JPH0630406A - Display/image pickup device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To allow the visual lines of both interacting persons to coincide with each other, to simplify the constitution of a display/image pickup device capable of corresponding also to a large picture and to attain inexpensive price in a display/image pickup device to be used for a visual telephone, a conference system, and so on. CONSTITUTION:A projection type display device l is arranged in the opaque visual field direction of a screen 3 having both of transparent and opaque functions in accordance with a light incident angle to display a projection image. On the other hand, an image pickup device 2 is arranged on the transparent visual field direction to pick up the image of a user M observing the screen 3 through the screen 3. Thus coincidence between the visual lines of both interacting persons in bidirectional image communication or the like can simply be attained without switching of the screen state with time division.

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 or a TV conference system 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 locations 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. 7 shows a display / imaging device currently used for two-way video communication. In this example, display is performed on the display device 1 such as a CRT display, and the image pickup device 2 is arranged on the upper surface or the side surface of the display device 1 to pick up the image of the user M. However, a person M using such a device
Normally, since the user is looking at the display device 1, even if the image is taken by the image pickup device 2, the line of sight is not directed toward the image pickup device 2. 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.

Therefore, as a method capable of matching the lines of sight of the interlocutors and supporting a large screen display used in a TV conference system or the like, a screen 8 for switching the light transmission / scattering state as shown in FIG. 8 is used. A method to be used has been proposed (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-228893). In this system, the display screen 8 and the control device 9, the projection type display device 1, and the image pickup device 2 arranged close to the projection type display device 1 constitute an apparatus, and the screen 8 is in a scattered state. In this case, the screen projected by the projection display device 1 is displayed, and in the transmissive state, the image of the user M, who is a subject, is captured by the image capturing device 2 to achieve line-of-sight matching. The control device 9 switches the light transmission / scattering state and the display / imaging of the screen 8 described above.

[0005]

However, in the display / imaging system of FIG. 8 described above, it is necessary to switch the screen state at high speed in order to prevent the display screen and the imaging screen from flickering. An expensive control circuit 9 for controlling the projection type display device 1 and the imaging device 2 at high speed and a screen 8 capable of switching at high speed are indispensable. As a result, the structure of the device itself becomes complicated and the device itself becomes expensive.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to enable line-of-sight matching between interlocutors in a display / imaging device used in a TV telephone, a TV conference system or the like. The purpose of the invention is to simplify the configuration of the display / imaging device that can handle a large screen and realize a low price.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the display / imaging device of the present invention comprises a projection type display device, an imaging device and a screen, and the screen is the projection type display device and the imaging device. The projection type display is disposed in front of the device and has a function of transmitting or scattering light according to an incident angle, the imaging device is arranged in an incident angle direction of transmitting the light, and the projection display in the incident angle direction of scattering the light. The feature is that the device is arranged.

[0008]

In the display / imaging device of the present invention, a screen whose transparency and opacity can be controlled by the incident angle of light is used.
The projection image is displayed from the opaque direction, and at the same time, the subject is imaged through the screen from the transparent direction. In this way, line-of-sight matching can be simply realized without switching the state of the screen.

[0009]

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

[Embodiment 1] FIGS. 1A, 1B and 1C.
FIG. 7 is a side view of a screen used in the display / imaging device according to the first embodiment of the present invention. For the screen 3, a transparent substrate having a visual field selection function (for example, Angle 21 manufactured by Nippon Sheet Glass Co., Ltd., or Lumisty manufactured by Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd., etc. is currently on the market) is used. In the screen 3 having such a function, as shown in FIG. 1A, the transmitted light is scattered only in a certain viewing direction with respect to the viewpoint in front of the screen, so that it looks opaque. Therefore, when the viewpoint is below (viewpoint A in FIG. 1B), the entire transparent substrate becomes an opaque visual field region 3a that looks opaque as shown in FIG. You cannot see O. For it,
Viewpoint near the center of screen 3 (viewpoint B in FIG. 1 (c))
1C, since the screen 3 is mostly the transparent visual field region 3b as shown in FIG. 1C, the subject O can be seen through the screen 3. Therefore, viewpoint A
If the projection type display device is installed at the position of and the image pickup device is installed at the position of the viewpoint B, the display image projected from the projection type display device can be seen from the position of the object O, and at the same time, the image pickup device can be used. The subject O can be imaged through the screen 3.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the display / imaging device according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a projection type display device, 2 is an image pickup device, 3 is the screen shown in FIG. 1, 10 is a frame, M
Is a user. The screen 3 is arranged on the front surface of the frame 10, the projection type display device 1 is arranged at the position of the viewpoint A with respect to the screen 3 described in FIG. It is arranged at the position of the viewpoint B with respect to the screen 3 described in 1.

As described with reference to FIG. 1, the user M is looking at the projected image on the screen 3 of the projection type display device 1 installed in the direction opaque to the screen 3, and the image pickup device 2 is the screen. Screen 3 from the transparent direction to 3
The user M who is looking at is imaged. As a result, the user M
Is looking at the screen 3, that is, the imaging device 2,
It is possible to achieve line-of-sight matching between the interlocutors. However, since the inside of the frame 10 of the display / imaging device is actually visible to the user M, the inside of the frame 10 of the display / imaging device is projected in black and dark except for the projection display device 1. Only the displayed image is visible.

[Embodiment 2] FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a screen used in the display / imaging device according to the second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the display / imaging device according to the second embodiment of the present invention. Show. The screen portion shown in FIG. 3 is different from the simple screen shown in FIG. 1 in that the Fresnel lens 7 is arranged on the projection type display device 1 side of the screen 3. However, the Fresnel lens 7 of this embodiment is the Fresnel lens structure portion 7a.
The area formed by is only the peripheral portion and the central portion is an ordinary flat transparent substrate or opening. The above-mentioned other components and their arrangement are the same as those in the first embodiment.

Usually, in the projection type display, a Fresnel lens is inserted between the screen and the projection type display device to mitigate the decrease in brightness in the peripheral portion of the display image. Therefore, since the Fresnel lens is not inserted in the configuration shown in FIG. 2, there is a concern that the central portion of the display image projected on the screen is bright and the peripheral portion is dark. However, simply by installing the Fresnel lens, imaging is performed through this Fresnel lens, and since the Fresnel lens itself acts as a telephoto lens for imaging, it becomes impossible to capture an image in a desired range. On the other hand, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, since the image is taken through the central region where the Fresnel lens structure 7a is not present, there is no effect of the telephoto lens described above, and an image in a desired range can be taken, and at the same time, the display image It is possible to prevent a decrease in brightness around the area. In this embodiment, although a slight decrease in brightness is observed in the central part, it is sufficiently brighter than in the peripheral part, and the brightness distribution can be made uniform.

[Embodiment 3] FIG. 5 shows another configuration of a display / imaging device according to a third embodiment of the present invention. In this example,
The point that a minute prism plate 6 is installed in front of the screen 3 is different from the embodiments shown in FIGS. The micro prism plate 6 has micro prisms arranged in an array and bends incident light in a certain direction by refraction. As shown in the embodiment of FIGS. 2 and 4, the screen 3
The brightness of the display image projected on the screen becomes maximum when the screen 3 is viewed from above. Conversely, when the display image is viewed from the front of the screen 3, the brightness of the display image is small. However, in this embodiment, since the direction in which the brightness is maximized is changed from the upward direction to the front direction by the micro prism plate 6, the brightness is not reduced even when the display image is viewed from the front. By installing the micro prism plate 6 in front of the screen 3 in which the Fresnel lens 7 shown in the second embodiment is inserted, the decrease in luminance is small,
Moreover, it goes without saying that the brightness can be made uniform.

[Embodiment 4] FIG. 6 shows another configuration diagram of a display / imaging device according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention. In the configuration shown in FIG. 2, FIG. 4 or FIG. 5, there is a concern that the display image reflected or scattered by the screen 3 may be reflected in the imaging device 2. On the other hand, in this embodiment, the crossed Nicols polarizing plates 5A and 5B are installed on the front surfaces of the projection display device 1 and the image pickup device 2, respectively. The polarization direction of the projection image by the polarizing plate 5A installed on the front surface of the projection display device 1 and the polarization direction of the polarizing plate 5B installed on the front surface of the imaging device 2 are 90 °.
Since they are different, the display image does not appear in the imaging device 2. Further, when a liquid crystal projector is used for the projection type display device 1 in this configuration, since the projection light itself is linearly polarized, it is not necessary to install the polarizing plate 5A on the front surface of the projection type display device 1, and the projection is performed. Only the polarizing plate 5B may be installed on the front surface of the imaging device 2 in a polarization direction different from the light by 90 °.

In this embodiment, the case where only the screen 3 is used as the structure of the screen portion is shown, but the same effect can be obtained when the Fresnel lens 7 shown in FIG. 3 or the minute prism plate 6 shown in FIG. 5 is installed. It goes without saying that you can get Further, in the first to fourth embodiments, the case where the image pickup device 2 is installed above the projection type display device 1 is shown. However, by changing the view direction of the screen 3 which is opaque, the image pickup device 2 is moved downward or sideward. Needless to say, it can be installed on one side. As described above, the present invention can be applied in various ways in accordance with the gist thereof and can take various embodiments.

[0018]

As described above, in the display / imaging device of the present invention, the display / imaging can be performed easily by simply installing the screen having the visual field selection function in front of the projection type display device and the imaging device. There is an advantage that the device can be realized. Further, as compared with the method of time-sharing the screen state into the scattering / transmissive state, there is no need for an expensive circuit or screen for controlling the time-sharing, so that there is an advantage that it can be realized at low cost.

According to the invention described in claims 2 and 3,
In particular, the brightness state of the display image can be improved, and according to the invention of claim 4, it is possible to prevent the display image from being reflected in the image pickup device.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of a screen used in a display / imaging device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a display / imaging device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a screen used in the display / imaging device according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a display / imaging device according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of a display / imaging device according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of a display / imaging device according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 shows a conventional display used for two-way video communication.
Configuration diagram of imaging device

FIG. 8 is a configuration diagram of a conventional display / imaging device that realizes line-of-sight matching for large-screen display.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Projection type display device 2 ... Imaging device 3 ... Screen 5A, 5B ... Polarizing plate 6 ... Micro prism plate 7 ... Fresnel lens

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Shigenobu Sakai 1-1-6 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Nihon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (72) Shinichi Shiwa 1-1-6 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo No. Japan Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A projection type display device, an image pickup device, and a screen, which are arranged in front of the projection type display device and the image pickup device and have a function of transmitting or scattering light depending on an incident angle. A display / imaging device in which the imaging device is arranged in an incident angle direction for transmitting light, and the projection display device is arranged in an incident angle direction for scattering the light. 2. A display / imaging device, wherein a part of the screen according to claim 1 has a region forming a Fresnel lens structure, and an image is taken by the imaging device through the screen other than the region. 3. A display characterized in that a micro prism plate is installed in front of the screen according to claim 1 or 2.
Imaging device. 4. A display / imaging device, characterized in that cross-Nicol polarizing plates are arranged on the front surface of the projection type display device and / or the imaging device according to any one of claims 1, 2 and 3.