Method and apparatus for controlling a view field of an image picking-up apparatus and computer program therefor

A view field control apparatus of an image picking-up apparatus comprising:

• an image picking-up apparatus for image picking-up an object;
• a manipulator for controlling a view field of said image picking-up apparatus;
• a display unit for displaying an image from said image picking-up apparatus;
• and
• a control unit for controlling said image picking-up apparatus, driving mechanism and display unit, wherein said control unit displays a manipulation marker manipulated by said manipulator in superposition on an image from said image picking-up apparatus and said driving mechanism is driven in response to a movement of said manipulation marker to thereby control the view field of said image picking-up apparatus.

A computer program product comprising:

• a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for controlling a view field control apparatus of an image picking-up system including an image picking-up apparatus for image picking-up an object, a driving mechanism for driving said image picking-up apparatus, a manipulator for controlling a view field of said image picking-up apparatus, a display unit and a control unit, said computer readable program code means comprising:
• means for image picking-up an object by said image picking-up apparatus and converting an image signal supplied from said image picking-up apparatus to image data;
• means for receiving a signal from a manipulator for controlling a view field of said image picking-up apparatus to drive said image picking-up apparatus;
• means for displaying an image picked up by said image picking-up apparatus and a manipulation marker superposed on said image, said manipulation marker being manipulated by said manipulator;
• means for calculating a control amount for movement of said image picking-up apparatus based on positional coordinates of said manipulation marker and, based on the calculation result, driving said driving mechanism.