JP2006284990A - Image transmission multi-display system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem that it is necessary to use a heavy and handling difficult cable and avery expensive image enlarging apparatus in the case of constructing a multi-display system using a plurality of projectors. <P>SOLUTION: Since image data are divided in accordance with the positional information of a plurality of projectors, segmented image data position information is related to the identification information of each projector and image data to be transmitted is transmitted only to the corresponding projector through a network, the multi-display system can be easily constructed without using heavy and handling difficult RGB cables or an expensive image enlarging apparatus. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image transmission multi-display system in which image data generated, divided, and transmitted to a predetermined destination by an image transmission device is received by a plurality of image projection devices, and the image data is projected. The present invention relates to an image transmission multi-display system that performs multi-display by transmitting from an image generation device such as a projector to image projection devices such as a plurality of projectors via a network.

  In recent years, projectors that receive image data from a PC and project the screen of the PC onto a screen or the like are becoming popular.

  This projector is often used in conferences, workshops, and the like because the presentation material edited on the PC is projected on the screen, so that the contents to be conveyed can be displayed in a large size.

  Recently, due to a demand for a large screen, a multi-display system capable of displaying a large screen image by combining a plurality of projectors has been demanded for a conference or a workshop held in a large hall.

  A conventional image transmission multi-display system will be described below.

  Conventionally, an image transmission multi-display system described in Patent Document 1 is known.

  FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a conventional image transmission multi-display system.

  In FIG. 11, a conventional image transmission multi-display system includes a data transmission device 1001 that creates and transmits image data, and first and second data reception devices 1002 that receive image data transmitted from the data transmission device 1001. The data transmitting apparatus 1001 and the first and second data receiving apparatuses 1002 and 1003 are connected by a network 1004 having a multicast function. In FIG. 11, two data receiving apparatuses 1002 and 1003 are connected to the network 1004, but three or more data receiving apparatuses may be connected.

  The data transmission apparatus 1001 includes an image data creation unit 1005 that creates image data, and an image data division unit 1006 that divides the image data created by the image data creation unit 1005 into a plurality of (two in FIG. 11) display elements. First and second display element data transmitting means 1007 for generating display element data based on each element divided by the image data dividing means 1006 and transmitting the generated display element data to the network 1004, 1008.

  The first and second data receiving apparatuses 1002 and 1003 select one channel from among the channels in the network 1004 or a plurality of arbitrarily combined channels to receive data corresponding to a desired display element and receive the data. Display element data receiving and synthesizing means 1009 and 1010 for synthesizing the displayed display element data, and image data creating means 1011 and 1012 for generating image data based on the data synthesized by the display element data receiving and synthesizing means 1009 and 1010; And screen display means 1013 and 1014 for displaying the image data created by the image data creation means 1011 and 1012 on the displays 1015 and 1016.

  The display element data receiving / combining means 1009 of the first data receiving apparatus 1002 receives the first and second display element data, and the display element data receiving means 1010 of the second data receiving apparatus 1003 is the second display. Receive only element data.

  The data transmitting apparatus 1001 divides the image data created by the image data creating unit 1005 into two display elements by the image data dividing unit 1006. The first and second display element data transmission units 1007 and 1008 transmit the divided display element data to the network 1004.

  Each data can reproduce the same data as the transmission source by combining the display element data received via the data receiving devices 1002 and 1003 and the network 1004.

  The first data receiving apparatus 1002 receives and combines the first and second display element data from the two channels by the display element data receiving / combining unit 1009 and generates image data by the image data generating unit 1011. Then, the image display means 1013 displays the image data on the display 1015.

  The second data receiving apparatus 1003 receives and combines the second display element data from one channel by the display element data reception combining unit 1010, generates image data by the image data generation unit 1012, and displays the image. The image data is displayed on the display 1016 by means 1014.

  Note that the number of reception channels of each of the data receiving apparatuses 1002 and 1003 is determined according to the ability to be displayed on the displays 1015 and 1016 connected to the data receiving apparatuses 1002 and 1003.

The image data generated by the data transmission device 1001 is divided into a plurality of display elements and transmitted, and the data reception devices 1002 and 1003 receive and synthesize display element data as necessary, thereby reducing the load on the network 1004 Is possible.
JP 2000-259527 A

  However, in the conventional configuration described above, display element data transmitted from the data transmission apparatus 1001 in performing multi-display is transmitted to the data reception apparatuses 1002 and 1003 via the network 1004 by multicast, and each display element data is Originally created from the same image data, the same image as the image transmitted from the data transmission device 1001 is displayed on the displays 1015 and 1016 connected to the data reception devices 1002 and 1003. There is a problem in that multi-display using can not be performed.

The present invention solves the above-described conventional problems, and only when the position of the image data cut out by the image transmission device and the position information of the image projection device relatively match,
An object of the present invention is to provide an image transmission multi-system capable of multi-display by transmitting image data.

  The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention is an image transmission multi-display system in which an image transmission device and a plurality of image projection devices are configured via a network, and the image transmission device is displayed on a multi-display screen. Position information input means for inputting position information for associating a display position with the plurality of image projection apparatuses, image data generation means for generating image data, and the image data according to the number of the image projection apparatuses constituting a multi-display system Image data processing means for dividing the image data generated by the generation means into a predetermined number or scaling to a predetermined screen size, and a plurality of divided or enlarged images supplied from the image data processing means Among the data, an image data for transmitting image data corresponding to each image projection device associated by the position information input means. The image transmission device includes image data receiving means for receiving image data from the network, and video projection means for projecting the image data received by the image data receiving means as a video signal. A feature of the image transmission multi-display system is that the image data generated by the data transmitting device is transmitted only to the corresponding data projecting device at the position corresponding to the information input by the user. Therefore, it has an effect that a multi-display system can be constructed.

  As described above, the present invention provides an excellent effect that a multi-display system can be easily constructed without using a heavy and difficult to handle RGB cable or an expensive video enlarger.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an external configuration of an image transmission multi-display system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

This multi-display system transmits screen data displayed on the display device of the PC 100 from the PC 100 to a plurality of projectors 200a, 200b, 200c, 200d,
Each projector 200 is a system for projecting received image data onto the screen 10 and performing multi-display, and the PC 100 has a built-in wireless LAN chip, thereby transmitting the image data to each projector 200 via the wireless LAN. .

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing functional configurations of the PC 100 and the projector 200 that constitute the image transmission multi-display system according to the first embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the PC 100 includes a display video generation unit 101, an image data generation unit 102, an image data processing unit 103, an image data transmission unit 104, a destination search unit 105, a position information input unit 106, a display output unit 107, The image processing means 108 is provided as a functional component.

  The projector 200 includes image data receiving means 201, video generation means 202, video projection means 203, identification information creation means 204, and identification information holding means 205 as functional components.

  The display video generation unit 101 outputs a video signal for displaying the processing result on the display.

  The display output means 107 outputs an output signal that causes the display to display the video signal output by the display video generation means 101.

  The position information input means 106 allows the user to input the positional relationship between the projectors in a multi-display system including a plurality of projectors 200.

  The image data generation unit 102 captures the video signal output from the display video generation unit 101 and creates image data.

  The image data processing unit 103 divides the image data generated by the image data generation unit 102 according to the number of projectors 200 input by the user using the position information input unit 106, extracts a part of the image data, and Associate location information entered by the user. Then, image data is processed by performing reduction or enlargement processing according to the resolution of the transmission destination projector 200 as necessary. For example, when the resolution of the projector 200a is XGA (horizontal is 1024 and vertical is 768 pixels), and the resolution of the PC 100 is also XGA (1024 × 768 pixels), the image data obtained by dividing the image data into two horizontally and vertically is divided into the projector 200a. Therefore, it is necessary to enlarge the image to double the vertical size and double the horizontal size.

  The destination search means 105 receives identification information from the connected projector 200.

  The image data transmission means 104 is a transmission destination projector having position information that matches the identification signal received by the destination search means 106 for the image data divided by the image data processing means 103 and subjected to reduction or enlargement processing. 200 is transmitted.

  The image data receiving unit 201 receives the image data transmitted by the image data transmitting unit 104 of the PC 100 via the network.

  The video generation unit 202 converts the image data received by the image data reception unit 201 into a video signal for display.

  The video projection unit 203 projects the video signal converted by the video generation unit.

  The identification signal generation unit 204 generates a unique identification signal different from those of the other projectors 200 based on the serial number and the like.

  The identification information holding unit 205 holds the identification information generated by the identification information generation unit 204 and informs the destination search unit 106 of the PC 100 of its own location information.

  The identification signal generated by the identification signal generation unit 204 may generate identification information by input from the user.

  As will be described later in the second embodiment, the image processing unit 108 in the image data processing unit 103 performs corrections such as lowering the color and brightness of the portion corresponding to the overlapping area of the images projected by the plurality of projectors 200. Perform the blending process to be performed.

  The position information input means 106 will be described with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an external configuration when each projector 200 projects its own identification signal.

  The projectors 200a, 200b, 200c, and 200d project and display the identification information 211a, 211b, 211c, and 211d on the projection areas 210a, 210b, 210c, and 210d in the screen 10, respectively.

  The identification signal 211a of the projector 200a is “Pj1”. Similarly, the identification signals 211b, 211c, and 211d of the projectors 200b, 200c, and 200d are “Pj2”, “Pj3”, and “Pj4”, respectively. These identification signals 211 are generated by the identification information generation unit 204 in FIG. 2 and are held by the identification information holding unit 205.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a graphical user interface of the PC 100 displayed when the position information input means 106 is executed.

  A projected image 220 from the projector 200 including a screen image 502 and an index 221 is displayed in the application 500.

  The user operates the cursor 501 using a pointing device such as a mouse, moves the projection image 220 in the screen image 502, and creates the projector display position configuration image of the multi-display system desired by the user. At this time, the displayed index 221 corresponds to the identification information 211 held by the projector 200.

  When the projector 200 is arranged as shown in FIG. 3, the index 221a “Pj1” is the identification information 211a held by the projector 200a, the index 221b “Pj2” is the identification information 211b held by the projector 200b, and the index 221c “Pj3”. Corresponds to the identification information 211c of the projector 200c, and the index 221d “Pj4” corresponds to the identification information 211d of the projector 200d.

  Corresponding to the projector configuration configured on the screen image 502 of the application 500, the image data processing means 103 separates and extracts image data, and associates the index 221 with the extracted image data.

  The image data transmission means 104 transmits this image data to the projector 200 having the corresponding identification information 211.

  Here, FIG. 5 shows the inputs in the position information input means 106 when constructing a multi-display system comprising a total of four projectors 200, two vertically and two horizontally.

  FIG. 5 is an external view of a graphical user interface on the PC 100 in the position information input means 106 in configuring a multi-display system including four projectors 200 vertically and two horizontally.

  When the user inputs on the screen image 502 as shown in this figure, the image data processing means 103 and the image data transmission means 104 perform the following processing.

  In the image data processing unit 103, the image data generated by the image data generation unit 102 is divided into two parts in the vertical direction and two parts in the horizontal direction to create four image data, and the information of the index 221 is associated with each image data. .

  The image data transmission unit 104 transmits the respective image data processed by the image data processing unit 103 to the projector 200 having identification information associated with the image data.

  In this example, among the four divisions, the upper left image data is associated with the index 221a “Pj1” and transmitted to the projector 200a having the corresponding identification signal.

  Similarly, the upper right image data is associated with the index 221b “Pj2” and is associated with the projector 200b, the lower left image data is associated with the index 221c “Pj3”, and the lower right image data is associated with the index 221d “Pj4”. Is transmitted to the projector 200d. Then, the image data transmitted to each projector 200 is projected, and a multi-display is performed on the screen 10.

  According to the first embodiment, since the image data generated by the PC 100 is transmitted and displayed only to the projector 200 corresponding to the image data at a position corresponding to information input by the user, it is heavy and difficult to handle. It is possible to easily construct a multi-display system without using a cable or a video magnifier.

(Embodiment 2)
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an external configuration of an image transmission multi-display system according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

  In this multi-display system, screen data displayed on the display device of the PC 100 is transmitted from the PC 100 to a plurality of projectors 200a, 200b, 200c, and 200d. Each projector 200 receives received image data including overlapping projection areas on a screen. The PC 100 has a built-in wireless LAN chip that transmits image data to each projector 200 via the wireless LAN.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an external configuration of a multi-display system that projects an area including an overlapping area.

  Image data transmitted from the PC 100 is projected from each projector 200 onto the screen 10.

  At this time, in the projection areas 210e, 210f, 210g, 210h, and 210i in which the video displayed in the projection area 210 is projected in duplicate, only this area becomes too bright or the color becomes dark. It gets very bad. For this reason, it is necessary to perform blending processing.

  This blending process is a projection area 210e, 210f, 210g, 210h, 210i in which overlapping projections are performed, and the number of projectors 200 that perform projections with overlapping colors and luminances is reduced to project from a plurality of projectors 200. This is a process of performing image processing for changing the color and brightness so that the projection areas 210a, 210b, 210c, and 210d projected from one projector appear to be the same even when performing the above. As described above, the blending process is executed by the image processing unit 108 in the image data processing unit 103 of the PC 100 in FIG. 2 described in the first embodiment.

  FIG. 8 is a sequence diagram showing a processing flow of the PC 100 and the projector 200 in the second embodiment.

  ST111 is an image data generation step for generating image data from a video signal.

  ST112 divides the image data generated in image data generation step ST111 into a number corresponding to the number of projectors 200 that input the format for transmitting from the user and transmits the image data, and the position information input by the user corresponds to the corresponding image. This is an image data processing step that associates data and performs reduction or enlargement processing according to the resolution of the projector 200 as necessary.

  ST113 overlaps hue and saturation in portions corresponding to the projection areas 210e, 210f, 210g, 210h, and 210i that are projected in duplicate in the image data processed in the image data processing step ST112. This is an image processing step for performing a blending process for performing correction such as thinning according to the number of projectors 200 that perform projection.

  ST114 is a step of transmitting the image data subjected to the blending process in the image processing step ST113 to the projector 200 corresponding to the position information associated in the image data processing step ST114.

  The steps from the image data creation step ST111 to the image data transmission step ST115 are the processing of the PC 100.

  ST211 is an image data receiving step for receiving the image data transmitted by the PC 100.

  ST212 is a video generation step for generating a video signal from the image data received in the image data reception step ST211.

  ST213 is a video projecting step for projecting the video signal generated in video generating step ST212.

  The steps from the image data reception step ST211 to the video projection step ST213 are the processing of the projector 200.

  Next, using FIG. 9 and FIG. 10, when constructing a multi-display system configured by projecting overlapping image edges using a total of four projectors 200, two vertically and two horizontally. Input of position information from the user and operations of the image data processing step ST112 and the image data transmission step ST114 will be described.

  FIG. 9 is an external view of the display processing of the identification information 211 that each of the four projectors 200 has.

  The projectors 200a, 200b, 200c, and 200d project their own identification information 211a, 211b, 211c, and 211d on the screen 10 in the projection areas 210a, 210b, 210c, and 210d, respectively.

  The projection area projected by the projector 200a is 210a, and the identification information 211a projected on the projection area 210a is “Pj1”.

  Similarly, the identification information 211b of the projector 200b is “Pj2”, the identification information 211c of the projector 200c is “Pj3”, and the identification information 211d of the projector 200d is “Pj4”.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a graphical user interface of the PC 100 after inputting the projector configuration when configuring a multi-display system including four projectors 200, two vertically and two horizontally.

  An application 500 is started on the PC 100, and a projector configuration is input thereto using a mouse cursor 501.

  A projection image 220 is arranged on the screen image 502.

  The projection images 220a, 220e, 220h, and 220i of the index 221a “Pj1” input by the user indicate the projection areas 210a, 210e, 210h, and 210i of the projector 200a having the same “Pj1” identification information 211a.

  The projection images 220b, 220e, 220f, and 220i of the index 221b “Pj2” input by the user indicate the projection areas 210b, 210e, 210f, and 210i of the projector 200b having the same identification information 211b “Pj2”.

  The projection images 220c, 220g, 220h, and 220i of the index 221c “Pj3” input by the user indicate the projection areas 210c, 210h, 210g, and 210i of the projector 200c having the same identification information 211c “Pj3”.

  The projection images 220d, 220g, 220f, and 220i of the index 221d “Pj4” input by the user indicate the projection areas 210d, 210f, 210g, and 210i of the projector 200d having the same identification information 211d “Pj4”.

  9 and 10, in the image data processing step ST112, the image data corresponding to the projection image 220a is first cut out and associated with the index 221a “Pj1” corresponding to the image data. . Since the projection image 220a does not overlap with the projection images of the other indexes 221b, 221c, and 221d, a “no blending” signal is added. Further, enlargement / reduction processing is performed in accordance with the resolution of the receiving projector 200a. For example, when the resolution of the projector 200a is XGA (horizontal is 1024 and vertical is 768 pixels), and the resolution of the PC 100 is also XGA (1024 × 768 pixels), it is divided into two horizontal parts and two vertical parts so that they are displayed in duplicate. In order to project half the size of the image data including the portion to be projected by the projector 200a, it is necessary to enlarge the image data.

  Image data corresponding to the projection image 220e is first cut out and associated with indexes 221a “Pj1” and 221b “Pj2” corresponding to the image data.

  Since this area is projected in duplicate, there are a plurality of corresponding indexes 221a and 221b. Since the projection image 220e overlaps with the two projection images, a “blending 2” signal is added. Further, enlargement / reduction processing is performed in accordance with the resolution of the receiving projector 200a.

  The same processing is performed for the other projected images 220b, 220c, 220d, 220f, 220g, 220h, and 220i.

  Next, in image processing step ST113, blending processing corresponding to the blending information added in image data processing step ST112 is performed.

  In this example, the blending processing is not performed on the image data corresponding to the projection images 220a, 220b, 220c, and 220d to which the “no blending” information is added.

  Since the information of “Blending 2” is projected onto the image data corresponding to the added projection images 220e, 220f, 220g, and 220h from the two projectors 200, the luminance and the color are reduced by half. Perform image processing.

  Since the information of “Blending 4” is projected onto the image data corresponding to the added projection image 220i from the four projectors 200, image processing for reducing the luminance and the color to a quarter is performed. .

  In image data transmission step ST114, transmission is performed to projector 200 having identification information 211 corresponding to index 221 associated with each image data. In this example, image data corresponding to the projection area 210a is sent to the projector 200a, image data corresponding to the projection area 210b is sent to the projector 200b, image data corresponding to the projection area 210c is sent to the projector 200c, and an image corresponding to the projection area 210d. Data is sent to the projector 200d, image data that has been blended for two projectors corresponding to the projection area 210e is sent to the projectors 200a and 200b, and image data that has been blended for two projectors corresponding to the projection area 210f is sent to the projector 200b. , 200d, two blended image data corresponding to the projection position 210g are fed to the projectors 200c, 200d, and two blended image data corresponding to the projection area 210h are fed to the projector 20. a, to 200d, performs transmit respective image data that is the blending of the 4 cars corresponding to the projection area 210i projectors 200a, 200b, 200c, to 200d.

  According to the second embodiment, the image processing step ST113 is added to the image data generated by the PC 100, so that in a multi-display in which overlapping projection is performed, a seamless large size can be obtained without using an expensive video enlarger. A multi-display system for constructing a screen image can be easily constructed.

An image transmission multi-display system according to the present invention includes:
It has the effect of easily building a multi-display system without using heavy and cumbersome RGB cables and expensive video magnifiers,
It is useful as a large screen system at conferences and workshops held in large halls and event venues.

External view of image transmission multi-display system Block diagram showing functional configuration of image transmission multi-display system External configuration diagram when inputting location information External view of the graphical user interface when entering the projector configuration External view of a graphical user interface comprising a multi-display system consisting of four units External view of image transmission multi-display system External configuration diagram of a multi-display system that projects areas including overlapping areas Process flow sequence diagram External view of index display processing of four projectors External view of a graphical user interface for constructing a multi-display system consisting of four units Configuration block diagram of conventional image transmission multi-display system

Explanation of symbols

10 screen 100 PC
200 Projector 210 Projection Area 211 Identification Information 220 Projected Image 221 Index 1001 Data Transmitting Device 1002, 1003 Data Receiving Device 1004 Network

Claims (2)

An image transmission multi-display system comprising an image transmission device and a plurality of image projection devices via a network,
The image transmission device includes:
Position information input means for inputting position information for associating the display position on the multi-display screen and the plurality of image projectors;
Image data generating means for generating image data;
Image data processing means for dividing the image data generated by the image data generating means into a predetermined number according to the number of the image projection devices constituting the multi-display system, or for scaling up or down to a predetermined screen size;
Image data transmission means for transmitting image data corresponding to each image projection apparatus associated by the position information input means among a plurality of divided or enlarged image data supplied from the image data processing means;
The image projector is
Image data receiving means for receiving image data from the network;
An image transmission multi-display system comprising: image projection means for projecting the image data received by the image data receiving means as a video signal. When the image edges of the projected images projected from the plurality of image control devices are displayed as a single projected image, the image data processing unit blends the image data of the overlapping display portion 2. The image transmission multi-system according to claim 1, further comprising image processing means for performing processing.

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