Portable digital video camera configured for remote image acquisition control and viewing

A point of view digital video camera system, comprising:

• a hands-free compact portable video camera, comprising:
• a lens,
• an image sensor configured to capture light propagating through the lens and representing a scene, and produce real time video image data of the scene,
• a camera processor for receiving the video image data directly or indirectly from the image sensor, and
• a wireless connection protocol device operatively coupled to the processor and configured to send video image content by wireless transmission directly to and receive control signals or data signals by wireless transmission directly from a personal portable computing device executing an application;
• a mounting interface coupled to the video camera for mounting the video camera to a user of the video camera;
• and
• a camera mount configured to be mounted to at least one of the body, a garment, and a vehicle of the user of the video camera, the camera mount configured to couple to the mounting interface to mount the video camera on at least one of the body, the garment, and the vehicle of the user of the video camera, wherein the camera mount is further configured for manual adjustment of the video camera with respect to the user of the video camera,
• wherein the camera processor is configured to:
• generate first video image content and second video image content corresponding to the video image data representing the scene, wherein the second video image content is a higher quality than the first video image content,
• cause the wireless connection protocol device to send the first video image content directly to the personal portable computing device for display on a display of the personal portable computing device,
• wherein the first video image content comprises a preview image of the scene, the preview image allowing the user of the video camera to manually adjust an angle of the video camera with respect to the user of the video camera, and
• wherein the personal portable computing device generates the control signals for the video camera based at least in part on input received from a user of the personal portable computing device, wherein the control signals comprise at least one of a frame alignment, multi-camera synchronization, remote file access, data acquisition, and a resolution setting, and at least one of a lighting setting, a color setting, and an audio setting,
• receive, prior to a recording of the scene, the control signals from the personal portable computing device for adjusting one or more image acquisition settings of the video camera in accordance with input received at the personal portable computing device, and
• based at least in part on a record command, cause the second video image content to be stored in a storage device at the video camera.

A method for previewing and adjusting a scene to be recorded by a user on an integrated point of view digital video camera, the method comprising:

• capturing in real time the scene using the video camera, wherein the video camera comprises:
• a lens,
• an image sensor configured to capture light propagating through the lens and representing the scene, and produce real time video image data of the scene,
• a camera processor for receiving the video image data directly or indirectly from the image sensor, and
• a wireless connection protocol device operatively coupled to the processor and configured to communicate directly with a personal portable computing device executing an application;
• generating video image content corresponding to the scene to be recorded at a first quality and at a second quality, wherein the first quality is lower than the second quality;
• wirelessly transmitting the video image content at the first quality in real time using the wireless connection protocol device of the video camera directly to the personal portable computing device of the user,
• wherein the video image content at the first quality is displayed on a display of the personal portable computing device allowing the user to manually adjust an angle of the video camera with respect to the user using at least in part a mounting interface coupled to the video camera and a camera mount configured to be mounted to at least one of the body, a garment, and a vehicle of the user, and wherein the personal portable computing device generates control signals for adjusting image capture settings of the video camera, the control signals comprising at least one of a frame alignment, multi-camera synchronization, remote file access, data acquisition, and a resolution setting, and at least one of a lighting setting, a color setting, and an audio setting;
• receiving the control signals directly from the personal portable computing device to adjust the image capture settings of the video camera prior to recording the scene;
• and
• based at least in part on a record command, storing the video image content at the second quality at the video camera.