Dual-Camera Subject Tracking for Continuous Focus Beyond Frame
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional image pickup devices fail to track and maintain focus on a subject when it moves outside the capturing area, particularly for fast-moving subjects like birds in flight.
Innovation Solution
The device employs a main camera and a wider-angle sub-camera to capture and track the subject, using a processing unit to extract and maintain focus on the subject even when it leaves the main camera's capturing region, aided by a database for subject recognition and a spatial frequency calculator for focusing adjustments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a single camera sensor is used for capturing images, then the device structure is simple, but the subject cannot be tracked when it moves outside the capturing area
Solution Approach 1:
The field of view is segmented into multiple regions (first capturing area and second capturing area) that are monitored simultaneously by the processing unit. The subject tracking function is divided between these regions, allowing the system to maintain tracking capability even when the subject moves between regions.
Solution Approach 2:
The processing unit performs multiple functions: it processes images from both capturing areas, determines subject presence in each area, and switches tracking between areas based on subject position. This multi-functional approach enables reliable subject tracking without requiring separate dedicated hardware for each function.
2Area of stationary object
If the capturing area is expanded to cover wider regions, then the subject can be tracked over larger distances, but the image quality and resolution decrease
Solution Approach 1:
Different regions of the field of view are assigned different processing priorities. The processing unit gives higher priority to regions where the subject is currently located or is expected to move, allocating more computational resources for precise subject detection in those specific areas while maintaining broader coverage.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from a single two-dimensional capturing area to a multi-dimensional monitoring space by dividing the field of view into multiple capturing areas and using depth information to determine subject presence and position across these areas.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention provides an image pickup device that recognizes the object that the user is attempting to capture as the subject, tracks the movement of that subject, and can continue tracking the movement of the subject even when the subject leaves the capturing area so that the subject can always be reliably brought into focus. The image pickup device includes a main camera that captures the subject; an EVF that displays the captured image captured by the main camera, a sub-camera that captures the subject using a wider capturing region than the main camera, and a processing unit that extracts the subject from the captured images captured by the main camera and the sub-camera, tracks the extracted subject, and brings the subject into focus when an image of the subject is actually captured. When the subject moves outside of a capturing region of the main camera, the processing unit tracks the subject extracted from the captured image captured by the sub-camera.