transmit video signals from the video camera apparatus to the ground base station together with shooting conditions.
Upon occurrence of a major disaster, the ground base station
7
sends over the first radio channel L
1
verbal instructions to the helicopter
9
as to the position of a target to be shot or the like and, at the same time, transmits shooting instruction information indicating the shooting conditions for the video camera apparatus
8
, thereby remotely controlling it.
Having been instructed from the ground base station
7
on the position of the target to be shot and the shooting conditions, the video camera apparatus
8
shoot the specified spot in the stricken area from above, and transmits the video images to the base station
7
over the second radio channel L
2
. The ground base station
7
separates the received video images into moving and still images to monitor the scene of the disaster to grasp the situations. When the transmitted video images are not sufficient to grasp the disaster situations, verbal instructions are provided via the first radio channel while at the same time remotely controlling the video camera apparatus
8
to obtain new video images.
Since the conventional remote-controlled shooting system has such a configuration as mentioned above, the method which remotely controls the video camera apparatus
8
while monitoring video images and obtains new video signals may sometimes consume much time to accurately grasp the disaster situations according to the type and scale of the disaster and its temporal variations, making it impossible to quickly take appropriate measures.
Moreover, the load on the operator in the ground base station
7
is inevitably heavy, and video images are .subject to individual operators' judgment, and hence vary according to the particular operator—this also constitutes an obstacle to accurately grasping the situations in the disaster-stricken area.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a remote-controlled shooting system, a video camera apparatus and a remote-controlled shooting method in which a caller for disaster information selects an appropriate one of preset shooting patterns in accordance with the type, scale and temporal variation of the disaster to cope with, and sends a shooting instruction based on the selected shooting pattern and the shooting conditions corresponding thereto, or a shooting instruction based on the selected shooting pattern, to a video camera apparatus loaded on a helicopter, and in response to the shooting instruction, the video camera apparatus video images obtained by shooting a disaster area from above and transmit the disaster information to the caller, making it possible to quickly grasp the situations with high accuracy, while at the same time reducing the load on the operator of the caller and ensuring that the disaster information is not subject to the individual operators' judgment.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a remote-controlled shooting system which is provided with a video camera apparatus loaded on an aircraft, a shooting instruction device for sending a shooting instruction to said video camera apparatus over a radio channel, and an information display device for displaying the results of shooting by said video camera apparatus sent thereto over a radio channel. The shooting instruction device: responds to an operator's instruction to select a desired one of a plurality of prestored shooting patterns; inputs shooting conditions corresponding to said selected shooting pattern; and sends to said video camera apparatus a shooting instruction based on said selected shooting pattern or shooting instruction based on said selected shooting pattern and said input shooting conditions. The video camera apparatus: receives said shooting instruction from said shooting instruction device; make reference to map data and position/attitude information of said aircraft; based on said received shooting instruction, computes a sill picture marking position for extracting a still picture; makes a flight plan which satisfies said shooting instruction; based on said flight plan, display the flight path of said aircraft and shoots a shooting target; and adds a still picture mark to the video signal obtained at said still picture marking position, and sends a video signal with still picture mark and data associated with said shooting. The information display device: receives said video signal with still picture mark sent from said video camera apparatus; extracts said still picture from said video signal with still picture mark; and displays said still picture together with said associated data.
According to another aspect of the invention, said shooting instruction device comprises: a shooting pattern storage part with a plurality of shooting patterns stored therein; a first map data storage part with map data stored therein; a shooting instruction input part which selects one of said plurality of shooting patterns stored in said shooting pattern storage part in response to said operator's instruction, inputs said shooting conditions through use of said map data in said first map data storage part corresponding to said selected shooting pattern, and outputs said shooting instruction based on said selected shooting pattern, or said shooting instruction based on said selected shooting pattern and said input shooting conditions; and a shooting instruction transmitting part for sending said shooting instruction from said shooting instruction input part over a radio channel.
According to another aspect of the invention, said shooting pattern storage part has stored therein, as said plurality of shooting patterns, a plurality of basic shooting patterns and a plurality of model shooting patterns which are combinations of said basic shooting patterns.
According to another aspect of the invention, said shooting pattern storage part has stored therein, as one of said basic shooting patterns, a single-point shooting pattern for extracting one still picture at a point specified by some coordinates from a video image obtained by said video camera apparatus.
According to another aspect of the invention, said shooting pattern storage part has stored therein, as one of said basic shooting patterns, a multiple-point shooting pattern for extracting, at fixed time intervals, a plurality of still pictures at points specified by some coordinates from a video image obtained by said video camera apparatus.
According to another aspect of the invention, said shooting pattern storage part has stored therein, as one of said basic shooting patterns, a line shooting pattern for shooting a continuously stretching shooting target and for extracting a plurality of still pictures.
According to another aspect of the i
Inoue Ushio
Katsumata Toshitsugu
Kimura Hatsuo
Komiya Akio
Kosako Akinori
Burns Doane , Swecker, Mathis LLP
Le Vu
Mitsubishi Denki & Kabushiki Kaisha
Senfi Behrooz
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