Video camera capable of automatic target tracking

A video camera comprising:

• an image pickup means capable of producing image data through the photoelectric conversion of an optical image focused on its imaging surface by a lens unit;
• a storage means for temporarily storing the image data produced by the image pickup means;
• a signal processing means for producing a video signal indicating the luminance and chrominance on the basis of the image data;
• a target tracking processor means which processes the current video signal on the basis of predetermined conditions and continuously provides a signal representing a current object region;
• and
• a control means which determines at all times, on the basis of the signal representing the current object region, so that the object region is located in the substantially central region of a monitor screen;
• wherein the predetermined conditions require that the luminance and chrominance of the video signal are in fixed ranges respectively.

A video camera comprising:

• an image pickup means capable of producing image data through the photoelectric conversion of an optical image focused on its imaging surface by a lens unit;
• a storage means for temporarily storing the image data produced by the image pickup means;
• a signal processing means for producing a video signal indicating the luminance and chrominance on the basis of the image data;
• a target tracking processor means which processes the current video signal on the basis of predetermined conditions and continuously provides a signal representing a current object region;
• and
• a control means which determines at all times, on the basis of the signal representing the current object region, so that the object region is located in the substantially central region of a monitor screen;
• wherein the predetermined conditions require that the luminance and chrominance of the video signal are in ranges of luminance and chrominance corresponding to those of flesh color.

A video camera comprising:

• an image pickup means capable of producing image data through the photoelectric conversion of an optical image focused on its imaging surface by a lens unit;
• a storage means for temporarily storing the image data produced by the image pickup means;
• a signal processing means for producing a video signal indicating the luminance and chrominance on the basis of the image data;
• a target tracking processor means which processes the current video signal on the basis of predetermined conditions and continuously provides a signal representing a current object region;
• and
• a control means which determines at all times, on the basis of the signal representing the current object region, so that the object region is located in the substantially central region of a monitor screen;
• wherein the target tracking processor means is provided with an extraction means which makes a decision as to whether or not the video signal meets the predetermined conditions;
• and generates an extraction signal representing an extracted region meeting the predetermined conditions, and the target tracking processor means is further provided with a second storage means for storing the object region determined a certain time before and a compactor means which compares the contents of the second storage means and the extraction signal and generates a signal representing an overlapping region in a region represented by the contents of the second storage means, and the object region is determined on the basis of the overlapping region.

A video camera comprising;

• an image pickup means capable of producing image data through the photoelectric conversion of an optical image focused on its imaging surface by a lens unit;
• a storage means for temporarily storing the image data produced by the image pickup means;
• a signal processing means for producing a video signal indicating the luminance and chrominance on the basis of the image data;
• a target tracking processor means which processes the current video signal on the basis of predetermined conditions and continuously provides a signal representing a current object region;
• and
• a control means which determines at all times, on the basis of the signal representing the current object region, so that the object region is located in the substantially central region of a monitor screen;
• wherein the image pickup means and the storage means are comprised of an image pickup device of a CCD type or a MOS type, capable of photoelectric signal conversion and storage, the control means controls the driving of the image pickup device to control the read operation of the signal processing means.

A video camera comprising:

• an image pickup means capable of producing image data through the photoelectric conversion of an optical image focused on its imaging surface by a lens unit;
• a storage means for temporarily storing the image data produced by the image pickup means;
• a signal processing means for producing a video signal indicating the luminance and chrominance on the basis of the image data;
• a target tracking processor means which processes the current video signal on the basis of predetermined conditions and continuously provides a signal representing a current object region;
• a control means which determines at all times, on the basis of the signal representing the current object region, so that the object region is located in the substantially central region of a monitor screen;
• and
• a mechanism for moving a range of the imaging surface on which the image is focused by the lens unit;
• wherein the control means controls the mechanism so that the object region will be always included in the imaging surface and so that the object region is located substantially in the central region of the monitor screen with respect to the horizontal direction, and controls the operation of the signal processing means for reading data from the storage means so that the object region including the extracted object is located substantially in the central region of the monitor screen with respect to the vertical direction.

A video camera comprising:

• an image pickup means capable of producing image data through the photoelectric conversion of an optical image focused on its imaging surface by a lens unit;
• a storage means for temporarily storing the image data produced by the image pickup means;
• a signal processing means for producing a video signal indicating the luminance and chrominance on the basis of the image data;
• a target tracking processor means which processes the current video signal on the basis of predetermined conditions and continuously provides a signal representing a current object region;
• a control means which determines at all times, on the basis of the signal representing the current object region, so that the object region is located in the substantially central region of a monitor screen;
• and
• a mechanism for moving a range of the imaging surface on which the image focused by the lens unit;
• wherein the control means controls the mechanism so that the object region will be always included in the imaging surface and so that the object region is located substantially in the central region of the monitor screen with respect to the vertical direction and controls the operation of the signal processing means for reading the contents of the storage means.

A video camera comprising:

• an image pickup means capable of producing an image signal through the photoelectric conversion of an optical image focused on its imaging surface by a lens unit;
• a signal processing means which produces a video signal indicating the luminance and chrominance on the basis of the image signal;
• a storage means for storing an object region which has previously been determined;
• an extraction means which receives the video signal, and provides a signal representing an extracted region in which the video signal satisfies predetermined conditions;
• a comparator means which receives a signal read from the storage means and the output signal of the extraction means, and provides a signal representing an overlapping region in which the object region and the extracted region overlap each other;
• a region enlarging means which receives the output signal of the comparator means and gives a signal representing a new object region determined by enlarging the overlapping region at a predetermined enlargement ratio;
• and
• a control means which functions for target tracking control operation to keep the new object region within a monitor screen on which the video signal is displayed.