REMOTE TRACKING SYSTEM PARTICULARLY FOR MOVING PICTURE CAMERAS AND METHOD

摘要

The system includes a mobile remote unit (12) sensitive to infrared (IR) signals (13) transmitted by a base or stationary unit (11) and an IR transmitter (41-43) which is placed behind a rotating lens (82) whose position at any time is known with precision resulting in an elongated IR signal (13) that is being "scanned" across an area in a direction substantially perpendicular to the elongated direction of the beam (13). The remote unit (12) detects when the peak strength of the signal (13) occurs and provides this data via an RF signal (14) to the base unit (11) wherein the exact effective angle between the axis of the IR signal (13) and the remote unit (12) creates an error signal used by the base unit (11) to position the camera (15) mounted thereon. Transmitters (56-58) for TILT and two PAN positions, PAN 1 and PAN 2, are used to include range calculations for ZOOM functions. Command circuitry to override the automatic tracking function is provided in each of the units (11, 12).