Automatic motion-controlled photographing apparatus and related photographing method
AssigneeNTT Infrastructure Network Corporation
InventorsShinichi Sugiura, Kazuhiro Otsuki, Ken Nishiwaki
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Abstract
An automatic motion-controlled photographing apparatus, according to the present invention, a rotatable turntable is located above an upper surface of a box of a controller fixedly supported on a tripod, and a camera is set onto the turntable. The turntable, on which the camera is set, is rotated at a given angle of rotation responsive to a signal from a turntable drive circuit disposed in the controller, and a shutter of the camera is turned on via a non-contact signal relay in response to a signal from a shutter drive circuit for photographing the same photograph images, each in one frame, at an angle of 360 degrees as those of an on-site field.
Claims8
An automatic motion-controlled photographing apparatus, comprising:
- a vertically extending and retracting tripod having a mount section;
- a controller fixedly supported on the mount section;
- a turntable rotatably supported on an upper surface of a box encompassing the controller;
- and
- a camera detachably supported on an upper surface of the turntable;
- wherein the controller includes a turntable drive circuit operative to rotate at least the turntable at a given rotational angle that is determined at an arbitrary angle, and a shutter drive circuit operative to turn on a shutter of the camera supported on the turntable via a non-contact signal relay at a time instant when rotation of the turntable at the given angle has been terminated.
An automatic motion-controlled photographing apparatus, comprising:
- a tripod having a retainer sleeve section internally formed with a guide portion to provide a guide in a vertical direction;
- a vertically elongated elevator shaft supported by the guide portion of the retainer sleeve section for freely vertical movements and adapted to be fixed at a given position and released by fixing and supporting means located in the retainer sleeve section;
- a controller fixedly supported the elevator shaft at a lower end thereof;
- a turntable rotatably supported on an upper surface of a box encompassing the controller;
- a camera and a monitor camera detachably supported on the turntable such that the camera and the monitor camera are turned upside down with respect to the turntable;
- wherein the controller includes a turntable drive circuit operative to rotate at least the turntable at a given rotational angle that is determined at an arbitrary angle, and a shutter drive circuit operative to turn on a shutter of the camera supported on the turntable via a non-contact signal relay at a time instant when rotation of the turntable at the given angle has been terminated.
A method of photographing through the use of an automatic motion-controlled photographing apparatus, the method comprising:
- setting a tripod in an opened state so as to straddle over an entrance of an underground structure;
- moving a camera through the entrance downwardly into the underground structure by an elevator shaft supported by the tripod for elevating capabilities;
- positioning the camera until the camera being positioned in a given position by using a monitor camera that provides a status of the camera's position;
- intermittently rotating the camera, that is located at the given position, at a predetermined angle set in an arbitrary angle of rotation;
- and
- photographing photograph images consecutively, each in one frame, at an angle of 360 degrees by permitting a shutter of the camera to be turned on responsive to a signal from a shutter drive circuit when rotational movement of the camera is completed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.