JP2003346188A - Stereoscopic imaging system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a stereoscopic imaging system capable of observing a stereoscopic image of an object. <P>SOLUTION: This system is constituted from an image acquisition means for acquiring an object image by superimposing and displaying frame data for expressing the object contour together with the object image when photographic the object, an image processing means for acquiring an object region from the frame data of the object, extracting a parallax map for expressing a depth distribution of the object from the object region, generating a multi- viewpoint image sequence of the object from a plurality of viewpoints from the object image and the parallax map, and synthesizing a three-dimensional image so that pixels on the same coordinate of each image of the multi- viewpoint image sequence are arrayed as adjacent pixels following a viewpoint array of the image, and an output means for outputting the three-dimensional image. An optical member having a periodic structure is overlapped on the outputted three-dimensional image, to thereby enable to observe the stereoscopic image of the object. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a three-dimensional image forming system capable of generating a three-dimensional image from an image acquired by a camera, and observing the three-dimensional image by superimposing a lenticular plate or the like on the three-dimensional image. Things.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a method of forming a three-dimensional image, integral photography and a lenticular plate three-dimensional image are known (Takataka Ohkoshi: "Three-dimensional image engineering",
Industrial Books, 1972).

[0003] However, such a conventional method of forming a three-dimensional image is based on a photographic method. For example, a lenticular plate three-dimensional image is obtained by acquiring images obtained by photographing a subject from many viewpoints, and converting these images. It is printed on one photographic dry plate via a lenticular plate, and has the following problems (1) to (5).

[0004] Since an image of a subject from multiple viewpoints is required, a photographing apparatus such as a multi-eye camera becomes large-scale.

[0005] Similarly, for the formation of a three-dimensional image, the printing apparatus becomes large-scale.

[0006] Even with the above-described apparatus, adjustment and skill are required for photographing and printing.

In order to overcome the above problems, the present applicant attaches a three-dimensional photograph adapter to a camera, shoots a stereo image from two viewpoints on the left and right, obtains a multi-view image from the stereo image by electronic interpolation, and obtains a three-dimensional image. A method of forming an image was proposed.

Further, the present applicant cuts out a subject region from the background in the image, and makes one image so that the subject region cut out with respect to the background appears to jump out to the front when the lenticular plate is superimposed and viewed. A method for obtaining a multi-viewpoint image from a 3D image and forming a stereoscopic image was proposed.

[0009]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, it is necessary to cut out the subject area from the background in the image, and there is a demand to omit this manual operation.
In addition, an image which is taken by a camera is once displayed on a screen, and a user needs an interface for designating a subject area.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to obtain a multi-viewpoint image from one image without special photographing, synthesize the multi-viewpoint image and print it as a three-dimensional image, and use an optical member such as a lenticular plate. An object of the present invention is to provide a three-dimensional image forming system capable of observing a three-dimensional image of a subject by superimposing.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, when a subject is photographed, frame data representing the contour of the subject is superimposed and displayed together with the image of the subject to obtain the subject image. Image acquisition means for acquiring a subject area from the frame data of the subject, extracting a parallax map representing the depth distribution of the subject from the subject area, and calculating a number of subjects from a plurality of viewpoints from the subject image and the parallax map. Image processing means for generating a viewpoint image sequence, synthesizing a three-dimensional image such that pixels at the same coordinates of each image of the multi-view image sequence are arranged as adjacent pixels in accordance with the viewpoint arrangement of the images, and outputting the three-dimensional image A three-dimensional image of a subject by superimposing an optical member having a periodic structure on the output three-dimensional image. Characterized in that to allow observation.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

<First Embodiment> FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a three-dimensional image forming system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a digital camera, 2 denotes a printer, and 3 denotes a recording medium such as a CF (Compact Flash) card. Reference numeral 101 denotes an imaging unit including a photographic lens and an image sensor such as a CCD; 102, a mode setting unit for setting a photographic mode of the camera; 103, an image processing unit that processes a subject image acquired by the imaging unit to form image data A recording means 104 for recording image data on the recording medium 3; a display means 105 such as a liquid crystal display for displaying an image being photographed and the recorded image; and a storage means 106 for storing frame data of a subject in advance. , 201 are image acquisition means for reading image data from the recording medium 3, 202
Is a mode analysis unit that reads and analyzes supplementary information of image data from the recording medium 3, 203 is a parallax map extraction unit that extracts a parallax map representing the depth distribution of the subject from frame data of the subject, and 204 is a parallax map from the subject image and the parallax map. Three-dimensional image synthesizing means for synthesizing a three-dimensional image, 205
Is a printing means.

First, in photographing, after the user turns on a power switch (not shown), the mode setting means 102 sets the photographing mode of the camera to the stereoscopic mode. When the camera is set to the stereoscopic mode, an image for display is generated by the image processing unit 103 from the image data acquired through the imaging unit 101, and output to the display unit 105.
6 is superimposed and displayed on the display means 105. FIG. 2A shows an example of the display on the display means at this time.

In FIG. 2, a thick line A indicates frame data of a subject. The user looks at the image displayed on the display unit 105, determines the composition of the camera as shown in FIG. 2B so that the subject to be shot matches the displayed frame, and presses a shutter button (not shown) to shoot the image. I do. In the example of FIG. 2, the user holds the camera in a vertical position, and determines the composition such that the subject is substantially at the center.

When the shutter button is pressed, the camera performs color and brightness processing and the like by the image processing means 103 from the image data obtained by the imaging means 101, and furthermore, makes the recording means 104 conform to a predetermined image format. Image data is formed together with the shooting mode set by the mode setting means and frame data of the subject, and is recorded on the recording medium 3. At this time, when performing processing such as focusing and exposure of the digital camera during stereoscopic mode shooting, it is better to perform control that focuses on the distance measurement value and photometry value in the subject frame to obtain the optimal image for the subject. Can be obtained.

When observing a three-dimensional image, it is easier to obtain a three-dimensional effect when the entire image is in focus. Is good.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the image format of the image data recorded on the recording medium 3.

Reference numeral 301 denotes a photographing mode. For example, a predetermined integer value is assigned to each photographing mode which can be set by the mode setting means 102 of the camera. Reference numeral 302 denotes frame data of the subject, in which vector array data obtained by quantizing the contour shape of the subject frame and the position in the image are recorded so that an area of the subject in the image can be specified. Reference numeral 300 denotes data representing image information.
03 is compressed in JPEG format or the like. The data of the subject frame may use a code such as a chain code used for approximating a broken line of a line figure.

Next, the recording medium 3 on which the photographed image is recorded
Is attached to the printer 2, the image acquisition unit 201 outputs the image data 300 compressed by the recording unit 104 of the camera 1.
Is decompressed and converted into two-dimensional array data or a bitmap of three RGB channels. At this time, if a plurality of image data are recorded on the recording medium 3, a desired image is selected by an image selection button (not shown).

The photographing mode 30 recorded together with the image
1. Mode analysis means 2 for data of subject frame 302
02 is output. The mode analyzing means 202 first reads the photographing mode 301 and checks whether the mode is the stereoscopic mode.
In the case of the three-dimensional mode, a process for forming a three-dimensional image described below is performed.
The printer 2 prints an image according to a predetermined process in each mode.

In the case of the three-dimensional mode, the mode analyzing means 202 reads the subject frame 302 and outputs it to the parallax map extracting means 203. Parallax map extraction means 203
Generates a parallax map of the subject from the subject frame. The three-dimensional image combining unit 204 generates a multi-viewpoint image of the subject from the image data and the parallax map of the subject, combines the three-dimensional image, and outputs the combined image to the printing unit 205. The printing unit 205 prints a three-dimensional image.

The processing of the parallax map generating means 203 and the three-dimensional image synthesizing means 204 will be described below.

First, the parallax map extracting means 203 creates data of a subject area from a subject frame. FIG. 4 shows an example of the subject area. The data of the subject area is, for example, binary two-dimensional data having the same size as the image data in which the subject area in the frame is 1 and the outside is 0. Also, since the image data is not always captured in accordance with the subject frame, an edge image is extracted from the image data in advance by a Sobel operator or the like, and the subject frame is shifted to a position having a high edge strength within a predetermined range. May be created.

Next, a parallax map is generated from the subject area. The parallax map indicates the amount of shift when the subject corresponding to each two-dimensional pixel of the image data is viewed from two viewpoints. A two-dimensional average value filter of a predetermined size is applied to the binary object region data to generate two-dimensional real number array data, which is used as a parallax map. By the processing of the average value filter, an effect can be expected in which the contour of the designated subject is blurred, and the subject is not in the form of a partition but gradually jumps out of the background.

If the size of the two-dimensional average filter is large, the three-dimensional effect becomes smoother, but the outline of the subject area specified by the user is blurred, and the user's intention is not faithfully reflected on the formed three-dimensional image. When the size of the two-dimensional average filter is small, the intention of the user is more faithfully reflected, but the subject approaches the screen. The size of the two-dimensional average filter is preferably about 5 to 10% of the image size.

If the size of the image data is large, the amount of calculation for the filtering process increases. Therefore, the filtering process is performed by reducing the data of the subject area at a predetermined magnification in advance, and then the parallax map is enlarged to the original size. You may do it.

As a method for obtaining a empirically desirable three-dimensional shape from the contour of the designated subject area, the contour shape is replaced with a polygon, the skeleton of the polygon is estimated, and the height of each vertex constituting the skeleton is determined. There is a method of obtaining a three-dimensional shape in a pseudo manner by determining according to the distance from the boundary of the polygon ("Teddy: A Sketching Interface for 3D Freeform D
esign ", T. Igarashi, S. Matsuoka, H. Tanaka, SIGGRAPH9
9 Conference Proceedings). According to this method, according to the width of the region, a three-dimensional shape can be obtained on the assumption that a wide portion has a thick cross section and a narrow portion has a thin cross section.

As a method of obtaining a parallax map from a subject area, the above method may be applied. That is, first, the subject frame obtained by the mode analysis unit 202 is approximated to a polygon. A three-dimensional shape is obtained from the approximated polygon data by the above-described method, and the three-dimensional shape is subjected to perspective projection transformation from two predetermined viewpoints, thereby obtaining a disparity map of an image as a shift amount of a pixel position corresponding to each pixel. be able to. Further, for simplicity, the amount of parallax may be determined in proportion to the height data of the obtained three-dimensional shape.

The three-dimensional image synthesizing means 204 first generates a multi-viewpoint image of the subject from the image data and the parallax map of the subject. The image generated here is a multi-view image forming a three-dimensional stripe image, and the size of each image depends on the number of images, the resolution and size of printing. If the resolution of the printing means 6 is RPdpi (dot per inch) and the print size is XP × YPinch, the size of the image to be printed is X
(= RP × XP) × Y (= RP × YP) pixels.

The number N of images is the pitch RLin of the lenticular plate.
It is determined that N = RP × RL according to the channel. Since N is an integer, the number of images is actually an integer close to RP × RL. For example, when the resolution of the printer is 600 dpi and the pitch of the lenticular plate is 1 / 50.8 inch, N = 12 images is desirable. At this time, the size of the image at each viewpoint is H (= X / N)
× V (= Y). Here, the print size is actually determined so that H and V are integers. For example, H = 200, V
In the case of = 1800 pixels, X = 2400 and Y = 1800 pixels, and the print size is 4 × 3 inches (actually, the size is slightly changed because it is necessary to match the pitch of the lenticular plate with the image period).

The generated image is generated by deforming the obtained image data using a parallax map. For example,
When the size of the image is h (= 800) × v (= 600) pixels, an image of 200 × 600 pixels is generated in accordance with H in the horizontal direction and v in the vertical direction. This is because the number of pixels in the vertical direction of each image required for printing is significantly larger than the number of pixels in the horizontal direction, and it takes a long time to generate an image of a large size using parallax.

The viewpoint position of the generated image is determined so that a predetermined amount of parallax is generated. If the parallax amount is too small, the stereoscopic effect when observing a stereoscopic image is impaired. Conversely, if the amount of parallax becomes too large, a stereoscopic image to be observed becomes unclear due to crosstalk with an adjacent image.

Further, the viewpoint positions are determined so that the viewpoints are arranged at equal intervals. This is for observing a stable stereoscopic image by arranging the viewpoint positions of the image sequence at equal intervals.
In addition, the amounts of embossing and sinking of the distant subject are adjusted to have a predetermined ratio. From the parallax map obtained by the parallax map generation means 203, a parallax corresponding to the subject position closest to the camera 1 and a parallax corresponding to the farthest subject position are obtained.

In this embodiment, the disparity map is 0 to 1
Therefore, the parallax corresponding to the closest subject position is 0, and the parallax corresponding to the farthest subject position is 1. Then, the viewpoint position is determined such that the closest subject is observed at a predetermined observation position at a predetermined distance from the printing surface at the time of observation, and the farthest object is observed at a predetermined distance from the printing surface at the back. At this time, the parameters actually used for image generation are the ratio r of each image to the parallax of the image pair at the left and right ends forming the multi-viewpoint image, and the parallax adjustment amount sh for perspective, which corresponds to the viewpoint position. For example,
When the ratio r = 0, the leftmost image is shown, and when the ratio r = 1, the rightmost image is shown.

Hereinafter, a method of generating each viewpoint image will be described.

First, a new viewpoint image is generated by forward mapping using the pixels of the input image acquired by the image acquiring means 201. That is, first, the position (xN, yN) in the new viewpoint image to which each pixel of the input image is mapped.
From the parallax d at the pixel position (x, y) of the input image, the ratio r representing the viewpoint position, the size of the input image, and the size of the new viewpoint image.

XN = H / h × (x + r × (d−sh)), yN = y (Equation 1) Then, the pixel at the pixel position (x, y) of the left image is represented by (xN, yN). This process is repeated for all pixels of the left image. Next, among the pixels of the new viewpoint image, a filling process is performed on pixels to which no pixels are assigned from the left image. The filling process searches for an effective pixel that is a predetermined distance away from the pixel to be obtained, and assigns a weighted average using the distance of the pixel value as a parameter. If there is no valid pixel, the search range is expanded and the search is repeated.

With the above processing, a new viewpoint image valid for all pixels is generated. This process is repeated for the number of viewpoints to obtain a multi-viewpoint image sequence.

Next, a three-dimensional stripe image is synthesized from the multi-viewpoint image sequence. At this time, the three-dimensional image is synthesized such that pixels at the same coordinates of each image in the multi-view image sequence are arranged as adjacent pixels according to the viewpoint arrangement of the images.
When the pixel value of the j-th viewpoint is Pjmn (where m and n are the indexes of the pixel array in the horizontal and vertical directions, respectively), the j-th image data is represented as the following two-dimensional array.

[0042] The composition is performed by decomposing the images of the viewpoints into strips in the vertical direction for each line, and composing the images in the reverse order of the viewpoint positions for the number of viewpoints. Therefore, the combined image is a stripe image as shown below.

[0043] However, viewpoint 1 represents the left end image and N represents the right end image. here,
The reason why the arrangement order of the viewpoint positions is reversed is that, when observing with a lenticular plate, the image is observed left and right within one pitch of the lenticular. This three-dimensional stripe image has a size of X (= N × H) × v when the original multi-view image is an N-view image of H × v size.

Next, the pitch of the three-dimensional stripe image is matched with that of the lenticular plate. R for one pitch
Since there are N pixels of Pdpi, one pitch N / RPin
Since the pitch of the lenticular plate is RLinch, the pitch is adjusted by multiplying the image by RL × RP / N in the horizontal direction.

Also, the number of pixels in the vertical direction is (RL
× RP / N) × Y pixels are required, so the magnification is adjusted by multiplying (RL × RP × Y) / (N × v) in the vertical direction. Therefore, the three-dimensional stripe image is subjected to the above-described horizontal and vertical scaling processes to obtain print image data. The scaling process is performed by, for example, bilinear interpolation.
The processing in the three-dimensional image synthesizing means 204 is performed by directly synthesizing a three-dimensional image from an input image using a disparity map without generating a multi-viewpoint image during the processing disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-232697 proposed by the present applicant. Or a method of dividing a three-dimensional image disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-232698, combining the divided three-dimensional images, and sequentially outputting the divided three-dimensional images to a printing unit.

With the above arrangement, when the lenticular plate is superimposed on the printed image, a stereoscopic image in which the subject image displayed in the frame on the display means of the camera jumps out to the front can be observed during photographing.

Further, as described above, in the present embodiment, it is possible to automatically print a three-dimensional image from an image shot by a camera without performing special shooting.

<Embodiment 2> In this embodiment, subject distance information is used as photographing information of a camera. That is,
The digital camera shown in FIG. 1 includes an imaging unit 101, a mode setting unit 102, an image processing unit 103, and a recording unit 10.
4. In addition to the display means 105 and the storage means 106, a distance measuring means (not shown) is provided. Then, at the time of photographing, the distance of the subject corresponding to each area obtained by dividing the screen shown in FIG. 5 into a predetermined divided area (4 × 6 area in the figure) is measured, and the subject distance information is obtained. This distance information of the subject is mainly used for focusing of the photographing lens at the time of photographing. When an image is recorded, the recording mode is set in the recording unit 104 by the mode setting unit so as to conform to the predetermined image format, the subject frame data and the image data, and the subject distance is recorded on the recording medium 3.

FIG. 6 shows an example of the image format of the image data recorded on the recording medium 3 in this embodiment. Reference numeral 300 denotes image information, 301 denotes a shooting mode, 302 denotes frame data of a subject, and 303 denotes a subject distance. For example, data of the number of image divisions and the subject distance in each area are recorded.

In this embodiment, the parallax map extracting means 203 of the printer uses the information on the subject distance,
A parallax map reflecting the distribution of the distance of the photographed subject is extracted. The processing of the recorded image by the printer is the same as that of the first embodiment of the present invention except that the subject information is used. Therefore, a detailed description of the common processing will be omitted.

First, the recording medium 3 on which the photographed image is recorded
Is attached to the printer 2, the image acquisition unit 201 outputs the image data 300 compressed by the recording unit 104 of the camera 1.
Is decompressed and converted into two-dimensional array data or a bitmap of three RGB channels. Also, a shooting mode 301, a subject frame 302, and a subject distance 30 recorded together with the image.
3 is output to the mode analysis means 202. The mode analyzing means 202 first reads the photographing mode 301 and checks whether the mode is the stereoscopic mode. Then, the mode analysis unit 202 reads the subject frame 302 and the subject distance 303 and outputs them to the parallax map extraction unit 203.

The parallax map extracting means 203 generates a parallax map of the subject from the subject frame and the subject distance. The three-dimensional image combining unit 204 generates a multi-viewpoint image of the subject from the image data and the parallax map of the subject, combines the three-dimensional image, and outputs the combined image to the printing unit 205. The printing unit 205 prints a three-dimensional image.

Hereinafter, the processing of the parallax map generating means 203 will be described.

The parallax map extracting means 203 first creates data of a subject area from a subject frame.

Next, a parallax map is generated from the subject area. At this time, the distribution of parallax is separately approximated using the information on the subject distance in the region inside the subject frame and the region outside the subject frame. For example, the distribution of the distances of the respective regions inside and outside the subject frame is approximated as a quadratic model. That is, when the pixel coordinates in the image are (x, y) and the subject distance at that position is z (x, y), the distribution of the subject distance is represented by z (x, y) = k0 + k1.x + k2.y + k3. Xy + k4 · x2 + k5 · y2 (Expression 2) That is, in each area inside and outside the object frame, the object distance information (x, y,
parameters k0, k1, k2, k in each region from the set z)
3, k4, and k5 are obtained by, for example, the least squares method. At this time, the value of (x, y) is the center coordinate of each area obtained by dividing the screen into 4 × 6. Then, a parallax distribution at each pixel position in the image is obtained from a model approximated for each subject region. The parallax obtained at this time is obtained by normalizing the reciprocal of the distance z of each pixel obtained by (Equation 2) in the range of 0 to 1.

FIG. 7 shows an example of the obtained parallax distribution. In the figure, the dark part represents the foreground, and the bright part represents the back. Then, a two-dimensional average filter having a predetermined size is applied to the obtained parallax distribution to generate two-dimensional real number array data, which is used as a parallax map.

In this embodiment, the distance information for each partial area of the image of the object photographed by the camera is output to the processing part of the printer through the recording medium and used for the parallax map extraction, so that only the object frame is used. It is possible to extract a parallax map that reflects the distance information of the subject in more detail than it does, and as a result, it is possible to synthesize and print a three-dimensional image that more faithfully reflects the distance distribution of the subject, and to superimpose the lenticular plate Real stereoscopic images can be observed.

In the above embodiment, the description has been made of a configuration in which images, frame data, and the like, which are captured by a digital camera and recorded on a recording medium, are directly obtained and processed by a printer. , Frame data and the like may be obtained and processed by a general-purpose PC (Personal Computer) via application software, a three-dimensional image may be synthesized, and output to a printer.

In the above embodiment, a three-dimensional image forming system using a lenticular plate three-dimensional image system has been described. However, the present invention can be applied to a three-dimensional image forming system using integral photography or a barrier system.
Although the final output of the three-dimensional image has been described as printing from a printer, the present invention can be applied to the display of a three-dimensional image on a so-called glassesless display in which a lenticular plate is attached to display means such as a liquid crystal display.

[0060]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, a multi-viewpoint image is obtained from one image without special photographing, and the multi-viewpoint image is synthesized and printed as a stereoscopic image. ,
By superposing optical members such as lenticular plates, a stereoscopic image forming system capable of observing a stereoscopic image of a subject can be provided. In this case, since the subject frame data of the camera is used, an operation such as designating a subject area is not required. Further, by using the distance information of the subject obtained by the camera, a more realistic three-dimensional image of the subject can be observed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a stereoscopic image forming system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a display unit of a camera in a stereoscopic mode.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an image format of image data of the stereoscopic image forming system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating data of a subject area in a parallax map extraction unit of the stereoscopic image forming system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing screen division in subject distance measurement by a camera of the stereoscopic image forming system according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an image format of image data of the stereoscopic image forming system according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a parallax distribution in a parallax map extracting unit of the stereoscopic image forming system according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols] 1 Digital camera 2 Printer 3 Recording medium 101 imaging means 102 Mode setting means 103 Image processing means 104 recording means 105 display means 106 storage means 201 Image acquisition means 202 Mode analysis means 203 Parallax map extraction means 204 Three-dimensional image synthesis means 205 printing means

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Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An image acquiring means for superimposing and displaying frame data representing an outline of a subject together with an image of the subject when photographing the subject, and acquiring a subject image from the frame data of the subject. Acquiring and extracting a parallax map representing the depth distribution of the subject from the subject area, generating a multi-viewpoint image sequence of the subject from a plurality of viewpoints from the subject image and the parallax map, each image of the multi-viewpoint image sequence Image processing means for synthesizing a three-dimensional image so that pixels having the same coordinates are arranged as adjacent pixels according to the viewpoint arrangement of the image, and output means for outputting the three-dimensional image, and the output three-dimensional image A three-dimensional image forming system characterized in that a three-dimensional image of a subject can be observed by superimposing optical members having a periodic structure on the other side. Stem. 2. The image acquisition unit records the frame data together with the subject image on a recording medium, and the image processing unit acquires the subject image and frame data via the recording medium. The three-dimensional image forming system according to claim 1. 3. The image acquisition unit acquires distance information of the subject, and the image processing unit extracts a parallax map representing a depth distribution of the subject from the distance information of the subject and the subject region. The stereoscopic image forming system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein 4. The image acquiring means records distance information of the subject together with the subject image on a recording medium, and the image processing means acquires distance information of the subject image and the subject via the recording medium. 4. The three-dimensional image forming system according to claim 3, wherein: 5. The three-dimensional image forming system according to claim 1, wherein said output unit is a printing unit. 6. The three-dimensional image forming system according to claim 1, wherein the optical member is a lenticular plate.