Patent ID: 7193645

Claim:
A video imaging system, the system comprising: a master video camera for producing video images of a moving object of interest; a plurality of additional video cameras each positioned at a different location surrounding the object of interest for producing additional video images of the object of interest from different spatial perspectives; a control system for controlling said additional video cameras in response to the master video camera to follow movement of the object of interest, wherein said control system includes a means for controlling the focal length of each additional camera such that the size of the moving object of interest is generally equal in each of the master and additional cameras; a recording system for recording the video images produced by the master camera and the additional cameras; and a user interface for selecting particular ones of the video images for display, wherein said user interface includes a single control device which is adapted to select successive video images from a plurality of additional cameras, each successive one of said plurality of additional cameras being adjacent to a preceding camera, in order to effectuate a partial rotation around the object of interest in the display by moving through said plurality of adjacent additional camera images, such that the size of the object of interest remains generally equal throughout the rotation through successive adjacent additional camera images.