Vehicle mounted articulating camera
OwnerMichael Saville, Connor Proffitt +1inventors
InventorsMichael Saville, Connor Proffitt, Justin Judkins
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An articulatable mount for temporarily affixing a camera and illumination system to a vehicle is disclosed. The articulating drive mechanism is lightweight, vertically compact, and ruggedized for severe service such as withstanding shocks from off-road travel and abrupt maneuvering. Articulation and illumination may be controlled remotely over Wi-Fi from inside or nearby the vehicle, and encrypted video feeds may be received by authorized users of an ad-hoc network of available smart-phone users and in-vehicle computer systems authorized and authenticated to participate in the network.
Claims34
A camera pointing facility, comprising:
- a base,
- a frame rotatably coupled to said base so as to define a first axis of rotation for said frame,
- a first motor attached to said base and operably coupled to said frame,
- a first camera operable to generate a video datastream and mounted to said frame,
- a first processor operable to compute and transmit as data an azimuth orientation of said frame with respect to said base, and
- a second processor operable to receive said video datastream from said first camera, operably coupled to a touch sensitive display screen, and operable to:
- display on said display screen said video datastream from said first camera,
- define and display a first touch sensitive region, and within said first touch sensitive region
- define an origin with an ordinate and an abscissa both passing through said origin, and
- upon operating to detect a contact point of a user's touch within said first touch sensitive region, said second processor is further operable to:
- display a first cursor at a location of said user's contact point,
- mathematically determine a target angle between said ordinate and a line passing through said origin and said contact point, and
- to determine a first distance from said ordinate to said contact point and to determine a second distance from said abscissa to said contact point.
A camera pointing facility, comprising:
- a base,
- a frame rotatably coupled to said base so as to define a first axis of rotation for said frame,
- a first motor attached to said base and operably coupled to said frame,
- a first camera operable to generate a video datastream and mounted to said frame,
- a first processor operable to compute and transmit as data an azimuth orientation of said frame with respect to said base, and
- a second processor operable to receive said video datastream from said first camera, operably coupled to a touch sensitive display screen, and operable to:
- display on said display screen said video datastream from said first camera,
- define and display a first touch sensitive region, and within said first touch sensitive region
- define an origin with an ordinate and an abscissa both passing through said origin, and
- upon operating to detect a contact point of a user's touch within said first touch sensitive region, said second processor is further operable to:
- display a first cursor at a location of said user's contact point,
- mathematically determine a target angle between said ordinate and a line passing through said origin and said contact point, and
- wherein a processor from among said first and second processor is operable to determine a difference between said azimuth orientation of said frame and said target angle, and to actuate said first motor to rotate and orient said frame to said target angle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.