JP2005338115A - Water tank image display apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain an apparatus for projecting an image on a transparent screen arranged on the side wall of a water tank by a projector installed in the water tank and displaying the descriptions of living things in the appropriate position on the screen. <P>SOLUTION: The apparatus is provided with the water tank 9 where the transparent screen 8 is arranged on one side wall, the projector 7 arranged in the water tank 9 so as to project the image on the transparent screen 8, a display control part for transmitting the projection image to the projector 7, a camera 2 for photographing the inside of the water tank 9, and an image processing part for analyzing the image photographed by the camera 2 and recognizing the kinds and the positions of the living things in the water tank 9, and regarding a prescribed living thing among the living things recognized by the image processing part, the image to be projected by the projector 7 is formed by the display control part so that previously stored information on the prescribed living thing may be displayed on the periphery of the position of the living thing. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention projects an image (including both moving images and still images) from the inside of the aquarium onto the side wall of the aquarium, and displays information on organisms in the aquarium or other information to a person in front of the aquarium. The present invention relates to an aquarium video display device.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an aquarium or the like, explanations of living things in a water tank are displayed on a side wall of the water tank or a board fixedly installed around the water tank.
In addition, regarding the display of an image on a transparent member such as a window glass that is not a water tank, a person outside the window glass can see the image projected on the display film provided on the window glass, and the display. There has been disclosed a display device capable of seeing the inside of a window glass through a film (for example, Patent Document 1). In addition, a projection device that uses an image projector to project an image in an aquarium tank is also known (for example, Patent Document 2).
JP 9-33856 A JP 2000-187276 A

As described above, conventionally, descriptions of living things in an aquarium are displayed on a fixed board or the like in an aquarium or the like. For this reason, when changing the display, it is necessary to remove and replace the board, which imposes a burden of time and cost. Moreover, in the exhibition etc. for which the period was limited, such a board had to be manufactured in spite of the use for only a short period.
Furthermore, when the position of the living thing in the aquarium and the explanation display position are separated from each other, there is an inconvenience that the observer changes the direction of the line of sight and compares them alternately. In addition, when there are a plurality of organisms in the water tank, there is a problem that it takes time to search for explanations and corresponding organisms.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and provides a display device that allows an arbitrary display on a water tank wall surface by projecting an image from a projector installed inside the water tank onto a transparent screen provided on the water tank wall surface. The purpose is to do. It is another object of the present invention to provide a display device that recognizes the type and position of a living thing in a water tank and projects and displays information related to the living thing around the living thing.

  A water tank image display device according to the present invention includes a water tank in which a transparent screen is disposed on one side wall, a projector that is installed inside the water tank and projects an image on the screen, and an image projected by the projector is sent to the projector. And a display control unit. This makes it possible to display various images such as explanations of living creatures on the side wall of the aquarium.

  Further, the camera includes a camera that captures the inside of the aquarium, and an image processing unit that analyzes an image captured by the camera and recognizes the type and position of a living thing in the aquarium, and the display control unit is recognized. The image is created based on the information on the types and positions of the organisms recognized by the image processing unit and various types of organisms stored in advance so that the information corresponding to the selected organisms is projected and displayed. . This makes it possible to display explanations about the living creatures in the vicinity of the living creatures for the convenience of visitors.

  In particular, it is preferable that the display control unit creates the video so that information corresponding to the organism is displayed in the vicinity of the organism. This is because the position of the creature can be immediately grasped and the explanation is easy to see.

  In addition, an operation device is provided for a person outside the aquarium to request information display regarding a desired organism in the aquarium, and the display control unit is a projection relating to an organism corresponding to a display request input from the operation device. An image is created. As a result, the visitor can easily obtain information on the desired organism at any time.

  Furthermore, an interrupt display information input unit that acts on the display control unit and adds predetermined information to a part of the projection screen when the projector is projecting may be provided. The interrupt display information input unit may operate the projector so that the projector projects predetermined information when the projection is stopped. These allow information to be displayed on the aquarium sidewall whenever necessary. Accordingly, it is possible to display the contents of the broadcast on the side surface of the aquarium with characters or the like in accordance with the in-house broadcast of the aquarium.

  FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an aquarium video display device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The aquarium video display device 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention is used by being installed in an aquarium or the like where there is a transparent aquarium 9 in which organisms for display such as fish are put together with water. A projector 7 is installed on the rear bottom surface of the water tank 9, and an image projected from the projector 7 is a transparent screen 8 installed on the front side wall of the water tank 9 (the same function as the display film shown in the conventional example). Is displayed. In addition, a camera 2 for photographing the inside of the aquarium 9 is installed in front of the upper part of the aquarium 9, and an operation device 4 for requesting information display regarding a desired organism in the aquarium 9 is provided on the front side of the aquarium 9. I have. Further, when the projector 7 is projecting, predetermined information is added to a part of the projection screen, and when the projector 7 is not projecting, it is operated to project the predetermined information onto the projector 7. An interrupt display information input unit 6 is provided. The camera 2, the operation device 4, the interrupt display information input unit 6, and the projector 7 are connected to a control device 3 that controls them and performs various processes.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the control device 3 includes an image processing unit 31, an operation management unit 32, a memory 33, a display control unit 34, and the like. The image processing unit 31 captures an image captured by the camera 2 and performs image processing (or image analysis), and recognizes (or specifies) the type of organism and its position in the water tank 9. The operation management unit 32 recognizes the presence / absence of input information from the operation device 4 and recognizes the contents of the input information. The memory 33 stores pre-input information such as explanations about various creatures in the water tank 9. The display control unit 34 creates a video image to be projected by the projector 7 based on information from the image processing unit 31, the operation management unit 32, the memory 33, and the like, and sends it to the projector 7. Such a control device 3 includes one or more CPUs (central processing unit), an image processing unit 31, an operation management unit 32, a memory 33, a program that defines processing operations of the display control unit 34, a camera 2, and an operation device 4. Further, it can be composed of a signal transmission / reception circuit and the like between the interrupt display information input unit 6 and the projector 7.

  The display control unit 34 receives information on the type of organism in the water tank 9 and its position from the image processing unit 31, and also displays the type information of the organism that the visitor requests information display from the operation management unit 32. receive. Based on these, the display control unit 34 takes out information such as the explanation about the type of organism requested from the operation device 4 from the memory 33, and when the explanation is viewed on the transparent screen 8, Preferably, a projection image is created so as to be arranged in the vicinity of the living thing and sent to the projector 7. If projection display is not possible in the vicinity of the organism due to the surrounding situation where the organism to be explained is present, the explanation of the organism is displayed together with the explanation of the organism in the projection displayable area. It is preferable to do so.

  Further, the display control unit 34 acts as follows on the input from the interrupt display information input unit 6. When the projector 7 is projecting, the input information from the interrupt display information input unit 6 is added to a part of the projection screen, and when the projector 7 is stopped, the projector 7 is operated so that the projector 7 Input information from the interrupt display information input unit 6 is projected. In these cases, the display control unit 34 obtains a projectable area on the transparent screen 8 based on the position information of all living creatures recognized by the image processing unit 31, and inputs an interrupt display information input unit to the area. The input information from 6 is preferably displayed.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the image processing unit 31 of the display device 1. An example of the operation of the image processing unit 31 is shown along FIG. First, the image processing unit 31 acquires the captured image from the camera 2 that continuously captures the water tank 9 (S1). Subsequently, the image is analyzed to recognize all living creatures (here, fishes) in the image (S2), and the type of the fish (fish ID) and the position on the transparent screen 8 are specified and acquired. (S3). The specification of the type of fish can be recognized, for example, by comparing the fish in the aquarium 9 with images of individual fish that have been discriminated in advance from images taken in advance. And the information of the kind and position of each obtained fish is sent to the display control part 34 (S4).

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the operation management unit 32 of the display device 1. An operation example of the operation management unit 32 is shown along FIG. The operation management unit 32 monitors the input of a display request from the operation device 4 (S11), and determines whether or not there is an input (S12). If there is no display request input from the operation device 4, a setting is made to turn off the projection display of the projector (setting to maintain it if it is currently OFF), and it is passed to the display control unit 34 (S13). To S15). On the other hand, when a display request is input from the operation device 4, the projection display of the projector is set to ON, the type of fish requested to be displayed is determined, and the information is displayed and controlled. It passes to the part 34 (S14-S15).

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the display control unit 34 of the display device 1. An operation example of the display control unit 34 is shown along FIG. The display control unit 34 first monitors the information sent from the operation management unit 32 and determines whether or not there is a command (display setting ON) for executing the projection display of the projector 7 (S21). Here, if there is no such command, the monitoring is continued as it is. On the other hand, when the command is given, the fish type information for displaying the description and the like is acquired from the operation management unit 32 (S22). Subsequently, the position information of the fish corresponding to the type acquired in step S22 is acquired from the image processing unit 31 (S23). Further, information corresponding to the fish is extracted from the memory 33, and a projection image is created so that the fish information is displayed in the vicinity of the position, if possible, in the vicinity in consideration of the previously acquired position information. (S24). Then, the created image is output to the projector 7 (S25).

  Note that the explanation of the living thing or the like may be automatically displayed according to a display program incorporated in the control device 3 in advance, instead of being projected and displayed in response to a display request from the operation device 4. In that case, a part of FIG. 5 is changed so that when there is one kind of organism in the aquarium 9, it is set to be displayed at regular intervals, or when there are a plurality of kinds of organisms in the aquarium 9, each organism is displayed. Can be set to be displayed in order according to the order defined in (1).

  FIG. 6 is a view showing an example of a display mode by the display device 1. In the present embodiment, as shown in the figure, a projection screen 20 projected from the projector 7 is formed on the transparent screen 8 attached to the water tank 9. The projection screen 20 is displayed according to the screen configuration created by the display control unit 34. FIG. 6A shows an example in which the fish explanation unit 21 that explains the fish 10 is displayed in the vicinity of the fish 10, here in the vicinity of the lower side of the fish 10. FIG. 6B shows the video input from the interrupt display information input unit 6, for example, character information related to the notice in the hall, as an interrupt information display unit 22 in an area that does not overlap with the fish explanation unit 21. It is.

  According to the aquarium image display device 1, it is possible to display various images such as explanation of living creatures on the front side wall of the aquarium 9. Moreover, according to a request from a visitor or in accordance with a preset program, an explanation of the organism can be displayed around the organism for the convenience of the visitor.

As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described, this invention is not restricted to the said embodiment, The following aspects are also possible.
(1) When the aquarium 9 has a long width, a plurality of cameras 2 and projectors 7 are associated with each other along the width direction, and explanations on organisms recognized by any camera are made. The information may be projected and displayed from the projector 7 corresponding to the camera.
(2) In the above embodiment, the projector 7 is disposed at the bottom of the water tank 9, but the position of the projector 7 in the water tank 9 may be changed as appropriate depending on the illumination state of the water tank 9 and the type of organism in the water tank 9. Good.
(3) In addition to inputting the video image to be projected by the projector 7 from the interrupt display information input unit 6, a command for displaying the video in the memory 33 is input to the display control unit 34, and the video is projected to the projector 7 may be projected. The interrupt display information input unit 6 may not be provided.

It is a conceptual diagram which shows embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the display apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the image process part of the said display apparatus. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the operation management part of the said display apparatus. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the display control part of the said display apparatus. It is the illustration figure (a) and illustration figure (b) of the display mode by the said display apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Aquarium video display apparatus, 2 Cameras, 3 Control apparatus, 4 Operation apparatus, 6 Interruption display information input part, 7 Projector, 8 Transparent screen, 9 Water tank, 10 Fish, 20 Projection screen, 21 Fish description part, 22 Interruption information display Part, 31 image processing part, 32 operation management part, 33 memory, 34 display control part.

Claims (6)

A water tank with a transparent screen on one side wall;
A projector installed inside the aquarium to project an image on the screen;
A water tank image display device comprising: a display control unit that transmits an image projected by the projector to the projector. A camera that captures the inside of the aquarium, and an image processing unit that analyzes an image captured by the camera and recognizes the type and position of a living thing in the aquarium,
The display control unit is based on the information on the types and positions of the organisms recognized by the image processing unit and various types of organisms stored in advance so that information corresponding to the recognized organisms is projected and displayed. The aquarium video display device according to claim 1, wherein the video is created.   The aquarium video display device according to claim 2, wherein the display control unit creates the video so that information corresponding to the organism is displayed in the vicinity of the organism. An operating device for requesting information display regarding a desired organism in the water tank by a person outside the water tank;
The aquarium video display device according to claim 2, wherein the display control unit creates a projection image related to a living organism corresponding to a display request input from the operation device.   5. An interrupt display information input unit that acts on the display control unit and adds predetermined information to a part of the projection screen when the projector is projecting. The aquarium video display device according to any one of the above. 6. The aquarium video display according to claim 5, wherein the interrupt display information input unit is configured to operate the projector to project predetermined information to the projector when the projector is in a stopped projection state. apparatus.

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