High-speed gaze controller for millisecond-order pan/tilt camera

We developed an optical high-speed gaze controller, called the “Saccade Mirror”, and used it to realize a high-speed pan/tilt camera with a high-speed image processor. Generally, in a pan/tilt camera, the gaze is controlled mechanically by rotational actuators. However, because pan/tilt cameras will be expected to use high-speed image processing (≥ 1000 fps), sufficiently high-speed performance of the gaze controller, comparable to the high frame rate, cannot be obtained with the usual method. In our system, the camera itself was fixed, and an external Saccade Mirror subsystem was used for optical gaze control. An arbitrary gaze direction within ±30 deg could be achieved in less than 3.5 ms.