JP2006267767A - Image display device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image display device which makes a stereoscopic image having an enhanced sense of presence be visually recognized by a simple configuration. <P>SOLUTION: A plurality of (for example, three) imaging elements 103A to 103C for generating a plurality of pieces of image data wherein subjects at distances different from each other within the same subject field are imaged in focused states respectively by an imaging optical system are provided in a main body part 10. Respective images of distance areas into which the subject field is divided are displayed on a plurality of display panels 111A to 111C on the basis of the plurality of pieces of image data obtained by the imaging elements 103A to 103C. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image display device that captures subject light that has passed through an imaging optical system, generates image data, and displays an image based on the image data.

  In order to provide viewers with an image with a sense of depth from about 20 years ago, images for the right eye and left eye are superimposed on the display screen, and the image on the display screen is left using glasses or the like. There has been proposed a display technique in which a stereoscopic image is visually recognized by a viewer by giving parallax to the left and right eyes separately for the eye and for the right eye.

  However, many people feel resistance to wearing glasses and looking at the display screen.

  Therefore, recently, for example, a narrow-directional lenticular lens is provided on the display screen so that the left-eye image and the right-eye image displayed on the display screen can be separated. Thus, even with the naked eye, a display technique has been proposed in which a left-eye image is displayed on the left eye and a right-eye image is displayed on the right eye so that a stereoscopic image can be viewed without wearing glasses (for example, Patent Document 1). In Patent Document 2 and Patent Document 3, an image for the right eye and an image for the left eye are arranged on one display screen so that each image can be viewed separately for the right eye and the left eye. Technology is disclosed.

  However, in any of the patent documents, in order to make the right eye and the left eye visually recognize images separately, it is necessary to provide lenses including a lenticular lens, a spatial modulator, and the like, which makes the configuration complicated. There's a problem.

  In view of this, a simple display technique is proposed to display a stereoscopic image by displaying an image with a focus position in the foreground in the first field and an image with the focus position in the distant view in the second field. (See, for example, Patent Document 4). When this display technique is used, the image of the first field and the image of the second field in one frame are synthesized, and the high-frequency component (that is, the in-focus portion) of both images is emphasized and visually recognized. The image is perceived as a stereoscopic image.

  However, the technique disclosed in Patent Document 4 is such that an image having two focus positions can be switched alternately.

Further, Patent Document 5 discloses a data acquisition technique in which Patent Document 4 is developed to extract fine irregularities of a subject as image data. This is a technique for obtaining analysis data. Therefore, it is not a technique for displaying a stereoscopic image.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-186277 JP 2002-125245 A JP 7-159727 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-30791 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-290389

  In view of the above circumstances, an object of the present invention is to provide an image display apparatus that can visually recognize a stereoscopic image having a more realistic feeling with a simple configuration.

An image display device of the present invention that achieves the above object is an image display device that captures subject light that has passed through an imaging optical system, generates image data, and displays an image based on the image data.
An image sensor for generating a plurality of image data in which the subjects at different distances in the same object field are respectively focused in the in-focus state by the imaging optical system;
Based on the plurality of image data obtained by the imaging device, the non-display area other than each distance area including the image of the divided area when the object scene is divided into the plurality of distance areas is processed to be non-displayed An image processing unit for generating each image data for each distance region;
A plurality of display panels that are arranged so as to overlap when viewed from the viewpoint side and display each image based on each image data for each distance area obtained by the image processing unit and visually recognize a state in which the images are superimposed It is characterized by comprising.

  According to the image display device of the present invention, the image processing unit generates image data in which a region other than the portion focused on each distance region is non-display-processed for each distance region in the object scene. Each of the images based on the image data is displayed on each of the plurality of display panels.

  For example, if a transmissive display panel is used as a display panel corresponding to one distance area, a display image on a distant display panel can be seen through the non-display processed portion.

  Then, for example, an image that is in focus in the foreground and an image that is in focus in the distant view are simultaneously displayed on each of the plurality of display panels. In this case, the front image (near view image) and the distant image (distant view image) of the display panel arranged in an overlapping manner give a sense of depth to the eyes.

  In addition to the above-mentioned close-up and distant views, images that are focused on the subject distance between them are displayed on each of the plurality of display panels, so that an image with a stereoscopic effect that is closer to the actual subject is displayed on the plurality of display panels Restored. When this is viewed from the viewpoint side, it becomes a stereoscopic image with a sense of reality, and it is stereoscopically viewed as if the subject being photographed is there.

  That is, an image display apparatus that can visually recognize a stereoscopic image with a more realistic feeling with a simple configuration is realized.

  Here, the image pickup device is composed of a plurality of unit image pickup devices that form images in the in-focus state on subjects at different distances in the same object field when the imaging optical system is at one focus position. In addition, the imaging device is a single imaging device, and the imaging optical system is configured so that subjects at different distances in the same object field are sequentially focused in a focused state. Alternatively, the focus position may be moved.

  It is good if the above viewpoint is near the front, but when the viewpoint is gradually shifted in an oblique direction and multiple display panels are visible from the oblique direction, the display panel overlapped when viewed from the front It may be visually recognized that there are a plurality of images, and an image for each display panel may be visually recognized separately.

  Therefore, when widening the viewpoint range, the image displayed on the distant display panel when viewed from the viewpoint side protrudes to the periphery of the image in the distance area shared by the display panel, and the non-display area is reduced. It is preferable to generate image data for displaying a further reduced image.

  Then, even when an image composed of a plurality of display panels is viewed from the viewpoint with the oblique direction as a viewpoint, the image on the front side is emphasized and the sharpness of the stereoscopic image is maintained.

   As described above, an image display apparatus capable of visually recognizing a more realistic stereoscopic image with a simple configuration is realized.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an image display device which is an embodiment of a photographing apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a main body part constituting the image display device.

  FIG. 1 shows a view of the main body unit 10 and the display unit 11 constituting the image display device 1 as viewed obliquely from above, and FIG. 2 shows a configuration inside the main body unit 10.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the image display device 1 includes a main body 10 and a display unit 11, and FIG. 1 shows a foreground and a middle scene captured by an imaging optical system in the main body 10. An example in which each of three images corresponding to a distant view is displayed separately on each of the three display panels 111A to 111C included in the display unit 11 is shown. Here, the three display panels 111A to 111C are illuminated from behind by the illumination light source 112, and the three display panels 111 are viewed from the viewpoint P on the front side opposite to the illumination light source. A configuration in which a stereoscopic image is sometimes viewed is shown.

  Here, the internal configuration of the image display apparatus 1 will be described with reference to FIG.

  In the main body 10 of the image display device 1 shown in FIG. 1, different distances in the same field (in FIG. 1) are formed by an imaging optical system comprising a photographic lens 101 and a dichroic prism 102 as shown in FIG. As an example, three unit image sensors 103A, 103B, and 103C are provided that generate a plurality of image data in which subjects in D, E, and F are respectively focused in an in-focus state. An image processing unit 104 that performs image processing of each of the image data generated by each of the three unit imaging elements 103A to 103C is provided in the subsequent stage of the unit imaging elements 103A to 103C. One of the three unit image sensors 103A has a short distance portion (a person in the foreground indicated by a symbol D in FIG. 1) among different distances in the object scene. The image pickup device 103B of the three unit image pickup devices is a middle distance portion of different distances in the object scene (the house in the middle scene indicated by E in FIG. 1). ) Is an imaging element that forms an image in a focused state, and one of the three unit imaging elements 103C has a long-distance portion (F in FIG. An image pickup element that forms an image in a focused state is a distant view mountain shown in the figure.

  Each of these three unit image sensors generates image data corresponding to a near view, a middle view, and a distant view, and displays each image based on each image data on each of the three display panels as shown in FIG. I am doing so. The three display panels 111A to 111C are arranged so that the images appear to overlap each other when viewed from the viewpoint P shown in FIG. 1, and when viewed from the viewpoint P, the display panel side is as shown in the lower part of FIG. The image is visually recognized as if it were deep. Although a flat image is shown below, in reality, only the person (the part corresponding to the symbol D in the object scene) is displayed on the display panel corresponding to the foreground among the three display panels. Only the house (the part corresponding to the symbol E in the object scene) is displayed on the display panel corresponding to the middle scene, and the mountain (corresponding to the symbol F in the object scene) is displayed on the display panel corresponding to the distant scene. Since only the (portion) is displayed, when viewed from the viewpoint P, a stereoscopic image similar to that seen when viewing the actual object scene is visually recognized. As will be described later, a display process other than the display image area such as a person, a house, and a mountain displayed on each display panel shown in FIG. In some cases, the image of the distant display panel is visually recognized through the front non-display area.

  Here, the configuration and operation in the image processing unit 104 will be described with reference to FIGS. 2, 3, and 4.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining display processing and non-display processing performed by the image processing unit. FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the division of display processing and non-display processing on the display panel.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the image data corresponding to the near view, the middle view, and the distant view generated by the three unit image sensors 103A to 103C are stored in the three frame memories 104A to 104C in the image processing unit 104, respectively. The image data stored in each of the frame memories 104A to 104C is supplied to the subsequent area dividing unit 1041. The area dividing unit 1041 divides each piece of image data obtained by one unit image sensor 103A, 103B, or 103C into a plurality of small area image data. The image data for each of the divided small areas is supplied to the high-frequency integration unit 1042 in the subsequent stage, and high-frequency component integration processing is performed for each area. As is well known, the higher the focus is, the more high frequency components are detected in the focused portion of the image formed on the image sensor. Therefore, the high frequency component integration unit 1042 for each area In addition to data indicating the detected high frequency component, data indicating the position coordinates of each area is supplied to the focusing integration unit 1043 for each subsequent area. Then, the focus accumulation unit 1043 for each area detects from which area the focus is located from the accumulation result of each area. If it does so, the data which show a position coordinate with the image data (for example, image data showing a person) for every small area with a focal point will be supplied to the image processing part 1044 of the non-display area of the next stage. The non-display area image processing unit 1044 classifies the image data of the small area in the in-focus state and the image data of the other areas as shown in FIG. The image data representing the subject is supplied to the display unit 11, and the image data other than the small area in focus is subjected to non-display processing and supplied to the display unit 11. For example, when the display panel is a liquid crystal panel, as shown in FIG. 3, image data having a value of max for both RGB is supplied to the display unit so that the display on the display panel becomes colorless and transparent. Is done.

  Then, as shown in FIG. 1, in the foreground, the non-person portion is transparent and only the person is displayed. In the middle view, the non-house portion is transparent and only the house is displayed. Only the mountain is displayed in a transparent color except for the mountain, and when viewed from the viewpoint P, all the displays overlap to be stereoscopically viewed.

  As described above, an image display apparatus capable of visually recognizing a more realistic stereoscopic image with a simple configuration is realized.

  In the above embodiment, three unit image sensors and three display panels are associated with each other, but a larger number of unit image sensors and display panels may be used. The image sensor may be configured to move the focus position so that the subject from the near view to the distant view is sequentially imaged in a focused state without using three unit image sensors.

  By the way, it is only necessary that the viewpoint P is at a position facing the panel surface of the display panel as shown in FIG. 1, but the viewpoint P is gradually displaced in an oblique direction and becomes an oblique direction like the viewpoint Q. Then, there is a possibility that the non-display area of the distant display panel that is overlapped and not visible when viewed from the front may be visually recognized. In this case, the non-display area is conspicuous, resulting in an unrealistic image.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining a contrivance example when the contrivance is applied so that the images for the respective display panels overlap even when viewed from an oblique direction. FIG. 5 shows the display panel 111A corresponding to the foreground and the display panel 111B corresponding to the background, extracted from the display panels 111A to 111C corresponding to the foreground / middle / far view.

  As shown in FIG. 5A, when a non-display area of an image on the far side (in this case, the middle scene side) is visually recognized when viewed from an oblique direction, a person on the far side and an image on the far side The non-display portion is visually recognized, and the person on the front side floats.

  Therefore, in order to eliminate such discomfort and widen the viewpoint range, the image displayed on the display panel 104B on the far side as viewed from the viewpoint Q side as shown in FIG. 110B generates image data that displays an image that protrudes to the periphery of the image in the distance region shared by 110B and further reduces the non-display region.

  Here, as shown in FIG. 4B, the non-display area overlapping the person on the display panel corresponding to the middle scene is reduced so that the outline of the person displayed on the front display panel is emphasized. In this way, a display area (hatched portion R) is provided at the peripheral edge of the person in front. In the image display apparatus according to the present embodiment, image processing is performed by being divided into small areas as shown in FIG. 3, so if there is coordinate data indicating the outline of the person in front, image data corresponding to the middle scene It is easy to perform the non-display process.

  By reducing the non-display processing in this way, the non-display area of the display panel on the far side is visible even if an image composed of a plurality of display panels is viewed from the viewpoint with the oblique direction as the viewpoint. Disappears. In other words, when the viewpoint is shifted to the oblique side, the image of the person in front and the outline of the peripheral part of the non-display area on the far side are visually recognized, so that the sharpness of the stereoscopic image is maintained. .

  As described above, an image display apparatus capable of visually recognizing a more realistic image with a simple configuration is realized.

  In this embodiment, an example in which the imaging optical system is used as an imaging optical system has been described. However, a configuration in which a plurality of slide images and the like are displayed on a plurality of panels by the imaging lens system. It may be.

It is a figure which shows the image display apparatus which is one Embodiment of the imaging device of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structure of the main-body part which comprises an image display apparatus. It is a figure explaining the display process and non-display process which an image process part performs. It is a figure explaining the division of the display process on a display panel, and a non-display process. It is a figure explaining an example of the measure which devises so that the image for every display panel may overlap even if it sees from the diagonal direction.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image display apparatus 10 Main body part 101 Shooting lens 102 Dichroic prism 103A 103B 103C Image pick-up element 104 Image processing part 104A 104B 104C Frame memory 1041 Area division part 1042 High frequency component integration part for every area 1043 Focusing integration part for every area 1044 Non-display Area image processing unit 11 Display unit 111A 111B 111C Display panel 112 Illumination light source

Claims (4)

In an image display device that captures subject light that has passed through an imaging optical system, generates image data, and displays an image based on the image data.
An image sensor for generating a plurality of image data in which the subjects at different distances in the same object field are respectively focused in the in-focus state by the imaging optical system;
Based on a plurality of image data obtained by the image sensor, non-display areas other than the distance areas including the images of the distance areas when the object scene is divided into a plurality of distance areas are processed to be non-displayed. An image processing unit for generating each image data for each distance area;
A plurality of display panels that are arranged so as to overlap each other as viewed from the viewpoint side, and display each image based on each image data for each distance region obtained by the image processing unit and visually recognize a state in which the images are superimposed An image display device comprising:   The image pickup device includes a plurality of unit image pickup devices in which subjects at different distances in the same object field are imaged in a focused state when the imaging optical system is at one focus position. The image display device according to claim 1, wherein:   2. The image according to claim 1, wherein the imaging optical system moves a focus position so that subjects at different distances in the same object field are sequentially imaged in a focused state. Display device.   In the image display unit, as the image displayed on the distant display panel when viewed from the viewpoint side, the non-display area is further reduced by protruding to the periphery of the image in the distance area shared by the display panel. 2. The image display device according to claim 1, wherein the image display device generates image data for displaying an image.

Images