JPH04360394A - Parallax correction device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To realize the parallax correction device which easily corrects horizontal and vertical parallax of a stereo picture after being picked up by a camera and able to generate a proper stereoscopic picture. CONSTITUTION:A parallax detection section 3 detects horizontal and vertical parallax of a left picture 1 and a right picture 2 and gives them to a CPU 4. The CPU 4 uses the given horizontal and vertical parallax to control a write or read position of scan converters 5,6 so that the parallax of left and right pictures is a prescribed parallax thereby obtaining a stereoscopic picture signal formed within a range of proper parallax.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

[Field of Industrial Application] This invention relates to a parallax correction device,
In particular, in image engineering, the present invention relates to a parallax correction device that corrects parallax between left and right images when displaying a stereoscopic image.

0002

[Prior art and problems to be solved by the invention] Figure 5
1 is a diagram showing an example of a conventional time-division stereoscopic image presentation device. Referring to FIG. 5, the left image is set as a first field, the right image is set as a second field, and each field is switched alternately in time and displayed on a television monitor,
An observer 11 wears glasses in which liquid crystal shutters 12 are placed in front of the left and right eyes, respectively, to view the image. At this time, the left and right liquid crystal shutters 12 are driven in synchronization with the image signal. That is, when an image for the right eye is displayed on the television monitor, the liquid crystal shutter for the left eye is driven to a state in which no light passes through, and the liquid crystal shutter for the right eye is driven to a state in which light passes. Furthermore, when an image for the right eye is displayed on the television monitor, the left and right sides are reversed. Since the two left and right images are taken with two cameras placed horizontally on the left and right, binocular parallax occurs, and by merging these images with both eyes, a three-dimensional image with apparent depth is created. Stereo images are obtained.

However, in such stereo images, there are limits to horizontal and vertical parallax at the time when people are fused.
If this value is exceeded, stereo vision and fused vision become impossible, resulting in double images and fatigue for the observer. Images that are inappropriate due to the parallax setting being too large will be a major hindrance when viewing stereo images, but parallax is determined by the directions of the two cameras when photographing a subject with a stereo camera. , correction could not be made.

[0004] Therefore, the main object of the present invention is to provide a parallax correction device that can easily correct the horizontal and vertical parallax of a stereo image recorded by a camera and can generate an appropriate stereoscopic image. .

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention is a parallax correction device, which comprises parallax detection means for detecting horizontal and vertical parallax using characteristic regions of left and right images of a stereo image;
A scan converter writes and reads the left and right image signals, calculates the difference between the detected parallax and the target parallax, and controls the write or read position of the scan converter according to the calculation result to correct the parallax between the left and right images. and a control means for achieving a predetermined parallax.

[0006]

[Operation] The parallax correction device according to the present invention detects the horizontal and vertical parallax between the left and right images forming a stereo image, and adjusts the writing or reading position of the scan converter according to the detected output, thereby correcting the right eye. The display position of the left eye image is adjusted by parallel movement, and horizontal and vertical parallaxes are adjusted.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the scan converter shown in FIG. 1.

Referring to FIG. 1, left image 1 and right image 2 are respectively provided to parallax detection section 3, left image 1 is provided to scan converter 5, and right image 2 is provided to scan converter 6. The parallax detection unit 3 extracts a characteristic region K from the left image 1 and the right image 2 shown in FIG. 3, which will be described later, and calculates the parallax between the left and right images in the region K. This extraction method may be such that a portion of the image signal with many high frequency components is detected and extracted automatically, or a person may directly provide the extraction position to the parallax detection unit 3. The parallax detection unit 3 calculates the cross-correlation value between the left and right images to determine which position in either the left image 1 or the right image 2 the other image should be moved in parallel to match the two images. The horizontal parallax and vertical parallax are calculated and provided to the CPU 4. The CPU 4 uses the calculation results of the parallax detection unit 3 to
The write position or read position of the scan converters 5 and 6 is controlled so that the vertical parallax and horizontal parallax become predetermined values.

The scan converter 5 converts the left image 1 as shown in FIG. 2(a) to, for example, double the frame rate as shown in FIG. 2(b), and outputs it to the left/right image switching device 7. Further, the scan converter 6 converts the right image 2 as shown in FIG. 2(c) to, for example, double the frame speed as shown in FIG. 2(d), and outputs it to the left/right image switching device 7. The left and right image switching device 7 alternately selects the left image and the right image that have been subjected to frame conversion twice, and outputs them in the manner shown in FIG. 2(e).

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the parallax between left and right images, and FIG. 4 is a timing diagram of horizontal and vertical parallax correction.

Next, the specific operation of one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4. The parallax detection unit 3 detects the parallax between the left image 1 and the right image 2. That is, for example, as shown in FIG. 3, if left image 1 and right image 2 are displayed superimposed on television monitor 8, left image 1 and right image 2 will be shifted by the amount of parallax in that area. There is. The parallax detection unit 3 extracts a horizontal component X and a vertical component Y of parallax from characteristic regions of the left image 1 and the right image 2.

Here, as a method for detecting parallax, there is a method of calculating the correlation between left and right images. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, pixels gL(xi, yi) (left eye image) and gR(xi, yi) (right ophthalmic image), i
Correlation is calculated for =1, 2...N (N is the number of pixels). Then, the correlation is calculated when the area K of the image of one eye is translated by (Xk, Yk), and the value of (Xk, Yk) that indicates the highest correlation value (in this case, the smallest value) is calculated.
is the parallax. Expressed using the formula number 1,

[0013]

[Math 1]

Parallax (X, Y) = (Xk, Yk) fo
r minS(Xk, Yk). Here, S (Xk, Yk) is (Xk
, Yk) is a function indicating the correlation between the left and right images.

The CPU 4 uses the horizontal parallax and vertical parallax given from the parallax detection section 3 to control the writing position or reading position of the scan converters 5 and 6 so that the vertical parallax and horizontal parallax become pre-given values. . A timing diagram of read position control is shown in FIG. The control equation is as follows.

[0016] (When using left image 1 as a reference) ΔX=Dx
−X ΔY=Dy−Y Here, ΔX and ΔY indicate the magnitude of the displacement of the write position (or read position) of the scan converter 6 for the right image 2, and Dx and Dy are the predetermined horizontal displacements. , vertical parallax, and X and Y are horizontal and vertical deviation amounts due to parallel movement of the left and right images calculated by the parallax detection unit 3. As a result, the horizontal parallax and vertical parallax between the left and right images in the predetermined area K are set to predetermined magnitudes. Alternatively, the left and right images of the area extracted without using the parallax detection unit 3 can be superimposed and displayed, and a person can move one image in parallel while looking at the images to adjust the horizontal and vertical parallax. You can.

As described above, the left and right images whose horizontal and vertical parallax amounts have been controlled are converted into serial time-division stereoscopic image signals by a left and right image switching device (not shown). This is displayed on a television monitor, and the viewer observes the right-eye and left-eye images independently through glasses with liquid crystal shutters to obtain a stereoscopic image.

Note that the system according to the present invention can be used not only for such a time-sharing stereoscopic image presentation apparatus but also for other stereoscopic images that use left and right images independently, by using the outputs of the left and right scan converters 5 and 6. It can also be used for presentation devices (polarization type, anaglyph type, etc.).

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, horizontal and vertical parallaxes are detected using characteristic regions of left and right images, and the difference between the detected parallax and the target parallax is calculated.
The writing or reading position of the scan converter is controlled according to the calculation result, and the parallax between the left and right images is controlled to be a predetermined parallax, so the horizontal and vertical parallax between the left and right images in a stereoscopic image can be corrected. , it is possible to easily obtain natural 3D images that are easy to fuse.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the scan converter shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the parallax between left and right images.

FIG. 4 is a timing diagram of horizontal and vertical parallax correction.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a conventional time-division stereoscopic image presentation device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Left image 2 Right image 3 Parallax detection section 4 CPU 5, 6 Scan converter

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Parallax detection means for detecting horizontal and vertical parallax using characteristic regions of left and right images of a stereo image, a scan converter for writing and reading out the left and right image signals, and the parallax detection means. A control means for calculating the difference between the parallax detected by and the target parallax, and controlling the writing or reading position of the scan converter according to the calculation result so that the parallax between the left and right images becomes a predetermined parallax. What is claimed is: 1. A parallax correction device, characterized in that it obtains a stereoscopic image signal configured within an appropriate parallax range.