Automatic follow-up projection system

Abstract: A light (or an infrared ray) emitting member or a reflective (or an infrared ray reflective) medium (something like a reflective tape which reflects light in the caoxial direction when light is applied to it) is mounted at a predetermined position on an object to which an image is projected. The light emitting member or the reflective medium is caught in the coaxial direction of an image projecting unit by an (infrared ray) image pick-up means and video signals obtained by the (infrared ray) image pick-up means are binarized in the image processing unit, thereby a high luminous part of the light emitting portion or the reflected portion necessarily coming out on a binary image. A central value of a primary moment (so called a center of the figure) on the binary image including the high luminous point obtained by the above operation, is calculated on real time, and the calculated data are fed back to an electrically-driven driving portion of the image projecting unit, so that the image may be continually projected at the predetermined position. The electrically-drive turn table is adapted to automatically control the image projecting direction including the direction of light. Carrying out a series of the controls described above exactly, the image projecting apparatus projects the image by automatically tracking the position of the moving light emitting member or the reflective medium. Consequently, the image can be continually projected at the predetermined position, automatically tracking the moving object such as an airship or a balloon, so that it can be available as an effective advertizing medium or news medium.

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1 . Field of the Invention This invention relates to an automatic follow-up projection system capable of automatically tracking a moving object to project a picture, an animation, characters and the like at a predetermined position thereon. The automatic follow-up projection system according to this invention is able to automatically track the moving object and effect image projecting, so that this system can be widely used as a medium for advertizing, news or the like which is image-projected on an airship or a balloon floating in the air from the roof of such as a building. 2. Description of the Prior Art In conventional image projecting apparatus, an image is projected at a predetermined position on a fixed object such as a screen or the like by a slide projector, a cinema projector or the like which includes a luminous source. Because the object is fixed or cannot move, it is necessary for a viewer to come to the position or the vicinity thereof for the purpose of watching a projected image. Conventionally image projecting is seldom performed with a moving screen or the like, and if it has been needed, the image projecting apparatus is manually directed on to the moving object such as the screen. Making commercials or advertisements by projecting an image onto a balloon or an airship is known. FR-A-614 464, for example, discloses a balloon in the shape of an aeroplane carrying a board or screen. A projector is manually positioned such that the image from the projector appears on the screen attached to the balloon. However, it is a difficult operation to project an image onto an object under such conditions where the object, for an instance in case of a balloon, moves considerably and changes directions frequently. In this situation, it has been a very important assignment to improve the operability of the projection apparatus. Consequently, an apparatus which is not the kind operated mannually, but instead allows automatic tracking so as to project an image accurately in response to the movement of a moving object, has been strongly desired. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention was made in consideration of the circumstances mentioned above and the object of this invention is to provide an automatic follow-up projection system, particularly for the case where it is necessary to project an image on a moving object, which can be fully automatically operated so as to reduce a great deal of the labour for operators, and ensure accurate projection by the smooth and steady automatic tracking in response to the movement of an object. According to one aspect of this invention, for achieving the objects described above, there is provided an automatic follow-up projection system comprising: a turntable which can rotate arbitrarily in a horizontal direction and in a vertical direction in response to a moving object provided with a light emitting member, an image projecting apparatus which is mounted on the turntable having directivity so as to project an image at a predetermined position of the moving object, an image pick-up means having a field of view catching the above-mentioned light emitting member, and a calculating control means connected to the image pick-up means and the turntable in order to drive and control the turntable in a manner of processing light quantity signals obtained from said light emitting member by the image pick-up means and calculating for tracking the moving object. According to another aspect of this invention, there is provided an automatic follow-up projection system comprising; a turntable which can rotate arbitrarily in a horizontal direction and in a vertical direction in response to a moving object having a reflective member, an image projecting apparatus which is mounted on the turntable having directivity so as to project an image at the predetermined position of the moving object, an infrared ray irradiating means mounted on the turntable for irradiating infrared rays onto the reflective member, an infrared ray image pick-up means having a field of view catching infrared rays reflected from the reflective member, and a calculating control means connected to the infrared image pick-up means and the turn table in order to drive and control the turntable in a manner of processing amount of the infrared rays and calculating for tracking the moving object. The nature, principle and utility of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the accompanying drawings: FIG.1 shows a schematic configuration according to this invention; FIG.2 shows a block diagram of a control system according to this invention; FIG.3 shows a relation between video signals and images; FIG.4 shows a time chart illustrating an example associated with an input-output of a timing generating circuit; FIG.5 shows a block diagram illustrating an example of an accumulating circuit; FIG.6 shows a block diagram illustrating an area counting circuit; FIG.7 shows a relation between a center position of figure on an infrared ray radiating member and a target position; FIG.8 shows a flow chart illustrating an example of calculations by software; and FIG.9 to FIG.11 show respectively a schematic configuration of another embodiment according to this invention. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments according to this invention are described hereinafter based on the attached drawings. FIG.1 shows a schematic configuration according to this invention and an infrared ray radiating member 2 for being tracking is attached at a predetermined position on an object 1 such as a ballooon or the like. The infrared ray radiating member 2 may be whatever irradiates infrared rays to an infrared ray image pick-up unit 12 positioned in the coaxial direction of an image projecting unit 11 (such as a slide or cinema projector, in addition, a laser beam projector, a video projector or the like) . An image is projected on the object 1 by the directional image projecting unit 11 provided on an electrically-driven turn table 10, and the infrared ray image pick-up unit 12 having a field of view catching the infrared ray radiating member 2 is fixed on the image projecting unit 11 in one body. The image projecting unit 11 can project arbitrarily in horizontal and vertical directions with exact directivity by driving the electrically-driven turntable 10. Video signals VS from the infrared ray image pick-up unit 12 are image-processed by an image processing apparatus 100 which is explained hereinafter, and the processed image frame is displayed on a monitor 3 such as a CRT and the like. Drive signals DS processed by the image processing apparatus 100 drive the turntable 10 via a driving section 4 of an amplifier or the like to control the projecting position of the image projecting unit 11, so as to track the shift of the object 1, the infrared ray radiating member 2, or the target point keeping a fixed distance away from the object 1 and the infrared ray radiating member 2. When the infrared ray radiating member 2 attached on the object 1 irradiates infrared rays to the infrared ray image pick-up unit 12 positioned in the coaxial direction of the image projecting unit 11, the infrared ray image pick-up unit 12 attached to the image projecting unit 11 catches a high luminous point as an image and the video signals VS are binarized in the image processing apparatus 100. A central value of a primary moment on a binary image is calculated in real time, for example, every 1/60 second, and signals corresponding to the movement amount are transmitted on the basis of the positional data to the electrically-driven turn table 10 of the image projecting unit 11 via the driving section 4. The electrically-driven turn table 10 is controlled by the transmitted signals so that the projecting direction of the image projecting unit 11 may be automatically changed and automatic follow-up projection may be carried out for the moving object 1, the infrared ray radiating member 2 or the target point keeping a fixed distance away from the object 1 and the infrared ray radiating member 2. In FIG.2, the image processing apparatus 100 is mainly described in details, the image projecting unit 11 mounted on the electrically-driven turn table 10 is rotated in the horizontal direction by a motor 13, and in the vertical direction by a motor 14. A projecting operation in arbitrary directions can be carried out in combination with these rotations. An infrared ray image pick-up unit 12 of which an image pick-up part is provided with a lens system having a field of view covering a part of whole part of a directional region of the image projecting unit 11, outputs a two dimensional address information f (x, y) as video signals VS in time series. The video signals VS are inputted to a binarizing circuit 101, and converted into binary signals P (x, y) represented by "0" or "1" with a predetermined threshold level T. FIG.3 shows a relation between image information (oblique line part) and X-Y address, and illustrates that f (x, y) is a video signal VS on an address x and an address y. In the binarizing circuit 101, if f (x, y) ≧ T (threshold level) then P (x, y)=1, if F (x, y)<T then P (x, y)=0. The video signals VS are inputted to a synchronous separating circuit 102 in which they are divided into horizontal synchronous signals HD and vertical synchronous signals VD, and these divided signals HD and VD are inputted into a timing signal generating circuit 103. Clock signals CLK from a clock generating circuit 104 have been inputted into the timing signal generating circuit 103 and the clock signals CLK have been outputted at the timing in response to the horizontal resolution of an image. The timing signal generating circuit 103 outputs the clock signals CLK which are inputted into accumulating circuits 110, 112 and an area counting circuit 111, and outputs signals R indicating a measuring region of the image information and similarly outputted signals R are inputted into the accumulating circuit 110, 112 and the area counting circuit 111. Further, the timing generating circuit 103 generates horizontal address signals XAD to input them into the accumulating circuit 110, and also generates vertical address signals YAD to input them into the accumulating circuit 112, thereby generating signals YR indicating the completion of measuring to input them into calculating circuits 120 and 130. The timings for the vertical synchronous signals, the signals R indicating the measuring region, and the signals YR indicating the completion of measuring are shown in FIG.4. The accumulating circuit 110 calculates ΣΣX. Both circuits 110 and 112 are of the same configuration. That is, the accumulating circuit 110 as shown in FIG.5 comprises an AND circuit 113 and an adding circuit 114 and the adding circuit 114 is activated to add the address signals XAD sequentially at the timing of the clock signals CLK only when the both binary signal P (x, y) and signals R indicating the measuring region are "1" and an enable signal ES is also "1". The adding circuit 114 is also cleared by inputting the vertical synchronous signal VD, and the added output ΣΣX representes ΣΣP (x, y) x x. Similarly, the output ΣΣY of the accumulating circuit 112 represents ΣΣP (x, y) x y. These added values ΣX and ΣY are inputted into the calculating circuits 120 and 130 respectively. The configuration of the area counting circuit 111 is as shown in FIG.6, a counter 116 to be cleared by the vertical synchronous signals VD, counting with the clock signals CLK the output CN from the AND circuit 115 into which the binary signals P (x, y) and the signals R indicating the measuring region are inputted, outputs are S as a counted value. The counted area S is inputted into the calculating circuits 120 and 130. The calculating circuits 120 and 130 divide the accumulated result (a primary moment) for X axis and Y axis, respectively, by the area S (the moment of the zero degree) after the signals YR indicating the completion of the measuring are inputted. Then, the center position of the infrared ray radiating member 2 is calculated to output X (= ΣΣX/S) and Y (= ΣΣY/S), thereby renewing the output values. FIG.4 shows the circumstances, wherein the S, ΣX, ΣY are initialized by the input of the vertical synchronous signals VD (at the time points t₀ and t₁), and the S, ΣX, ΣY are measured during the time span T₀, and the measured values are renewed during the time span T₁. Calculating circuits 121 and 131 calculate the differences ΔX and ΔY between the center position 21 of the infrared ray radiating member 2 and the target position 22 as shown in FIG.7. Generally, the center position 21 of the infrared ray radiating member 2 corresponds with the target position 22, though it is also allowed that tracking operation may be carried out keeping a fixed distance away from the infrared ray radiating member 2. The differences ΔX and ΔY calculated by the calculating circuits 121 and 131 are inputted into motor controllers 4X and 4Y respectively, and the motor controllers 4X and 4Y drive motors 13 and 14 respectively. The differences after the operation described above are fed back so that a deviation between the target position 2 and the center of an image becomes to zero. It is noted that the target position for projecting can be changed adding a setting device capable of setting a position from outside. The configuration as mentioned above is all provided with hardwares by using the calculating circuits 120, 121 and 130, 131, though a configuration with software can be also possible by using such as a micro-computor in accordance with a flow chart shown in FIG.8. Although the embodiment described above represents the case that an infrared ray radiating member 2 is set at the position beyond the image projecting region, an infrared ray radiating member can be set within the image projecting region and visible light can be applied to the light emitting member. When a visible light is applied to the light emitting member, a normal kind of an image pick-up means is available. Further, another configuration as shown in FIG.9 may be also available for the automatic follow-up projection system wherein an infrared ray reflective medium 20 is mounted in place of the infrared ray radiating member 2 and an infrared ray irradiating unit 15 is provided on the electrically-driven turn table 10, so that an infrared ray image pick-up unit 12 can catch light amount of the reflected infrared rays from the infrared ray reflective medium 20. Visible light can be also applied to this embodiment. Moreover, the configurations of the blocks as shown in FIG.5 and FIG.6 are not limited by this embodiment. In case that the follow-up operation is carried out using the infrared rays, the effect is considerably preferable, particularly at night because the light for the automatic follow-up is invisible. In the above description, the image projecting unit 11, the infrared ray image pick-up unit 12 and an infrared ray irradiating unit 15 are attached to the electrically-driven turn table 10, therefore it is difficult to control in direction the system directly by the electrically-driven turn table 10 when these units are large sized or overweighted. To deal with this, as shown in FIG.10 or FIG.11 a mirror 30 such as surface-evaporated mirror or the like is adapted to be attached to the electrically-driven turn table 10 while the image projecting unit 11, the infrared ray image pick-up unit 12 and the infrared ray irradiating unit 15 may be fixed at a separated place. In this case, an incident image also reaches through the reflection of the mirror 30 to the infrared ray image pick-up unit 12, yet the control of the mirror 30 is carried out in the same way when a mirror is not applied. It is noted that this invention can be applied to a camera capable of automatically following a subject by using a camera for film, video or the like in place of the image projecting unit 11. As mentioned above, the use of the automatic follow-up projection system according to this invention requires no operator, and allows a high speed, responsive smooth tracking. Because the system can steadily track a moving object to project an image thereon, it is possible that an advertising image may be projected onto an airship or a balloon, alternatively news may be announced with a character image and/or animation being projected, and many other variations of the applications can be expected according to this invention. It should be understood that many modifications and adaptations of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art and it is intended to encompass such obvious modifications and changes in the scope of the claims appended hereto.

Claims: An automatic follow-up projection system comprising; a turntable (10) pivotable arbitrarily in vertical and horizontal directions in response to a movement of a moving object (1) having a light emitting member (2), an image projecting unit (11) fixed to said turntable (10), having directivity so as to project an image at a predetermined position on said moving object (1), an image pick-up means (12) having a field of view catching light from said light emitting member (2), a calculating control means (100) connected to said image pick-up means (12) and said turntable (10), in order to drive and control said turntable by processing light quantitity signals obtained from said light emitting member (2) by said image pick-up means (12) and calculating the tracking of said moving object (1). An automatic follow-up projection system according to Claim 1, wherein said light emitting member (2) is an infrared ray radiating member and said image pick-up means (12) is an infrared ray image pick-up means. An automatic follow-up projection system according to Claim 1 or 2, wherein said moving object (1) is an airship or a balloon and said predetermined position is not overlapped with said infrared ray radiating member. An automatic follow-up projection system comprising; a turntable (10) pivotable arbitrarily in vertical and horizontal directions in response to a movement of a moving object (1) having a reflective member (20), an image projecting unit (11) fixed to said turntable (10), having directivity so as to project an image at a predetermined position on said moving object (1), an infrared ray irradiating means (15) fixed to said turntable (10) in order to irradiate infrared rays onto said reflective member (20), an infrared ray image pick-up means (12) having a field of view catching infrared rays from said reflective member (20), a calculating control means (100) connected to said infrared ray image pick-up means (12) and said turntable (10) in order to drive and control said turn table (10) by processing the amount of infrared rays obtained from said reflective member (20) by said infrared ray image pick-up means (12) and calculating the tracking of said moving object (1). An automatic follow-up projection system according to Claim 4, wherein said reflective member (20) is a mirror or a tape mounted on the moving object. An automatic follow-up projection system according to Claim 5, wherein said predetermined position is not overlapped with said mirror or tape. An automatic follow-up projection system comprising; a turntable (10) pivotable arbitrarily in vertical and horizontal directions in response to a movement of a moving object (1) having a light emitting member (2), a mirror (30) attached to said turntable (10), an image projecting unit (11) being directed so as to project an image at a predetermined position on said moving object by way of said mirror, an image pick-up means (12) having a field of view catching light from said light emitting member (2) by way of said mirror (30), a calculating control means (100) connected to said image pick-up means (12) and said turntable (10) in order to drive and control said turntable (10) by processing light quantity signals obtained from said light emitting member (2) by said image pick-up means (12) and calculating the tracking of said moving object. An follow-up projection system according to Claim 7, wherein a reflective member (20) is applied in place of said light emitting member (2) and a light irradiating means (15) for irradiating light to said reflective member (20) by way of said mirror (30) is applied. An automatic follow-up projection system according to Claim 7 or 8, wherein said image projecting unit (11) and image pick-up means (12) are respectively fixed at a predetermined place and said mirror (30) attached to said turntable (10) is far from said image projecting unit (11) and image pick-up means 12.

Inventors: ICHIHARA TAKU, MIYAGAWA KAZUYA, MIYAMOTO TAKASHI, NISHI KENJI, SUGIURA TSUTOMU, TOMIMATSU YUKIHITO, ICHIHARA, TAKU, C/O DENTSU PROX INC., MIYAGAWA, KAZUYA, C/O AOI STUDIO CO., LTD., MIYAMOTO, TAKASHI, C/O AOI STUDIO CO., LTD., NISHI, KENJI, C/O DENTSU PROX INC., SUGIURA, TSUTOMU, C/O DENTSU PROX INC., TOMIMATSU, YUKIHITO, C/O AOI STUDIO CO., LTD.
Applicants: AOI STUDIO CO LTD, DENZ PROX CO LTD, AOI STUDIO CO., LTD., DENTSU PROX INC.
Application year: 1990
Main classification: G09F19
IPC codes: G05D3, G03B21, G09F19