JPH05168047A - Video camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain the video camera for stereoscopic video shooting for which the quantity of light is not decreased and the structure is made simple and low-priced. CONSTITUTION:An image corresponding to a left eye is fetched through a through glass part 14 and defined as the image in a certain field by rotating a rotary mirror 13, where the through glass part 14 and a mirror part 15 alternately appear, synchronously to a video signal by a motor 16 and next, an image corresponding to a right eye reflected by a fixed mirror 12 from a horizontal direction is reflected by the mirror part 15, fetched and defined as the image in the next field. Thus, video signals for stereoscopic viewing alternately switching the image for left eye and the image for right eye are obtained without using any liquid crystal shutter or the like which is expensive and complicated and decreases the quantity of light.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a video camera for taking a stereoscopic image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a stereoscopic visual device (viewer), the present applicant filed a prior application (Japanese Patent Application No. 3-256836).
Proposed a 3D-compatible visual device that can be configured by using two liquid crystal display panels and adding a simple circuit. In this visual device, an image for the left eye (L) is displayed on a liquid crystal display panel for viewing with the left eye, and an image for the right eye (R) is displayed on a liquid crystal display panel for viewing with the right eye. The images for use were viewed by the left and right eyes and combined in the head to enable stereoscopic viewing. Therefore, such a stereoscopic vision device requires a video signal whose L / R is switched for each field. Further, in order to make full use of the functions of such a stereoscopic vision device, it is needless to say that stereoscopic video software is prepared and provided, but it is also necessary for the user to be able to easily shoot stereoscopic video.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of a video camera capable of outputting the above-described stereoscopic video signal. 101 is a video camera body, 102L and 102R are mirrors, 103
L and 3R are half mirrors, and 104R and 104L are liquid crystal shutters. In this configuration example, mirrors 102L and 102R are arranged with a space between the left eye and the right eye of a human, and half mirrors 104L and 104R are arranged so as to intersect at the center thereof, and the common reflection of the half mirrors 104L and 104R. One video camera body 101 is arranged so that the objective lens is located on the optical path.

The imaging light for the left eye is reflected by the mirror 102L, transmitted through the half mirror 104R, reflected by the half mirror 104L, and incident on the video camera body 101. In addition, the imaging light for the right eye is reflected by the mirror 102R, transmitted through the half mirror 104L, and reflected by the half mirror 104R, so that the video camera main body 10 is obtained.
It is incident on 1. Liquid crystal shutters 103L and 10L are provided on the optical paths of both of these (between the mirror and the half mirror).
The 3Rs are arranged, and the light blocking / transmission is controlled in a contradictory manner alternately for each field of the video signal, and the video signal whose L / R is switched for each field can be output.

[0005]

However, in the video camera for so-called stereoscopic image capturing according to the above-mentioned conventional technique, since the liquid crystal shutter and the half mirror are used, the amount of light is inevitably reduced and it becomes dark, so various operations such as applying a light are performed. Was needed, and the system was complicated, heavy, and expensive.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a video camera for stereoscopic image capturing which has a simple and inexpensive structure without a decrease in light amount.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, in the video camera of the present invention, the images corresponding to the left eye and the right eye are switched and output for each field of the video signal. In a so-called 3D video camera, the disk-shaped entire circumference is divided into 2N with N being an integer, and every other half of the divided portion is a reflecting mirror and the rest is a transparent portion. Part is obliquely arranged in front of the lens part of the video camera body, and F is rotated at F / (2N) as a field frequency by a motor synchronized with the video signal of the video camera body, and is passed from the front through the plain part. An optical system is provided in which an image and an image reflected in a direction parallel to the image in a lateral direction by a reflecting means and then reflected by a reflecting mirror of the rotating plate are alternately incident on the lens portion of the video camera body. It is characterized in that.

[0008]

In the video camera of the present invention, one of the images corresponding to the left eye and the right eye is made to pass through the transparent portion by rotating the rotating plate in which the transparent portion and the reflecting mirror portion appear alternately in synchronization with the video signal. Captured and made an image of a certain field, then the other side of the image from the lateral direction reflected by the reflecting means is reflected by the reflecting mirror portion and taken in,
A video signal for stereoscopic viewing is obtained as an image of the next field.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the structure of an embodiment of the present invention. The present embodiment is an example in which an adapter is attached in front of a lens of a normal video camera to form a video camera for stereoscopic image capturing of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a front window, 2 is an adapter housing (hereinafter simply referred to as a housing), 3 is a stay, 4 is a normal video camera, 12 is a fixed mirror,
A rotating mirror 13 includes half a transparent glass portion (hereinafter abbreviated as a glass portion) 14 and a half mirror portion 15.
Reference numeral 6 is a motor, 17 is a magnet, 18 is a PG (pulse generator) coil, 19 is an objective lens (hereinafter simply referred to as a lens) of the video camera 4, and 20 is a counter balancer. 2 is a perspective view of the rotary mirror 13 seen from the lens 19 side.

In the above structure, the rotary mirror 13 is
One half of the disk-shaped mirror is peeled off (or omitted) from the silver plating to leave it as is, and half is used as the mirror portion 15 and half as the glass portion 14. The disc-shaped rotary mirror 13 is arranged such that the center thereof is fixed to the rotation shaft of the motor 16 and the disc-shaped half part is located in a laterally inclined position on the front surface of the lens 19 of the video camera 4. There is. In this case, the surface of the mirror portion 15 facing the lens 19 side is a total reflection mirror. On the other hand, the fixed mirror 12 is also composed of a total reflection mirror, and is arranged in parallel with the rotating mirror 13 and the optical axis thereof is separated by a distance W with its reflecting surface inclined to the rotating mirror 13 side. This W is the distance between the human right eye and the left eye and is approximately 65 mm. Rotating mirror 1
A magnet 17 is attached to the back side of the mirror portion 15 of 3,
PG coil 18 fixed at the position where this magnet 17 crosses
The position can be detected by. At the edge of the glass portion 14 located at the opposite end of the magnet 17,
A counter balancer 20 is attached to cancel the weight of the magnet 17 around the rotation axis of the motor 16.

With the above structure, the optical axis L which enters the lens 19 through the glass portion 14 and the optical axis which is reflected by the fixed mirror 12 and the mirror portion 15 and enters the lens 19 depending on the rotational position of the rotary mirror 13. R is formed. These optical axes are separated by the distance W as described above, and the light from the subject is stored in a position in the housing 2 where the light passes through the front window 1.

Next, the mounting structure of the adapter and the video camera thus constructed will be described. 3, FIG. 4, FIG. 5, FIG. 6, and FIG. 7 are perspective views showing the structure,
3 is a front view, FIG. 4 is a rear view, FIG. 5 is a front view of the adapter removed from the video camera, FIG. 6 is a rear view thereof, and FIG. 7 is a stay. It is the figure seen from below.

In these figures, 1 is a front window, 2 is
Is a housing, 3 is a stay, 4 is a video camera, 5 is a connector, 6 is a video camera output terminal on the adapter side, 7 is a positioning pin, 8 is a tripod screw, 8a is a tripod screw head, and 9 is a camera lens hole. Reference numeral 10 denotes a convex portion, and 11 denotes a video output terminal on the video camera 4 side.

As shown in FIG. 3, the adapter housed in the housing 2 is attached by the stay 3 in front of the video camera 4 (objective lens side) with the front window 1 facing forward (object side). Further, as shown in FIG. 4, a connector 5 to be inserted into the video output terminal 11 of the video camera 4 and a video output terminal 6 are provided on a part of the back surface of the housing 2. The connector 5 is for taking in a video signal in order to rotate the rotating mirror 13 described above in synchronization with the video signal, and the video output terminal 6 is a video output terminal of the video camera 4 which the user can connect by connecting the connector 5. 11 is an alternative terminal provided so that 11 cannot be used for a monitor.

As shown in FIGS. 5, 6, and 7, the stay 3
Is integrally formed with the housing 2, the positioning pin 7 is planted upward, and the mounting screw 8 does not fall off. The lower part is a screw head 8a, and the screw part is projected upward. It is installed. The adapter uses the positioning pin 7 of the stay 3 and the tripod screw 8, and the tripod screw head 8
It is fixed to the video camera side by tightening a. As shown in FIG. 6, a camera lens hole 9 is formed on the side of the video camera 4 of the housing 2, and a convex portion 1 is formed on the edge thereof.
0 is provided. The convex portion 10 is fitted into the collar portion of the objective lens of the video camera 4 with the snap ring so that the positioning can be performed.

Next, the structure of the optical system of the above embodiment will be described. FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure. The motor 16 is rotated 30 times per second (when the NTSC signal is used),
The rotating mirror 13 detects the position of the magnet 17 by the PG coil 18, so that the joint between the glass portion 14 and the mirror portion 15 is accurately located in the vertical blanking period of the video signal of the video camera by the circuit portion described below. Servo controlled. Now, the transparent glass part 1 of the rotating mirror 13
When 4 is in front of the video camera lens 19, the image L of the left eye is captured by the video camera 4. When the mirror unit 15 arrives, the image R of the right eye from the lateral direction reflected by the mirror 12 is reflected and photographed. These images R and L
The optical axes of and are separated by W (about 65 mm) as described above. Therefore, the shooting distance (distance between F _R and F _L ) from the subject to the L and R images is 65 mm (=
W) It will be different, but it is actually 80 cm from the subject
Since the images are taken at a distance above each other, it may be considered as an error range. 21
Is a printed circuit board on which a circuit unit for servo control and video signal processing is mounted.

Next, the configuration of the circuit section of the above embodiment will be described. FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the configuration. In the figure, 22 is a video signal processing circuit, 23 is a servo circuit, 2
Reference numeral 4 denotes a motor drive amplifier, and these circuits are mounted on the printed board 21 described above. The other members are the same as the members with the same reference numerals shown in FIGS. 1 and 6 and 8.

The video signal processing circuit 22 inputs a video signal from the connector 5, relays the video signal to the video output terminal 6, and performs sync separation to perform a vertical sync signal (signal) between the right image field and the left image field. FH) is output to the servo circuit 23. The servo circuit 23 has a PG for detecting the position of the magnet 17 attached to the rotating mirror 13.
The detection output PG of the coil 18 is input. Servo circuit 2
3 performs servo control of the DC motor 16 that rotates the rotating mirror 13 via the drive amplifier 24 so that a predetermined relationship between the timings of the two signals FH and PG is maintained.

FIG. 10 is a time chart for explaining the operation of the servo control in FIG. The video signal output from the video camera and input to the video signal processing circuit 22 is configured such that the field for transmitting the left image L and the field for transmitting the right image R are alternately repeated. Here, the detection output PG of the PG coil 18 is detected when the transparent glass portion 14 is positioned in front of the lens of the video camera, that is, when the left image L is being photographed, so that an odd or even field is identified. Then, when the right image R is switched to the left image L
The signals are compared and the rotation of the DC motor 16 is controlled so that the timing time difference T between them becomes a predetermined value. Above T
The value of is a value at which the joint between the glass portion 14 and the mirror portion 15 is accurately located in the vertical blanking period of the video signal, and is determined by the mounting position of the magnet 17. By the servo control described above, a video signal in which the left image L and the right image R are placed in exactly alternating fields can be obtained.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an optical system showing the configuration. Of the components in the figure, 25 and 26 represent fixed mirrors for total reflection, and the other components are the same as the components having the same reference numerals in the embodiment of the optical system shown in FIG. In this example,
The rotating mirror 13 and the fixed mirror 12 are arranged in the same manner as in the embodiment of FIG. The mirror 25 is arranged in front of the optical axis passing through the transparent portion of the rotating mirror 13 so as to be tilted opposite to the surface of the rotating mirror 13, and the mirror 26 is arranged parallel to the surface of the mirror 25. The reflecting surface of the mirror 25 faces the mirror 26 and the objective lens 19 side of the video camera 4, and the reflecting surface of the mirror 26 faces the subject and the mirror 25 side. The light of the right image is reflected by the mirror 12 and the rotating mirror 13 and enters the lens 19. On the other hand, the light in the left image is reflected by the mirror 26 and the mirror 2.
The light is reflected at 5 and enters the lens 19. The distance between these two parallel optical axes L and R is equal to the distance between the human eyes (about 65
cm) W. Also, from the mirror 26 to the lens 1
The mirrors 26 and 12 are arranged so that the optical path length reaching 9 and the optical path length reaching from the mirror 12 to the lens 19 are equal. With such a configuration, the shooting distances from the subject to the lens 19 on the L side and the R side described in the description of the embodiment of FIG. 8 can be made equal.

The rotary mirror 13 of FIG. 2 used in each of the above embodiments is preferably provided with an antireflection coating on its surface. By this coating, when the transparent glass portion 14 of the rotating mirror 13 comes in front of the lens 19, it is possible to prevent the light on the R side from being reflected by the glass surface and entering the lens 19.

In the rotary mirror 13 of FIG. 2, the glass portion 14 is omitted except for the mirror portion 15, and instead an edge portion is formed by a wire 27 as shown in the example of FIG. 12, and a counter balancer 20 is provided in the middle thereof. It can be attached.

Other examples of the structure of the rotating mirror include those shown in FIGS. 13 and 14. The rotating mirror 13a of FIG.
4a and the mirror portion 15a are alternately formed. The rotary mirror 13b of FIG. 14 is a disk-shaped aluminum mirror divided into four, and a hole is made in a portion corresponding to the transparent glass portion of FIG. The part 14a and the two mirror parts 15b are formed. In the examples of FIGS. 13 and 14, the position detecting magnets are provided on the back surfaces of the two mirror portions, and therefore a balanced counter balancer is not necessary. In this case, the number of rotations of the motor 16 is 15 rotations (N since one rotation corresponds to a video signal of 2 frames (4 fields).
(For TSC signal).

Generally, 2N (N =
1, 2, 3 ...), and the other half of which is used as a mirror part and the rest as a plain part can be used, and this is synchronized with a video signal to obtain F / (2N) ( F:
Field frequency, 60Hz for NTSC signal, PAL
The signal may be rotated at 50 Hz).

In the configuration examples shown in FIGS. 12 and 14, only the holes are formed in the transparent portion, so that there is no concern that the light on the R side will enter when photographing on the L side.

In each of the above embodiments, the magnet 17
By controlling the stop of the motor 16 so that the transparent portion of the rotary mirror 13 can be stopped in front of the lens 19 by using the position detection of the rotary mirror 13, normal shooting is possible without the stereoscopic image (3D) with the adapter attached. Can be

In the video camera, the so-called "electronic shutter circuit" is turned on to shorten the image recording time, that is, the image capturing time in the image pickup device such as CCD, and the image capturing time is lengthened. The switching between the left image L and the right image R can be more surely obscured.

Furthermore, the present invention is not of the adapter type,
It goes without saying that it may be realized as an integrated unit with a normal video camera. As described above, the present invention can be applied in various ways in accordance with the gist thereof and can take various embodiments.

[0030]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the video camera for taking stereoscopic images of the present invention, (1) the structure is simple, so that it can be supplied to the customer as an inexpensive adapter.

(2) Since it can be constructed by a combination of total reflection mirrors, the reduction of the light quantity is extremely small.

The following advantages can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a rotating mirror used in the above-described embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the mounting structure of the above embodiment as seen from the front.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the mounting structure seen from the rear side.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the adapter of the above embodiment as seen from the front.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the same adapter seen from the rear.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the stay of the adapter seen from below.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of the optical system of the above embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a circuit section of the above embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a time chart for explaining the operation of the circuit section.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of an optical system showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a perspective view showing another configuration example of the rotating mirror used in each of the above embodiments.

FIG. 13 is a perspective view showing another configuration example of the above rotary mirror.

FIG. 14 is a perspective view showing yet another configuration example of the rotating mirror.

FIG. 15 is a configuration diagram showing a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Front window, 2 ... Adapter housing, 3 ... Stay, 4 ...
Video camera, 5 ... Connector, 8 ... Tripod screw, 12 ...
Fixed mirror, 13 ... Rotating mirror, 14 ... Transparent glass part (clear part), 15 ... Glass part, 16 ... Motor, 17 ...
Magnet, 18 ... PG coil, 19 ... Objective lens, 22 ... Video signal processing circuit, 23 ... Servo circuit, 24 ... Drive amplifier, 25 ... Fixed mirror, 26 ... Fixed mirror.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Yoshio Kondo 6-735 Kitashinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Sony Corporation

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A video camera for so-called stereoscopic imaging, which switches and outputs images corresponding to the left eye and the right eye for each field of a video signal, and a disc-shaped entire circumference is N Is an integer and is divided into 2N, and every other half of the divided portion is a reflecting mirror, and the other half is a transparent portion. A half portion of a rotating plate is diagonally arranged in front of the lens portion of the video camera body. F is the field frequency and F / (2
N), the image from the front through the transparent portion and the image horizontally reflected by the reflecting means in the direction parallel thereto and then reflected by the reflecting mirror of the rotating plate are the lenses of the video camera body. A video camera having an optical system that allows light to be alternately incident on a section. 2. The video camera according to claim 1, wherein
The optical path length in front of the rotating plate is changed so that the optical path from the subject entering the video camera main body from the front of the rotating plate is equal to the optical path from the subject entering laterally via the reflecting means. A video camera characterized in that it is provided with means and extended. 3. The video camera according to claim 1, wherein the optical system is detachably attached to the video camera body. 4. The video camera according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein normal shooting is possible with the stop position of the rotary plate in front of the lens section as a transparent portion. 5. The video camera according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein an electronic shutter circuit of the video camera body is operated to shorten an image pickup time for each field of a video signal so that the left eye and the right eye. A video camera characterized by ensuring switching of images corresponding to.