Video taking device with auxillary controller and main controller, and operation method thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10708498-B2
Application number	US-201816010424-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 16, 2018
Priority date	Dec 26, 2017
Publication date	Jul 7, 2020
Grant date	Jul 7, 2020

Abstract

A video taking device comprises a video camera, an auxiliary controller and a main controller, wherein the video camera is electrically connected with the auxiliary controller and the main controller and the auxiliary controller is electrically connected with the main controller. The video camera is configured to film to generate a video stream. The auxiliary controller is configured to determine whether there is a target existing in the video stream, and to generate a switch instruction when the target exists in the video stream. The main controller is configured to switch into a first operation mode from a first standby mode and instruct the auxiliary controller to be in a second standby mode when receiving the switch instruction, and to obtain the video stream from the video camera for recognizing appearance of the target.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A video taking device, comprising:
a video camera configured to film to generate a video stream;
an auxiliary controller electrically connected with the video camera, and configured to determine whether a target exists in the video stream, and to generate a switch instruction after determining that the target exists in the video stream; and
a main controller electrically connected with the video camera and the auxiliary controller, wherein when the main controller receives the switch instruction, the main controller switches into a first operation mode from a first standby mode and returns another switch instruction to the auxiliary controller so as to instruct the auxiliary controller to enter into a second standby mode, and to obtain the video stream from the video camera for recognizing appearance of the target.

2. The video taking device according to claim 1 , further comprising an auxiliary video camera which is electrically connected with the main controller and configured to film to generate an auxiliary video stream for the main controller to enhance one or more features of the appearance of the target.

3. The video taking device according to claim 2 , wherein the auxiliary video camera comprises a color camera.

4. The video taking device according to claim 1 , wherein the video camera comprises a depth-sensing camera.

5. The video taking device according to claim 1 , further comprising a wireless signal transmitter electrically connected with the auxiliary controller, wherein the auxiliary controller is further configured to output a control instruction via the wireless signal transmitter for controlling a controlled device having a wireless signal receiver when the target exists in the video stream.

6. An operation method applied to a video taking device comprising a video camera, an auxiliary controller and a main controller, and the operation method comprising:
filming a preset region to generate a video stream by the video camera;
determining whether a target exists in the video stream and generating a switch instruction by the auxiliary controller when the target exists in the video stream;
instructing the main controller to switch into a first operation mode from a first standby mode and to return another switch instruction to the auxiliary controller so as to instruct the auxiliary controller to switch into a second standby mode from a second operation mode when the main controller receives the switch instruction; and
obtaining the video stream from the video camera for recognizing appearance of the target by the main controller in the first operation mode.

7. The operation method according to claim 6 , wherein the video camera comprises a depth-sensing camera, and determining whether the target exists in the video stream by the auxiliary controller comprises:
determining whether an object is located within a preset depth in the video stream; and
determining whether a contour of the object matches a contour of the target when the object is located within the preset depth in the video stream.

8. The operation method according to claim 6 , further comprising filming the preset region to generate an auxiliary video stream by an auxiliary video camera, and obtaining the auxiliary video camera to enhance one or more features of the appearance of the target by the main controller in the first operation mode.

9. The operation method according to claim 6 , further comprising outputting a second switch instruction to the auxiliary controller by the main controller when the main controller is in the first operation mode and there is no target existing in the video stream for a preset time interval, so as to instruct the auxiliary controller to switch into the second operation mode from the second standby mode, and to instruct the main controller to switch into the first standby mode from the first operation mode.

10. The operation method according to claim 6 , further comprising outputting a control instruction by a wireless signal transmitter for controlling a controlled device having a wireless signal receiver when the target exists in the video stream.

Assignees

• Giga Byte Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Chang Chih-Liang
• Chen Hung-Ta
• Hsu Yu-Chia

Classifications

• H04N23/651

  for reducing power consumption by affecting camera operations, e.g. sleep mode, hibernation mode or power off of selective parts of the camera · CPC title

• H04N23/667 Primary

  Camera operation mode switching, e.g. between still and video, sport and normal or high- and low-resolution modes · CPC title

• H04N23/60

  Control of cameras or camera modules · CPC title

• G01S17/894 Primary

  Three-dimensional [3D] imaging with simultaneous measurement of time-of-flight at a two-dimensional [2D] array of receiver pixels, e.g. time-of-flight cameras or flash lidar · CPC title

• G01S11/00

  Systems for determining distance or velocity not using reflection or reradiation (position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more distance determinations G01S5/00) · CPC title