JP2006126501A - Multiple eye stereoscopic display apparatus and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a multiple eye stereoscopic display apparatus capable of attaining stereoscopic viewing using a comparatively small-scale constitution. <P>SOLUTION: The multiple eye stereoscopic display apparatus 1 is provided with a single projector 12 for successively projecting a plurality of images on a display screen 11, based on a compound video signal obtained by synthesizing video signals outputted from three or more cameras; a timing extracting unit 13 for extracting projection timing from the synchronous signal of the compound video signal; and an infrared-ray emitter 14 for making a plurality of LEDs 16 emit light at different timings, and then, transmitting an infrared signal to liquid crystal shutter glasses 20, in which the shutter is driven by the infrared signal, and regarding the infrared-ray emitter 14, the LEDs 16 are arranged at prescribed intervals on the circumference of a cylindrical housing 15, and a partitioning plate 18 for shielding the infrared rays is interposed between the LEDs 16 so that the infrared rays outputted from the adjacent LEDs 16 do not interfere up to a prescribed observation position. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a multi-view stereoscopic display device and method for displaying an image obtained by photographing a subject with three or more cameras.

The method of displaying a stereoscopic image can be roughly divided into a method using special glasses and a method not using it. As special glasses, color glasses (anaglyph), polarized glasses, liquid crystal shutter glasses, and the like are known. In such a method using special glasses, two images captured by the right-eye camera and the left-eye camera can be stereoscopically viewed by showing them respectively to the right eye and the left eye. One of the naked-eye methods that does not use such special glasses is a method that uses a lenticular lens (lenticular screen). The lenticular lens is a bowl-shaped lens, and when this lens is used, different video signals are projected on the right eye and left eye of the observer, and a stereoscopic effect is generated due to the binocular parallax of these video signals. .
By the way, in the binocular stereoscopic display method using two cameras for photographing a subject, the viewer can only see a stereoscopic image when the viewer views the subject from one direction. On the other hand, in the multi-view stereoscopic display method in which the subject is photographed using three or more cameras from different angles in the horizontal direction, when the observer's viewpoint is moved, the stereoscopic image viewed from the direction of the viewpoint Can see.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a naked-eye multi-view stereoscopic display device using this multi-view stereoscopic display method is known in order to enhance the sense of presence of a stereoscopic image. As shown in FIG. 6, the multi-view stereoscopic display device 40 includes a reflective lenticular screen 50 and a plurality of projectors 60 arranged above the observer 70. FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of a conventional multi-view stereoscopic display device. The multi-view stereoscopic display device 40 projects an image on a reflective lenticular screen 50 by a plurality of projectors 60. Here, the image projected by the projector 60 is obtained by photographing the subject using three or more television cameras from different angles in the horizontal direction.

It is known that the reflected light projected from the projector 60 and reflected by the lenticular screen 50 returns to the original projection position in the horizontal direction and diffuses in the vertical direction due to the reflection characteristics of the lenticular screen 50 (for example, Non-patent document 1).
The observer 70 observes the lenticular screen 50 with the naked eye from the position below the projector 60 group. At this time, the observer 70 can perform stereoscopic viewing by observing only the image projected by the projector 60 directly above. Here, when the observer 70 moves the position of the head from side to side, an image of the subject corresponding to the moved head position is observed. Note that the installation interval d of the projector 60 (the distance between the center positions of the optical systems of the projector 60) is set to be equal to the eye interval e of the observer.
Takayoshi Ohkoshi, “Three-dimensional image engineering”, Sangyo Tosho Co., Ltd., June 30, 1972, p.82

  However, the conventional multi-view stereoscopic display device has to use a plurality of projectors 60 and a special lenticular screen 50, and the system has to be large.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a multi-view stereoscopic display device and method that can solve the above-described problems and allow stereoscopic viewing with a relatively small configuration.

  In order to solve the above problem, the multi-view stereoscopic display device according to claim 1 is photographed with three or more cameras on an observer wearing liquid crystal shutter glasses whose opening and closing of the shutter is controlled based on an infrared signal. One projector that sequentially projects a plurality of images representing a subject on a display screen based on a composite video signal obtained by synthesizing video signals output from three or more cameras in a multi-view stereoscopic display device that stereoscopically views the subject. And a timing extraction unit that extracts a projection timing from the synchronization signal of the composite video signal, and a plurality of infrared LEDs that emit light at different timings based on the projection timing extracted by the timing extraction unit, thereby causing the liquid crystal shutter glasses to It was set as the structure provided with the infrared rays light transmitter which transmits an infrared signal.

  According to such a configuration, a plurality of images are projected on the display screen based on the composite video signal by one projector, and the projection timing is extracted from the vertical synchronization signal of the composite video signal by the timing extraction unit. Here, the composite video signal is a composite of a plurality of video signal groups obtained by sequentially connecting N video signals at a high speed during the display time of one frame of a normal video signal. Then, the multi-view stereoscopic display device extracts the projection timing of the video signal of each camera combined with the composite video signal. When the infrared light emitter causes the infrared LED to emit light at different timings based on this timing, the liquid crystal shutter glasses are opened and closed according to the infrared signal transmitted from each infrared LED. When one observer wearing the liquid crystal shutter glasses looks at the display screen from a plurality of different angles, a stereoscopic image viewed from the observation direction can be seen. Alternatively, different stereoscopic images can be shown to a plurality of observers wearing liquid crystal shutter glasses and positioned at different angles with respect to the display screen.

  The multi-view stereoscopic display device according to claim 2 is the multi-view stereoscopic display device according to claim 1, wherein the infrared light emitter has a substantially cylindrical casing, and a predetermined interval is provided on a circumference of the casing. Infrared LEDs are arranged, and a partition plate is provided between each of the plurality of infrared LEDs so that the infrared rays output from adjacent infrared LEDs do not interfere with each other until a predetermined observation position. It is characterized by being.

  According to this configuration, if an observer wearing liquid crystal shutter glasses is arranged at a position at a different angle with respect to the infrared light emitter, a different stereoscopic image can be shown to the observer at each position. In addition, a partition plate is interposed between the infrared LEDs, and infrared rays output from adjacent infrared LEDs do not interfere with each other until a predetermined observation position.

  The multi-view stereoscopic display method according to claim 3 allows an observer wearing liquid crystal shutter glasses whose shutter opening / closing is controlled based on an infrared signal to stereoscopically view a subject photographed by three or more cameras. In a multi-view stereoscopic display method in a multi-view stereoscopic display device, the multi-view stereoscopic display device displays a plurality of images representing a subject based on a composite video signal obtained by combining video signals output from three or more cameras. A plurality of infrared LEDs to emit light at different timings based on a projection step for sequentially projecting to the image, a timing extraction step for extracting projection timing from the synchronization signal of the composite video signal, and a projection timing extracted in this timing extraction step Thus, an infrared transmission step of transmitting an infrared signal to the liquid crystal shutter glasses is executed.

  According to such a procedure, the multi-view stereoscopic display device sequentially projects a plurality of images on the display screen based on the composite video signal in the projection step, and the vertical synchronization signal of the composite video signal in the timing extraction step. Projection timing is extracted from. In the infrared transmission step, the plurality of infrared LEDs are caused to emit light at different timings in accordance with the projection timing. Thereby, the liquid crystal shutter glasses are opened and closed at the light emission timing of the infrared LED. Therefore, when an observer wearing liquid crystal shutter glasses that receives an infrared signal from an infrared LED looks at the display screen, a stereoscopic image viewed from the viewing direction can be seen. Here, since the opening / closing timing of the liquid crystal shutter glasses is synchronized with the composite video signal, if different infrared signals are input, different stereoscopic images can be viewed.

  According to the first or third aspect of the invention, since the emission timing of the infrared LED is synchronized with the composite video signal, the opening and closing of the liquid crystal shutter glasses according to the infrared signal input to the liquid crystal shutter glasses is a composite video. This is done based on the signal. Therefore, when an observer wearing liquid crystal shutter glasses that receives an infrared signal looks at the display screen, a stereoscopic image viewed from the viewing direction can be seen. According to this, stereoscopic viewing by a large number of people is possible with a relatively small system, and it is possible to give a high sense of realism to video displays such as movies, TV games, and video communications.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, the partition plate is interposed between the infrared LEDs of the infrared light emitter, and the infrared rays output by the adjacent infrared LEDs do not interfere up to a predetermined observation position. Therefore, the infrared signal input to the liquid crystal shutter glasses at a predetermined observation position is limited to one type, so that malfunction due to various types of signal input can be prevented, and the liquid crystal shutter glasses can perform an accurate opening / closing operation.

  Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings as appropriate. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a multi-view stereoscopic display device according to the present embodiment. The multi-view stereoscopic display device 1 provides a stereoscopically displayed video to an observer wearing the liquid crystal shutter glasses 20 (20a, 20b) by displaying a predetermined video.

As shown in FIG. 1, the multi-view stereoscopic display device 1 includes a display screen 11, a projector (projector) 12, a timing generator 13, and an infrared light emitter 14.
The display screen 11 displays an image projected from the projector 12. This display screen 11 is used for display of a general projection type projector, for example, a normal white fabric with a fine step (white), and a screen with small glass balls spread over it. (Beads), a screen surface coated with a mirror-like material such as mica (pearl), or the like can be used.

  The projector 12 projects a predetermined video on the display screen 11 in accordance with the input composite video signal. The projector 12 can process a composite video signal at a high speed, and is composed of, for example, a DLP (Digital Light Processing: registered trademark) type projector using a DMD (Digital Micromirror Device). This DLP (registered trademark) type projector has a fine mirror (DMD) whose angle can be controlled, and draws an image by moving the mirror at high speed several thousand times per second, and reflects light by the mirror. Therefore, there is little attenuation of light.

  Here, the composite video signal input to the projector is generated by photographing a subject using three or more N television cameras from different angles in the horizontal direction. As shown in FIG. 5A, this composite video signal is a composite of a plurality of video signal groups in which N video signals are sequentially connected at high speed within the display time of one frame of a normal video signal. It is. The composite video signal may be recorded in advance or may be a real-time video.

The timing generator 13 (timing generating means) outputs the input composite video signal to the projector 12 and extracts a timing signal obtained by extracting the projection timing of the projector 12 from the vertical synchronization signal for each video signal group of the composite video signal. , And the generated timing signal is output to the infrared light emitter 14.
The infrared light emitter 14 emits a plurality of infrared LEDs (hereinafter referred to as LEDs) at different timings based on a timing signal input from the timing generator 13 and outputs an infrared signal.

  In the liquid crystal shutter glasses 20 (20a, 20b), the left and right shutters (liquid crystal units) are opened and closed (transmitted and impermeable) based on an infrared signal input from the infrared light emitter 14. The liquid crystal shutter glasses 20 are provided with an infrared sensor 21 (see FIG. 3). The infrared sensor 21 receives an infrared signal transmitted from the infrared light emitter 14 of the multi-view stereoscopic display device 1. A signal corresponding to the infrared signal is applied to a built-in signal processing circuit (not shown). The signal processing circuit determines the switching timing (shutter cycle) between the right-eye video and the left-eye video based on a signal corresponding to the infrared signal, and alternately opens and closes the left and right shutters based on the shutter cycle. Let the action take place.

Next, the configuration of the infrared light emitter 14 of the multi-view stereoscopic display device 1 will be described with reference to FIG. 2A and 2B are configuration diagrams showing a part of the infrared light emitter, wherein FIG. 2A is a plan view and FIG. 2B is a perspective view. The infrared light emitter 14 includes a plurality (four in FIG. 2) of LEDs 16 disposed on the outer peripheral surface of a substantially cylindrical (semi-columnar) casing 15 and a plurality of LEDs 16 interposed between the LEDs 16. A shielding board 18 (three in the figure) and a circuit unit 19 built in the housing 15 are provided.
The LEDs 16 are arranged on the outer periphery of the housing 15 at a predetermined interval.

The shielding board (partition plate) 18 is provided between the LED 16 and the LED 16, and is disposed at a predetermined angle such that an extension line of the shielding board 18 intersects the central axis of the housing 15. The shielding board 18 is made of a material that absorbs infrared rays and is formed in a substantially triangular prism shape. The shielding board 18 is fixed with the smallest acute angle side of the triangle on the bottom surface of the triangular prism facing the housing 15 side of the infrared emitter 14. ing. That is, the shielding board 18 has a shape in which the thickness increases as it goes to the tip side toward the infrared output direction (observer side) by the LED 16. At this time, the infrared light from the LED 16 is irradiated in a horizontal direction on the observation position L shown in FIG. The length and thickness of the shielding board 18 are determined. For this reason, the infrared signals output from the adjacent LEDs 16 of the infrared light emitter 14 do not interfere up to the predetermined observation position L. Therefore, on the observation position L, no matter where the liquid crystal shutter glasses 20 are arranged, the infrared signal input to the infrared sensor 21 does not interfere with each other, so that the malfunction of the liquid crystal shutter glasses 20 due to the interference is prevented. Can do.
The circuit unit 19 causes each LED 16 to emit light at different timings based on the timing signal input from the timing generator 13.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the infrared light emitter 14 is installed above the display screen 11, and a plurality of LEDs 16 are fixed so as to be inclined obliquely downward. FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the arrangement of the infrared light emitter of the present embodiment. Thereby, the infrared signal output from the plurality of LEDs 16 of the infrared light emitter 14 can be smoothly input to the infrared sensor 21 of the liquid crystal shutter glasses 20 b worn by the observer 30 facing the display screen 11.

  In the multi-view stereoscopic display device 1 having the above-described configuration, the projector 12 sequentially projects a plurality of images representing the subject on the display screen 11 based on the composite video signal (projection step). Then, the multi-view stereoscopic display device 1 extracts the projection timing from the vertical synchronization signal of the composite video signal by the timing generator 13 (timing extraction step). Furthermore, the multi-view stereoscopic display device 1 transmits infrared signals to the liquid crystal shutter glasses 20 (20a, 20b) by causing the infrared light emitters 14 to emit light at different timings based on the projection timing. (Infrared transmission step) As a result, the liquid crystal shutter glasses 20 switch between the right-eye video and the left-eye video with binocular parallax by the opening and closing operations of the left and right shutters that switch at a high frequency, and the back of the observer wearing the liquid crystal shutter glasses 20 Due to the drawn afterimage effect, the image on the display screen 11 can be shown to the observer in three dimensions.

  Here, the infrared rays output from the plurality of LEDs 16 of the infrared emitter 14 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a graph showing the relationship between the observation angle and the infrared intensity average. The horizontal axis of the graph shown in FIG. 4 indicates the angle at which the observer observes the screen, and the vertical axis indicates the time average of the intensity of the infrared signal output from the LED 16. This graph shows the observation angle in the range from the leftmost shielding board 18 to the rightmost shielding board 18 toward the display screen 11. In addition, the area delimited by the dotted line in the graph corresponds to different LEDs 16, and the infrared sensor 21 of the liquid crystal shutter glasses 20 is immediately adjacent to the predetermined area (observation angle) delimited by the dotted line in the graph. When moved to (observation angle), infrared rays are input to the infrared sensor 21 from different LEDs 16. In addition, at the position of the shielding board 18 (dotted line position in the graph), the infrared intensity is minimum. In addition, the intensity of the infrared light gradually changes so as to become maximum at an intermediate position between the shielding board 18 and the shielding board 18 (position between the dotted lines) because of the directivity of the LED 16.

Next, the timing signal generated by the timing generator 13 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a timing chart for explaining the timing of the composition of the composite video signal and the opening / closing of the liquid crystal shutter glasses, where (a) is the composition of the composite video signal projected by the projector, and (b) is the liquid crystal shutter glasses 20a. (C) shows the opening / closing operation of the liquid crystal shutter glasses 20b.
As shown in FIG. 5 (a), the composite video signal is a video signal group (video signal group 1, video signal group formed by sequentially connecting N video signals (video signal 1 to video signal N) at high speed. 2,...), And a synchronization signal for taking the shutter opening / closing timing of the liquid crystal shutter glasses 20 is added to each video signal.

The timing generator 13 outputs a timing signal obtained by extracting the projection timing so that the shutter of the liquid crystal shutter glasses 20a opens when the composite video signal is the video signal group (video signal 1, video signal 2). The generated timing signal is output to the infrared light emitter 14. In addition, the timing generator 13 extracts the projection timing so that the shutter of the liquid crystal shutter glasses 20b opens when the composite video signal is each video signal group (video signal 2, video signal 3). A signal is generated, and the generated timing signal is output to the infrared light emitter 14.
The circuit unit 19 of the infrared light emitter 14 controls the LED 16 to emit light at different timings according to the positions of the liquid crystal shutter glasses 20a and 20b. Accordingly, the liquid crystal shutter glasses 20a and 20b operate as follows.

  As shown in FIG. 5B, the liquid crystal shutter glasses 20a open the left shutter (the liquid crystal unit transmits) at the timing when the video signal 1 of the video signal group 1 of the composite video signal is projected (displayed). ). Then, at the timing when the video signal 2 of the video signal group 1 of the composite video signal is projected (displayed), the left shutter of the liquid crystal shutter glasses 20a is closed and the right shutter is opened (the left liquid crystal unit becomes opaque, The right liquid crystal part is transmitted). Subsequently, at the timing when the video signal 3 of the video signal group 1 of the composite video signal is projected, the right shutter is closed (the right liquid crystal unit is impermeable). Thereafter, the shutters on both sides of the liquid crystal shutter glasses 20a are kept closed during the video signal group 1 of the composite video signal. When the video signal group 2 of the composite video signal starts, the liquid crystal shutter glasses 20a operate in the same manner as the video signal group 1 according to the video signal number of the video signal group 2. That is, the left shutter is opened only when the video signal 1 is projected, and the right shutter is opened only when the video signal 2 is projected.

  On the other hand, in the liquid crystal shutter glasses 20b, as shown in FIG. 5C, the left shutter is opened at the timing when the video signal 2 of the video signal group 1 of the composite video signal is projected (displayed). Then, at the timing when the video signal 3 of the video signal group 1 of the composite video signal is projected, the left shutter is closed and the right shutter is opened. Subsequently, at the timing when the video signal 4 of the video signal group 1 of the composite video signal is projected, the right shutter is also closed, and thereafter, the left and right shutters are kept closed during the video signal group 1 of the composite video signal. . When the video signal group 2 starts, the liquid crystal shutter glasses 20b operate in the same manner as the video signal group 1 according to the video signal number of the video signal group 2. That is, the left shutter is opened only when the video signal 2 is projected, and the right shutter is opened only when the video signal 3 is projected. Thereby, the observer wearing the liquid crystal shutter glasses 20a and the observer wearing the liquid crystal shutter glasses 20b can observe different stereoscopic images.

  As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described, this invention is not limited to this. For example, in the present embodiment, the shielding board 18 of the infrared light emitter 14 has been described as being formed in a substantially triangular prism shape, but the structure of the infrared light emitter is not limited to this. However, it may be a square plate having a constant thickness. In this case, processing is easy and the strength can be increased. However, it is preferable to use the present embodiment in order to reduce the material cost and reduce the weight.

It is a block diagram of the multi-view stereoscopic display device according to the present embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows a part of infrared rays light-emitting device, (a) is a top view, (b) is a perspective view. It is a perspective view which shows arrangement | positioning of the infrared rays light emitter of this embodiment. It is a graph which shows the relationship between an observation angle and infrared intensity average. 4 is a timing chart for explaining the timing of the composition of the composite video signal and the opening / closing of the liquid crystal shutter glasses, where (a) shows the composition of the composite video signal projected by the projector, (b) shows the opening / closing operation of the liquid crystal shutter glasses 20a, (C) shows the opening / closing operation of the liquid crystal shutter glasses 20b. It is a block diagram of the conventional multi-view type stereoscopic display device.

Explanation of symbols

1 multi-view stereoscopic display device 11 display screen 12 projector (projector)
13 Timing generator (timing generator)
14 Infrared emitter 15 Case 16 Infrared LED (LED)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 18 Shielding board 19 Circuit part 20 (20a, 20b) Liquid crystal shutter glasses 21 Infrared sensor 30 Observer 40 Multi-view three-dimensional display device 50 Lenticular screen 60 Projector 70 Observer

Claims (3)

In a multi-view stereoscopic display device that allows an observer wearing liquid crystal shutter glasses whose shutter opening and closing is controlled based on an infrared signal to stereoscopically view a subject photographed by three or more cameras,
One projector that sequentially projects a plurality of images representing the subject on a display screen based on a composite video signal obtained by combining video signals output from the three or more cameras;
Timing extraction means for extracting projection timing from the synchronization signal of the composite video signal;
An infrared emitter that transmits an infrared signal to the liquid crystal shutter glasses by causing a plurality of infrared LEDs to emit light at different timings based on the projection timing extracted by the timing extraction unit;
A multi-view three-dimensional display device comprising:   The infrared light emitter has a substantially cylindrical casing, and the infrared LEDs are arranged at predetermined intervals on the periphery of the casing, and adjacent infrared rays are disposed between the plurality of infrared LEDs. The multi-view stereoscopic display device according to claim 1, wherein a partition plate that shields the infrared rays is provided so that the infrared rays output from the LEDs do not interfere with each other to a predetermined observation position. In a multi-view stereoscopic display method in a multi-view stereoscopic display device that allows an observer wearing liquid crystal shutter glasses whose opening / closing of a shutter is controlled based on an infrared signal to stereoscopically view a subject photographed by three or more cameras,
The multi-view stereoscopic display device
A projection step of sequentially projecting a plurality of images representing the subject on a display screen based on a composite video signal obtained by combining video signals output from the three or more cameras;
A timing extraction step of extracting a projection timing from the synchronization signal of the composite video signal;
An infrared transmission step of transmitting an infrared signal to the liquid crystal shutter glasses by causing a plurality of infrared LEDs to emit light at different timings based on the projection timing extracted in the timing extraction step;
A multi-view three-dimensional display method comprising:

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