JPH0784213A - Three-dimensional display game machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To always keep an optimum visible distance even when the distance between the display of a game machine and the eyes of a game player is changed because the game player changes posture in the midst of displaying the stereoscopic picture of a game. CONSTITUTION:Pinion gears 5 and 6 are formed at the upper and the lower positions of the picture display part 2 of a three-dimensional display game machine 1, and rack gears 7 and 8 meshing with the pinion gears 5 and 6 are arranged on the upper and the lower insides of a display moving container 11, so that the display part 2 is driven and rotated in an optional direction by actuators 9 and 10. The distance to the head position of the game player 15 is measured by a range-finding sensor 12. In the case the measured distance is different from the optimum visible distance of the game player, the actuators 9 and 10 are driven to move the display part 2 in the back-and-forth direction of the game player 15, whereby the optimum visible distance is always kept.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a stereoscopic display game machine, and more particularly to a stereoscopic display game machine in which a game image stereoscopically displayed using a lenticular lens is always held at an optimum visual recognition position.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Currently, CRTs are used in game centers and the like.
(Cathode Ray Tube) and liquid crystal display (LCD: Liquid)
There are various amusement machines that play a game by displaying a game image on a display such as a Cristal Display), and black and white binary display and multi-value display in color are performed.

As described above, the conventional amusement machine displays a game by a two-dimensional image in black and white or color. To further enhance the display effect,
A three-dimensional display image is being considered. Therefore, as a method of stereoscopically viewing an image, for example, holography is used, or a right-eye image and a left-eye image are alternately displayed on a display in a time-division manner, and glasses for the right eye such as glasses using a deflection plate The image and the image for the left eye are separated and taken in, or the lenticular lens with a sharp directivity is used to provide image information corresponding to the left and right eyes so that a stereoscopic image can be obtained with the naked eye. Etc.

[0004]

However, in such a conventional stereoscopic display game machine, for example, when a moving image is displayed by using holography, the display device becomes expensive and the deflector plate is used. In the time-sharing method, the device configuration is complicated and expensive, and it is necessary to use special glasses, etc. In addition, the images of the left eye and the right eye are switched at high speed alternately, so flicker on the screen is a concern. There is a problem that it ends up.

In this respect, when stereoscopic vision is performed using the lenticular lens, there is an advantage that a stereoscopic image can be obtained with the naked eye, the apparatus configuration is relatively simple, and the cost can be reduced. However, the stereoscopic vision using this lenticular lens is due to each convex lens of the lenticular lens,
Realizing the naked-eye stereoscopic vision by giving directivity so that each image in the image display area for the right eye and the image display area for the left eye of the display arranged behind it may enter the right eye and the left eye of the player, respectively. ing. Therefore, regarding the convex lens shape of the lenticular lens, when the distance between the lenticular lens and the player's eye is (L) and the distance between the right eye and the left eye is (I),
Since it is determined based on the values of L and I, the distance (I) between both eyes varies depending on the player, or the distance between the lenticular lens and the player's eye (L) when the player moves his head during the game. ) Becomes different, there is a problem that proper stereoscopic viewing becomes impossible.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and the display of the gaming machine is displayed by the player changing the posture or moving the head during the stereoscopic game display using the lenticular lens. It is an object of the present invention to provide a stereoscopic display game machine that can always perform stereoscopic viewing properly even if the distance between the player and the player's eyes changes.

[0007]

The invention according to claim 1 is
A lenticular lens composed of a plurality of kamaboko-shaped convex lenses arranged in a row in the lateral direction, and a lenticular lens disposed behind the lenticular lens and corresponding to each convex lens region, a right eye image display region and a left eye image display region A three-dimensional display game machine having an image display unit formed with a pair, and a visual distance measurement for measuring the distance between the lenticular lens and the eyes of a player who plays a game while looking at the image display unit. Means, an image display portion moving means for integrally moving the lenticular lens and the image display portion in the front-rear direction with respect to the player, and a distance between the player's eye and the lenticular lens by the visual distance measuring means. The above-mentioned object is achieved by including a visual distance holding control unit that controls the movement of the display unit moving unit so that the above is held constant.

In this case, for example, the invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that the visual distance holding control means stores an optimal visual distance storage means for storing a unique visual distance when each player moves to the optimal visual distance. The visual distance holding control means controls the movement of the display unit moving means so that the visual distance stored in the optimum visual distance storage means is always held, thereby achieving the above object.

[0009]

According to the first aspect of the invention, the distance between the eye of the player who plays the game and the lenticular lens is measured while looking at the image display unit by the visual distance measuring means, and the eye of the player and the lenticular lens are measured. So as to keep a constant interval between
By controlling the display part moving means by the visual distance holding control means and integrally moving the lenticular lens and the image display part in the front-back direction of the player, the player moves during the game, Even if the visual distance between the eyes and the screen of the stereoscopic display game machine changes, the image display unit is moved so as to always keep a constant visual distance, so that a proper stereoscopic vision is always maintained. Can be done.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the visual distance holding control means according to the first aspect is provided with the optimal visual distance storage means for storing the optimal visual distance of the player, so that it is optimal for each player. The visual distance can be obtained, and the visual distance holding control means maintains the visual distance.
Since the distance between the image display unit and the eyes of the player is kept constant, proper stereoscopic vision can always be performed even if the optimal viewing distance differs for each player.

[0011]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described below based on examples.

1 to 8 are views for explaining the stereoscopic display game machine of the present invention. In this embodiment, for example, a game player plays an operation lever or operation ball called a joystick or a trackball while watching a game image of various game software displayed on the screen at a game center. An example of an amusement device that performs

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional configuration diagram of a main part of a stereoscopic display game machine according to this embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 1, the stereoscopic display gaming machine 1 is
An image display unit 2 including a liquid crystal display panel and a backlight on its front surface, a display control unit 3 for controlling the display of the liquid crystal display panel on the back surface side of the image display unit 2, and the image display unit 2 A two-dimensional image in which stripe-shaped image display regions for the right eye and image display regions for the left eye are alternately arranged is displayed on the front surface, and a plurality of kamaboko-shaped convex lenses for stereoscopic viewing are arranged in the horizontal direction. The lenticular lens 4 thus formed is provided. Pinion gears 5 and 6 having a predetermined pitch are formed at the upper and lower ends of the image display unit 2, while a plurality of rack gears 7 and 8 are provided at the image display unit 2 on the main body side of the stereoscopic display game machine 1. It is rotatably provided at the upper and lower positions of and meshing with the pinion gears 5 and 6. The rack gears 7 and 8 are driven by actuators 9 and 10 that rotate them in arbitrary directions. A display moving container 11 is formed in the space for moving the image display unit 2 back and forth.

A distance measuring sensor 12 is provided at the center of the lower portion of the image display unit 2. This distance measuring sensor 12
Here, an active type photoelectric sensor using the principle of triangulation is used, for example, an infrared LED (Light Emitting Diode) of a light emitting element (not shown) passes through a light projecting lens and is a measured object. The face of the person 15 is irradiated. Then, the reflected light from the face of the player 15 is focused on the light receiving element by the light receiving lens, and the light receiving spot position on the light receiving element changes according to the distance to the object to be measured, so It is an accurate method of finding the distance. Here, in order to electrically detect the light receiving spot position, one-dimensional PSD (Posision Sensitive Dete
A light receiving element called a ctor) is used, and distance information can be obtained by detecting the ratio of two output currents obtained by the light receiving element.

On the operation panel of the stereoscopic display game machine 1, there are provided a joystick 13, a trackball 14 and the like for performing game operations. A player 15 operates these to play a game.

FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of the stereoscopic display game machine shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 2, on the front surface of the image display section 2 of the stereoscopic display game machine 1, a lenticular lens 4 is provided, in which a plurality of semi-cylindrical convex lenses are arranged in the horizontal direction of the screen. The lenticular lens 4 directs the right-eye image and the left-eye image displayed on the image display unit 2 to the right eye and the left eye of the player with directivity respectively, and causes a planar game image. To stereoscopically view.

Further, a distance measuring sensor 12 is provided at the center of the lower portion of the image display unit 2, so that the distance between the player's head (eye position) (not shown) and the image display unit 2 is set. It is constantly measured. A player playing a game on the stereoscopic display game machine 1 has a joystick 1 provided on the operation panel.
3 or the trackball 14 or the like can be operated to play a game while viewing the stereoscopic game image displayed from the image display unit 2 through the lenticular lens 4.

FIG. 3 is an external perspective view showing a state in which the image display portion of the stereoscopic display game machine shown in FIG. 1 is moved to the back.

As shown in FIG. 3, the distance measuring sensor 12 constantly measures the distance from the image display unit 2 to the player's eyes (not shown) during the game. Then, for example, when the player's posture is changed during the game or the head is brought close to the image display unit 2 so that the visual distance becomes shorter than the proper viewing distance, the image display unit 2 is moved back and forth as shown in FIG. The driving mechanism is moved to the back to move it backward, and the visual distance is adjusted to be kept constant.

On the contrary, if the player who is playing the game is the image display unit 2
If the image display section 2 is moved away from the image display section 2, the drive mechanism moves the image display section 2 forward, and as shown in FIG. 2, the position of the image display section 2 is brought to the front so that the viewing distance becomes constant. To be done.

As described above, in the case where the lenticular lens 4 is used for stereoscopic viewing with the naked eye, the viewing distance is kept constant even if the player changes his posture or moves his head during the game. By adjusting, it is possible to always obtain a proper stereoscopic image. Next, the above-described visual distance adjustment operation will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a drive mechanism for adjusting the visual distance of the image display portion of the stereoscopic display game machine according to this embodiment. In FIG. 4, a drive circuit 16 drives actuators 9 and 10 that move the image display unit 2, and a control circuit 17 controls the moving direction and the moving amount of the image display unit 2. The RAM 18 stores various parameters required during the control operation of the control circuit 17, and for example, a visual distance correction switch (SW) 2 described later.
When 0 is pressed, the distance value (L ₁ ) obtained by the distance measuring sensor 12 is stored in the RAM 18. And the player 15
The distance value (L ₂ ) between the eye and the image display unit 2 is RAM1.
The actuators 9 and 10 are driven and controlled so as to be equal to the distance value (L ₁ ) stored in advance in 8. The ROM 19 stores the basic program of the control circuit 17. Since the visual distance correction switch 20 has individual differences in the distance between the left and right eyes of the player 15 and the optimum visual distance varies depending on the player, the player himself or herself moves the face to a position where proper stereoscopic vision is possible before the game. When the button is pressed in the state where the distance is detected, the distance value detected by the distance measuring sensor 12 is stored in the RAM 1
8 is stored. Then, the control circuit 17 uses the RAM
The position control of the image display unit is performed based on the optimal visual recognition distance peculiar to the player stored in 18. As a result, it is possible to always stereoscopically view the game image in the optimum state.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the drive mechanism shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 5, when the game is started, the distance measuring sensor 12 for detecting the head position of the player 15 is turned on (step S1), and the face is brought to the proper visual recognition position of the player. It is moved (step S2). By turning on the visual distance correction switch 20 here, the distance value (L ₁ ) between the image display unit 2 and the position of the eye of the player 15 measured at that time is determined as the optimum visual distance of the player 15. R
It is stored in AM18. Next, the measured value of the distance measuring sensor 12 measured during the actual game is set to L _2, and during the game,
The control circuit 1 always checks whether or not L ₁ and L ₂ are equal.
Compare with 7. If L ₁ > L ₂ (step S6), the actuators 9 and 10 are driven to move the display, which is the image display unit 2, in a direction away from the player 15 (step S7), and then step S5. Return to.

If L ₁ <L ₂ , (step S
6), the actuators 9 and 10 are driven to drive the image display unit 2
After moving the display in the direction of approaching the player 15 (step S8), the process returns to step S5. During the game, the above comparison operation and the drive control operation of the actuators 9 and 10 are periodically repeated.

If L ₁ and L ₂ are equal in step S5, the driving of the actuators 9 and 10 is stopped (step S9), and the game is advanced at that position while the game is displayed on the display (step S10). ). If the game has not ended in step S10, the process returns to step S5 again, and periodically compares the measured values L ₂ and L ₁ of the distance measuring sensor 12 with the actuator 9,
Drive control of 10 is performed. When the game ends (step S10), the above processing operation also ends.

In this way, in the three-dimensional display game machine of this embodiment, the optimum visual distance is always maintained between the image display section 2 having the lenticular lens 4 mounted thereon and the eyes of the player 15. Since the actuator is drive-controlled, even if the player changes his / her posture during the game to change the position of his / her eyes, the display position is moved back and forth in accordance with the change of position to enable proper stereoscopic viewing.

Next, the principle of stereoscopically viewing the game image on the display of the stereoscopic display game machine in which the visual distance control is performed will be briefly described with reference to FIGS. 6 to 8.

FIG. 6 is a partially cutaway perspective view for explaining the display structure of the stereoscopic display game machine, FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining the principle of stereoscopic viewing using a lenticular lens, and FIG. It is explanatory drawing of the drive method of the image display part of a stereoscopic display game machine.

In FIG. 6, a display for displaying a game image is provided with an image display section 2 composed of a liquid crystal display panel, and a lenticular lens 4 having a plurality of convex lenses arranged in the lateral direction on the front surface thereof, and each convex lens 4a. The image display unit 2 corresponding to the position is provided with a right-eye image display area 21 and a left-eye image display area 22. Then, in each of the image display areas, the right-eye image 23 and the left-eye image 24
And are displayed with a predetermined parallax. Then, between the right-eye image display area 21 and the left-eye image display area 22,
Stripe-shaped partition 25 that partitions between both image display areas
Is provided.

Next, FIG. 7 is a view seen from above in FIG. 6, and the image display area 21 for the right eye and the image display area 22 for the left eye, which are displayed in stripes on the image display unit 2, are sharp. Each convex lens 4a of the lenticular lens 4 having directivity
In, the binocular parallax occurs due to the respective images entering the right and left eyes of the player, and stereoscopic viewing is possible.

The liquid crystal drive circuit of the image display section 2 composed of the above liquid crystal display panel is constructed as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 8, on the liquid crystal display surface of the image display unit 2, a right-eye image display area 21 and a left-eye image display area 22 are respectively provided so as to correspond to the respective convex lens positions of the lenticular lens 4. Are formed in pairs. Then, for each right-eye image displayed in the right-eye image display area 21 provided on the plurality of convex lenses, the drive circuit R27 divides the right-eye image into stripes for each predetermined area, The liquid crystal display panel of the image display unit 2 is drive-controlled so that is displayed in each image display area 21 for the right eye. Further, the drive circuit L28 drives and controls the liquid crystal display panel so that the image for the left eye is divided into stripes for each predetermined area and is displayed in each of the image display areas for the left eye 22. In this way, the drive circuits 27 and 28 respectively perform image display on the image display area 21 for the right eye and the image display area 22 for the left eye on the liquid crystal display surface of the image display unit 2, and this is displayed on the lenticular lens 4. Binocular parallax is formed by refracting the right eye image and the left eye image into the right eye and left eye of the player with the respective convex lenses, and stereoscopically views the game image.

Thus, the three-dimensional display game machine 1 of this embodiment
The actuators 9 and 10 are used to maintain a constant visual distance between the display for displaying a stereoscopic image composed of the image display unit 2 and the lenticular lens 4 arranged in front of the image display unit 2 and the eyes of the player 15. Drive the image display unit 2
By moving in any direction, even if the player moves his / her head or changes his / her posture during the game, he / she can always perform proper stereoscopic viewing of the game image.

In the above embodiment, as the drive mechanism for moving the display back and forth, the rack gear meshing with the pinion gear is rotationally driven by the actuators 9 and 10 to move it to a predetermined position. However, it is not limited to this configuration. However, the present invention can be implemented using various drive mechanisms such as a belt drive mechanism, a solenoid drive mechanism, a hydraulic mechanism, or a drive mechanism using a linear motor.

Further, as the distance measuring sensor, the active type photoelectric sensor utilizing the principle of the triangular distance measuring is used in the present embodiment, but the present invention is not limited to this, and various distance measuring sensors may be used. be able to.

[0038]

According to the first aspect of the invention, the distance between the lenticular lens and the eyes of the player who is watching the image display portion is measured by the visual distance measuring means, and the eyes of the player are detected. The display distance driving control means drives the display portion driving means so as to keep the space between the lenticular lens and the lenticular lens at a constant interval, and the lenticular lens and the image display portion are integrally moved in the front-back direction of the player. As a result, even if the player moves during the game and the distance between the player's eye position and the screen of the stereoscopic display game machine changes, a constant viewing distance is always maintained following this. Thus, the image display unit can be moved, and proper stereoscopic viewing can always be performed.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the visual distance holding control means is provided with the optimal visual distance storage means for storing the optimal visual distance of the player, the optimal visual distance can be set according to each player. Since the distance between the image display unit and the player's eyes is maintained at a fixed interval by the viewing distance holding control means so as to maintain the viewing distance, it is always appropriate regardless of the individual difference of the player. A stereoscopic view can be performed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional configuration diagram of a main part of a stereoscopic display game machine according to the present embodiment.

2 is an external perspective view of the stereoscopic display game machine shown in FIG. 1. FIG.

3 is an external perspective view showing a state in which the image display unit of the stereoscopic display game machine shown in FIG. 1 is moved to the back. FIG.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a drive mechanism for adjusting a visual distance of an image display unit of the stereoscopic display game machine according to the present embodiment.

5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the drive mechanism shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a partially cutaway perspective view illustrating a display configuration of a stereoscopic display game machine.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of the principle when stereoscopic viewing is performed using a lenticular lens.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of a driving method of an image display unit of a stereoscopic display game machine.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 3D display game machine 2 Image display unit 3 Display control unit 4 Lenticular lens 5, 6 Pinion gear 7, 8 Rack gear 9, 10 Actuator 11 Display moving container 12 Distance measuring sensor

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A lenticular lens comprising a plurality of semi-cylindrical convex lenses arranged in a row in the lateral direction, and a lenticular lens disposed behind the lenticular lens and corresponding to the respective convex lens regions, an image display area for the right eye and a left eye. A stereoscopic display game machine including an image display unit in which an image display region for eyes is formed in a pair, and the distance between the lenticular lens and the eyes of a player who plays a game while watching the image display unit. A visual distance measuring unit for measuring, an image display unit moving unit for integrally moving the lenticular lens and the image display unit in the front-back direction with respect to the player, and the visual distance measuring unit for observing the player's eyes and the lenticular. A stereoscopic display game machine comprising: a visual distance holding control unit that performs movement control by the display unit moving unit so that the distance to the curular lens is held constant. 2. The visual distance holding control means includes an optimum visual distance storage means for storing a unique visual distance when each player has moved to the optimum visual distance, and is stored in the optimum visual distance storage means. The three-dimensional display game machine according to claim 1, wherein the display distance moving control unit controls the movement of the display unit moving unit so that the visible distance is always held.