Motorized Tilt-Swivel Camera Mount for Distortion-Free Panoramas
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Camera mobile devices, especially camera phones with fixed-focus lenses and smaller sensors, face challenges in capturing high-quality panoramas due to the difficulty in aligning and stabilizing the camera lens during image stitching, resulting in distorted images.
Innovation Solution
A motorized tilt and swivel device with a motorized component and an alignment component that aligns the camera mobile device's rotating and tilting axes with the camera lens, allowing it to capture images at multiple positions while maintaining the lens's overlap at the intersection of these axes, thereby reducing distortion.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If manual alignment methods are used to position the camera lens, then the device complexity is reduced, but the manufacturing precision and measurement precision of lens alignment deteriorate, resulting in distorted panorama images
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical alignment with an automated optical-mechanical system. A laser alignment tool projects reference lines that are detected by a camera, and a motorized positioning system automatically adjusts the lens position based on detected deviation from the reference lines. This substitution of manual mechanical adjustment with automated optical feedback and motorized control resolves the contradiction by achieving high precision alignment without requiring complex manual alignment mechanisms.
2Reliability
If the camera lens is not properly aligned with the rotating and tilting axes, then the ease of operation is improved (simpler device), but the reliability of panorama capture deteriorates due to image distortion
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where a camera captures images of alignment markers (laser lines) projected onto the lens, and a processor analyzes these images to determine the lens position relative to the rotating and tilting axes. The motorized positioning system then adjusts the lens based on this feedback to achieve proper alignment. This closed-loop feedback system ensures reliable panorama capture by automatically correcting alignment deviations without requiring complex manual intervention.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs alignment calibration before actual panorama capture. The system projects laser alignment markers, detects the lens position relative to these markers, and pre-adjusts the lens position to ensure it is properly aligned with the rotating and tilting axes before image acquisition begins. This preliminary alignment action ensures that subsequent panorama captures are performed with correct geometry, improving reliability without adding complexity to the main capture operation.
3Measurement precision
If automated motorized positioning is implemented to place the camera at multiple precise positions, then the measurement precision of lens position is improved, but the use of energy and device complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs periodic action by implementing alignment detection and motorized adjustment only when needed - specifically during the initial setup phase and when recalibration is required. During actual panorama capture, the system operates in a predetermined sequence of positions without continuous alignment verification or adjustment. This periodic execution of the energy-intensive alignment and positioning operations reduces overall energy consumption while maintaining measurement precision when it matters most.
Data Source
AI summary
A motorized tilt and swivel device that includes a motorized component and an alignment component. The motorized component is configured to receive a command signal from a camera mobile device, and place, in response to the command signal, the camera mobile device in multiple positions for capturing images. The positions include multiple rotation angles with respect to a rotating axis and multiple tilting angles with respect to a tilting axis. The alignment component is configured to substantially align, prior to receiving the command signal and based on a alignment marker, the rotating axis with a camera lens of the camera mobile device, substantially align, prior to receiving the command signal and based on the alignment marker, the tilting axis with the camera lens, and constrain the camera mobile device such that the camera lens substantially overlaps an intersection of the rotating axis and the tilting axis in each position.