JPH11146295A - Image transfer system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To decrease the number of equipment such as television cameras or cameramen and manual intervention while enabling a user such as a viewer to freely select his desired camera angle. SOLUTION: An image transfer system 1 is provided with a lens 2 with a wide field of view, a television camera 3 for fetching images over the wide field of view from this lens 2, transmitting means 4, 5 and 6 for converting the images over the wide field of view photographed by this television camera 3 to video signals and transmitting them, and a television receiver 7 for receiving the video signals sent by these transmitting means 4, 5 and 6. Then, the television receiver 7 can segment any arbitrary renege out of images over the wide field of view and can display it.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image transfer system for displaying a photographed image on a television receiver or the like in a general home or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As shown in FIG. 6, a conventional image transfer system used for television broadcasting includes a plurality of television cameras 5.
Using 1, one or more photographers continue to take video. Then, after each video is edited by using the editing machine 52 and switched by an editor, a video signal is transmitted from the transmitter 53. The video signal is received by the base station receiver 54, controlled by the base station control unit 55, and transmitted to the television receiver 56 of a general home.

[0003] On the other hand, there is known a technique in which a hemispherical field-of-view image is captured using a fish-eye lens as a lens having a wide field of view to obtain an image of an arbitrary position in the field of view. For example, the full-view still camera orientation system shown in JP-T 6-501585 uses a fish-eye lens 61 that provides an image of an enclosure having a 180-degree field of view, as shown in FIG. The fisheye lens 61 is attached to a camera 62 that converts an optical image into an electric signal.

[0004] The signal captured by the camera 62 is electronically digitized by an image collection unit 63 and input to an input image buffer 64.
Is stored. X-MAP processor 66 and YM
The image processing system including the AP processor 67 performs two-dimensional conversion mapping. These image conversion processors are controlled by the microcomputer and the control interface 65. This microcomputer control interface 65 provides initialization and conversion parameter calculations for the system. The control interface 65 is also based on the orientation angle, magnification, rotation and light intensity input from input means such as remote control means 12 such as a joystick controller or computer control means 13 such as a computer input means. , A desired conversion coefficient is determined. The converted image is filtered by an image filter 68 serving as a two-dimensional superimposing filter, and the output of the filtered image is stored in an output image buffer 69. The output image buffer 69 is scanned by a display driving device 70, and its output is supplied to a display monitor 7 as a video display device for observation.
Sent to 1.

[0005] The range of the fisheye lens 61 can be adjusted to support a variety of visual fields. This fisheye lens 61
Corresponds directly to the numerical coefficients used by the X-MAP processor 66 and the Y-MAP processor 67 to transform the image.

An input image buffer 64 controlled by an X-MAP processor 66 and a Y-MAP processor 67, which are two coordinate conversion circuits in this system.
The conversion occurring between the output image buffer 69 and the output image buffer 69 will be described with reference to FIGS. The image illustrated in FIG. 8 is an image of a lattice pattern generated by the fish-eye lens 61, which is represented by a pen and ink. This image has a 180 degree field of view and shows the surrounding contents over the entire hemisphere. The image shown in FIG. 8 is considerably distorted for a human perception target. Vertical grid lines in the external world appear on the image plane as 74a, 74b and 74c. The horizontal grid lines of the external world appear as 75a, 75b and 75c on the image plane. A portion of the image of FIG. 8 including image 76 of the object is shown in FIG.
Are modified, magnified and rotated to produce the image shown in FIG. The modified representation 77 of the object is displayed on the display monitor 71.

[0007] The above-described system includes input means, for example,
By converting a joystick or a computer into a controller, the controller has a function of panning or tilting an output image through the entire field of view of the fisheye lens 61. In this system, XY space is converted to XY space using a specific conversion formula.
It provides a direct mapping into image space and the functionality of an omnidirectional viewing system with no moving parts. Therefore, by knowing the desired zenith angle, azimuth angle, object plane rotation angle, and magnification, the positions of x and y in the imaging array can be determined. This method uses the input image buffer 6
4 provides a means for accurately converting the image from 4 to the output image buffer 69.

As described above, the fisheye lens 61 is
Can be a hemispherical field of view. Thereafter, the image is converted to a corrected image with the desired pan, tilt, magnification, rotation, and focus based on the desired field of view. Thereafter, the image is output to the display monitor 71 in a state where the perspective drawing method has been corrected. Thus, no mechanical equipment is required to achieve this extensive analysis and presentation of the surrounding field of view through 180 degrees pan, 180 degrees tilt, 360 degrees rotation and various degrees of zoom magnification.

[0009]

In an image transfer system used in a conventional broadcasting system, an image to be transmitted is determined by an editor operating an editing machine 52,
A user watching the television receiver 56 cannot freely select an image from a desired angle. For this reason, for example, in the case of a baseball broadcast, it is extremely unsatisfactory for a viewer who wants to keep watching the movement of a specific player.

In a conventional broadcasting system, a large number of television cameras 51 are prepared, and a large-scale editing machine 52 is provided.
And a monitor room is needed. In addition, a large number of photographers, mixers, editors, and the like for performing these operations are required, and when operating this broadcasting system, labor costs and equipment costs are extremely high.

On the other hand, FIG. 7 to FIG.
The orientation system of 1585 eliminates the need for mechanical pan, tilt, and rotation mechanisms in order to obtain a predetermined image, and is suitable for various systems in which mechanisms such as pan and tilt must be considered. ing. However, this orientation system is a small, closed system whose main purpose is to eliminate moving parts. For this reason, even if this orientation system is simply applied to a conventional broadcasting system, only the moving mechanism is eliminated, and the broadcasting system becomes completely the same as the conventional one, which solves problems of viewer dissatisfaction and labor costs. Not be.

An object of the present invention is to provide an image transfer system which enables a user such as a viewer to freely select his or her favorite camera angle and can reduce the number of devices and manpower such as a television camera and a cameraman. Aim.

[0013]

In order to achieve the above object, in the image transfer system according to the first aspect, a wide-field lens means, a television camera for taking in a wide-field image from the lens means, and the television camera And a television receiver for receiving the video signal transmitted by the transmitting unit, the television receiver receiving the video signal transmitted by the transmitting unit, and converting the wide-field image captured by the Any range can be cut out and displayed.

[0014] According to the second aspect of the present invention, the first aspect is provided.
In the image transfer system described above, the television receiver includes a correction unit that corrects distortion of an image in a wide field of view, a normal image formation unit that normalizes an extracted range, and a cutout to cut out an arbitrary range. Means.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the image transfer system according to the first or second aspect, a cutout designating means for designating a cutout position for cutting out an arbitrary range is wirelessly instructed to the television receiver. Remote control. In addition, in the invention described in claim 4, according to claim 1,
4. The image transfer system according to 2 or 3, wherein the lens means is a fisheye lens having a hemispherical visual field.

The image transfer system of the present invention is suitable for application to a so-called television broadcast system. The image is captured using a wide-field lens means such as a fish-eye lens and transmitted to the television receiver. Since the television receiver can cut out an arbitrary range from the image of the wide field of view, a user such as a viewer can view an image at a predetermined angle according to his / her preference. Further, since the user cuts out an arbitrary range, a large number of TV cameras, photographers, editors and other devices and human resources are not required, and the system is reduced in price.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. First, a first embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

The image transfer system 1 is a system used for so-called television broadcasting, and wirelessly transmits a fisheye lens 2, a television camera 3 incorporating the fisheye lens 2, and a hemispherical field of view image captured by the television camera 3. A transmitter 4 that converts the signal into a signal, transmits the signal, a base station receiver 5 that receives a radio signal from the transmitter 4, and a base that receives the signal from the base station receiver 5 and distributes the signal for general household use. It mainly comprises a station control unit 6 and a television receiver 7 arranged in a general home to receive a signal from the base station control unit 6. In addition, the transmitter 4, the base station receiver 5, and the base station control unit 6 constitute a transmission unit that transmits a signal to the television receiver 7.

Here, the fisheye lens 2 and the television camera 3
Has the same functions as the fisheye lens 61 and the camera 62 shown in FIG. In addition, the television receiver 7
Has a function similar to that of the orientation system shown in FIG. 7 except for the fish-eye lens 61, the camera 62, and the display monitor 71. It has a cutout means for cutting out the range, a normal image forming means for making the image of the cutout range a normal image, and the like. The television receiver 7 also includes a cut-out designating means for designating a cut-out position, such as the remote control means 72 and the computer control means 73 in FIG. 7, but these are separately provided as shown in FIG. The cutout designating means 8 as a member may be connected.

The image transfer system 1 configured as described above
The operation of will be described below.

TV camera 3 incorporating fisheye lens 2
Is set at a predetermined position in a fixed or movable state. Then, a predetermined scene is photographed based on a hemispherical visual field. This video is transmitted from the transmitter 4 to the television receiver 7 via the base station receiver 5 and the base station controller 6 in a distorted state.

The television receiver 7 corrects the distortion by the image conversion function and displays the corrected image.
At this time, the viewer can cut out an image portion of an arbitrary range, that is, an arbitrary angle by the cutout designating means 8 such as a joystick or a mouse.
This cut-out arbitrary image is transformed into a normal image and displayed on the television receiver 7.

The cut-out image projected on the television receiver 7 can be continuously changed to an arbitrary direction under the control of the cut-out specifying means 8, and the image can be enlarged or reduced. Control functions such as distortion correction, cutout, enlargement / reduction, etc. are described in
It is the same as that shown in No. 01585.

Next, an image transfer system 10 according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The same members as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

This image transfer system 10 is also a system used for television broadcasting, and includes a plurality of television cameras 3 incorporating a fisheye lens 2, mixing means 11 for mixing signals from the respective television cameras 3, a transmitter 4, A broadcasting satellite 12 for receiving radio waves from the transmitter 4;
, A television receiver 14 having an image conversion function, and a remote controller 15 serving as a cutout designating means.

Here, the mixing means 11 adds an identification signal to the signals of the plurality of television cameras 3 so that it is possible to distinguish which signal is from which television camera 3 and to input the signals. Is converted into a signal for transmission in a time-division manner. The television receiver 14 has a function similar to that of the television receiver 7, and can switch the image reception of a plurality of television cameras 3. The remote controller 15 performs the same function as that of the cut-out designating means 8 and the above-described switching function of the television camera 3 by the remote control function.

The operation of the image transfer system 10 is basically the same as that of the image transfer system 1 described above.
However, it is added that the images of the plurality of television cameras 3 can be switched. For example, when performing baseball broadcasting, this image transfer system 10 places one TV camera 3 on the backnet side and another TV camera 3
This is suitable for the case where the score is set on the scoreboard side.
In addition, instead of the mixing means 11, the conventional editing machine 5
2, the image may be switched by the editing machine 52.

Next, an image transfer system 20 according to a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In addition,
The same members as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals and described.

The image transfer system 20 is also used for television broadcasting, but the image transfer system 20 can coexist with a conventional system. different. The image transfer system 20 includes a television camera 3 incorporating a fish-eye lens 2, a conventional television camera 22 incorporating a normal lens 21, and mixing means 23 for mixing signals from the television cameras 3 and 22 in a time-division manner. , Transmitter 4
, A base station receiver 5, a base station controller 6, a television receiver 24 having a built-in image conversion function, and a remote controller 25 serving as a cutout designating means.

In this image transfer system 20, a viewer who operates the remote controller 25 can operate the remote controller 25 to switch between an image by the fisheye lens 2 and an image by the normal lens 21. In the case of the image by the fisheye lens 2, the television receiver 7 of the image transfer system 1 described above.
The same operations and functions as those described above can be executed. In the case of an image formed by a normal lens 21, the operation is the same as that of a conventional normal television receiver. The viewer can switch between the two images by the remote controller 25.
Instead of using such a method, it may be performed by switching on the broadcast station side similarly to the conventional broadcast system. Further, only in the case of the image by the fish-eye lens 2, the display may be charged.

Next, an image transfer system 30 according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The same members as those in FIG. 1 will be described with the same reference numerals.

This image transfer system 30 transfers images from various places to one place using a public line network such as ISDN.
After that it will be delivered. This image transfer system 30 incorporates a television camera 31 incorporating a fisheye lens 2 installed in a factory A, a television camera 31 incorporating a fisheye lens 2 installed in a factory B, and a fisheye lens 2 installed in a factory C. A television camera 31, a plurality of converters 32 connected to each television camera 31 and converting the signal into a signal for the ISDN 33, and an ISDN 33
And broadcast control unit 3 where all images of each factory are once collected
4 and a reception conversion unit 35 for accessing the broadcast control unit 34 to receive a video signal and convert the video signal into a signal for display.
, A personal computer 36 with a display, and a keyboard 37 serving as a cutout designating means.

Here, a personal computer 36 with a display
Is also a kind of TV receiver, and the antenna 13
A general television broadcast can be received via the Internet. That is, the personal computer 36 has the same functions as those of the television receivers 7 and 14 of the image transfer systems 1 and 10 and also functions as a normal personal computer. All the image data transmitted from the factories A, B, and C are collected by the broadcast control unit 34.
The viewer can access the broadcast control unit 34 by operating the keyboard 37. With this access, an image to be taken into the personal computer 36 is selected and received, and the video is displayed on the display of the personal computer 36. Each image displayed on the personal computer 36 is an image obtained by cutting out an arbitrary range from an image having a wide field of view.

Each of the above-described embodiments is an example of a preferred embodiment of the present invention. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. It is. For example, in the image transfer systems 1, 10, and 20 of the first to third embodiments, data transmission from the transmitter 4 to the base station receiver 5 or the like is not performed by radio such as radio waves but by wire such as an optical cable. good. Also, instead of fixing the fisheye lens 2 of the TV cameras 3 and 31 in a predetermined direction, like a conventional TV camera,
The movement such as panning or tilting may be freely performed.

As the wide field lens means, other wide field lenses may be used in addition to the fisheye lens 2.
Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the television camera may be a television camera 41 in which the fisheye lens 2 is symmetrically arranged. When such a television camera 41 is used, one television camera 41 can capture images in all directions of 360 degrees. In addition, the image distortion correcting function and the image normalizing function are provided by the television receivers 7, 14, 24, and 36.
Instead, the information may be provided on the transmission means side such as the transmitter 4.

[0036]

As described above, in the image transfer system according to the first aspect, an image captured by a wide-field lens such as a fisheye lens can be cut out and displayed in an arbitrary range on the television receiver side. Therefore, images of a plurality of angles can be generated without a large number of television cameras. Also, the viewer can freely select an angle that suits his / her taste. Therefore, when broadcasting is performed using this system, it becomes a kind of interactive system, which is convenient for the viewer. Further, the number of hands and devices such as photographers can be reduced, and the system can be constructed at low cost.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since a distortion correction function, a normalization function, and a clipping function are incorporated in the television receiver, the television camera and the transmission means use the same equipment as the conventional one. The image transfer system can be used at a lower cost.

Further, in the invention according to the third aspect, since the cutout designating means for cutting out a predetermined image from the image having a wide field of view is a remote control, an image of a desired angle can be easily viewed from a distant position. Can be displayed.

In addition, since the fisheye lens having a hemispherical field of view is used in the invention according to the fourth aspect, it is possible to capture the hemispherical field of view with one television camera. Can be greatly reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an image transfer system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of an image transfer system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of an image transfer system according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of an image transfer system according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing another example of a television camera used in the image transfer system of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a configuration of an image transfer system in a conventional broadcast system.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a conventional orientation system using a fisheye lens.

FIG. 8 shows the orientation system of FIG.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an image of a lattice pattern generated by a fisheye lens.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a state when an image of an object in a predetermined portion in FIG. 8 is displayed on a display monitor.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image transfer system 2 Fisheye lens 3 TV camera 4 Transmitter (part of transmission means) 5 Base station receiver (part of transmission means) 6 Base station control part (part of transmission means) 7 TV receiver 8 Cutout designation means

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A wide-field lens means, a television camera for capturing a wide-field image from the lens means, a transmission means for converting a wide-field image taken by the television camera into a video signal and transmitting the video signal, and A television receiver for receiving a video signal transmitted by the transmission means, wherein the television receiver can cut out and display an arbitrary range from a wide-field image. . 2. The television receiver according to claim 1, further comprising: a correcting unit configured to correct a distortion of the image having the wide field of view; a normal image forming unit configured to convert the cut-out arbitrary range into a normal image; 2. The image transfer system according to claim 1, further comprising a cutout unit. 3. The image transfer system according to claim 1, wherein the cutout designating means for designating a cutout position for cutting out the arbitrary range is a remote controller for instructing the television receiver wirelessly. . 4. A lens according to claim 1, wherein said lens means is a fish-eye lens having a hemispherical field of view.
Image transfer system as described.