JP2000066581A - Projection system for planetarium theater - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a projected image to keep the same size even in the case of moving it to any spot on the surface of a dome by calculating enlargement/reduction rate for making the size of the projected image constant and a focal position for focusing based on a projection distance and performing the enlargement/reduction of the projected image and focus adjustment based on the calculated value. SOLUTION: In the software 20 of a host computer 10, an astronomically calculating projecting position arithmetic means 21 decides a projecting position of the projected image on the surface of the dome by astronomical calculation, and calculates azimuth coordinates and altitude coordinates. A projected image projecting position calculation means 25 calculates the control information on a projecting equipment for projecting the projected image to the projecting position. An enlargement/reduction rate calculation means 22 calculates the projection distance from the projecting equipment to the surface of the dome and calculates the control information on the enlargement/ reduction of the projected image by the projecting equipment for making the size of the projected image constant based on the calculated distance. A focus driving position calculation means 23 calculates the control information on the focus adjustment of the projecting equipment for focusing. The control information is transmitted to the driving control part of the projecting equipment.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a planetarium theater mainly including a planetarium, and more particularly, to a projection system using projection equipment in a planetarium theater.

2. Description of the Related Art As is well known, a planetarium essentially consists in reproducing a starry sky by projecting images of stars from a star projector onto a dome screen projection surface (hereinafter, referred to as a dome surface).

[0003] On the other hand, the planetarium has, apart from the stars, a planetary projector for projecting a planet, and a skyline projector for projecting a landscape such as the ground, a constellation picture, a coordinate line, a nebula, and a star cluster in accordance with the evolution of the rendering technique. In recent years, video projectors and slide projectors for projecting natural phenomena that occur in the sky such as lightning and aurora and artificial objects such as spaceships have been provided in recent years. Reached. In other words, modern planetariums have escaped from pure optical equipment and have been replaced with so-called "multimedia" -like ones that use various projection equipment and directing equipment in the dome, and the equipment used there is also conventional. Not only optical equipment, but also various other things such as video equipment (video decks and laser discs), audio equipment (CD players and audio mixers), lighting equipment (spotlights and special effects lighting, etc.) Has become.

[0004] In this specification, a facility that performs various kinds of projections and productions as described above mainly for the screening of a planetarium is called a “planetarium theater”, and is distinguished from a narrowly-defined planetarium that projects only stars and planets. I do.
The term “projection device” is used to mean the above-mentioned various projectors collectively.

[0005]

As described above, what is required in a modern planetarium theater is not a schematic projection of a starry sky as in the past planetarium, but a more realistic reproduction of a real starry sky. And with the evolution of the production technique, the planetarium theater will also reproduce the starry sky observed from other celestial bodies and spacecraft other than the earth, and the stars that were previously only visible to the naked eye as light spots will be constant It has become necessary to project as a projection image whose diameter is recognized. Needless to say, the constellation pictures, nebulae, star clusters, spaceships, and the like must be projected as projection images having a certain size.

It is ideal that the projection device is installed at the center of the dome screen. However, in reality, this is not appropriate, and the projection device is installed at a position eccentric with respect to the center of the dome screen. Therefore, unlike the case where the projection equipment is installed at the center of the dome screen, the projection distance does not become equidistant from the dome surface in any projection direction, and the projection distance always changes depending on the projection position of the projected image. . FIG. 4 illustrates this relationship. When the projection equipment is installed at a position eccentric to the center of the dome, the projection distance 1 and the projection distance 2 are clearly different between the projection position 1 and the projection position 2. Understand.

In this case, since the size of the projected image changes depending on the projection distance, there is a problem that the size of the projected image changes when the projected image is moved on the dome surface, for example, when reproducing the motion of a planet. . Further, since the focal position also changes depending on the projection distance, moving the projected image on the dome surface causes a problem that the focal point is shifted. These problems have become particularly apparent in modern planetarium theaters where there are many scenes in which projected images are projected at a certain size rather than as dots.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and projects an image projected on a dome surface from a projection device installed at an eccentric position with respect to the center of a dome screen. When projecting an image, the projection distance to the dome surface is calculated based on the projection position of the projection image on the dome surface and the installation position of the projection equipment, and expansion to keep the size of the projection image constant based on this projection distance And a means for calculating a focus position for focusing / reducing ratio and for focusing, and for performing enlargement / reduction and focus adjustment of the projected image based on the calculated value.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the projection diameter of the projected image is changed in real time in accordance with the change of the projection position of the projected image, so that a constant projection diameter is always obtained regardless of where the projected image is located on the dome screen. Produces an action that can be kept automatically. In addition, by changing the focal position of the projected image in real time in accordance with the change of the projected position of the projected image, an effect that automatically enables accurate focus adjustment regardless of where the projected image is located on the dome screen occurs. .

[0010]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an outline of a projection system of a planetarium theater embodying the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 10 denotes a host computer for managing and controlling the entire control system of the planetarium theater.
Numeral 0 is application software for controlling the projection equipment that operates therein. This software 20 determines the projection position of the dome surface of the projected image by astronomical operation,
An astronomical operation projection position calculating means 21 for calculating the azimuth coordinates and altitude coordinates, and a projection image projection position calculating means 25 for calculating control information of a projection device for projecting the projected image at this projection position, A projection image rotation position calculation means 24 for calculating control information of the projection device to determine the rotation position of the projection device, further calculate a projection distance from the projection device to the dome surface, and calculate a projection image size based on the projection distance. Enlargement / reduction ratio calculating means 22 for calculating control information of the enlargement / reduction of the projected image of the projection device for making the image constant, and a focus drive position calculation for calculating control information of the focus adjustment of the projection device for focusing also Means 23 are provided, and these pieces of control information are transmitted to the drive control unit of the projection device.

Next, reference numeral 30 denotes a projection device,
Reference numeral 0 denotes a drive control unit provided therein. The drive control unit 40 drives each motor shaft of the projection device via a drive unit based on control information received from the host computer 10, and specifically performs the following drive control. A motor X-axis 63A that swings the projector in the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction in order to project the projection image at a predetermined position on the dome surface
And a projection image projection position drive control 43 for driving the motor Y-axis 63B via the driving means 53A and 53B. The driving means 5 drives the motor W-axis 64 for rotating the projection image to a predetermined position.
A projection image rotation position drive control 44 driven via the control unit 4; An enlargement / reduction ratio drive control 41 for driving a motor Z-axis 61 that varies the lens interval of a variable power optical system of the projector through a drive unit 51 in order to enlarge / reduce a projected image at a predetermined ratio. A focus position drive control 42 for driving, via a drive means 52, a motor A axis 62 for moving a focusing lens of the projector to adjust to a predetermined focus position.

Next, during the control of the projection system having the above configuration, details of the control procedure for controlling the enlargement / reduction of the projected image by a predetermined ratio and the control for adjusting the projection image to a predetermined focus position are shown in the flowcharts of FIGS. It is explained along.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a control procedure in the host computer 10. First, an astronomical operation for an astronomical phenomenon to be reproduced is performed (step S1).

[0014] The azimuth and altitude coordinates of the projection position of the projected image on the dome surface are calculated by astronomical operation (step S2).

The projection distance to the dome surface is calculated based on the pre-stored coordinates of the projection device installation position and the projection position obtained in step S2 (step S3).

An enlargement / reduction ratio (%) for keeping the size of the projected image on the dome surface constant is calculated from the projection distance obtained in step S3, and a motor Z for adjusting the projected image enlargement / reduction of the projection equipment is calculated. Calculate the absolute position of the axis (procedure S
4).

Similarly, the absolute position of the focus adjusting motor A-axis of the projected image of the projection equipment is calculated from the projection distance obtained in step S3 (step S5).

The position information of each axis of the motor of the projection device calculated in steps S4 and S5 is transmitted as control information to the drive control unit 40 of the projection device 30 (step S6).

Next, FIG. 3 shows the drive control unit 4 of the projection equipment 30.
It is a figure showing the procedure of control in 0. The control position information of each axis of the motor of the projection equipment is received from the host computer 10 (step S1).

The current position of the motor Z-axis for adjusting the enlargement / reduction of the projected image of the projection equipment is compared with the absolute position of the motor Z-axis transmitted from the host computer, and the difference is calculated (step S2).

According to the difference obtained in step S2,
A motor Z axis for projection image enlargement / reduction adjustment is driven via the driving means (step S3).

The current position of the motor A axis for adjusting the focus of the projection equipment and the motor A transmitted from the host computer
The absolute positions of the axes are compared, and the difference is calculated (step S
4).

According to the difference obtained in step S4,
The motor A for focus adjustment is driven via the driving means (step S5).

In this embodiment, the host computer 10 transmits control information of various devices used for projection and production in the planetarium theater to the network N.
A single or a plurality of devices, including the projection device of the present invention, are connected under the network N, and control information from the host computer is transmitted to each device under the network N. A client processing unit (corresponding to the drive control unit 40 of the present invention) that converts and outputs a unique control signal is connected.

In the control system of the above embodiment, the concept of the prior art that "the planetarium control system is the main system and all other control systems operate in synchronization therewith" is abandoned, and the general computer industry is abandoned. The concept of the network (between the client-server system and the host-terminal system) that is pervasive in Japan is adopted in the control system of the planetarium theater. In other words, there is no host control system and network that can recognize and integrate these as all clients existing on the network without paying attention to the differences between devices such as planetariums, auxiliary projectors, and video devices. The whole system is configured such that each device is connected and controlled in the image of hanging.

Therefore, when this control system is employed, each device can be controlled and managed in a unified manner, and the operation command is not restricted by the control method unique to the device, and can be handled as a general-purpose command. Implementation of the projection system of the present invention becomes easier. The details of this control system are disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 10-39791 filed by the present applicant.

The embodiment of the present invention is as described above.
By giving a correction value (offset) in the projection image enlargement / reduction ratio calculation and the focus position calculation, it is possible to intentionally shift the projection image enlargement / reduction ratio and the focal position to have a desired effect. For example, in the case of expressing the state of moving away from the earth on a spaceship, for example, switching between multiple slides with different views of the earth until now has been described as the projection of the earth. By gradually reducing the image, it is possible to express automatically and naturally.

[0028]

The projection system of the present invention having the above-described configuration has the following specific effects.

The same size is maintained no matter where the projected image moves on the dome surface, and since the image is in focus, a more realistic projected image can be obtained.

For the same reason, even if the projection device is installed at an arbitrary position in the dome, the projection effect is not affected at all. Therefore, the space efficiency and the design efficiency are improved by increasing the degree of freedom of the arrangement of the devices. Become.

By intentionally shifting the projected image enlargement / reduction ratio and the focal position by using the projection system of the present invention, it is possible to obtain the effect as described in detail in the embodiment.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an outline of a projection system of a planetarium theater embodying the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a control procedure in a host computer.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a control procedure in the projection device.

FIG. 4 is a principle diagram illustrating a problem of the related art.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Host Computer 30 Projection Equipment 40 Drive Control Unit

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Yoshihiro Hara 1247-1 Nose, Shimoichi, Kushigata-cho, Nakakoma-gun, Yamanashi F-term in Goto Optical Research Laboratory Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 2C032 EB01

Claims (3)

[Claims] When projecting a projection image on a dome surface from a projection device installed at an eccentric position with respect to the center of a dome screen, the dome is projected based on the projection position of the projection image on the dome surface and the installation position of the projection device. The projection distance to the plane is obtained, and the enlargement / reduction ratio for keeping the size of the projection image constant and the focal position for focusing are calculated based on the projection distance, and the projection position of the projection image is calculated based on the calculated values. A projection system in a planetarium theater, comprising: means for enlarging / reducing and adjusting focus. 2. A host computer for managing and controlling various devices used for projection and production in a planetarium theater, comprising: an azimuth coordinate / altitude coordinate of a projection position of a projection image on a dome surface calculated by an astronomical operation; Calculates the projection distance from the projection device to the dome surface when transmitting control information of the projection position and rotation position of the projection image to the drive control unit of the projector based on the installation position of the projection device to project the projection image Then, based on the projection distance, an enlargement / reduction ratio of the projected image for keeping the size of the projected image constant is calculated, and a focus position for focusing is calculated. An absolute position of a projection image enlargement / reduction adjustment Z-axis and an absolute position of a focus adjustment A-axis are calculated, and the position information is transmitted as control information to a drive control unit of the projector. Item 2. A projection system in a planetarium theater according to Item 1. 3. The projection system in a planetarium theater according to claim 1, further comprising means for intentionally changing an enlargement / reduction ratio and a focal position of the projected image.