JPH04221920A - Optical device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the optical device which effectively averts the possibility of the content of a virtual image being viewed by a third person exclusive of a person wearing this device and enables the person wearing this device to view the distinct virtual image without being conscious of the presence of a spectral means existing in the visual field region of the virtual image. CONSTITUTION:The video R projected on a polarized light control type display 18 is made incident via optical systems 19 and 21 on the polarization type spectral means 22 and are totally reflected to the wearing person side in the polarization type spectral means 22. The quantity of external light L13 entering from a peripheral visual field region ARO is attenuated by a light attenuating means 24 so as to decrease the difference in the quantity of the external light L12 entering from the virtual visual field region ARI.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

[Table of Contents] The present invention will be explained in the following order. Industrial field of application Conventional technology (Figure 11) Problems to be solved by the invention Means for solving the problems (Figures 1, 2 and 6) Effects (Figures 3 to 5, Figures 7 to 10) Examples (Figures 1 to 10) Effects of the invention

0002

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical device, and is suitable for application to, for example, an apparatus for recognizing an external scene and/or a virtual image within a visual field.

0003

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an optical device having a configuration as shown in FIG. 11 has been used as an optical device capable of displaying a virtual image obtained by enlarging an image displayed on a liquid crystal display via an optical system and superimposing it on an external scene. has been proposed (Patent Application No. 2-10
No. 8079).

The optical device 1 has a display 2 made of, for example, a liquid crystal display, and a wearer can direct a virtual image I of an image R displayed on a display surface 2A of the display 2 to an eyeball 4 via an optical system 3. It is twisted so that it can be seen visually. Here, the optical system 3 has a reflecting mirror 5, a convex lens 6, and a beam splitter 7, and the reflecting mirror 5 is attached at an angle of 45° with respect to the optical axis l1 perpendicular to the display surface 2A of the display 2. There is.

The convex lens 6 is placed on an optical axis bent by 90 degrees by the reflecting mirror 5. The beam splitter 7 is a half mirror, and has an optical axis l2 in front of the upper eyeball 4.
It is attached below the convex lens 6 at an angle of 45 degrees with respect to the optical axis l2.

[0006] Here, the optical axis l2 is an optical axis passing through the center of the eyeball 4 and parallel to the optical axis l1, and is the center of the visual field. As a result, the beam splitter 7 reflects 50% of the image light L1 incident through the convex lens 6 to the eyeball 4.
The remaining 50
% is transmitted downward.

A liquid crystal shutter 8 is provided in front of the beam splitter 7 for controlling the transmission of external light L2 in the virtual image viewing area ARI. Here, the liquid crystal shutter 8 has a polarizing filter and is configured to transmit 50% of the incident external light. Thereby, the wearer can visually see the virtual image I in the virtual image visual field ARI when the display 2 emits light and the liquid crystal shutter 8 is closed.

Furthermore, when the display 2 stops emitting light and the liquid crystal shutter 8 is opened, the wearer can visually view the outside scene O in the viewing angle region while wearing the optical device 1. Further, when the wearer turns on the display 2 and opens the liquid crystal shutter 8, the wearer can see both the virtual image I and the outside scene O superimposed on the virtual image visual field ARI.

[0009]

However, in such an optical device 1, the virtual image field area ARI incident on the eyeball 4
Since the amount of external light L2 enters through the polarizing filter, there is a large difference of 25% in the amount of external light L3 from the viewing area outside the virtual image viewing area (hereinafter referred to as peripheral viewing area) ARO. Therefore, when the liquid crystal shutter 8 is opened to view the outside scene O, there is a problem in that the presence of the liquid crystal shutter 8 and the beam splitter 7 located within the virtual image viewing area ARI is noticeable due to the difference in the amount of light.

Furthermore, when a polarized light control type display is used as the display 2, the emission intensity of the image light L1 is generally weak, and only 50% of the image light L1 is reflected to the eyeball 4 by the beam splitter 7. The virtual image looked even darker. Furthermore, since 50% of the image light L1 projected from the display 2 is transmitted downward through the beam splitter 7, there is a problem that a third party can see the contents of the virtual image I.

[0011] The present invention has been made in consideration of the above points, and the existence of the liquid crystal shutter and beam splitter located within the virtual image viewing area is not conscious, and third parties can see the contents of the virtual image. We are trying to propose an optical device that allows the wearer to see a clear virtual image without having to worry about it.

0012

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the problems, in the first invention, an optical system 5 comprising one or more lenses is used to control the image R projected on the display 2.
. By switching and controlling the light control means 8, the virtual image I and/or the external scene O of the virtual image visual field ARI are displayed in the virtual image visual field ARI.
In the optical device 1 that recognizes the virtual image visual field ARI
The surrounding peripheral visual field ARO is provided with a light attenuation means 24 for attenuating the external light L13 incident from the peripheral visual field ARO.

In the second invention, the display 2 is a polarized light control type display 18, and the spectroscopic means 7 has a polarization spectroscopic means 22 for totally reflecting the image R polarized by the polarizing means.

[0014]

[Operation] In the first invention, when the display 2 stops emitting light and the outside scene O is visually observed, the amount of external light L12 that enters the virtual image viewing area ARI via the spectroscopic means 7 is reduced via the dimming means 24. External light L1 entering from the peripheral visual field ARO
Since there is little difference in the amount of light from No. 3, the wearer can see the outside scene O without being aware of the spectroscopic means 7.

Further, in the second invention, the polarized image R projected on the polarized light control type display 18 is totally reflected toward the wearer by the polarization spectrometer 22, so that it can be seen by a third person other than the wearer. The user can effectively avoid the possibility of seeing the contents of the virtual image I, and can also see the virtual image I more clearly.

[0016]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, reference numeral 10 generally indicates an optical device system when the optical device according to the present invention is attached to eyeglasses. The optical device system 10 has an optical device 12 fixed to a glasses body 11, and a control circuit section 13.
The optical device 12 is driven and controlled based on a video signal V0 and liquid crystal shutter control signals V1 and V2 supplied from the optical device 12.

As shown in FIG. 2, the external casing 14 of the optical device 12 is fixed to the eyeglass body 11 by eyeglass fixtures 15A, 15B, 15C and 17. A polarized light control type display 18 is attached to the upper surface of the external casing 14 on the side of the glasses body 11, and is designed to output polarized light L10 (hereinafter referred to as S wave) that vibrates in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the paper. is being done. In addition, a reflecting mirror 19 is provided at the upper part of the external housing 14 at a angle of 45° with respect to the optical axis l10 of the polarized light L10.
It is installed at an angle of 90 degrees, and when the optical axis l10 is bent by 90 degrees, it is reflected as reflected light L11 (FIG. 3).

An internal housing 20 is slidably inserted into the external housing 14 from below.
A convex lens 21, a polarizing beam splitter 22, a liquid crystal plate 23, and a polarizing filter 24 are fixed to the. Here, the convex lens 21 is disposed on the optical axis l11 of the reflected light L11.

The polarizing beam splitter 22 is installed on the viewing angle center optical axis l12 which passes through the eyeball 25 and is perpendicular to the optical axis l11, at an angle of 45° with respect to the optical axis l12, and directs the reflected light L11 to the eyeball 25. It is designed to guide you. As shown in FIG. 3, the liquid crystal plate 23 is disposed in front of the polarizing beam splitter 22 so as to cover the virtual image viewing area ARI.

Here, the liquid crystal plate 23 constitutes a liquid crystal shutter with a deflection beam splitter 22 and a deflection filter 24, and external light L12 transmitted through the liquid crystal plate 23 is controlled by a control signal V1.
is controlled by switching to S wave or P wave. Furthermore, the liquid crystal plate 23
A polarizing filter 24 disposed in front of the is disposed so as to cover the peripheral visual field ARO, and prevents external light L12 and L
13, only polarized light that vibrates in a direction parallel to the plane of the paper (hereinafter referred to as P wave) is transmitted. As a result, the polarizing filter 24 transmits the external light L12.
The light intensity of L13 and L13 is reduced to 50%.

The polarizing beam splitter 22 has a glass substrate 2.
A dielectric multilayer film 22B is laminated on top of the dielectric multilayer film 22A, and of the incident light that enters through the convex lens 21, S waves are totally reflected, while P waves are transmitted (FIG. 4).
. On the other hand, the polarizing beam splitter 22 is configured so that the P waves incident on the eyeball 25 from the front via the polarizing filter 24 and the liquid crystal plate 23 are transmitted, while the S waves are totally reflected (Fig. 5).

A liquid crystal shutter 2 is provided on the left eye side of the glasses body 11.
6 is fixed by fixing members 15C and 17, and the transmittance of the liquid crystal shutter 26 can be switched by liquid crystal shutter control signals V1 and V2. The liquid crystal shutter control signals V1 and V2 and the video signal V0 are supplied from the control circuit section 13 via the cable 27.

The control circuit section 13 has a control circuit 13A for driving and controlling the optical device 12, and a video signal reproducing circuit 13B formed of, for example, a video tape recorder. Control circuit 1
3A has a display control circuit 30 and a liquid crystal shutter control circuit 31, as shown in FIG.

The display control circuit 30 inputs the composite input video signal VI inputted from the video signal reproduction circuit 13B via the cable 32 into the synchronization signal separation circuit 33 and the composite RGB decoder 34. The synchronization signal separation circuit 33 separates the synchronization signal from the input video signal VI,
It is supplied to a gain lock (GEN LOCK) circuit 35 as a synchronization signal S1. Furthermore, when the composite RGB decoder 34 decodes the input video signal VI into R, G, and B video signals, the composite RGB decoder 34 outputs the respective display control signal generation circuits 36 to R, G, and B video signals.
The RGB video signal S2 is supplied to the RGB video signal S2.

[0026] Gain lock (GEN LOCK) circuit 3
5 generates a horizontal synchronizing signal S3, a vertical synchronizing signal S4, and a reference clock signal S5 from the synchronizing signal S1 and supplies them to the display control signal generating circuit 36. The display control signal generation circuit 36 converts the RGB video signal S2 into an output video signal VO based on horizontal and vertical synchronizing signals S3 and S4 and a reference clock signal S5, and outputs the converted signal to the display 18. Here, the output of the output video signal VO is switched and controlled by a display control switch 37, and when the control switch 37 is turned on, the wearer can visually see the virtual image I, and when the control switch 37 is turned on, the wearer can see the virtual image I, and when it is turned off,
When in this state, the wearer can stop viewing the virtual image I.

The liquid crystal shutter control circuit 31 has a liquid crystal transmittance control circuit 38, which controls external light L12 transmitted through the liquid crystal plate 23 and the liquid crystal shutter 26 based on a switching signal S7 supplied by a transmittance control switch 39. Transmission is switched and controlled. Here, the liquid crystal transmittance control circuit 38 outputs liquid crystal shutter control signals V1 and V2 according to whether the switching signal S7 is "on" or "off". The liquid crystal shutter control signal V1 is sent to the liquid crystal plate 23 or the liquid crystal shutter 26.
is an AC voltage that sets the transmittance of 0% or 50%,
The control signal V2 is an AC voltage that sets the transmittance of the liquid crystal plate 23 or liquid crystal shutter 26 to 25% or 50%.

In the above configuration, if the wearer wishes to view only the outside scene O, the display control switch 37
At the same time, switch the transmittance control switch 3 to "off".
9 to "on", external light L12 from the virtual image visual field area ARI and external light L13 from the peripheral visual field area ARO are both incident on the eyeball 25 (FIG. 7). At this time, the external light L12 entering from the virtual image visual field ARI is input after passing through the polarizing filter 24, the liquid crystal plate 23, and the polarizing beam splitter 22, and is polarized into P waves when passing through the polarizing filter 24 and the liquid crystal plate 23. There is.

Here, as shown in FIG. 5, the polarizing beam splitter 22 transmits all of the external light L12 polarized into P waves, so that the external light having 50% of the amount of light incident thereon is delivered to the eyeball 25. Light L12 is incident. In addition, the external light L13 incident from the peripheral viewing angle area ARO (FIG. 7) is transmitted only through the polarizing filter 24, so that the external light L13 having an amount of 50% of the incident light is incident on the eyeball 25. .

[0030] As a result, the eyeball 25 has a virtual image visual field area ARI.
The amounts of external light L12 and L13 incident from the peripheral visual field ARO are both 50% of the incident light, and the difference in the amount of light is not recognized. At this time, the wearer must use the polarizing beam splitter 2.
2. The outside scene O can be visually observed without being aware of the presence of the liquid crystal plate 23 and the polarizing filter 24.

On the other hand, if the wearer wishes to view the virtual image I, the display control switch 37 of the control circuit section 13 is activated.
switch to “on”. At this time, a video R is displayed on the display 18 by the output video signal VO inputted sequentially through the video signal reproduction circuit 13B, the cable 32, the control circuit 13A, and the cable 27, and the video light L10 is projected.

The image light L10 is reflected by a reflecting mirror 19 disposed in front of the display 18 by bending the optical axis l10 by 90 degrees, and is then magnified by a convex lens 21. At this time, since the polarization plane of the image light L11 is polarized into an S wave that vibrates perpendicularly to the plane of the paper, as shown in FIG.
It is totally reflected by the polarizing beam splitter 22 and the eyeball 25
is incident on the

[0033] At this point, turn the transmittance control switch 39 "off".
When switched to , the transmission of external light L12 that enters the virtual image visual field ARI covered by the liquid crystal plate 23 is blocked, and the wearer sees a virtual image I, which is an enlarged image of the image R displayed on the display 18, in the virtual image visual field ARI. It will be recognized by ARI. At this time, the reflected light L11 of the image R displayed on the display 18 is all reflected by the polarizing beam splitter 22, so it is not transmitted downward, and is visible to anyone other than the person wearing the optical device 10. It is possible to effectively avoid the possibility that the contents of the virtual image I that the person is viewing can be seen. In addition, as a result, the amount of image light L11 that was transmitted through the conventional beam splitter 7 made of a half mirror is also reflected by the eyeball 25, so that the amount of light incident on the eyeball 25 is almost twice that of the conventional one. A clearer virtual image I can be seen compared to the above.

On the other hand, the transmittance control switch 39
When switched to the "on" state, external light L12 enters the virtual image visual field ARI of the eyeball 25 via the polarizing filter 24, the liquid crystal plate 23, and the polarizing beam splitter 22. Thereby, the wearer can visually view the virtual image I superimposed on the external scene O of the virtual image viewing area ARI.

According to the above configuration, the polarizing beam splitter 22 is disposed in front of the optical axis l12 passing through the eyeball 25, which totally reflects the polarized light from the display 18 that outputs the image light L11 polarized into S waves. By doing so, all the image light L10 of the image projected on the display 18 is transmitted to the optical device 1.
It is possible to effectively avoid the possibility that the content of the virtual image I that is currently being viewed by others will be reflected to the wearer's side. In addition, in front of the polarizing beam splitter 22 is a virtual image field area ARI.
By arranging the polarizing filter 24 that widely covers the peripheral visual field area ARO, the amount of external light L12 and L13 incident from the virtual image visual field area ARI and the peripheral visual field area ARO can be made constant, and the amount of light including the polarizing beam splitter 22 The outside scenery O can be viewed visually without being aware of the presence of the liquid crystal shutter.

Note that in the above embodiment, the optical device 1
The external light L13 entering from the peripheral visual field ARO as 0
Although the case has been described in which the polarizing filter 24 having a sufficiently large area with respect to the liquid crystal plate 23 is provided as a light attenuation means, the present invention is not limited to this, and as an optical device 40, as shown in FIG. A liquid crystal polarizing filter 41 having the same size as the liquid crystal plate 23 is provided in front of the liquid crystal plate 23, and the amount of external light L13 that enters from the peripheral visual field ARO between the polarizing beam splitter 22 and the eyeball 25 is reduced to 50%. A peripheral polarization filter 42 that emits light may be provided. As shown in FIG. 9, the peripheral polarizing filter 42 has a shape obtained by cutting out a region corresponding to the virtual image visual field ARI, and deflects the external light L13 transmitted from the peripheral visual field ARO, and compares the external light L13 before transmission. The light intensity is then reduced to 50%.

In the optical device 40, the control circuit section 1
3, when you want to check the outside scene, as in the above embodiment, when you turn the transmittance control switch 39 to "off", the external light L12 is transmitted from the virtual image field ARI to the eyeball 25 through the liquid crystal polarizing filter 41 and the liquid crystal plate 23. and the polarizing beam splitter 22. At this time, the amount of external light L13 that enters the eyeball 25 from the peripheral visual field ARO is shown in FIG.
As shown in 0, the light has been reduced to 50% compared to before transmission.

On the other hand, the amount of external light L13 incident on the eyeball 25 from the peripheral visual field ARO is reduced to 50% when passing through the peripheral attenuation filter 42. This allows the wearer to see the peripheral vision area AR even in the outside world of the virtual image visual field ARI.
Since the difference in the amount of light cannot be recognized even in the external scene of
The situation of external scene O can be visually observed without being conscious of the existence of scene O.

Furthermore, in the case of this embodiment, a case has been described in which the peripheral polarizing filter 42 is provided between the polarizing beam splitter 22 and the eyeball 25, but the present invention is not limited to this. The same effect can be obtained even if it is provided between the terminal 23 and the like.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, a case has been described in which a polarization control type display 18 is used as a display for displaying an externally inputted video signal.
The present invention is not limited to this, and can be widely applied to a display in which a polarizing filter for polarizing incident light into S waves is disposed in front of a cathode ray tube (CRT).

Furthermore, in the above-described embodiment, a case will be described in which the polarizing beam splitter 22 is one that totally reflects S waves incident from above and horizontally, and totally transmits P waves incident from above and horizontally. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and it is also possible to use a device that completely transmits S waves and totally reflects P waves. In such a case, the display 18 may use one that polarizes the image light L10 to be projected into P waves, and the polarizing plates 24, 41, and 42 may be replaced with ones that polarize the incident light into S waves.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the liquid crystal plate 2
Although the present invention is not limited to this, the portion of the virtual image viewing area ARI is provided with a deflection filter 24 for deflecting incident light into a P-wave in front of the lens 3, and the portion of the peripheral viewing area ARO is provided with a deflection filter 24. Alternatively, a light attenuation filter that reduces the amount of incident light to 50% may be used.

Furthermore, in the above-described embodiments, a case has been described in which a polarizing filter is used as the peripheral polarizing filter 42, but in the present invention, a neutral density filter may be used instead. Further, in the above-described embodiments, a case has been described in which a video tape recorder is used as the video signal reproducing device 13B, but the present invention is not limited to this, and can be widely applied to various cases such as when supplying video signals from a video camera. can do.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, a case was described in which the display 18 was disposed above the spectacle body 11, but the present invention is not limited to this. The tilt of the deflection beam splitter may be reversed to guide the image light to the eyeball 25. Further, in the above-described embodiment, the case where the optical device 12 is attached to the eyeglass body 11 has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this, and can be widely applied to anything having such an optical system.

[0045]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the invention, the virtual image visual field and The difference in the amount of external light incident from the peripheral visual field can be reduced, and as a result, the outside scenery can be viewed without being conscious of the liquid crystal shutter located in the virtual image visual field. Further, according to the second invention, by providing a polarized light control type display and a polarization spectrometer that totally reflects polarized image light, the image displayed on the display can be completely reflected toward the wearer. It is possible to prevent others from knowing the contents of the virtual image.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of an optical device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side sectional view for explaining the optical device according to the example.

FIG. 3 is a schematic optical path diagram for explaining the optical system of the optical device.

FIG. 4 is an optical path diagram for explaining an optical path when polarized light enters a polarizing beam splitter from above.

FIG. 5 is an optical path diagram for explaining the optical path when polarized light enters the polarizing beam splitter from the front.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram for explaining a control circuit.

FIG. 7 is a schematic optical path diagram for explaining incident external light when confirming an external scene.

FIG. 8 is a schematic optical path diagram for explaining an optical device according to another embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a schematic perspective view for explaining a peripheral polarizing filter.

FIG. 10 is a schematic optical path diagram for explaining an optical path according to another embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a schematic side sectional view for explaining the optical system of a conventional optical device.

[Explanation of symbols]

10... Optical device system, 11... Glasses body, 12...
...Optical device, 13...Control circuit unit, 18...Display, 19...Reflector, 22...Polarizing beam splitter,
22A...Glass substrate, 22B...Dielectric multilayer film, 23
...Liquid crystal plate, 24...Polarizing filter, l10, l11,
l12...Optical axis.

Claims (2)

[Claims] Claim 1: An image projected on a display is reflected through an optical system including one or more lenses and a spectroscopic means disposed on the visual axis, and is reflected into a virtual image viewing area at a predetermined viewing angle. In an optical device that allows the virtual image of the image to be recognized and also causes the virtual image viewing area to recognize the virtual image and/or the external scenery of the virtual image viewing area by switching and controlling an incident light control means disposed on the visual axis. . An optical device comprising: a light attenuating means for attenuating external light entering from the peripheral visual field into a peripheral visual field around the virtual image visual field. 2. The display has a polarizing means for polarizing the image, and the spectroscopic means has a polarizing type spectroscopic means for totally reflecting the image polarized by the polarizing means. The optical device according to scope 1.