JPH0530504A - Image display/pickup device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the quality of picked-up image and to obtain the picked-up image filled with presence by an image display/pickup device capable of attaining the coincidence of visual fields. CONSTITUTION:A picked-up image with twice as much as the brightness of a conventional method is obtained by reflecting incident light from an object M to two directions by a semi-transparent mirror 3 arranged in the front of a display device 1, picking up the images of respective reflected beams by respective image pickup deices 2A, 2B and then superposing respective image by an image processor 9.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a display / image pickup device in which a display device and an image pickup device used in a TV telephone, a TV conference system or the like are combined.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, two-way video communication such as a TV telephone and a TV conference system in which remote places are connected by a video / audio communication network has rapidly spread due to the development of communication technology such as image coding technology. .. In the future, it is expected that a more realistic video service can be provided by enhancing the ISDN network and increasing the bandwidth of the transmission network.

FIG. 8 shows a display / imaging device currently used for two-way video communication. The image pickup device 2 is on the upper surface or the side surface of the display device 1 such as a CRT display, and picks up an image of the user. However, since a person who uses such a device normally looks at the display device 1, the user does not look at the image capturing device 2 even when the image capturing device 2 captures an image. Therefore, there is a drawback in that even if it is possible to transmit a highly realistic image, it becomes an unnatural conversation in which the line of sight of the interlocutors do not match. In addition, M is a user (subject).

Therefore, in order to construct a small-sized and inexpensive display / imaging device which realizes line-of-sight matching, a method of forming a semi-transparent mirror 20 by combining a plurality of minute semi-transparent mirrors has been devised (see Japanese Patent Application No. 2-273400). ). FIG. 9 shows a cross-sectional view of the semi-transparent mirror 20 in which the micro semi-transparent mirrors are combined, and FIG. 9 and 10, a large number of minute semitransparent mirrors 22 tilted at an angle θ with respect to the surface of the transparent substrate 21 are formed on the transparent substrate 21 to form a semitransparent mirror 20. Reference numeral 23 indicates a side wall. Further, d is the depth of the semi-transparent mirror 20, W is the width of the micro semi-transparent mirror 12, and φ is the inclination of the side wall 13. With such a configuration, as shown in the figure, a part of the incident light is reflected in a certain angle 2θ direction. At this time, since the width W of the minute semi-transparent mirror 22 can be made small, the depth d becomes small, and the size of the display / imaging device can be made smaller than that of the conventional method of tilting the semi-transparent mirror.

[0005]

However, when an image is picked up by using the semi-transparent mirror 20, if the reflectance of the reflecting surface is made sufficiently large, the display screen becomes dark, so it is necessary to keep the reflectance of the reflecting surface low. is there. Therefore, there is a drawback that the brightness of the captured image becomes low and the image quality of the captured image deteriorates. Further, in the case of the semi-transparent mirror 20 composed of the micro semi-transparent mirror 22 shown in FIG.
In some cases, a part of the reflected light is diffusely reflected by the side wall 23, which causes deterioration of the captured image.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and is a display / imaging device for use in a TV telephone, a TV conference system, etc., which realizes line-of-sight matching by combining a plurality of small semi-transparent mirrors. It is an object of the present invention to improve the image quality of a captured image and provide a captured image that is more realistic.

[0007]

A display / imaging device according to the present invention has a structure of reflecting light in a plurality of directions, and a plurality of imaging devices are used for imaging.

[0008]

In the present invention, a plurality of reflected images can be picked up. By superposing these picked-up images, high brightness and high resolution can be achieved and the image quality of picked-up images can be improved. In addition, since it can be applied as a display / imaging device for stereoscopic display using parallax, it is possible to display an image with a more realistic feeling.

[0009]

1 is a sectional view of a semi-transparent mirror 3 used in a display / imaging device of the present invention. Compared to the conventional semi-transparent mirror 20 shown in FIG. 9, the micro semi-transparent mirrors 5 and 6 have different inclining directions, and the micro semi-transparent mirrors are arranged on the transparent substrate 4 so that the image of the subject is reflected upward and downward in the figure. 5 and 6 are configured. further,
By appropriately selecting the angles of the inclinations θ and θ ′ of the micro-semi-transparent mirrors 5 and 6, the side wall 2 as in the conventional example of FIG.
Diffuse reflection and the like at 3 can be eliminated.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a display / imaging device according to the present invention using the semi-transparent mirror 3 of FIG. The image of subject M is
The display device 1 reflects the light upward and downward by the semi-transparent mirror 3.
The images are picked up by the image pickup devices 2A and 2B installed above and below. The image processing device 9 performs a process of superimposing the images captured by the image capturing devices 2A and 2B. As a result, the brightness is doubled as compared with the conventional one, and higher brightness can be achieved.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of another embodiment of the display / imaging device according to the present invention. However, unlike FIG. 2, FIG. 3 is not a view seen from the side of the apparatus but a view seen from above. FIG. 2 shows an example in which the image of the subject M is reflected in the vertical direction of the semi-transparent mirror 3. However, by changing the configuration of the minute semi-transparent mirrors 5, 6, the image of the subject M can also be reflected in the horizontal direction as shown in FIG. You can

Further, by combining two picked-up images, high resolution can be achieved. For example, by superimposing the images A and B captured by the imaging devices 2A and 2B as shown in FIG. 4, it is possible to display the image C having an apparently double resolution.

The embodiment shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 shows the case where the image of the subject M is reflected in two directions. However, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, the number of reflection directions is changed by devising the structure of the minute semi-transparent mirror. Here is an example that makes it possible to increase 5 (a) is a front view, FIG. 5 (b) is an enlarged view of the circle area, FIG. 5 (c) is a side view, and FIG. 5 (d) is a top view. Unlike Figure 1,
The micro-semitransparent mirrors 5, 6, 7, and 8 are formed in a quadrangular pyramid shape, and the quadrangular pyramids are arranged in a grid pattern. In such a configuration, the reflection directions can be branched into four directions by reflection on the surfaces of the minute semi-transparent mirrors 5, 6, 7 and 8 in the figure. for that reason,
As compared with the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the image quality of the captured image can be further improved. In this case, it goes without saying that four imaging devices 2 are also used.

FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of a display / imaging device for stereoscopic display according to the present invention. Unlike the above-described embodiment, the stereoscopic display device 10 is used as the display device, and the image pickup devices 2A and 2B capture images for stereoscopic display. One of the principles of stereoscopic display is a method that uses binocular parallax. This is a method in which stereoscopic display is performed using images simultaneously captured by two image capturing devices 2A and 2B installed on the front right and left front of the subject M. In this embodiment, the semi-transparent mirror 3 is used as in FIG.
As a result, the image of the subject M is reflected in the left-right direction, and thus the parallax of these reflected images can be used to capture image data for stereoscopic display. When a plurality of image pickup devices 2A and 2B are installed on the left and right side surfaces of the stereoscopic display device 10 as shown in FIG. 7A, the parallax angle ψ also increases as the display screen size of the stereoscopic display device 10 increases. Therefore, the depth effect due to the parallax is emphasized too much, and it is difficult to combine the left-eye image and the right-eye image into one stereoscopic image in the brain, which causes a brain fatigue. But,
If the configuration of this embodiment is performed, the position of the image pickup apparatus in FIG. 7B can be arbitrarily set, so that image pickup can be performed with an appropriate parallax angle ψ, and the above-mentioned drawbacks are eliminated. As a result, it is possible to realize a display / imaging device capable of displaying a more realistic image as well as the line-of-sight matching.

Further, in the stereoscopic display device 10 using the lenticular sheet, if each surface of the lenticular lens is coated with a semi-transparent mirror, the lenticular sheet can also serve as the semi-transparent mirror 3 in FIG. It is possible to provide a display / imaging device for stereoscopic display.

[0016]

As described above, according to the present invention, the semi-transparent mirror has a structure in which reflected images are reflected in a plurality of directions, and further, a plurality of image pickup devices for respectively picking up the reflected images are provided. Since it is possible to capture a plurality of reflected images, by performing image processing for superimposing these images, it is possible to increase the brightness and resolution of the captured image and realize high image quality of the captured image. Furthermore, by configuring the micro semi-transparent mirror so that the image can be reflected in the left and right directions respectively, there is also an advantage that it can be applied to a display / imaging device for stereoscopic display that uses parallax, and a more realistic image can be obtained. It is possible to provide it.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a semi-transparent mirror used in a display / imaging device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a display / imaging device of the present invention using the semi-transparent mirror of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram showing another embodiment of the display / imaging device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an increase in resolution of the display / imaging device of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing another embodiment of the semi-transparent mirror used in the display / imaging device of the present invention.

6 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a display / imaging device capable of stereoscopic display of the present invention using the semi-transparent mirror of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining that an appropriate parallax angle ψ can be selected according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing an example of a conventional display / imaging device.

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of a semi-transparent mirror that is a combination of a plurality of minute semi-transparent mirrors used in a conventional display / imaging device.

10 is a configuration diagram of a display / imaging device using the semi-transparent mirror of FIG. 9 configured by combining a plurality of the micro-semi-transparent mirrors of FIG. 9.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Display Device 2A Imaging Device 2B Imaging Device 3 Semi-Transparent Mirror 4 Transparent Substrate 5 Micro Semi-Transparent Mirror 6 Micro Semi-Transparent Mirror 7 Micro Semi-Transparent Mirror 8 Micro Semi-Transparent Mirror 9 Image Processing Device

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Shigenobu Sakai 1-1-6 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Nihon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

Claims (1)

Claim: What is claimed is: 1. A display device, an image pickup device, and a semi-transparent mirror composed of a large number of minute semi-transparent mirrors. The semi-transparent mirror is installed on the front surface of the display device, and an object in front of the display device is displayed. In a display / imaging device that captures an image by the imaging device installed around the display device as a reflected image from the semi-transparent mirror, the semi-transparent mirror is configured to reflect the reflected image in a plurality of directions, and A display / imaging device comprising a plurality of imaging devices for respectively capturing images.