The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 12, 2002
Filed:
Dec. 27, 2000
Noboru Takada, Yokohama, JP;
Katsumi Yano, Yokohama, JP;
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Osaka, JP;
Abstract
A motor-driven pan-tilt unit such as a pan-tilt camera mount designed to remotely control panning and tilting motion of, for example, a surveillance camera is provided. The pan-tilt unit includes a pan mechanism, a transmitting unit, and an optical signal transmitting unit. The pan mechanism has a stationary housing and a rotary shaft in connection with the camera. The transmitting unit includes a plurality of conductive rings and a plurality of conductive contacts. Each of the conductive rings is mounted on one of the rotary shaft and an inner wall of the stationary housing in electrical contact with one of the conductive contacts to establish transmission of electric power and control signals required for a tilt mechanism and the camera. The optical signal transmitting unit includes a light-emitting element and a light-sensitive element. One of the light-emitting element and the light-sensitive element is attached to an end of the rotary shaft so as to establish transmission of an optical signal from the light-emitting element to the light-sensitive element for transmitting image data from the camera to a signal processing circuit mounted on a stationary part of the pan-tilt unit. The housing defines therewithin a hermetic chamber within which the transmitting unit and the optical signal transmitting unit are disposed, thereby avoiding sticking of dust to the units, for example.