JP2000259856A - Method and device for displaying three-dimensional computer graphics - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a user to perform an intuitive operation of the three-dimensional computer graphics by updating a two-dimensional pickup image in response to the relative position relation set to the user facing a screen when the three-dimensional shape information on a three-dimensional object is converted into a two-dimensional pickup image and shown on the screen. SOLUTION: A three-dimensional shape information store part stores the three- dimensional shape information on a three-dimensional objet. A two-dimensional projection image generation part generates a two-dimensional projection image which is shown at an image display part 2 from the three-dimensional shape information stored in the three-dimensional shape information store part and the relative position relations of the distance and attitude set between the part 2 and a head part α1 of a user αdetected at a head position detection part. When the head position detection part consists of a video camera 3a and an image processing part, a difference area is detected between a video image including the part α1 photographed by the camera 3a and a background image that is previously photographed at the image processing part or the distance and attitude of the part α1 are analyzed and measured via the pattern matching.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a three-dimensional computer graphics display method and display device used for general-purpose personal computers, game machines, engineering workstations and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventional three-dimensional computer graphics display devices include the following types. The first is CR
A fixed stationary image display device represented by a T monitor, and information input means such as a mouse, a keyboard, and a dial knob are provided. A user can display a two-dimensional projected image displayed on the image display device through the information input means. This is for manipulating the generation parameters.

[0003] The second type comprises a head-mounted image display device called a head-mounted display, a mobile image display device such as a lightweight liquid crystal display, and a position sensor or an acceleration sensor attached thereto. The sensor detects the direction and movement of the image display device itself, and changes the generation parameters of the two-dimensional projected image displayed on the image display device accordingly.

[0004]

Among conventional three-dimensional computer graphics display devices, a device using a first type of fixed and stationary image display device and information input means such as a mouse and a keyboard is a general-purpose personal computer. Since a necessary device is usually provided in a game machine or a game machine, there is an advantage that functions can be easily realized.

However, since the user operates the three-dimensional computer graphics through a mouse, a keyboard, or the like, there is a problem that the operation content of the human does not always match the operation of the three-dimensional computer graphics. For example, there is no intuitive relevance between the operation of pressing the viewpoint right rotation key on the keyboard and the operation of rotating the three-dimensional computer graphics clockwise by this.

On the other hand, in the case of the second type of mobile image display device and the device using the attached position sensor or acceleration sensor, the operation contents of humans and the operation of three-dimensional computer graphics match. For example, in the case of a head-mounted display, if the user turns right, the three-dimensional computer graphics will also rotate right accordingly, which has the advantage that the operation can be performed intuitively.

However, in this case, there is a problem that an expensive image display device such as a head-mounted display, which is not usually provided in general-purpose personal computers and game machines, must be used.

The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and is intended to provide a three-dimensional computer graphic using a head-mounted display by adding a minimum number of additional devices to a general-purpose personal computer or a game machine. This allows for intuitive operation of the device. Here, the main objects of the present invention are as follows.

A first object of the present invention is to provide a method and an apparatus for displaying three-dimensional computer graphics which enable intuitive operation of three-dimensional computer graphics.

A second object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for displaying three-dimensional computer graphics which realize intuitive operation by adding a minimum number of additional devices to a general-purpose personal computer, game machine, or the like. It is assumed that.

A third object of the present invention is to provide a three-dimensional computer graphics display method and apparatus for updating a display image according to a change in the relative position distance and posture between a user and an image display device. It is.

[0012] Other objects of the present invention are as follows:
In particular, it will be obvious from the description of each claim in the claims.

[0013]

According to the method of the present invention, the distance and posture of the head position of the user are detected and measured, and the display image is automatically updated to an appropriate display image according to the change, thereby achieving the above object. Adopt a method to achieve.

In the apparatus according to the present invention, a head position detecting section for detecting and measuring the distance and posture of the user's head position is provided, and the distance between the image display section and the user's head and the change in posture are two-dimensionally measured. The object is achieved by providing a function of updating a display image according to a change in the distance and posture of the user's head position by feeding back to the projection image generation unit and operating the parameters of the arithmetic processing. Adopt a configuration that

More specifically, in solving the above-mentioned problems, the present invention achieves the above objects by adopting the following novel characteristic constitution means or methods.

That is, a first feature of the method of the present invention is that, when converting three-dimensional shape information of a three-dimensional object prepared in advance into a two-dimensional photographed image and displaying the image on the screen, the relative position of the user facing the screen is relatively high. A three-dimensional computer graphics display method in which the two-dimensional photographed image is updated according to a positional relationship is employed.

A second feature of the method of the present invention resides in that the relative positional relationship in the first feature of the method of the present invention adopts a configuration of a three-dimensional computer graphics display method based on detection and measurement of head movement displacement.

A first feature of the present invention is that a three-dimensional shape information storage unit for storing three-dimensional shape information of a single or a plurality of three-dimensional objects, and a three-dimensional shape information stored in the three-dimensional shape information storage unit. A two-dimensional projection image generating unit for generating a two-dimensional projection image by arithmetic processing, an image display unit for displaying the two-dimensional projection image, and a distance between a head position of a user facing the image display unit And the posture are periodically measured, and in accordance with a change in the relative position between the image display unit and the head, the parameters of the calculation processing of the two-dimensional projection image generation in the two-dimensional projection image generation unit are operably fed back. And a head position detection unit.

According to a second feature of the present invention, the head position detecting section in the first feature of the present invention has a video camera and an image processing section for processing an image picked up by the video camera. In the configuration of a three-dimensional computer graphics display device.

[0020]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings with respect to an example of an apparatus and an example of a method.

(Example of Apparatus) An example of this apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a conceptual block diagram showing an example of the present apparatus. The three-dimensional computer graphic display device 1
Image display unit 2, head position detection unit 3, video camera 3a,
The image processing unit 3 b includes a three-dimensional shape information storage unit 5 and a two-dimensional projection image generation unit 6.

The image display unit 2 is an image display device such as a CRT monitor, and the head position detection unit 3 detects and measures the distance and attitude of the relative position of the head α1 facing the user α. The example shows a case where the video camera 3a and the image processing unit 3b are used. At this time, video camera 3
The distance and posture of the position of the head α1 are measured by analyzing the image photographed in a in the image processing unit 3b.

The three-dimensional shape information storage unit 5 stores three-dimensional shape information of one or a plurality of three-dimensional objects. The two-dimensional projection image generation unit 6 stores the three-dimensional information stored in the three-dimensional information storage unit 5. User α obtained by shape information and head position detection unit 3
A two-dimensional projection image to be displayed on the image display unit 2 is generated based on the relative positional relationship between the distance and the posture of the head α1 with respect to the image display unit 2.

In the case where the head position detecting section 3 is constituted by using the video camera 3a and the image processing section 3b as in the present apparatus example, the head α1 of the user α photographed by the video camera 3a is used.
The distance and posture of the position of the head α1 by detecting a difference area between the video image including the image and the background image captured in advance by the image processing unit 3b, performing pattern matching, or using other image processing techniques. Parse the
Measure.

In this example of the apparatus, the video camera 3a and the image processing unit 3b are employed for detecting the position of the head α1, but this is because video cameras have become popular as peripheral devices of general-purpose personal computers in recent years. However, it is naturally possible to use another detection device such as an ultrasonic sensor or a magnetic sensor.

The three-dimensional computer graphic display device 1 does not necessarily have to be constituted only by original parts, but uses an image display device, a storage device, and an arithmetic processing device of a commercially available general-purpose personal computer or game machine. Thus, the image display unit 2, the three-dimensional shape information storage unit 5, and the two-dimensional projection image generation unit 6 can be configured.

For example, when a general-purpose personal computer is used, a display connected to the device is used as the image display unit 2 and a hard disk or a CD-ROM is used.
And the like as the three-dimensional information storage unit 5, the CPU as the two-dimensional projection image generation unit 6, and the head position detection unit 3 using appropriate detection means as described in the previous two stages as an additional device. By connecting and supplying necessary processing by software, the three-dimensional computer graphics display device 1 can be realized.

(Example of Method) An example of a method showing an embodiment of the present invention applied to the above example of the apparatus will be described with reference to FIG.
(A1) and (a2) of FIG.
1) (b2) is a schematic view illustrating another embodiment,
FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the processing steps of the example method.

In FIG. 2, α is a user, 1 is a three-dimensional computer graphics display device, 2 is an image display unit,
3a is a video camera, 4a, 4a ', 4b, 4b' are two-dimensional projected images of three-dimensional computer graphics displayed on the image display unit 2.

First, the processing mode of this example of the method will be described. Consider a case in which the user α performs an operation of bringing the head α1 closer to the image display unit 2 from the initial state (standard position) in FIG. It is detected that the user α is approaching from the change in the image of the user α reflected on the video camera 3a, the parameters of the arithmetic processing of the two-dimensional projection image generation unit 6 are changed, and the two-dimensional projection image 4a is updated. Will be.

As a result, when the user α approaches the head α1, the two-dimensional projected image 4a obtained by enlarging the two-dimensional projected image 4a is displayed on the image display unit 2, as shown in FIG.
a 'is automatically displayed. That is, the user α can perform an intuitive operation of enlarging an image by a distance operation of approaching the image display unit 2.

Next, a case is considered where the posture of the head α1 is changed so that the user α looks into the image display unit 2 from below from the initial state (standard position) of FIG. 2 (b1). The movement of the posture is detected from the change in the image of the user α reflected on the video camera 3a, the parameters of the arithmetic processing of the two-dimensional projection image generation unit 6 are changed, and the two-dimensional projection image 4b is updated to 4b '. become.

As a result, the posture of the head α1 of the user α is viewed from below, and as shown in FIG. 2B2, the two-dimensional projected image 4b is viewed from below on the image display unit 2. Two-dimensional projected image 4 when the viewpoint is moved downward so that
b 'is automatically displayed. In other words, the user α can perform an intuitive operation of changing the image to that at the time of peeping from below by the posture operation of peeping into the image display unit 2 from below.

Next, processing steps for realizing this processing mode will be described with reference to FIG. (Init) When the start queue is given by the user α,
The head position detector 3 operates to detect and measure the distance and posture of the position of the head α1 of the user α, and stores the measurement result as the distance and posture of the standard position.

(Step 1) The head position detection unit 3 detects and measures the distance and posture of the position of the head α1 of the user α, and uses the difference between the measurement result and the stored distance and posture of the standard position to use the head α1. The two-dimensional projection image generating unit 6 is notified of how much the head α1 of the person α has moved forward and backward, left and right, up and down, and has changed its posture.

(Step 2) Two-dimensional projected image generator 6
Determines the position of the viewpoint of the user α based on the data notified from the head position detection unit 3, changes the generation parameters so that an image suitable for this can be generated, and sends the three-dimensional shape information storage unit 5. A two-dimensional projected image is generated from the stored three-dimensional shape information.

(Step 3) The image display unit 2 displays the screen 2
The image obtained by the three-dimensional projection image generation unit 6 is updated and displayed, and the user α is displayed with three-dimensional computer graphics.

STEP 1 to STEP 3 have a loop structure and are executed sequentially at appropriate time intervals, so that the screen of the image display unit 2 is updated periodically. By setting this time interval to an appropriate value, the screen can be updated following the relative position change of the head α1 of the user α.

The three-dimensional information stored in the three-dimensional information storage unit 5
The three-dimensional shape information is not only static information of a three-dimensional object,
Such information may include various dynamic change information of a three-dimensional object, such as game software using three-dimensional computer graphics. At this time, the display image of the image display unit 2 is animated separately from the change in the position of the head α1 of the user α. However, the present method example is also applied when such three-dimensional shape information is handled. It is quite possible to do.

Although the examples of the apparatus and the method according to the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not necessarily limited to the above-described means and methods, but achieves the object of the present invention and achieves the effects of the present invention. Can be changed and implemented as appropriate within the range having.

[0041]

According to the present invention, the relative positional relationship between the user's head and the image display device is appropriately measured by head position detecting means, and a two-dimensional projected image is obtained from the three-dimensional shape information based on the positional relationship. By adjusting the parameters of the arithmetic processing to be generated, the user can intuitively operate the three-dimensional computer graphics without adding a large-scale additional device such as a head-mounted display to a general-purpose personal computer or a game machine. It has an excellent effect.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual block diagram illustrating an example of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating each processing mode of a method example showing the same as the above, where (a1) is a screen display at a standard position, and (a2).
Is an image display when the user approaches the image display unit, (b)
1) shows an image display at a standard position, and (b2) shows a screen display when the user takes his / her head down and looks into it.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating processing steps of the example method shown in FIG.

[Brief description of reference numerals]

 α ... User α1 ... Head 1 ... 3D computer graphic display device 2 ... Image display unit 3 ... Head position detection unit 3a ... Video camera 3b ... Image processing unit 4a, 4a ', 4b, 4b' ... 2D projection Image 5: 3D shape information storage unit 6: 2D projection image generation unit

Claims (4)

[Claims] When converting three-dimensional shape information of a three-dimensional object prepared in advance into a two-dimensional photographed image and displaying it on a screen, the two-dimensional photographing is performed in accordance with a relative positional relationship between the screen and a user facing the screen. A three-dimensional computer graphics display method, characterized by updating an image. 2. The three-dimensional computer graphics display method according to claim 1, wherein the relative positional relationship is obtained by detecting and measuring a behavioral displacement of a head. 3. A three-dimensional shape information storage unit for storing three-dimensional shape information of one or more three-dimensional objects, and a two-dimensional projection image based on the three-dimensional shape information stored in the three-dimensional shape information storage unit. A two-dimensional projection image generation unit generated by arithmetic processing; an image display unit for displaying the two-dimensional projection image; and a distance and orientation of a user's head position facing the image display unit are periodically measured. A head position detection unit that operably feeds back a parameter of a calculation process of two-dimensional projection image generation in the two-dimensional projection image generation unit in accordance with a relative position change between the image display unit and the head; A three-dimensional computer graphics display device, comprising: 4. The three-dimensional computer graphics according to claim 3, wherein the head position detection unit has a video camera and an image processing unit that processes an image captured by the video camera. Display device.