JP3034555U - Image synthesis adapter device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [PROBLEMS] It becomes possible to synthesize a live image of a performer on a stage with a background image simply by combining it with an image synthesizing device such as karaoke. (EN) Provided is an adapter device suitable for a karaoke device in which a performer can easily perform while watching a composite image. SOLUTION: An inverting unit (56) for horizontally inverting an image of a performer, and a second synthesizing unit (58) for synthesizing the inverted image with a first background image in an image synthesizing device (10).
And an image switching unit (60). The video switching unit (60) selects either the composite image or the background image not to be composited and displays it on the monitor display means (32) or the like.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[0001]

[Technical field to which the invention belongs]

 The present invention relates to an adapter device used in combination with a background image and a live photographed image (casting image) of a performer or the like, which can be displayed on a screen or a television.

[0002]

[Prior art]

 Background images and music software are stored in advance on video tapes, laser discs, CDs (compact discs), CD-ROMs (read-only memory using compact discs), etc., and background images and music for the songs desired by the performer. Karaoke devices that read and use software are known.

That is, the lyrics are superimposed on the background image and displayed on a screen, a CRT (television) or the like, and an accompaniment of music is output. In this case, a plurality of types of background images are prepared so that a predetermined background image can be selected for the music to be output, or a favorite one can be selected. Also, multiple background images have been stocked in advance, and only the music software can be read from an external host database via a communication line so that it can be used at a desired location in combination with one selected from the stocked backgrounds. Communication karaoke devices are also known.

On the other hand, there are many known methods for synthesizing a plurality of images to produce an animation movie by digital signal processing using a computer. For example, a new image is created by combining another digital signalized image with a background image of your choice.

[0005]

[Problems of conventional technology]

 In a conventional karaoke device, lyrics are displayed by being superimposed on one or more predetermined background images, so that the same background image is used repeatedly when playing several times. become. For this reason, the background that appears on the display screen does not change even if the performers are different, so there is a problem in that the atmosphere of the karaoke venue does not flourish because it loses the interest of other people in the room.

In addition, when a plurality of image software prepared in advance is combined by computer image processing to make an animation movie, it is necessary to consider in advance the dimensions and positions of the images to be combined and prepared. Not only does it require knowledge, but preparation is troublesome.

Therefore, it can be considered that a live image (a performance image) of the performer himself is combined with a karaoke display screen or an animation movie so that the user can perform an action while watching the combined image on the spot. By displaying the image of the performer himself / herself on the stage in the background image, it is possible to strongly attract the interests of other people who are present.

However, in this case, the appearance image appears in the composite image opposite to the actual movement of the performer. For example, when the performer faces the right side or moves to the right, the appearance image obtained by shooting this faces the left side or moves to the left on the composite image. For this reason, the performer must act in a manner symmetrical with the movement on the composite image when performing the performance while watching this composite image, which makes the performance difficult and requires considerable habituation. There was a problem.

[0009]

[Purpose of the invention]

 The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and when used in combination with an image synthesizing device such as a conventional karaoke device, it is possible to synthesize a live image of a performer on a stage with a background image. By changing the display image on the screen, TV, etc. for each performer, it is possible to strongly attract the interests of the user and those around him / her, and the performer will not be confused about the left / right positional relationship while looking at the monitor display screen. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image synthesizing adapter device that can be easily actuated and can be enjoyed without requiring special habituation.

[0010]

According to the present invention, this object is used by connecting to an image synthesizing device for synthesizing a cast image of a performer photographed by a television camera with a background image prepared in advance and displaying the synthesized image on a monitor display means. An image synthesizing adapter device for horizontally inverting the cast image, and a second synthesizing the inverted cast image to the first background image taken from the image synthesizing device by chroma key synthesis. And a video switching unit that selects any one of the first background image and the composite image output by the second composition unit and outputs the selected image to the image composition apparatus. It is achieved by the adapter device for.

The second synthesizing unit may be one that performs luminance key synthesizing instead of chroma key synthesizing. This adapter device is provided with a means for supplying a second background image different from the first background image in the image synthesizing device, and the second background image and this and the appearance image and this and the appearance image are provided. The composite image of may be displayed on the monitor display means. In this way, the types of background images that can be selected can be increased.

When the image synthesizing apparatus is an existing karaoke apparatus, it is preferable to use a karaoke apparatus having a first synthesizing unit for synthesizing the image of the lyrics characters. The second synthesizing part of the adapter device, which performs chroma key synthesis, removes the color of this curtain from the image taken by the camera of the performer in front of a curtain of a single color, etc., and then synthesizes it with the background image. . Instead of the chroma key composition, for example, a composition method such as luminance key composition that replaces the image of a portion of the performer's image having a certain brightness or higher with the background image may be used.

The karaoke device can be so-called online karaoke, and receives music software including music songs and text information of lyrics from a host database, outputs lyrics from the speaker while outputting music to the background image and appearance image. Can be combined with. It would be even more interesting if composite images without singing could be output and recorded on a video tape or video printer.

The image inverting unit is preferably configured to perform image processing such as electrical mirror inversion, but it is an optical system such as a mirror or prism for horizontally inverting the incident image to the lens of the camera. Good. The camera should be equipped with a frame plate so that unnecessary backgrounds around the performers are not photographed. This frame plate can be erased together with the background curtain by using the same color as the background curtain used for the chroma key composition. The brightness of this plate frame is set to a certain level or lower when performing luminance key combination.

[0015]

Embodiment

 1 is a diagram showing a basic configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an operation flow chart of this embodiment, FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a camera, FIG. 4 is a diagram showing background images and appearance images, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a first composite image and a second composite image.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 is an image synthesizing device, which is a communication karaoke device here. In this karaoke device 10, the operation panel 12 is used to select a song and a type of background image to be used. The background may be predetermined according to the music. When a song is selected here, music data and lyrics data of this song are sent from the external host database 14 to the receiving unit 18 via the communication circuit 16 such as a telephone line. A signal designating the background image used at this time may be sent at the same time.

Music data and lyrics are input to the receiving unit 18 as coded digital signals. In the receiving unit 18, the signal indicating the music data is decoded by the music data processing unit 20, converted into an analog signal, amplified, and output from the speaker 22 as music. This karaoke device outputs the accompaniment music of a song.

In the receiving unit 18, the lyrics data processing unit 24 decodes the lyrics data and converts it into a character string image (hereinafter referred to as a lyrics image). On the other hand, the karaoke apparatus 10 stores video software, which is a plurality of types of background images, in the stock section 26. The background image stored here is hereinafter referred to as a first background image. The stock unit 26 stores the first background image as digital information in a storage medium such as an optical disc, a magneto-optical disc, a video tape, a CD-ROM.

When a music piece is designated on the operation panel 12, a first background image corresponding to the music piece is read from the stock portion 26. In this device, another background image (referred to as a second background image) is also stored in the adapter device 50, which will be described later, so that the performer can specify a background image of his choice from both background images.

When the adapter device 50 is not used, the first composition unit 36 combines the first background image read from the first background stock unit 26 with the lyrics sent from the lyrics data processing unit 24. To synthesize. This composite image (first composite image) is output to the monitor television 38 and the large projector television 40. Further, the second composite image may be recorded on the video tape or the like in the video device 42.

Reference numeral 44 is a television camera. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the TV camera 44 is installed toward the stage 46. Behind this stage 46 is a wall 48 of a single color such as blue. A blue curtain may be used instead of the wall 48. The color (blue) of this wall 48 may be any color that is suitable for performing chroma key composition in the adapter device 50 described later. When the luminance key composition is used instead of the chroma key composition, the wall 48 and the curtain may be darker than the performers.

Reference numeral 50 is an adapter device. The adapter device 50 is used by connecting to the karaoke device 10. The adapter device 50 includes a reversing unit 56 for horizontally reversing (referred to as mirror reversing) an image (a performance image) of a performer 52 taken by the camera 44, a second combining unit 58, a video switching unit 60, and a second background image. It has a stock section 62, a video printer 64, an operation panel 66 and the like.

The second background image stock section 62 stores a background image (second background image) that the performer 52 likes. The video switching unit 60 selects a background image to be used from the first background image stock unit 26 or the second background image stock unit 62 according to the taste of the performer 52. The selected background image is combined with the performer's image (reverse image) in the second combining unit 58, and then sent to the first combining unit 36.

Although the second synthesizing unit 58 can remove the image of the background wall 48 by chroma key synthesis, the luminance key synthesis may be used instead of the chroma key synthesis. This replaces the image based on a certain brightness or higher. The lyrics are synthesized in the first synthesizer 36 and output to the monitor television 38, the large television 40, or the like. The combined image (second combined image) before the lyrics are combined is sent to the video printer 62 as desired, and can be printed out like a photograph here.

As shown in FIG. 3, the camera 44 used in this embodiment is provided with a frame plate 44B detachably in front of the taking lens 44A. The frame plate 44B prevents unnecessary backgrounds such as the walls 48 and curtains from entering the image when the stage 46 (see FIG. 1) is photographed. Since the wide-angle lens is used as the normal photographing lens 44A, the photographing range is widened, and an unnecessary background is likely to enter around the performer 52. Therefore, the frame plate 44B covers an unnecessary background.

Of course, at least the surface of the frame plate 44B on the side of the taking lens 44A has the same color as that of the wall 46 when chroma key composition is performed by the second composition section 58. In addition, when performing luminance key combination, the color or brightness should be sufficiently darker than that of the performer. Instead of such a frame plate 44B, an unnecessary background may be masked by electrical image processing. For example, the masking range may be set by setting means (not shown), and the image output in this range may be converted into white or the like.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. The performer 52 is photographed by the television camera 44 (step 100 in FIG. 2) and becomes an image (performing image) shown in FIG. 4 (B). The appearance image is horizontally inverted by the image inversion unit 54 (step 102) and sent to the second synthesis unit 58.

On the other hand, the performer 52 designates a favorite background image from the background images stored in the first or second background image stock section 26, 62 with the operation panel 12 or 66 (step 104). ). The selected background image is sent to the second synthesizing unit 58, where it is subjected to chroma key synthesis or luminance key synthesis with the inversion image performed here (step 106). FIG. 5A shows this composite image.

This combined image is sent to the first combining unit 36 via the video switching unit 60, where the lyrics image is combined (step 108). FIG. 5B shows a composite image in which the lyrics are composed. In this figure, 70 is an image of lyrics (lyric telop). This synthesized image is output to the monitor television 38 and the large-sized projector television 40 (step 110).

Although the above description is applied to the online karaoke apparatus, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, it can be applied to a normal karaoke device in which a background image, accompaniment, and lyrics are stored in a laser disk or a CD without using communication, or other image synthesizing device. Further, although the appearance image is inverted by the inversion unit 56 by electrical image processing, an image inverted by placing a reflection mirror in front of the taking lens 44A may be taken instead.

If the present invention is used when making an animated movie or playing a competitive game, it is possible to easily compose itself and appear in it. In other words, prepare movie software or a battle-type game software that erases the image of a certain appearing person, project the movie or game screen on a monitor TV, shoot the performer who is acting while watching this, and The appearance image is created by reversing. Then, this appearance image may be combined with the background image and output to a TV screen or recorded on a video device or the like.

Further, the present invention can be used for trying on clothes. That is, images of a large number of clothes may be stored in advance in the first or second stock section 26, 62 as background images, and inverted images of performers (in this case, try-on persons) may be combined and combined.

[0033]

[Effect of the invention]

 According to the invention of claim 1, by simply combining the image of the performer with the image for synthesizing the background image, the image of the performer is horizontally reversed to the background image and the background image and the chroma key composition. Then, it is possible to output to the monitor display means. Therefore, the performer can easily perform the action without looking at the left and right while looking at the monitor display means, and no special habituation is required.

For this reason, the performer himself can be made to appear in the background image, and it is possible to provide an image that is fun and strongly attracts the interests of fellow persons. For this reason, it is possible to play games that are full of interest and never get tired. The operation is also very easy. Luminance key synthesis can be used instead of chroma key synthesis (claim 2).

This adapter device is provided with a second background image stock part different from the first background image stock part in the image synthesizing device so that this second background image can also be used. In this case, the number of selectable background images can be significantly increased, and the background image of one's liking can be easily used (claim 3). A karaoke device can be used as the image synthesizing device, and in this case, the lyrics can be synthesized with the background image or the synthetic image of the background image and the appearance image (claim 4).

The karaoke device is preferably online karaoke (claim 5), but is not limited to this. The adapter device is preferably provided with an image recording device for recording a composite image of the appearance image and the background image (claim 6). The image recording device may be a video tape, an optical disc, or the like, but may be a video printer that outputs a still image (claim 7). In this case, the still image of the performer can be obtained during or immediately after the appearance, which is more interesting.

It is desirable that the image reversing unit reverses by electric image processing (Claim 8), but a mirror may be placed in front of the camera and the mirrored image may be taken. 9). By covering the unnecessary background around the performer, that is, the background that cannot be erased with chroma key composition, with a frame plate placed in front of the shooting lens on the camera, and making the color of this frame plate the same as the color used for chroma key composition. It can be erased (claim 10). In this case, even if the wall behind the performer is narrow, unnecessary backgrounds can be erased cleanly by chroma key composition. When the luminance key combination is used instead of the chroma key composition, the frame plate may be set to a color or brightness sufficiently darker than the performer (claim 11).

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a basic configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of an appearance image of a performer.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a television camera

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a background and appearance images.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a composite image.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Karaoke device as image synthesizing device 12 Operation panel 14 Host database 16 Communication line 26 First background image stocking part 36 First synthesizing part 38 Monitor TV as monitor displaying means 40 Projector TV 42 Video recording device 44 TV camera 50 Adapter device 52 Performer 54 Chroma key processing unit 56 Image inversion unit 58 Second synthesizing unit 60 Video switching unit 62 Second background image stocking unit 64 Video printer

Claims (11)

[Utility model registration claims] 1. An image synthesizing adapter device which is used by connecting to an image synthesizing device for synthesizing a cast image of a performer photographed by a television camera with a background image prepared in advance and displaying the synthesized image on a monitor display means. An image inversion unit that horizontally inverts the appearance image, a second composition unit that performs chroma key composition of the inverted appearance image on the first background image captured from the image composition apparatus, and the first background image And an image switching unit for selecting one of the combined image output by the second combining unit and outputting it to the image combining device. 2. The second synthesizing unit according to claim 1, wherein instead of the chroma key synthesizing, the inverted appearance image is luminance-luminous synthesized with the first background image.
Image synthesis adapter device. 3. A second background image stock section that supplies a second background image independent of the first background image of the image synthesizing apparatus, wherein the image switching section includes the first background image. The image synthesizing adapter device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the second background image can be used instead of the second background image. 4. The image synthesizing device is a karaoke device, and the karaoke device has a first synthesizing unit for synthesizing lyrics with the first or second background image or the synthetic image selected by the video switching unit. An image synthesizing adapter device according to item 1 or 2 or 3. 5. The image synthesizing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the karaoke apparatus reads the karaoke music software supplied from the host database via the communication line, outputs the music to the speaker, and outputs the lyrics to the first synthesizing unit. Adapter device. 6. The image synthesizing adapter device according to claim 1, further comprising an image recording device for recording the output of the second synthesizing unit. 7. The image synthesizing adapter device according to claim 6, wherein the image recording device is a video printer. 8. The image reversing unit laterally reverses an image read by a television camera by a method of electrical image processing.
An image synthesizing adapter device according to any one of 1 to 7. 9. The image reversing unit is formed by an optical system which laterally reverses an image of a performer and guides it to a television camera.
An image synthesizing adapter device according to any one of 1 to 7. 10. The television camera includes a frame plate having the same color as the background color that covers an unnecessary photographing range around the performer.
Image synthesis adapter device. 11. The image synthesizing adapter device according to claim 2, wherein the television camera is provided with a frame plate having a brightness equal to or lower than a certain level, which covers an unnecessary photographing range around a performer.