Camera control apparatus, camera system, electronic conference system, and camera control method

A camera system comprising:

• a camera for photographing a plurality of persons;
• a driving apparatus for changing a photographing direction of the camera;
• and
• a camera control apparatus for controlling the driving apparatus,
• wherein the camera control apparatus includes
• a storage section storing, for each person to be photographed, face direction information when each face of persons to be photographed by the camera is positioned in the central portion of the photographing range by the camera;
• a face position detection section detecting the position of the face of the person from a photographed image signal of the camera;
• a registration section computing the face direction information on the basis of a detection result by the face position detection section and information indicating the current photographing direction of the camera and registering the face direction information in the storage section;
• and
• a driving control section reading, from the storage section, the face direction information corresponding to a person specified by an operation input from a user and controlling the driving apparatus in accordance with the face direction information in order to change the photographing direction of the camera.

An electronic conference system comprising:

• a camera system for photographing a plurality of persons;
• a voice collection apparatus for collecting voice uttered from a plurality of persons;
• and
• a transmission apparatus for multiplexing an image signal from the camera system and an audio signal from the voice collection apparatus and for transmitting the signals via a communication line,
• wherein the camera system includes
• a camera;
• a driving apparatus for changing a photographing direction of the camera;
• and
• a camera control apparatus for controlling the driving apparatus, and
• the camera control apparatus includes
• a storage section storing, for each person to be photographed, face direction information when each face of persons to be photographed by the camera is positioned in the central portion of the photographing range by the camera;
• a face position detection section detecting a position of a face of a person from a photographed image signal of the camera;
• a registration section computing face direction information on the basis of a detection result by the face position detection section and information indicating a current photographing direction of the camera;
• and
• a driving control section reading, from the storage section, face direction information corresponding to a person specified by an operation input from a user and controlling the driving apparatus in accordance with the face direction information in order to change the photographing direction of the camera.

A camera control method for controlling a photographing range of a camera including a driving apparatus for changing a photographing direction, the camera control method comprising the steps of:

• detecting a position of a face of a person from a photographed image signal of the camera;
• on the basis of the detection result by the detection step and information indicating a current photographing direction of the camera, computing face direction information when each face of a plurality of persons to be photographed by the camera is positioned in the central portion of the photographing range by the camera and registering, for each detected person, the face direction information in a database;
• and
• reading, from the database, face direction information corresponding to a person specified by an operation input from a user and controlling the driving apparatus in accordance with the face direction information in order to change the photographing direction of the camera.