JPH08251628A - Stereoscopic picture display system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a stereoscopic picture display device capable of effectively expressing a stereoscopic sense by simple constitution. CONSTITUTION: A right eye video and a left eye video photographed from an oblique right side and an oblique left side forming an about 15 deg. angle are quickly switched and displayed on a common monitor television(TV) 12. Namely a right eye picture FR and a left eye picture FL to be static pictures constituting both the images are alternately outputted to a single transmission line after dividing each picture into 128 picture elements and compressing the pictures in each pixel. The output switching of both the pictures FR, FL to the monitor TV 12 is executed by a frame memory 5 and a memory control circuit 6 for controlling the memory 5.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a stereoscopic image display system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional display system, an image taken by a single camera is displayed by a two-dimensional display device such as a television monitor or an image screen, and therefore, a stereoscopic display with a sense of reality is required. Was difficult. Therefore, by applying the fact that the human eye forms a stereoscopic effect with the left and right eyes, a common subject is photographed with two cameras from the diagonal left side and the diagonal right side. A stereoscopic image display system has been adopted in which an image is projected from a diagonal left side and a diagonal right side onto a common projection body at the same angle as when the image was taken.

In the above system, the left and right images are filtered to have different frequency ranges when projected on a projection body, while the human eyes viewing the images are fitted with glasses that function as prisms. , The right eye has a picture taken from the diagonal right side, and the left eye has a picture taken from the diagonal left side.
Each of them is separated and incident. As a result, it is possible to obtain a stereoscopic image with a sense of reality as if the common subject were viewed by both eyes.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, there is a problem that an expensive system is required because two projection devices are required, and it is necessary to specially wear glasses for human eyes. There was a problem that comfort was lost. Furthermore, since the image angle at the time of projection is limited by the size of the room, the angle at the time of shooting is also limited by this, and there is a problem that the angle that most effectively expresses the stereoscopic effect cannot be freely adopted.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks, and an object thereof is to provide a stereoscopic image display system capable of effectively expressing a stereoscopic effect with a simple structure. .

[0006]

Therefore, in the stereoscopic image display system according to claim 1, a left-eye image and a right-eye image are formed by photographing the common subject 14 from a diagonal left side and a diagonal right side, respectively, at a predetermined photographing angle A. It is characterized in that a switching means 7 for switching the image and the image to be alternately displayed on the common display means 12 is provided.

The stereoscopic image display system according to claim 2 is
The photographing angle A is characterized by being about 15 °.

Further, in the stereoscopic image display system according to claim 3, the left-eye image FL is a series of left-eye images FL which are still images formed at predetermined time intervals so that a moving image can be represented by making the still images continuous. The right-eye image is a series of right-eye images FR that are still images formed at the predetermined time intervals, and both images F are displayed.
The switching means 7 is provided with an image storage means 5 capable of storing L and FR and a control means 6 for controlling the image storage means 5.
Is characterized in that the left-eye image FL and the right-eye image FR are alternately fetched from the image storage means 5 by the control means 6 at intervals shorter than the predetermined time interval.

In the stereoscopic image display system according to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the left-eye image FL and the right-eye image FR are divided into a plurality of pixels, and the pixels are simultaneously compressed in parallel to correspond to the respective pixels. Compressed image data CL, C
The image compression means 1 for forming R is provided.

A stereoscopic image display system according to a fifth aspect of the invention is characterized by comprising an image decompression means 4 for decompressing the compressed image data CL and CR simultaneously in parallel and decompressing the compressed image data CL corresponding to each pixel.

In the stereoscopic image display system according to a sixth aspect of the present invention, for each of the left-eye image FL and the right-eye image FR, for two images in which corresponding pixels among the pixels formed by dividing them are continuous with each other. It is characterized in that the image comparison means 8 is provided for making comparison and forming the comparison image data DL, DR corresponding to the changed amount only with respect to the pixel in which the difference is generated by this comparison.

A stereoscopic image display system according to a seventh aspect of the present invention is the next left-eye image FL based on the left-eye image FL and the right-eye image FR reproduced immediately before and the comparative image data DL and DR.
And an image reproducing means 9 for forming the right-eye image FR.

In the stereoscopic image display system according to claim 8, the compressed image data CL, CR or the comparative image data DL, D is used.
From R, these left eye side CL, DL and right eye side CR, DR
It is characterized by including an encoding means 2 for forming transmission data E in which and are alternately arranged in time series.

A stereoscopic image display system according to a ninth aspect is a decoding system for distributing the transmission data E into left eye side compressed image data CL or comparison image data DL and right eye side compressed image data CR or comparison image data DR. It is characterized in that it is provided with the converting means 3.

[0015]

In the stereoscopic image display system according to the first aspect, since the left-eye image and the right-eye image are displayed on the common display device 12, it is possible to obtain a realistic stereoscopic image. Further, since both of the above-mentioned images are switched and displayed, the structure is simplified and an inexpensive system can be realized. Furthermore, since the degree of freedom in selecting the shooting angle A is large, it is possible to adopt an appropriate shooting angle A and perform effective display.

In the stereoscopic image display system according to the second aspect, it is possible to obtain a more realistic stereoscopic image by the photographing angle A that can most effectively express the stereoscopic effect.

Further, in the stereoscopic image display system according to the third aspect, it is possible to facilitate the implementation. In addition, since the left-eye image FL and the right-eye image FR can be switched at high speed, it is possible to obtain a more realistic stereoscopic image.

In the stereoscopic image display system according to the fourth aspect, since the pixels can be simultaneously compressed in parallel, the amount of information can be quickly reduced, and recording and transmission can be facilitated.

In the stereoscopic image display system according to the fifth aspect, the compressed image data CL and CR can be quickly restored, so that the system configuration can facilitate recording and transmission.

In the stereoscopic image display system according to the sixth aspect, the information amount of the left-eye image FL and the right-eye image FR is reduced by utilizing the characteristic of the image that there are not many pixels that change between mutually continuous images. There is. As a result, recording, transmission, etc. can be facilitated.

In the stereoscopic image display system according to claim 7, the comparative image data DL, D formed to reduce the amount of information.
Since the original image can be reliably reproduced from R, it is possible to realize a system configuration that facilitates recording, transmission, and the like.

In the stereoscopic image display system according to claim 8, the compressed image data CL, CR or the comparison image data DL, DR.
The left-eye side CL, DL and the right-eye side CR, DR are alternately arranged in time series to form transmission data E. Therefore, it is possible to perform transmission and recording using a single transmission path and recording device.

In the stereoscopic image display system according to claim 9, the transmission data E is transmitted to the left eye side CL, DL and the right eye side CR, DR.
Since it is distributed to and, it is possible to have a simple system configuration using a single transmission line and a recording device.

[0024]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, specific embodiments of the stereoscopic image display system of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

(First Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a first embodiment of the stereoscopic image display system. The two video cameras 11 and 11 are arranged so as to shoot a left eye image from a diagonal left side and a right eye image from a diagonal right side, respectively, with a photographing angle A of about 15 ° for the common subject 14. The two video cameras 11 and 11 are both cameras for general moving image shooting, and form still images of about 28 frames per second and output them one after another. The outputs are connected to the compression circuits 1 and 1, respectively. The compression circuits 1 and 1 function as image compression means, and respectively compress the left-eye image FL and the right-eye image FR, which are still images output from the video cameras 11 and 11, to compress the left-eye image. The data CL and the compressed image data CR on the right eye side are output. The output sides of the compression circuits 1 and 1 are connected to the encoding circuit 2. The encoding circuit 2 functions as an encoding means, and the left-eye compressed image data CL and the right-eye compressed image data CR input from the compression circuits 1 and 1 are alternately arranged in time series. To form transmission data E. The output of the encoding circuit 2 is connected to the video device 13, and the transmission data E is recorded in the video device 13.

Next, the output of the video device 13 is connected to the decoding circuit 3. The decoding circuit 3 functions as a decoding means, inputs the transmission data E extracted from the video device 13, and distributes the transmission data E to the left-eye compressed data CL and the right-eye compressed image data CR again. The output of the decoding circuit 3 is connected to the expansion circuits 4 and 4. The decompression circuits 4 and 4 function as image decompression means and decompress the left-eye compressed image data CL and the right-eye compressed image data CR, respectively, to restore the left-eye image FL and the right-eye image FR. . Further, the outputs of the expansion circuits 4 and 4 are connected to the frame memory 5. The frame memory 5 is composed of a RAM capable of simultaneously storing both the left-eye image FL and the right-eye image FR in screen units. The left-eye image FL and the right-eye image FR stored in the frame memory 5 are alternately output by the memory control circuit 6 and displayed on the monitor television 12 that functions as a display unit. At this time, the memory control circuit 6
Are both images FL and F at a speed of about 280 frames / sec.
R is alternately output from the frame memory 5, but this is because both images FL and FR are output by the video cameras 11 and 11.
It is about 10 times faster than when the film was formed. The frame memory 5 functioning as an image storage means and the memory control circuit 6 functioning as a control means thereof constitute a switching means 7. The compression circuits 1, 1, the encoding circuit 2, the decoding circuit 3, the decompression circuit 4,
4, the frame memory 5, and the memory control circuit 6 are all configured in a single integrated circuit 15.

FIG. 2 shows the compression circuit 1 by taking the left eye side as an example.
2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an internal configuration of a decompression circuit 4. FIG. The left-eye image FL is divided into four parts in the vertical direction and 32 parts in the horizontal direction.
It is divided into 128 pixels. For each of these pixels, 128 pixel compression circuits 16 that perform data compression for each pixel are provided, and these constitute the compression circuit 1. The left-eye image FL is simultaneously compressed in parallel by the pixel compression circuit 16 for each pixel, and becomes compressed image data CL including 128 elements. For each of the 128 pixels,
A pixel expansion circuit 17 is provided, and these 128 pixel expansion circuits 17 constitute the expansion circuit 4. The 128 elements described above in the compressed image data CL are simultaneously expanded in parallel by the pixel expansion circuit 17 and restored for each pixel to reassemble the left eye image FL.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram for explaining the operation of the encoding circuit 2 and the decoding circuit 3. The compressed image data CL on the left eye side and the compressed image data CR on the right eye side, each of which consists of 128 elements formed by the compression circuits 1 and 1, are about 2 each.
The data is input to the encoding circuit 2 at a data rate of 8 data / second. The encoding circuit 2 alternately arranges both the compressed image data CL and CR to form transmission data E having a data rate of about 56 data / sec. On the other hand, the decoding circuit 3 redistributes the transmission data E having a data rate of about 56 data / second to the left eye side and the right eye side, and compresses the left eye side compressed image data CL and the right eye side of about 28 data / second, respectively. Side compressed image data CR is reconstructed.

In the stereoscopic image display system having the above-described structure, the common monitor television 12 switches and displays the left-eye image obtained by photographing the common subject 14 from the diagonal left side and the right-eye image photographed from the diagonal right side. Humans perceive a stereoscopic effect by rapidly switching between the image viewed with the left eye and the image viewed with the right eye in the brain. This is reproduced on one monitor TV 12. Therefore, it is possible to obtain a realistic stereoscopic image with a simple configuration. Also, the video cameras 11 and 11 for shooting are about 28
The one that continuously outputs a still image at a rate of frame / second is used, and a frame memory 5 capable of storing one screen of this still image is provided. Then, the left eye side still image FL and the right eye side still image FR are alternately taken out from the frame memory 5 to switch the image on the monitor television 12 at a rate of about 280 frames / sec. Therefore, the image switching rate becomes high, and a more realistic stereoscopic image can be obtained.
Further, unlike the conventional example of the stereoscopic image display system, it is not necessary to project the images from the two projectors from the left and right, so that the degree of freedom in selecting the shooting angle A is increased. Therefore, in this embodiment, about 15 ° is selected as the optimum photographing angle A, and a more realistic stereoscopic image is obtained.

The left-eye image FL and the right-eye image FR are set to 1
It is divided into 28 pixels, and these pixels are compressed by the compression circuits 1, 1
Compressed in parallel at the same time. Therefore, the compression of the image information having a large amount of information can be performed by the real-time processing at a rate of about 28 frames / second, whereby the amount of information can be reduced and the transmission and recording of the image information can be facilitated. . Also, the compressed image data C compressed in this way
L and CR are simultaneously expanded in parallel by the expansion circuits 4 and 4 and restored to pixels. Therefore, the left-eye image FL and the right-eye image FR can be restored by real-time processing at a rate of 28 frames / sec, and a stereoscopic image display system that facilitates transmission and recording can be obtained.

Further, in the encoding circuit 2, the compressed image data C transmitted by the two paths of the left eye side and the right eye side.
Transmission data E for transmitting L and CR by one route
On the other hand, in the decoding circuit 3, the transmission data E is redistributed into the compressed image data CL on the left eye side and the compressed image data CR on the right eye side. Therefore, the data based on the stereoscopic image can be recorded by the single video device 13, and the system configuration becomes simple. The video device 13
In addition to the case of recording in, the transmission can be performed by a single transmission line in the case of transmission to a distant place, so that the system configuration can be simplified.

The left-eye image FL and the right-eye image FR are divided into 128 pixels by dividing the left-eye image FL and the right-eye image FR into 4 in the vertical direction and 32 in the horizontal direction. This is because normal images have more horizontal movements than vertical movements, and the number of divisions in the horizontal direction is larger than that in the vertical direction, so that pixels can be compressed, expanded, or transmitted during the process. This is so that even if the quality deteriorates, the impact will not eventually increase.

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the stereoscopic image display system of the present invention.
Compared with the first embodiment, it is the same except that the compression circuits 1 and 1 are comparison circuits 8 and 8 and the expansion circuits 4 and 4 are reproduction circuits 9 and 9. Therefore, the description of the same parts as those in the first embodiment will be omitted here.

The comparison circuits 8 and 8 function as image comparison means, store the immediately preceding input images FL and FR in a built-in memory (not shown), and compare them with the current input images FL and FR. And pixel-by-pixel comparison, and the comparison pixel data D corresponding to the change only for the pixels in which the difference occurs
Outputs L and DR. The reproducing circuits 9 and 9 function as image reproducing means, and the comparing circuit 8 and
Contrary to 8, the immediately preceding output images FL and FR stored in a built-in memory (not shown) and the input comparison image data D
The left-eye image FL and the right-eye image FR to be output next are reproduced based on L and DR.

FIG. 5 shows the comparison circuit 8 taking the left eye side as an example.
FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating the operation of the reproducing circuit 9 and the reproducing circuit 9. In the comparison circuit 8, the left-eye image FL ′ input immediately before is read from a built-in memory (not shown), and this and the newly input left-eye image FL are compared every 128 pixels. At this time, as shown in FIG. 5, if the display contents are changed only in the pixels indicated by P1 and P2, the comparison circuit 8 causes these P1 to change.
And P2, the comparison image data DL corresponding to the change is formed and output only for the pixel indicated by P2. On the other hand, the reproduction circuit 9 reads out the left-eye image FL ′ reproduced and output immediately before from the built-in memory (not shown), and reproduces the left-eye image FL to be output based on this and the input comparison image data DL. . In a system in which still images are output one after another at a rate of about 28 frames / second and a moving image is represented by this, it is often the case that two consecutive still images do not change in many parts. Therefore, the comparison image data DL, DR output from the comparison circuits 8, 8 has a significantly reduced amount of information, which facilitates transmission and recording. Further, since the information reduced by the reproducing circuits 9 and 9 is restored, the system can be easily transmitted and recorded.

The specific embodiments of the present invention have been described above, but the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the present invention. For example, the compression circuits 1 and 1 and the decompression circuits 4 and 4 are used in the first embodiment, and the comparison circuits 8 and 8 and the reproduction circuits 9 and 9 are used instead of them in the second embodiment. The compression circuits 1 and 1 may be connected in series after the comparison circuits 8 and 8, and the reproduction circuits 9 and 9 may be connected in series after the expansion circuits 4 and 4.
In this case, it is possible to further reduce the amount of information as compared with the first or second embodiment. The compression circuits 1, 1, the encoding circuit 2, the decoding circuit 3, the decompression circuits 4, 4, the frame memory 5, and the memory control circuit 6 are also provided.
Although all are provided in a single integrated circuit 15, they may be divided into a plurality of parts to be integrated circuits if necessary. For example, the frame memory 5 is provided with an external dedicated circuit. May be

[0037]

According to the three-dimensional image display system of the first aspect, since the left-eye image and the right-eye image are displayed on the same display device, it is possible to obtain a realistic three-dimensional image. Further, since both of the above-mentioned images are switched and displayed, the structure is simplified and an inexpensive system can be realized. Further, since the degree of freedom in selecting the photographing angle is large, it is possible to adopt an appropriate photographing angle and perform effective display.

Further, in the stereoscopic image display system according to the second aspect, it is possible to obtain a more realistic stereoscopic image by the photographing angle that can most effectively express the stereoscopic effect.

Furthermore, the stereoscopic image display system according to claim 3 can be easily implemented. Moreover, since the left-eye image and the right-eye image can be switched at high speed, it is possible to obtain a more realistic stereoscopic image.

In the stereoscopic image display system according to the fourth aspect, since the pixels can be simultaneously compressed in parallel, the amount of information can be quickly reduced, and recording, transmission, etc. can be facilitated.

In the stereoscopic image display system according to the fifth aspect, the compressed image data can be quickly restored, so that a system configuration that facilitates recording, transmission and the like can be realized.

In the stereoscopic image display system according to the sixth aspect, the amount of information of the left-eye image and the right-eye image is reduced by utilizing the characteristic of the image that there are not many pixels that change between mutually continuous images. As a result, recording, transmission, etc. can be facilitated.

In the stereoscopic image display system according to the seventh aspect, the comparative image data formed to reduce the amount of information can be reliably reproduced, so that the system configuration can facilitate recording and transmission. Becomes

In the stereoscopic image display system according to the eighth aspect, the left eye side and the right eye side of the compressed image data or the comparison image data are alternately arranged in time series to form transmission data. Therefore, it is possible to perform transmission and recording using a single transmission path and recording device.

In the stereoscopic image display system according to claim 9, since the transmission data is distributed to the left eye side and the right eye side,
It is possible to have a simple system configuration using a single transmission line and a recording device.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a first embodiment of a stereoscopic image display system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an internal configuration of a compression circuit and a decompression circuit in the above embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an operation of an encoding circuit and a decoding circuit in the above embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a second embodiment of the stereoscopic image display system of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating the operation of the comparison circuit and the reproduction circuit in the above-described embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 compression circuit 2 encoding circuit 3 decoding circuit 4 expansion circuit 5 frame memory 6 memory control circuit 7 switching means 8 comparison circuit 12 monitor TV 14 subject A shooting angle CL compressed image data CR compressed image data DL comparative image data DR comparative image Data E Transmission data FL Left eye image FR Right eye image

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A common display means (12) for displaying a left-eye image and a right-eye image formed by photographing a common subject (14) from a diagonal left side and a diagonal right side, respectively, at a predetermined photographing angle (A). A stereoscopic image display system comprising a switching means (7) for switching the display alternately. 2. The stereoscopic image display system according to claim 1, wherein the photographing angle (A) is about 15 °. 3. The left-eye image is a series of left-eye images (FL) that are still images formed at predetermined time intervals that can represent a moving image by making the still images continuous, and the right-eye image is the right-eye image. Is a series of right-eye images (FR) that are still images formed at the above-mentioned predetermined time intervals, and both of these images (FL) (FR) can be stored in the image storage means (5). The switching means (7) includes a control means (6) for controlling the image storage means (5), and the switching means (7) switches the left-eye image (FL) and the right-eye image (FR) at intervals shorter than the predetermined time interval. The stereoscopic image display system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the image storage means (5) are alternately taken out by the control means (6). 4. The left eye image (FL) and the right eye image (F)
For each pixel formed by dividing R) into a plurality of
4. The stereoscopic image display system according to claim 3, further comprising image compression means (1) for simultaneously compressing these in parallel and forming compressed image data (CL) (CR) corresponding to each pixel. . 5. The image decompression means (4) for decompressing the compressed image data (CL) (CR) simultaneously and in parallel, and decompressing the compressed image data (CL) corresponding to each pixel. Item 3 stereoscopic image display system. 6. The left eye image (FL) and the right eye image (F)
For each of R), the corresponding pixels among the pixels formed by dividing them into a plurality of pixels are compared with each other for two consecutive images, and only the pixels that differ due to this comparison correspond to the change amount. The three-dimensional image display system according to claim 3, further comprising image comparison means (8) for forming the comparative image data (DL) (DR). 7. The left-eye image (FL) and the right-eye image (FR) reproduced immediately before and the comparative image data (DL) (D).
The stereoscopic image display system according to claim 3 or 6, further comprising image reproducing means (9) for forming the next left-eye image (FL) and right-eye image (FR) based on R). 8. The left eye side (CL) (DL) and the right eye side (CR) (DR) are time-series from the compressed image data (CL) (CR) or the comparative image data (DL) (DR). 7. A stereoscopic image display system according to claim 4 or 6, further comprising an encoding means (2) for forming transmission data (E) which are alternately arranged. 9. The transmission data (E) is compressed image data (CL) or comparative image data (DL) for the left eye and compressed image data (CR) or comparative image data (D) for the right eye.
8. The stereoscopic image display system according to claim 5 or 7, further comprising a decoding means (3) for distributing to R).