Abstract:
This invention discloses a method of shooting angle adjustment for as image capture device that moves along a circular path at different locations. The invention comprises two ways to adjust the shooting angle at different locations; one is └Auto Angle Offset┘ and the other is └Shooting Angles&#39; Memory Teaching┘. The invention can ensure those created images used to compose a spherical 3D animation file are all inside the view frame of the shooting area of the pictures, and that means any part of the spherical 3D animation will not be cut off.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0002]    This invention, relates to a method of adjusting shooting angle for an image capture device that moves along a circular path, and in more particularly to a method of a shooting angle compensation. 
         [0003]    2. Description of the Prior Art 
         [0004]    Even though the digital camera has been used popularly but using computer to control the turntable and a digital camera synchronously is still at beginning. In common practice, it is the number of the pictures selection on the turntable for a 360° rotation rather than directly control on a monitor. Few digital camera manufacturers release the software development kits (SDK), which is capable of controlling the digital camera completely. However none of the system integrators develop the related application software for computer to synchronously control the turntable and the digital camera based on the SDK to automatically take the pictures for a 360° animation, such as the image format of GIF and Flash (SWF). 
         [0005]    So far, a method for integrally controlling the turntable, digital camera and move the digital camera along a circular path via a computer to take the pictures from different sheeting angles to create a spherical 3D animation tiles has not been developed. The spherical 3D image is emphatically applied for the laser scan of a physical object to build a 3D model for machining purpose, but it is not very common to display the object with a spherical 3D animation on the website for showing the photographed object&#39;s orientation. Further, a method to integrally control the turntable, the digital camera and move the digital camera along a circular path has not been developed. Some SDKs of single lens camera, denoted SLR, only provide the operations of snapping and images transmitting, and only few SDKs of compact digital camera or so called consumer camera have full operations including preview, zoom in/out, aperture, shutter speed, ISO and white balance. The SDKs of SLR does not provide the operations of zoom in/out and SDR has complex adapting of camera lens that will make photography automation become more difficult. 
         [0006]    It is possible to cut off some created images of a photographed object if the camera lens collimates to the center of the turntable rather than to the center of the photographed object while the image capture device (such as a digital camera) moves along a circular path for photography. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust shooting angles at different shooting locations to ensure full images of the photographed object can be created. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0007]    An object of this invention is to adjust the shooting angles for an image capture device that moves along a circular path. The method ensures that the created images of the photographed object will not exceed the view frame of the shooting area of the pictures, and then a full spherical 3D animation can be stitched with the pictures. 
         [0008]    Another object of this invention is to provide a method of auto angle offset for a photographer to set the height of a photographed object. The method provides an automatic speedy adjustment of the shooting angles for reducing the possibility of cutting off the created images. 
         [0009]    Another object of this invention is to provide a method of memory teaching of the shooting angles. The method ensures that the created images of the photographed object won&#39;t be cut off. 
         [0010]    Another object of this invention is to make sure the adjustment of the shooting angles at different shooting locations can be confirmed before taking a 360° photography in row sequence automatically. 
         [0011]    For better understanding the objects, technologies, features and advantages of this invention, the details of one or more embodiments are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0012]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating the system control of this invention. 
           [0013]      FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram illustrating a method of the memory teaching of the shooting angles of this invention. 
           [0014]      FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram illustrating conditions of cutting off the images in absence of adjustment of the shooting angles. 
           [0015]      FIG. 4  is a schematic diagram illustrating full images with adjustment of the shooting angles of this invention. 
           [0016]      FIG. 5  is a schematic diagram illustrating a method of the auto angle offset of shooting angles of this invention. 
           [0017]      FIG. 6  is a flowchart illustrating a method of an auto angle offset of the shooting angles of this invention. 
           [0018]      FIG. 7  is a flowchart illustrating a method of a memory teaching of the shooting angles of this invention. 
           [0019]      FIG. 8  is a flowchart illustrating the generation of a spherical 3D animation file of this invention. 
       
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
       [0020]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating the system control according to this invention. It is emphasized to adjust the shooting angles of the shooting angle tilting mechanism  10 . The power supply  14  provides a computer  10 , an image capture device  12  and a control card  13  with power. The computer  10  connects with the image capture device  12  and the control card  13  via universal serial buses (USBs)  18  &amp;  19 , and then the control application software  11  loaded into the computer  10  controls the image capture device  12  and the control card  13 . The images created by the image capture device  12  will be sent to the computer  10  via the USB. The circular path moving mechanism  15 , the shooting angle tilting mechanism  16  and the turntable rotation mechanism  17  are connected to the control card  13  via power line/signal line  23  for controlling. 
         [0021]      FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram illustrating a method of the memory teaching the shooting angles according to this invention. As illustrated in  FIG. 2 , O is the center of turntable rotation mechanism  17 , and the Q, F are the center of the side and top of the photographed object respectively and a photographed object  31  is set at the center of the turntable  17 , and an image capture device  12  driven by a circular path moving mechanism  15  moves along a circular path. Locations A, B, C, D, and E are assumed to be the shooting locations of the Row# 1 , Row# 2 , Row# 3 , Row# 4  and Row# 5  in this example. At each shooting location that the turntable rotation mechanism  17  needs to rotate a complete 360°. The shooting angles of the image capture device  12  are adjusted by the shooting angle tilting mechanism  16  to ensure the image of the photographed object  31  is completely in the view frame of shooting area  32  as illustrated in  FIG. 3 . 
         [0022]      FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram illustrating the conditions of cutting off the images due to the absence of adjustment of the shooting angles. The image of the photographed object  31  has the worst condition due to the fact that the image is cut off in the view frame of shooting area  32  at horizontal shooting location A, and the images created at locations B and C are also cut off. The image created at location D even not being cut off but still not at the center of the view frame of shooting area  32 , and the created image at the top location E still not shown at the middle due to the irregular shape of the photographed object  31 . Therefore, it is necessary to adjust the shooting angles for different shooting locations. 
         [0023]      FIG. 4  is a schematic diagram illustrating full images with the adjustment of the shooting angles according to this invention. From the horizontal shooting location A to the top shooting location E, the shooting angles are adjusted at different shooting locations to ensure that the created images of the photographed object  31  are located at the center of the view frame of shooting area  32 . 
         [0024]    Two ways for shooting angle adjustment at different locations according to this invention are provided, one is Auto Angle Offset as illustrated in  FIG. 5  and tire other is Memory Teaching of the shooting angle as illustrated in  FIG. 2 . 
         [0025]      FIG. 5  is a schematic diagram illustrating a method of the auto angle offset of the shooting angles according to this Invention. O is the center of the turntable rotation mechanism  17 , and S and R are the middle and top measuring points of the ruler  33  respectively. A flowchart of this method is illustrated in  FIG. 6  for illustrating the details. The method starts at step S 10 . A ruler  33  is located at the center O of the turntable rotation mechanism  17  and the circular path moving mechanism  15  is fixed its moving distance with radius r from the center O of the turntable rotation mechanism  17 . In step S 11 , the max photography allowable height of the Image capture device  12  is determined as l. l is the length between O and R and also the height limitation of the photographed object  31 , where l is 24 centimeter (cm) is assumed. S is the middle point of the O and R. 
         [0026]    Next, in step S 12 , the image capture device  12  is driven by the circular path moving mechanism  15  to move to the locations of A, B, C, D and E to determine adjustments of the shooting angles θ 1 ˜θ 5  with height l of the photographed object  31 . The adjustments of the shooting angles θ 1 ˜θ 5  are recorded into a lookup table (LUT) D 10  of the auto angle offset. Next, in step S 13 , the height l of the photographed object  31  or the ruler  33  is reduced by 3 cm, l is equal to 21 cm and the middle point S now becomes 10.5 cm. The previous step is repeated to obtain adjustments of the shooting angles θ 6 ˜θ 10  and then recorded into LUT D 10  again. The steps S 12 -S 14  are iterated until the stop condition, l=0. As the results, the full adjustments of the shooting angles of θ 6 ˜θ 10 , θ 11 ˜θ 15 , θ 16 ˜θ 20 , θ 21 ˜θ 25 , θ 26 ˜θ 30 , θ 31 ˜θ 35 , θ 36 ˜θ 40  for ail shooting locations are all determined and recorded into LUT D 10 , to end at step S 15 . 
         [0027]      FIG. 7  is a flowchart illustrating the method of the memory teaching of the shooting angles according to this invention. The details of the schematic diagram  FIG. 2  Is illustrated as steps S 42  and S 43  in  FIG. 8 . First, the method starts from the step S 20 . Step S 21  is to turn the shooting angle of the image capture device  12  at the horizontal shooting location A to ensure that the created image of the photographed object  31  is at the center of the view frame of the shooting area  32  as illustrated by the created image located at A in  FIG. 4 . Step S 22  is to confirm that the created Image of the photographed object  31  is in the view frame of the shooting area  32 . If the created image of the photographed object  31  is not in the view frame of the shooting area  32 , the flow goes to  for connecting to the  as illustrated in  FIG. 8 . After proceeding the step S 34  of previewing and step S 35  of zooming out, the flow goes back to the step S 21  in  FIG. 7  to restart. If the image of the photographed object  31  is in the view frame of the shooting area  32 , the flow goes to step S 23  of recording the compensation shooting angle α 1  for the location A as in  FIG. 2  Into the LUT D 20  of Memory Teaching in step S 23 . Step S 24  is to repeat the previous steps to obtain the adjustments of the shooting angles α 2 , α 3 , α 4  and α 5 , which are recorded In LUT D 20 , for locations B, C, D and E As a result, the full adjustments of the shooting angles for ail shooting location are determined and recorded in LUT D 20 . Finally, the stop step S 25  ends the iteration. 
         [0028]      FIG. 8  is a flowchart  1  frustrating the generating of a spherical 3D animation file according to this invention. Step S 30  is the start step of this method. Firstly, the step S 31  is selected to create a spherical 3D animation file and the step S 32  is to key in the image name, image size and image resolution that will be stitched into the spherical 3D animation file. Next, step S 33  is to determine the number of rows and the number of images per row, which is the number of pictures that the image capture device  12  will take when moving along the circular path. Continuously the following steps of the preview step S 34  and the zooming in/out step S 35  are directly controlled on the monitor of the computer  10 . 
         [0029]    Next, step S 36  is to select the way of adjusting the shooting angles. 
         [0030]    Once the way of auto angle offset is selected, the flow goes to step S 37 , and the following step S 38  is to select the height of the photographed object  31 . Next, according to the selected height of the photographed object  31 , the offset shooting angles is selected from the LUX D 10  that generated by the way of the auto angle offset illustrated in  FIG. 6  In step S 39 . Then step S 40  will apply the offset shooting angle for all different shooting locations. 
         [0031]    If the way of the memory teaching is selected, the flow goes to step S 41 , and the step S 42  starts the memory teaching. Then the LUT D 20  of the memory teaching is generated in step S 43 , where the LUT D 20  records the compensation shooting angles. Step S 44  is to apply the compensation shooting angles for all shooting locations. 
         [0032]    Next, step S 45  starts to create the images in row sequence and then to stitch all created images into the spherical 3D animation file. The following step S 40  is to check that the images of the spherical 3D animation are cut off or not. If the created images of the photographed object are cut off, then the flow goes back to the step S 34  to repeat the whole process; if not, the flow goes to step S 47  to provide user interface for accepting user&#39;s instruction to decide the modification of the image size of the spherical 3D animation. If the instruction is to change the image size, the flow goes back to step S 34  to repeat the whole process; if not, the flow goes to the stop step S 48  to complete the generation of a spherical 3D animation. 
         [0033]    Although this invention has been explained in relation to its preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that modifications and variation can be made without departing the spirit and scope of the invention as claimed.