Real-time Zoom Tracking for DM36x-based IP Network Camera

Zoom tracking involves the automatic adjustment of the focus motor in response to the zoom motor movements for the purpose of keeping an object of interest in focus, and is typically achieved by moving the zoom and focus motors in a zoom lens module so as to follow the so-called "trace curve", which shows the in-focus motor positions versus the zoom motor positions for a specific object distance. Thus, one can simply implement zoom tracking by following the most closest trace curve after all the trace curve data are stored in memory. However, this approach is often prohibitive in practical implementation because of its large memory requirement. Many other zoom tracking methods such as GZT, AZT and etc. have been proposed to avoid large memory requirement but with a deteriorated performance. In this paper, we propose a new zoom tracking method called 'Approximate Feedback Zoom Tracking method (AFZT)' on DM36x-based IP network camera, which does not need large memory by approximating nearby trace curves, but generates better zoom tracking accuracy than GZT or AZT by utilizing focus value as feedback information. Experiments through real implementation shows the proposed zoom tracking method improves the tracking performance and works in real-time.