ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Pan–tilt–zoom camera

Have you ever played with a toy car or robot that you can move around with a remote control? Well, a pan-tilt-zoom camera is like that, but instead of moving a toy, it can move a camera around.

The pan-tilt-zoom camera has three main functions: pan, tilt and zoom. Pan means the camera can move left or right like when you turn your head to look left or right. Tilt means the camera can move up or down like when you look up or down. And zoom means the camera can make things look bigger or smaller, like when you use a magnifying glass to look at small things.

So, imagine you have a pan-tilt-zoom camera set up in your room. It can move to the left, right, up, down, and zoom in or out on things it’s looking at. If you wanted to focus on something on the left side of the room, you can use the remote or a computer to move the camera, so it’s pointing that way, and if it’s too small, you can zoom in to make it bigger. If you wanted to see the other side of the room, you can move the camera in that direction too, and if you wanted to get a closer look at something, you can zoom in.

Overall, a pan-tilt-zoom camera can move around and adjust its view to capture different angles and sizes of things it’s looking at, just like you move your head to look around your room.
Related topics others have asked about: