US-12620103-B2 - Control apparatus, control method and storage medium

US12620103B2US 12620103 B2US12620103 B2US 12620103B2US-12620103-B2

Abstract

A tracking apparatus includes a memory storing instructions, and a processor that implements the instructions as a first controller that executes image capturing direction control by pan drive or tilt drive to capture an object within a predetermined position, and a second controller, different from the first controller, that executes angle of view control by shifting an angle of view of an image capturing apparatus to capture the object within the predetermined position, wherein tracking the object is executed by at least any one of the first controller and the second controller, wherein the first controller determines whether to execute the image capturing direction control by the first controller, based on a shift amount of the angle of view determined based on a moving amount of the object.

Inventors

Hiroaki Kimura
KOTA UCHIYAMA

Assignees

CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20240126
Priority Date: 20230130

Claims (13)

1 . A tracking apparatus comprising: a memory storing instructions; and a processor that implements the instructions as: a first controller that executes image capturing direction control by pan drive or tilt drive to capture an object within a predetermined position, and a second controller, different from the first controller, that executes angle of view control by shifting an angle of view of an image capturing apparatus to capture the object within the predetermined position, wherein tracking the object is executed by at least any one of the first controller and the second controller, wherein the first controller determines whether to execute the image capturing direction control by the first controller, based on a shift amount of the angle of view determined based on a moving amount of the object, wherein in a case where the shift amount is more than or equal to a predetermined threshold, the first controller determines that the image capturing direction control by the first controller is executed, and in a case where the shift amount is less than the predetermined threshold, determines that the image capturing direction control by the first controller is not executed, wherein the predetermined threshold is determined based on at least any one of optical information on the image capturing apparatus and a maximum shift amount of the second controller.
2 . The tracking apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the second controller shifts the angle of view by shifting an image capturing optical system or an image sensor.
3 . The tracking apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the second controller shifts the angle of view by processing for cutting out an image captured by the image capturing apparatus to capture the object within the predetermined position.
4 . The tracking apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein a moving amount of the object is detected based on an image captured by the image capturing apparatus, and the second controller determines the shift amount based on the moving amount.
5 . The tracking apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein in a case where the angle of view is brought back to a non-shifted state from a shifted state where the angle of view has been shifted by the second controller, the first controller executes the image capturing direction control based on the shift amount in such a manner that the angle of view is maintained.
6 . The tracking apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of shift units that shift the angle of view, wherein the second controller switches the plurality of shift units based on the shift amount.
7 . A tracking processing method comprising a processor for: executing, as first control, image capturing direction control by pan drive or tilt drive to capture an object within a predetermined position; executing, as second control different from the first control, angle of view control by shifting an angle of view of an image capturing apparatus to capture the object within the predetermined position; and automatically tracking the object through control that is executed by at least any one of the first control and the second control, wherein, in the first control, whether to execute the image capturing direction control by the first control is determined based on a shift amount of the angle of view determined based on a moving amount of the object, wherein, in the first control, in a case where the shift amount is more than or equal to a predetermined threshold, the image capturing direction control by the first control is determined to be executed, and in a case where the shift amount is less than the predetermined threshold, the image capturing direction control by the first control is determined not to be executed, wherein the predetermined threshold is a maximum shift amount of the second control.
8 . The tracking processing method according to claim 7 , wherein in the second control, the angle of view is shifted by shifting an image capturing optical system or an image sensor.
9 . The tracking processing method according to claim 7 , wherein in the second control, the angle of view is shifted by processing for cutting out an image captured by the image capturing apparatus to capture the object within the predetermined position.
10 . The tracking processing method according to claim 7 , further comprising detecting a moving amount of the object, based on an image captured by the image capturing apparatus, wherein in the second control, the shift amount is determined based on the moving amount.
11 . The tracking processing method according to claim 7 , wherein, in the first control, in a case where the angle of view is brought back to a non-shifted state from a shifted state where the angle of view has been shifted by the second control, the image capturing direction control is executed based on the shift amount in such a manner that the angle of view is maintained.
12 . The tracking processing method according to claim 7 , further comprising a plurality of pieces of shifting to shift the angle of view, wherein the second control switches the plurality of pieces of shifting based on the shift amount.
13 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute a method comprising: executing, as first control, image capturing direction control by pan drive or tilt drive to capture an object within a predetermined position; executing, as second control different from the first control, angle of view control by shifting an angle of view of an image capturing apparatus to capture the object within the predetermined position; and automatically tracking the object through control that is executed by at least any one of the first control and the second control, wherein, in the first control, whether to execute the image capturing direction control by the first control is determined based on a shift amount of the angle of view determined based on a moving amount of the object, wherein, in the first control, in a case where the shift amount is more than or equal to a predetermined threshold, the image capturing direction control by the first control is determined to be executed, and in a case where the shift amount is less than the predetermined threshold, the image capturing direction control by the first control is determined not to be executed, wherein the predetermined threshold is a maximum shift amount of the second control.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE Field of the Disclosure The present disclosure relates to a control apparatus, a control method, and a storage medium. Description of the Related Art In recent years, for the purpose of saving human resources at an image production site, image capturing of an object by using an auto-tracking function of a camera supporting a pan-tilt-zoom function (hereinafter, called “pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) camera”) has been frequently executed. In the process of image production, because excellent quality is also required for an image captured when an angle of view is changed by a pan-tilt drive operation (hereinafter, called PT drive), it is necessary to execute image capturing with an object framed within a position desired by the user. In execution of the auto-tracking function, a dead zone is set to prevent the camera from executing the PT drive in response to a small movement of the object. With the setting, the camera does not execute PT drive in response to a movement of the object within the dead zone and executes PT drive only when the object has moved out of the dead zone, which achieves the auto-tracking function with less occurrence of slight changes in the angle of view due to a small movement of the object. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-171438 discusses an auto-tracking apparatus which automatically tracks a moving object by factoring in a dead zone only when a moving speed of the moving object is slow, and automatically tracks a moving object regardless of the dead zone when a moving speed of the moving object is fast. According to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-171438, since auto-tracking is executed while factoring in the dead zone when a moving speed of the object is slow, the auto-tracking apparatus starts executing PT drive after the object moves out from the dead zone. Consequently, the object is tracked within a position deviated from a position desired by the user. SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a tracking apparatus includes a memory storing instructions, and a processor that implements the instructions as a first controller that executes image capturing direction control by pan drive or tilt drive to capture an object within a predetermined position, and a second controller, different from the first controller, that executes angle of view control by shifting an angle of view of an image capturing apparatus to capture the object within the predetermined position, wherein tracking the object is executed by at least any one of the first controller and the second controller, wherein the first controller determines whether to execute the image capturing direction control by the first controller, based on a shift amount of the angle of view determined based on a moving amount of the object. Further features of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image capturing apparatus. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a conventional auto-tracking method. FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a conventional auto-tracking method. FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating control according to a first exemplary embodiment. FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating control according to a second exemplary embodiment. FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating control according to a third exemplary embodiment. FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating control according to the third exemplary embodiment. FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating control according to a fourth exemplary embodiment. FIG. 9 is a graph illustrating angles of a shift unit and a pan-tilt drive unit and time. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the image capturing apparatus according to the first to the fourth exemplary embodiments. DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The following exemplary embodiments are merely examples for implementing the present disclosure and should be appropriately modified or changed depending on the configuration of an apparatus to which the present disclosure is applied and various conditions. The present disclosure is not limited to the following exemplary embodiments and may be configured by appropriately combining parts of the exemplary embodiments described below. <Configuration of Apparatus> First, an image capturing apparatus (auto-tracking apparatus) 100 according to a first exemplary embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an image capturing apparatus 100. An angular velocity sensor 101 acquires vibration generated in the image capturing apparatus 100 as an angular velocity signal, and an analog-to-digital (AD) conversion unit 102 outputs the angular velocity