JP5582534B2 - Image transfer and display system using optical fiber - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image transfer and display system using an optical fiber.

  International Publication 2002-013167 pamphlet discloses an optical fiber display device. The optical fiber display device includes a projector, an optical fiber converging unit, and a screen panel. This apparatus includes a configuration of a large number of optical fibers 5 connecting the focusing unit and the screen panel. A video signal from the video player device is sent to the projector. Then, the image from the projector is projected onto the optical fiber converging unit. The image projected onto the optical fiber converging unit is introduced into the screen panel via a plurality of optical fibers of a plurality of stages (multiple rows) and a plurality of columns suspended between the optical fiber converging unit and the screen panel. . Then, light is emitted at the optical fiber output end on the front side of the screen panel to display an image.

International Publication No. 2002-013167 Pamphlet

  As described above, the conventional optical fiber display device is merely used as an optical path for delivering light from the projector to the screen panel. For this reason, the conventional optical fiber display device requires a large number of optical fibers. Furthermore, the conventional optical fiber type display device needs to convert image information into an image once by a projector.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an image transmission system using an optical fiber capable of projecting a transmitted optical signal onto a panel as it is. A further object of the present invention is to provide an image transfer system capable of expressing extremely high gradation.

  In the present invention, basically, a signal having a wavelength corresponding to a color displayed on a monitor is propagated using an optical fiber, and the propagated signal is directly applied to the monitor, so that the light propagated through the optical fiber is directly transmitted. This is based on the knowledge that an image can be generated using the wavelength as it is.

  A first aspect of the present invention relates to an image transmission system. This image transmission system basically includes an encoder 11 that encodes an image into an optical signal, an optical fiber 13 that transmits an optical signal encoded by the encoder 11, and an optical fiber 13 that emits the optical signal. It includes a monitor 15 to which light reaches, a position control unit 17 that controls a position at which light emitted from the optical fiber 13 reaches the monitor 15, and a node 51 connected to the optical fiber 13.

  The encoder 11 includes a wavelength determination unit 21 that generates a color of a certain part of an image using light of one or a plurality of wavelengths, a position determination unit 23 that obtains a position of the part of the image, The position determination unit 23 determines a control signal generation unit 22 that generates an optical control signal including information related to the address of the monitor 15 to which information is transmitted, and a color signal that is a light signal having a wavelength determined by the wavelength determination unit 21. The optical signal generation unit 25 adds an optical signal related to the positional information to the header and adds the optical control signal generated by the control signal generation unit 22.

  The node is a relay point of the optical fiber 13. Therefore, two or more nodes may be included in the image transfer system. The node 51 analyzes the optical control signal separated by the header / control signal separation unit 53 and the header / control signal separation unit 53 for separating the header and the optical control signal from the payload from the optical signal output from the encoder 11. A control signal analysis unit 55 for performing transmission, a transmission path control unit 57 for determining a transmission path based on the optical control signal analyzed by the control signal analysis unit, and a header for adding a new header and optical control signal to the payload. A control signal adding unit 59.

  The position control unit 17 controls the position reaching the monitor 15 based on the position information included in the optical signal.

  The color signal included in the optical signal arrives at the monitor 15.

  In order to employ such a configuration, in the image transmission system of the present invention, the color signal included in the optical signal reaches the monitor 15. Since the color of the optical signal directly constitutes the color of the pixel, unnecessary conversion is omitted, and an image can be transmitted efficiently and quickly. Also, the optically encoded signal can contain a very large number of pulses. By using this pulse signal as a pulse expressing one gradation, the image transmission system of the present invention can realize extremely high gradation expression.

  In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the encoder 11 further includes an intensity determination unit 27 that obtains information on the intensity for each color determined by the wavelength determination unit 21. In this aspect, the optical signal generation unit 25 adds the position information determined by the position determination unit 23 and the intensity information determined by the intensity determination unit 27 to the color signal that is the light signal having the wavelength determined by the wavelength determination unit 21. The generated optical signal is generated. Then, the intensity information included in the optical signal is analyzed to determine the intensity of the light reaching the optical signal monitor 15, and the intensity adjustment is performed to adjust the intensity of the color signal according to the intensity determined by the intensity analyzer 31. And a portion 33. In the image transmission system of this aspect, the color signal whose intensity is adjusted by the intensity adjusting unit 33 reaches the monitor 15.

  In a preferred aspect of the present invention, the position control unit 17 determines a position that reaches the monitor 15 based on position information included in the optical signal. The image transmission system of this aspect further includes an optical path adjustment unit 41 that adjusts the path of light, and the optical path adjustment unit 41 adjusts the path of light according to the determined position.

  The present invention can provide an image transmission system using an optical fiber that can directly project a transmitted optical signal onto a panel.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of an image transmission system. FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining the router. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of an optical signal in which position information is superimposed on a color signal. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example in which an optical signal includes a color signal and a signal indicating position information of the color signal. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating how the optical fiber sweeps the monitor. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a system in a reference example .

  A first aspect of the present invention relates to an image transmission system. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of an image transmission system. This image transmission system basically relates to an image transmission system. This image transmission system basically includes an encoder 11 that encodes an image into an optical signal, an optical fiber 13 that transmits an optical signal encoded by the encoder 11, and an optical fiber 13 that emits the optical signal. It includes a monitor 15 to which light reaches, a position control unit 17 for controlling a position at which light emitted from the optical fiber 13 reaches the monitor 15, and a node 51 connected to the optical fiber 13.

  The encoder 11 is an element for encoding a certain image into an optical signal. According to a preferred aspect of the present invention, when the image information is encoded by the encoder 11, light having a wavelength corresponding to the color displayed on the monitor is generated, propagated through the optical fiber, and the light having the wavelength is transmitted to the monitor. By irradiating, an image is formed on the monitor. However, it is also possible to propagate the signal using light with a wavelength that is easy to communicate, generate a harmonic as appropriate, and use the generated harmonic color as the color displayed on the monitor as it is. For example, 1300 nm light may be generated in an encoder, propagated through an optical fiber, light having a wavelength of 650 nm may be obtained by a harmonic generator, and this may be used as a red signal as it is. Alternatively, a 1300 nm quadruple wave may be generated to obtain light having a wavelength of 425 nm, which may be used as it is as a blue signal. Further, light having a wavelength of 1550 nm may be propagated to generate a third harmonic to obtain light having a wavelength of 516 nm, which may be used as a green signal as it is.

  That is, image information is input to the encoder 11. The image information may be a still image or a moving image. In the case of a moving image, for example, the monitor is irradiated with light so that an image of one frame can be formed in 1/30 seconds (or one frame in 1/60 seconds). This light may be an integrated value for each pixel and every 1/30 seconds.

  The encoder 11 includes a wavelength determination unit 21 that generates a color of a certain part of an image using light of one or a plurality of wavelengths, a position determination unit 23 that obtains a position of the part of the image, The position determination unit 23 determines a control signal generation unit 22 that generates an optical control signal including information related to the address of the monitor 15 to which information is transmitted, and a color signal that is a light signal having a wavelength determined by the wavelength determination unit 21. The optical signal generation unit 25 adds an optical signal related to the positional information to the header and adds the optical control signal generated by the control signal generation unit 22.

Then, the wavelength determining unit 21 generates the color of a certain part of the image using light of one or a plurality of wavelengths. The encoder 11 basically receives all partial information (color information and position information) of the input image. For example, it is assumed that the color of a pixel is divided into R, G, and B and expressed by 2 ⁿ (n is 2 to 15) gradations. In this case, for example, a signal having an R (red) wavelength may be converted into light having an intensity corresponding to the intensity information and propagated through the optical fiber. In other words, the color of a certain pixel is divided into R, G, and B, light sources indicating the respective colors are prepared, light from these light sources is intensity-modulated according to the intensity of each color, and the optical fiber is What is necessary is just to propagate. At this time, the wavelength determining unit 21 may have an intensity modulator. Then, the intensity of light corresponding to R, G, and B is modulated to an intensity corresponding to the determined intensity, and the optical fiber is propagated. However, in the present invention, not only signals with three wavelengths of R, G, and B but also signals with a plurality of types of wavelengths may be used to form a color signal and propagate through the optical fiber. Alternatively, the intensity of the signal of each wavelength may be constant, and information regarding the intensity of the signal of each wavelength may be added to the color signal and propagated through the optical fiber. In this case, the intensity information is analyzed before the color signal is emitted to the monitor, the intensity of the color signal is modulated according to the intensity analyzed by the intensity modulator, and then the monitor is irradiated.

  The image information usually includes pixel position information. In this case, the position determination unit 23 may read information on the pixel position from the image information input to the encoder 11 and obtain the position of a certain part of the image. Also, when an image is read by a scanner and the image is reproduced on a monitor, the position and color of a pixel in the read image are analyzed, the position on the image corresponding to the color is analyzed, and the pixel May be determined.

  The control signal generation unit 22 is an element for generating a light control signal including information about the address of the monitor 15 to which information about a certain part of the image is transmitted, for example. Address information included in the header is publicly known. In addition, as described above, the light control signal may include information on how many harmonics are used when there is a slogan between the light propagating through the optical fiber and the light reaching the monitor. Good. For example, when the transmission line is adapted to propagate light having a wavelength of 1300 nm and it is desired to generate a red signal of 650 nm, control information for generating a second harmonic may be included in the light control signal. . A wavelength converter (to be described later) analyzes the control information that a second harmonic is generated, and obtains a second harmonic signal of light having a wavelength of 1300 nm, thereby obtaining a red signal of 650 nm, which is irradiated to the monitor. By doing so, a red signal can be expressed.

  The optical signal generation unit 25 adds an optical signal related to the position information determined by the position determination unit 23 to the color signal, which is a light signal having the wavelength determined by the wavelength determination unit 21, and the control signal generation unit 22 This is an element for adding the generated light control signal. The position information of the optical signal and the optical control signal may be a modulation signal superimposed on the color signal. The optical signal may include a header portion indicating position information and a color signal.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of an optical signal in which position information is superimposed on a color signal. The case where position information is added will be described below. However, the mode in which the light control information is added to the optical signal is the same as this. An example of an optical signal in which position information is superimposed on a color signal is a signal in which a phase modulation signal indicating position information is superimposed on an optical signal having a red wavelength indicating R. Examples of the modulation signal may be frequency modulation and intensity modulation. When position information is added as a phase modulation signal, the optical signal generation unit 25 may have a phase modulator. If the phase modulation is performed at the timing when the color signal is input to the phase modulator in synchronization with the color signal, the phase modulation signal can be superimposed on the color signal. However, in the present invention, the intensity modulation is preferable because the wavelength of the optical signal propagating through the optical fiber is used as it is as the wavelength of the optical signal irradiated to the monitor. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example in which an optical signal includes a color signal and a signal indicating position information of the color signal. An example of an optical signal having a color signal and a signal indicating position information of the color signal is an optical packet. Information indicating the position information of the color signal may be added to the header portion of the optical packet, and the color signal may be added to the payload portion.

  The encoder 11 may express the intensity of the color signal using an optical packet. For example, assume that one packet corresponds to a certain color (R, G, or B) of one frame of a certain pixel. In this case, the gradation may be expressed using the number of pulses included in one packet. In a plasma display panel or the like, the light emission timing is controlled by controlling the charge. For this reason, there is a limit to gradation expression. However, when the number of light pulses is used for gradation expression as in the present invention, an extremely large number of pulses can be included in the moment, so that an extremely high gradation color can be expressed. For example, if R is a color having 10,000 gradations, 10,000 pulses may be included as one color signal. One pulse is, for example, a pulse of GHz or MHz order. An example of the frequency of the pulse is 1 MHz to 10 GHz, 10 MHz to 1 GHz, or 100 MHz to 1 GHz. For this reason, a large number of such pulses can be used to express a certain color of one frame. A method for generating such a pulse signal is known. A pulse signal may be obtained using a pulse laser, or a pulse signal may be obtained by applying intensity modulation to a signal from a continuous light source.

  The node is a relay point of the optical fiber 13. Therefore, two or more nodes may be included in the image transfer system. The node 51 analyzes the optical control signal separated by the header / control signal separation unit 53 and the header / control signal separation unit 53 for separating the header and the optical control signal from the payload from the optical signal output from the encoder 11. A control signal analysis unit 55 for performing transmission, a transmission path control unit 57 for determining a transmission path based on the optical control signal analyzed by the control signal analysis unit, and a header for adding a new header and optical control signal to the payload. A control signal adding unit 59.

  The header / control signal separation unit 53 is an element for separating the header and the optical control signal from the payload from the optical signal output from the encoder 11. When the header part and the optical control signal and the payload part are temporally separated, for example, the start of the header part is detected by reading the signal indicating the header part, and the signal indicating the start of the payload part is read. , The end of the header and light control signals may be detected and analyzed.

  When the header and the optical control signal are superimposed on the optical signal as a modulation signal (frequency modulation signal or phase modulation signal), the header and the optical control signal are extracted by analyzing the modulation signal. Thus, the header and the optical control signal may be separated.

  The control signal analysis unit 55 is an element for analyzing the optical control signal separated by the header / control signal separation unit 53. The control signal analyzing unit 55 is stored as appropriate, read out, added to the optical signal as a new optical control signal, and output from the node.

  The transmission path control unit 57 is an element for determining a transmission path based on the optical control signal analyzed by the control signal analysis unit. The light control signal added to the header includes information regarding the monitor address. Therefore, the transmission path control unit 57 analyzes information related to the monitor address from the information analyzed by the control signal analysis unit 55 and determines a transmission path (for example, a candidate for the next node).

  The header / control signal adding unit 59 is an element for adding a new header and an optical control signal to the payload. The header and optical control signal analyzed at the node are added again to the optical signal and output from the node. The configuration and operation for adding a header and an optical control signal to the optical signal are as described above.

  The position control unit 17 is an element for controlling the position at which the light emitted from the optical fiber 13 reaches the monitor 15. Then, the position control unit 17 determines a position that reaches the monitor 15 based on the position information included in the optical signal. An optical fiber may be provided for each of R, G, and B, for example. Moreover, you may propagate the light of a some wavelength with one fiber. Furthermore, light of a plurality of wavelengths may be propagated through a single fiber, and wavelength separation may be performed as appropriate using an optical element, and the optical path may be controlled for each of the separated wavelengths of light. In order to perform wavelength separation, a known wavelength separation means such as a prism or grism may be used.

  An example of the position control unit 17 includes an actuator that can move the output end of the optical fiber 13 in the vertical and horizontal directions, and a control unit that drives the actuator. The control unit analyzes position information included in the optical signal. When the position information is superimposed on the color signal, the superimposed position information is read out. For example, when phase modulation is superimposed on a color signal, the position on the monitor where the color signal is irradiated is analyzed by demodulating the phase modulation, and the actuator is driven. Then, a control part drives an actuator so that a color signal is irradiated to the analyzed position. In this way, the color component of a certain part of the image is irradiated on the monitor.

  In order to employ such a configuration, in the image transmission system of the present invention, the color signal included in the optical signal reaches the monitor 15.

  In a preferred embodiment of the image propagation system of the present invention, the output end of the optical fiber 13 sweeps the entire area of the monitor 15 every predetermined time. An example of the predetermined time is 1/30 second or 1/60 second.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating how the optical fiber sweeps the monitor. In the example shown in FIG. 5, the optical fiber sweeps the first line from left to right, the second line from right to left, the 2m + 1 line from left to right, and the 2m + 2 line to the right. Sweep from to left. In accordance with the timing at which the optical fiber is driven, the encoder 11 sequentially encodes the input image from the leftmost pixel in the first row to the rightmost pixel, and sequentially from the rightmost pixel in the second row to the leftmost pixel. May be encoded. In this way, by associating the position of the image encoded by the encoder 11 with the irradiation position on the monitor, the order of encoding can be handled as being encoded as position information. For this reason, the position control unit 17 only needs to drive the actuator or the like according to the encoded timing, so that the apparatus can be prevented from becoming complicated.

  In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the encoder 11 further includes an intensity determination unit 27 that obtains information on the intensity for each color determined by the wavelength determination unit 21. In this aspect, the optical signal generation unit 25 adds the position information determined by the position determination unit 23 and the intensity information determined by the intensity determination unit 27 to the color signal that is the light signal having the wavelength determined by the wavelength determination unit 21. The generated optical signal is generated. Then, the intensity information included in the optical signal is analyzed to determine the intensity of the light reaching the optical signal monitor 15, and the intensity adjustment is performed to adjust the intensity of the color signal according to the intensity determined by the intensity analyzer 31. And a portion 33. In the image transmission system of this aspect, the color signal whose intensity is adjusted by the intensity adjusting unit 33 reaches the monitor 15.

  In a preferred aspect of the present invention, the position control unit 17 determines a position that reaches the monitor 15 based on position information included in the optical signal. The image transmission system of this aspect further includes an optical path adjustment unit 41 that adjusts the path of light, and the optical path adjustment unit 41 adjusts the path of light according to the determined position.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a system in a reference example . In this example, a red light source (R), a green light source (G), and a blue light source (B) are included. Each light source is connected to an intensity modulator (IM). Each intensity modulator is connected to a computer (PC). Image information is input to the computer. The computer analyzes the input image information. In this example, the image information of the portion corresponding to the upper left pixel of the monitor is first analyzed. Since the drive information of the actuator is stored in this computer, the image is analyzed in accordance with the drive process of the actuator. That is, the input image is sequentially encoded from the leftmost pixel of the first row to the rightmost pixel, and is encoded sequentially from the rightmost pixel of the second row to the leftmost pixel.

  First, the computer analyzes the color of the pixel at the left end of the first row into gradation representations of three colors of R, G, and B. Then, a modulation signal is output to each intensity modulator so as to generate the number of pulses corresponding to the gradation. Then, the light output from the continuous light source is converted into light having a pulse number corresponding to the gradation. The R, G, and B optical signals are coupled by a coupler or the like. In this way, the color signal is encoded. The R, G, and B optical signals may be transmitted through separate fibers. This pulse is the first pulse in time. This information of the first pulse is position information on the monitor of this pulse. That is, the next pulse means the pulse of the pixel in the first row and the second column. When a signal is propagated to a plurality of monitors, information regarding the monitor address may be superimposed on the optical signal. In addition, a monitor address may be added to the header portion forming the packet.

  The encoded optical signal propagates through the optical fiber. An optical signal is output from the output end of the optical fiber. On the other hand, the output end of the optical fiber can be driven by a vertical actuator and a horizontal actuator. The first packet is a packet of the pixel in the first row and the first column. For this reason, the actuator drive system (PC) is synchronized with the computer of the encoder, and the direction of the output end of the optical fiber is set so that the first packet is irradiated to the pixel portion of the first row and first column. adjust. Then, R, G, and B light including a predetermined number of pulses are emitted toward the pixel in the first row and the first column. Then, the R, G, and B lights that have arrived at the monitor cause the pixels in the first row and first column to emit light.

  Thereafter, in the same manner, the light of the necessary number of pulses is irradiated to the entire monitor pixels. Since the time required to irradiate the entire monitor pixels with light is 1/30 second or less, a beautiful moving image is visually recognized by human eyes. The monitor may be divided into a plurality of areas, and an optical fiber and an actuator may be prepared for each area.

  The present invention can be used, for example, in an image-related field as an image transmission system capable of expressing an extremely high gradation image.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Encoder 13 Optical fiber 15 Monitor 17 Position control part 21 Wavelength determination part
22 control signal generation unit 23 position determination unit 25 optical signal generation unit 31 intensity analysis unit 33 intensity adjustment unit 41 optical path adjustment unit

Claims (7)

An encoder (11) for encoding an image into an optical signal;
An optical fiber (13) for transmitting the optical signal encoded by the encoder (11);
A monitor (15) to which the light emitted from the optical fiber (13) arrives;
A position controller (17) for controlling the position at which the light emitted from the optical fiber (13) reaches the monitor (15);
A node (51) connected to the optical fiber (13);
An image transmission system including
The encoder (11)
A wavelength determining unit (21) for generating a color of a portion of the image using light of one or a plurality of wavelengths;
A position determining unit (23) for determining the position of a certain part of the image;
A control signal generator (22) for generating a light control signal including information on the address of the monitor (15) to which information about a certain part of the image is transmitted;
An optical signal related to the position information determined by the position determining unit (23) is added to the color signal, which is a signal of the light having the wavelength determined by the wavelength determining unit (21), and the control signal generating unit (22 An optical signal generation unit (25) for adding the optical control signal generated by
The node (51)
A header / control signal separator (53) for separating the header and the optical control signal from the payload from the optical signal output from the encoder (11);
A control signal analysis unit (55) for analyzing the optical control signal separated by the header / control signal separation unit (53);
A transmission path control section (57) for determining a transmission path based on the optical control signal analyzed by the control signal analysis section;
A header / control signal adding unit (59) for adding a new header and an optical control signal to the payload;
The position control unit (17)
Based on the position information included in the optical signal, the position reaching the monitor (15) is controlled,
The monitor (15) reaches a color signal included in the optical signal.
Image transmission system. The image transmission system according to claim 1,
The encoder (11) encodes the intensity for each color determined by the wavelength determination unit (21) using the number of pulses.
Image transmission system. The image transmission system according to claim 1,
The encoder (11) further includes an intensity determination unit (27) for obtaining information on the intensity for each color determined by the wavelength determination unit (21),
The optical signal generation unit (25) adds the position information determined by the position determination unit (23) and the intensity determination unit (27) to a color signal that is a light signal having a wavelength determined by the wavelength determination unit (21). ) To generate an optical signal with added intensity information,
The position control unit (17)
An intensity analysis unit (31) for analyzing intensity information included in the optical signal to obtain intensity of light reaching the monitor (15);
An intensity adjustment unit (33) for adjusting the intensity of the color signal according to the intensity obtained by the intensity analysis unit (31),
The monitor (15)
The color signal whose intensity is adjusted by the intensity adjusting unit (33) arrives.
Image transmission system.   The image transmission system according to claim 1, wherein the encoder (11) generates a color of a certain part of the certain image using light of wavelengths of R, G, and B.   The image transmission system according to claim 1, wherein the position information of the optical signal is a modulation signal superimposed on the color signal.   The image transmission system according to claim 1, wherein the optical signal includes a header portion indicating position information and a color signal. The position control unit (17)
Based on position information included in the optical signal, a position to reach the monitor (15) is determined,
An optical path adjustment unit (41) for adjusting the path of light;
The optical path adjusting unit (41) adjusts a light path according to the determined position.
The image transmission system according to claim 1.

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