Patent ID: 6529853
Filing Date: 2003-03-04
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
A control system for variably operable apparatus in response to movement of an object over a large area characterized in that it comprises:a fixed frame of reference (10) for said large area (10A), comprising at least four calibration points (1,2,3,4) any three of which are not collinear; a further reference point of origin establishing X, Y and Z coordinates of each of said calibration points, the X, Y and Z coordinates being calculable; a tracking head, having pan and tilt controls for tracking the movement of an object in the large area and measuring pan and tilt angles of the tracking head for each of said calibration points; a variably operable system and means to establish control positions of the variably operable system for each of said calibration points; computer means to calculate in real time from said X, Y and Z coordinates and from said pan and tilt angles, a series of pan and tilt angles for the variably operable system, a series of the X, Y, Z position and/or the pan, tilt and rotation angle offsets of the tracking head and the variably operable system; and means to set in real time the variably operable system into conformity with calculated pan and tilt angle offsets therefor.