JPH07154777A - Image processor and video telephone system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To separate the background and an object on a video telephone or the like by easily extracting only the image of an object in a short distance from a camera. CONSTITUTION:An infrared means 11 irradiates the object with infrared rays from the side of a light receiving means 12. The light receiving means 12 receives visible light and infrared light inside the view, and a beam splitting means 13 splits this light into the visible light and the infrared light. A visible light processing means 14 forms a visible light image from the visible light. An infrared light processing means 15 outputs the intensity of the infrared light and a mask area generating means 16 generates an area, which intensity is stronger than prescribed intensity such as a certain threshold value, for example, as a mask area. Then, an image extracting means 17 extracts the mask area from the visible light image.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention is
The present invention relates to an image processing device that extracts only an image of an object within a range of a distance from a camera and a videophone device that displays the position of a subject in a transmitted image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, there has been a demand for transmitting only an image of a subject and not a background image for the purpose of reducing the amount of information to be transmitted at a low bit rate or protecting privacy in a videophone or the like. However, the transmission requires the discrimination between the subject and the background. As a method of extracting only the image of the subject, there is a method of extracting only the image of the object within a certain distance from the imaging device,
As one of the methods for realizing this, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-1698 has heretofore been known.
There is a method using an infrared laser described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 05.

Hereinafter, a method using this infrared laser will be described with reference to FIG.
Will be explained. Reference numeral 71 is a television camera, 72 is a laser radar using an infrared laser as a light source, 73 is an infrared reflection mirror 75 and a total reflection mirror 76.
And an optical axis separating optical system for separating the image measuring optical axes of the laser radar 72, and 74 is an image processing device for processing the two measured images. When the infrared laser is emitted from the laser radar 72, the infrared laser is reflected by the total reflection mirror 76, is reflected by the infrared reflection mirror 75, and is irradiated onto the measurement object. Since the infrared reflection mirror 75 is adjusted so that the visible light passing through the infrared reflection mirror 75 and the optical axis of the infrared laser emitted from the laser radar 72 match, the field of view from the laser radar 72 and the television. It matches the field of view from the camera 71. Irradiate each pixel in the field of view with laser,
By measuring the distance, distance data regarding each pixel is output. The visible light image of the television camera 71 and the distance data of the laser radar 72 are input to the image processing device 74, where only the image of the object within an arbitrary distance is cut out from the visible light image.

Further, when transmitting an image of oneself such as a videophone, it is necessary to have a means for confirming whether one's figure is contained in the camera frame. In order to satisfy this, conventionally, there is a method of monitoring a transmission image as a child screen on a reception screen.

[0005]

However, in image processing using an infrared laser, when an image of a subject is cut out in pixel units, the laser is emitted to target points corresponding to all pixels in the visual field. The distance must be measured, and the accuracy of laser irradiation is required. Further, since the emitted laser must be on the same optical axis as the visible light measured by the television camera 71, the emitted laser includes the infrared reflection mirror 75 and the total reflection mirror 76. Have to pass through.

Further, in a videophone in which a transmitted image is monitored as a child screen on the reception screen in order to confirm whether or not one's own figure is contained in the camera frame, there is room to display the child screen when the reception screen is small. Even if it is displayed, the inset screen becomes very small, making the inset screen very difficult to see.

The present invention is directed to an image processing apparatus which processes an image so that only an image of an object within a certain distance from an image pickup apparatus can be easily extracted, and an image processing apparatus which does not include a new display apparatus to display one's own image in a camera frame. It is an object of the present invention to provide a videophone device capable of easily confirming whether or not an item has been set.

[0008]

In order to achieve this object, an image processing apparatus according to a first aspect of the present invention is an infrared light irradiating means for irradiating a subject with infrared light, and visible light and reflection within a visual field. Light receiving means for receiving infrared light, light separating means for separating the visible light and the reflected infrared light received by the light receiving means into the visible light and the reflected infrared light, and the light separating means. Visible light processing means for forming a visible light image from the visible light, infrared light processing means for outputting an intensity distribution map of the reflected infrared light separated by the light separating means, and the infrared light processing means From the visible light image from the visible light processing means and a mask area generating means for generating an area having a predetermined intensity as a mask area according to the intensity distribution map from, visible light in the mask area from the mask area generating means Only the image as the extracted image It has a configuration having an image extracting means for force.

An image processing apparatus according to a second aspect of the present invention irradiates infrared light so that the infrared light radiating means in the image processing apparatus according to the first aspect diffuses.

An image processing apparatus according to a third aspect of the present invention is the image processing apparatus according to the first or second aspect, wherein the mask area generating means generates a mask area corresponding to the maximum value of the intensity of infrared light.

According to the video telephone device of the invention as defined in claim 4,
An image processing means for picking up an image of a subject and extracting an image of only the subject, an image encoding means for encoding and transmitting the image, an edge of the image of the extracted subject only, and a contour image generation for outputting a contour image. Means, an image decoding means for receiving and decoding image data to form a received image, an image synthesizing means for synthesizing the contour image and the received image to form a synthesized image, and a display means for displaying the synthesized image. It has a configuration provided.

A video telephone device according to a fifth aspect of the invention is
The contour image generating means of the videophone device according to claim 4,
It has a configuration in which the representative point generating means for generating the highest point of the image of only the subject as a representative point is replaced.

[0013]

According to the structure of the invention described in claim 1, the light received by the light separating means is separated into visible light and infrared light to obtain a visible light image and an infrared light image having the same field of view, and the mask region is obtained. The generation unit generates a region in which the intensity of the infrared light is a predetermined intensity as a mask region, and the image extraction unit extracts the mask region from the visible light image, so that an object in a range of a certain distance from the imaging device can be obtained. Only images are extracted.

According to the second aspect of the invention, since the infrared light irradiating means irradiates the infrared light so as to diffuse it, the illuminance becomes lower as the distance from the infrared light irradiating means increases, and the illuminance becomes lower depending on the distance. Since the difference in the intensity of the reflected infrared light spreads, the image of the object within a certain distance range can be easily extracted.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the mask area generating means generates the mask area corresponding to the maximum value of the infrared light intensity, the distance of the subject changes and the infrared light intensity changes. Even if is changed, the image following it is extracted.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the contour image generating means generates the contour image of the image of only the subject,
This is displayed overlaid on the reception screen.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the representative point generating means generates the highest point of the image of only the subject, and the highest point is displayed on the receiving screen.

[0018]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an image processing apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. Reference numeral 11 is an infrared light irradiating means for irradiating the subject with infrared light, 12 is a light receiving means for receiving visible light and reflected infrared light in the field of view, and 13 is the visible light and the reflected infrared light received by the light receiving means. Light separating means for separating visible light and reflected infrared light, 14 is visible light processing means for forming a visible light image from visible light separated by the light separating means, and 15 is reflected infrared light separated by the light separating means. Infrared light processing means for outputting a light intensity distribution map, 16 is mask area generation means for generating a mask area in which the intensity of reflected infrared light is larger than a certain threshold value, and 17 is a mask area from a visible light image. It is an image extracting means for extracting.

The operation will be described with reference to FIG. 2. The infrared light irradiating means 11 irradiates the entire object as shown in FIG. 2A with infrared light from the light receiving means 12 side. The visible light and infrared light reflected by the subject are received by the light receiving means 12. The light separating means 13 separates the received light into visible light and reflected infrared light according to the wavelength. By doing so, the visible light image and the infrared light image obtained have the same field of view. The visible light processing means 14 converts visible light into a video signal to form a visible light image shown in FIG. The infrared light processing means 15 converts the infrared light into a video signal and outputs an infrared light image, that is, an intensity distribution map of the reflected infrared light shown in FIG. 2B. Infrared light irradiation means 11
The closer the distance is from, that is, the light receiving means 12
The closer the distance is from, the higher the intensity of the reflected infrared light. Here, in FIG. 2B, the intensity of the reflected infrared light is also shown in the upper and lower shades on the lateral side of the distribution chart. In this way, the mask region generation means 16 receives the reflected infrared light intensity distribution map according to the intensity of the reflected infrared light, and the region whose intensity is larger than a certain threshold is masked as shown in FIG. 2C. Generate as. Therefore, the mask area shown in FIG.
In the visible light image consisting of a person at a short distance in (a), a person at a distance farther than this person, and a background, the mask area matches the area of the person at a short distance from the light receiving unit 12. Then, the image extracting means 17 extracts only the image corresponding to the mask area from the mask area generating means 16 from the visible light image from the visible light processing means 14, whereby the image extracting means 17 outputs the image in FIG. As shown, an extracted image of only a person at a short distance without a person at a long distance and a background is obtained.

As described above, the image processing apparatus according to the first embodiment can easily obtain an extracted image of only a subject within a short distance from the image pickup apparatus with the above-described configuration.

In the mask area of the first embodiment, in order to obtain an extracted image of only an object located at a short distance, an infrared light intensity area larger than a certain threshold from the infrared light intensity distribution map is used as a mask area, and mask area generating means is used. 16. If the object to be obtained as the extracted image is at a distance other than the short distance, for example, at an intermediate distance, the intensity area is selected according to the intermediate distance, for example, as the mask area. It is also possible to obtain only extracted images. In short, the mask area generation means 16 can generate a predetermined intensity area as a mask area in accordance with the range of the distance of an object to be obtained as an extracted image from the infrared light intensity distribution map, and the number of threshold values is the same as that in the first embodiment. In the case of, the number is one corresponding to the short distance, but it may be set to two at the intermediate distance, and the strength may be adjusted to fall within the two threshold values.

Further, from the infrared light irradiation means 11 to the subject,
When the infrared light is irradiated so as to be diffused, the infrared light irradiation means 1
Since the illuminance decreases as the distance from 1 increases, the intensity of the reflected infrared light further varies depending on the distance from the light receiving unit 12, and the subject near the imaging device and the background are more easily separated.

Furthermore, in the mask area generating means 16, when the threshold value for generating the mask area is changed according to the maximum value of the intensity of the reflected infrared light, the mask area is also generated accordingly, so that the object and the image are picked up. Even if the distance of the device changes, it is possible to adaptively extract only the part of the subject that is always in the foreground.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a videophone device according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention, and FIG.
FIG. 7 is an image diagram for explaining the operation of FIG.

The videophone device of the second embodiment includes an image processing means 31 for picking up an image of a subject, identifying a background image and an image of the subject, and outputting the image of the subject as an extracted image. That is, the image processing means 31 extracts and outputs the extracted image of FIG. 2D from the visible light image of FIG.
The image processing unit 31 may be one that outputs such an extracted image, but it is preferable to have, for example, the function of the image processing apparatus of the first embodiment.

The videophone device of the second embodiment further encodes the extracted image of FIG. 2D from the image processing means 31 or the visible light image of FIG. 2A and encodes it through the telephone line. 2 (d) from the image coding means 32 and the image processing means 31 having a function of transmitting to the videophone of FIG. 2 and the contour image is generated as shown in FIG. 4 (a). And a contour image generating means 33. Since a means for extracting the edge of an image to obtain its contour image is well known, its detailed description will not be given here. Further, the image encoding means 32 is provided with the extracted image from the image processing means 31, and this image processing means 31 is shown in FIG.
If the image processing device is the image processing device, the visible light image may be obtained from the visible light processing means 14 and the extracted image may be obtained from the image extracting means 17 of the image processing device. Alternatively, the image processing means 31 may extract the visible light image. Only the image may be obtained by a visible light image from an appropriate image processing means (not shown). When the image encoding unit 32 selectively transmits the extracted image and the visible light image to the other party, for example, when only the one's own image is desired to be transmitted to the other party, only the extracted image and not only the oneself. When the background may be transmitted, there is a case where a visible light image is transmitted, or other cases.

The video telephone apparatus of the second embodiment also decodes the coded image transmitted from the video telephone apparatus of the other party to form the received image of the other party as shown in FIG. 4B. 4 from the means 34 and the contour image generation means 33.
FIG. 4B from the contour image of FIG. 4A and the image decoding means 34.
4C, and an image display unit 36 for displaying the synthesized image synthesized by the image synthesizing unit 35 on the receiving screen.

As described above, in the videophone device of the second embodiment, the outline image of the subject in the transmission image is superimposed on the reception image of the other side in the reception screen of the single image display means 36. Since the display is enabled, the position of the subject in the transmission image can be known without providing a new display device, and it can be easily confirmed whether or not the subject is contained in the camera frame.

(Embodiment 3) FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a videophone apparatus according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention, and FIG.
FIG. 6 is an image diagram used for explanation. In addition, in FIG.
The same reference numerals are given to the portions corresponding to, and detailed description of the portions related to the same reference numerals is omitted. In the videophone device of the third embodiment, the contour image generating means 33 of the second embodiment is replaced with the representative point generating means 51. The representative point generation means 51 scans the extracted image of FIG. 2D from the image processing means 31 in order from the top, and searches for the highest point of the extracted image of the extracted person. Then, the representative point generating means 51 regards the highest point of the extracted image of the searched person as the crown on the image of this person and outputs it to the image synthesizing means 35 as the representative point as shown in FIG. 6A. The image synthesizing means 55 is the representative point image and the image decoding means 3 of FIG.
The received image from FIG. 4 (b) from FIG. 4 is combined to form the combined image of FIG. 6 (b), and this is sent to the image display means 36. As a result, the composite image of FIG. 6B is displayed on the reception screen of the image display means 36.

As described above, in the third embodiment, the top of the subject in the transmission image is displayed as a dot so as to be superimposed on the reception screen, so that the reception screen is not disturbed without providing a new display device. Instead, the position of the subject in the transmitted image can be known, and it can be easily confirmed whether or not the subject is contained in the camera frame.

[0032]

As described above, in the image processing apparatus of the present invention, when the subject is irradiated with infrared light from the image pickup apparatus side,
Since the intensity of the reflected infrared light increases as the distance from the imaging device decreases, a region in which the intensity of the reflected infrared light has a predetermined intensity is set as a mask region, and by extracting the mask region from the visible light image, It is possible to easily extract only an image of an object within a range of a distance from the imaging device.

Further, in the videophone device of the present invention, the contour of the subject in the transmitted image is combined and displayed on the reception screen, and the position of the subject in the transmitted image is known without providing a new display device. It is possible to confirm whether or not the subject is contained in the camera frame.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an image processing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the first embodiment, (a) shows a visible light image, (b) shows a reflected infrared light intensity distribution, (c) shows a mask region, and (d) shows an extracted image. .

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a videophone according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the second embodiment, (a) shows a contour image, (b) shows a received image, and (c) shows a composite image.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of a videophone according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the third embodiment, in which (a) shows a representative point and (b) shows a composite image.

FIG. 7 is a schematic configuration diagram of a conventional imaging device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 infrared light irradiating means 12 light receiving means 13 light separating means 14 visible light processing means 15 infrared light processing means 16 mask area generating means 17 image extracting means 31 image processing means 32 image encoding means 33 contour image generating means 34 image decoding Means 35 Image combining means 36 Image display means

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An infrared light irradiating means for irradiating a subject with infrared light, a light receiving means for receiving visible light and reflected infrared light within a field of view, and the visible light and the reflected red light received by the light receiving means. Light separation means for separating outside light into the visible light and the reflected infrared light, visible light processing means for forming a visible light image from the visible light separated by the light separation means, and separation by the light separation means Infrared light processing means for outputting the intensity distribution chart of the reflected infrared light thus generated, and mask area generation means for generating an area at a predetermined intensity as a mask area according to the intensity distribution chart from the infrared light processing means. And an image extraction means for outputting, as an extracted image, only a visible light image in the mask area from the mask area generation means, out of the visible light images from the visible light processing means. . 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the infrared light irradiating means diffuses and irradiates an object with infrared light. 3. The mask area generating means generates the mask area corresponding to a maximum intensity of reflected infrared light output from the infrared light processing means. The image processing device according to claim 1. 4. An image processing means for picking up an image of a subject, identifying a background image and the image of the subject, and outputting the image of the subject as an extracted image, and an extracted image or a visible light image output by the image processing means. An image encoding means for encoding and transmitting, an edge of the extracted image, an outline image generating means for outputting an outline image, and an image data for receiving and decoding,
A videophone, comprising: an image decoding unit that forms a received image; an image combining unit that combines the contour image and the received image to form a combined image; and a display unit that displays the combined image. apparatus. 5. The videophone apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the contour image generating means is replaced with representative point generating means for outputting the highest point of the extracted image as a representative point.