JPH0927971A - Image display system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a real video image changed in matching with a motion of a head of a viewer independently of time and location. SOLUTION: A storage device stores data of an image with a wider angle than that of a display image by a display device 7 having a display section mounted on a head of a viewer 20. A sensing means 30 senses a motion of a head of the viewer 20. Data of the displayed image by the display device 7 are segmented, based on the stored image data corresponding to the sensed motion of the head. Thus, the image changing synchronously with a change in the visual field corresponding to the motion of the head of the viewer 20 appears in front of eyes of the viewer 20, based on the stored image data.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image display system capable of providing an image according to the movement of the observer's head in various amusement venues, viewing theaters, exhibition halls and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, in a satellite booth of a theater or a booth for providing a virtual reality space in which visitors can experience travel, canoeing, off-road driving, etc., a shooting image of the play or an image corresponding to the virtual reality space is provided. Therefore, a head-mounted display device having a display unit mounted on the head of an observer is used.

A computer graphic (CG) image or a photographed image taken by a camera is used as a display image on the head-mounted display device.

In addition, the display image is also changed according to the change of the visual field corresponding to the movement of the observer's head. That is, a sensor for detecting the movement of the observer's head is provided, and an image viewed in the visual field corresponding to the movement of the head is created by CG from the three-dimensional spatial data by calculation based on the output data of the sensor. There is.

[0005]

However, when a CG image is used as a display image by the head-mounted display device, the amount of data becomes enormous to make a realistic image, and a computer capable of high-speed arithmetic processing is required. And the cost increases. In addition, no matter how high-speed arithmetic processing is performed, only the one that is inferior in terms of realism as compared to the real shot image is obtained.

In the case of using a photographed image taken by a camera as a display image by the head-mounted display device,
To change the image according to the movement of the observer's head,
It is necessary to move the camera angle in real time. Therefore, when using what was recorded as a live-action video,
The image cannot be changed according to the movement of the observer's head, and the live-action image cannot be provided at a remote place at any time. The function of the head-mounted display device that can be provided before could not be fully utilized.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an image display system which can solve the above problems.

[0008]

An image display system according to the present invention stores a display device having a display unit to be mounted on the head of an observer and data of an image wider than the display image by the display device. Means, a means for detecting the movement of the observer's head, and corresponding to the detected movement of the observer's head, the data of the display image by the display device is cut out from the stored image data. And means.

In order to display an image with the configuration of the present invention,
The data of the image with a wider angle than the display image by the display device,
The image data is formed by a real image taken by a camera or CG, and the image data is stored. Next, the movement of the head of the observer is detected, and the data of the display image by the display device is cut out from the stored image data in accordance with the detected movement of the head of the observer. An image corresponding to the cut out image data is displayed on the display device. Accordingly, an image that changes in synchronization with the change in the visual field corresponding to the movement of the observer's head can be provided in front of the observer's eyes based on the stored image data.

When the stored image data amount is large, the data may be compressed and stored, and the display image data may be cut out from the image data restored at the time of reproduction.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

The image display system shown in FIG. 1 has a camera unit 1 capable of taking a wide-angle image of the external scenery A, etc., a control unit 3 connected to the camera unit 1 via an input / output data processing unit 2, and its control unit 3. A head-mounted display device 7 connected to the control device 3 via the input / output data processing unit 2 is provided.

The camera unit 1 has two compound-eye wide-angle cameras 10a and 10b. One camera 10a captures a right-eye image, the other camera 10b captures a left-eye image, and each captured image is supported. The image signal to be processed is transmitted to the input / output data processing unit 2. Each of the cameras 10a and 10b is capable of capturing image data having a wider angle than the display image of the head-mounted display device 7.

As shown in FIG. 2, the head-mounted display device 7 has a right-eye display unit 21a, a left-eye display unit 21b, and a holding unit 22 that holds both display units 21a and 21b.

The holding portion 22 can be attached to the head of the observer 20 by, for example, forming a helmet or a band, so that both display portions 21a and 21b are fixed with respect to the visual field of the observer 20 by the attachment. Is positioned at the position. The head of the observer 20 is not limited to the crown, but refers to a portion above the neck including the face.

Each of the display units 21a and 21b has a CR
Display elements 26a and 26b such as a T and a liquid crystal display panel, and display control devices 27a and 27b for the respective display elements 26a and 26b.
And an optical system. Each display control device 27a, 27b
Sends an image signal to each of the display elements 26a and 26b to display an image corresponding to the image signal on each of the display elements 26a and 26b. Each optical system includes lens systems 29a and 29b, mirrors 30a and 30b, first combiners 31a and 31b, and
It has 2nd combiners 32a and 32b. The display light of the image displayed by each of the display elements 26a and 26b is reflected by the mirrors 30a and 30b and the first combiners 31a and 31b via the lens systems 29a and 29b, and the second
It is reflected and focused by the combiners 32a and 32b, transmitted through the first combiners 31a and 31b, and guided to the eyes of the observer 20. The second combiners 32a, 3a
The visor 35 is attached to the holding portion 22 in front of 2b.
It is attached so that it can move up and down as indicated by the arrow. By displacing the visor 35 upwards, the observer 20 can see not only the displayed image but also the combiners 31a, 31b,
An actual object in the front visual field can be visually recognized through 32a and 32b, and only the display image can be visually recognized by displacing the visor 35 downward.

A head motion sensor 30 for detecting the movement of the head of the observer 20 is provided. The head motion sensor 30 has a known one, for example, a coil attached to the holding portion 22 and a means for generating a magnetic field around the coil, and detects a change in current due to the movement of the coil in the magnetic field. Using the one that outputs the corresponding signal or the ultrasonic transmitter and receiver, attach the transmitter to the fixed side, attach the receiver to the holding part 22, and receive from the ultrasonic transmitter by the movement of the receiver. It is possible to use a device that outputs a signal according to a change in the arrival time to the machine.

As shown in FIG. 3, the control device 3 includes a computer 41, a storage device interface 42,
And a storage device 43. The computer 41 has a storage device for storing a control program and a central processing unit for instructing the input / output data processing unit 2 to process image data according to the control program. The storage device 43 has a large capacity capable of storing the captured image data, and can be constituted by, for example, a magneto-optical disk device. The storage device interface 42 performs signal conversion for connecting the storage device 43 to a bus line 44 between the control device 3 and the input / output data processing unit 2. The input / output data processing unit 2 corresponds to the right eye camera 10 described above.
a image compression board 45a for the right eye connected to a and the bus line 44, the image compression board 45b for the left eye connected to the left camera 10b and the bus line 44, and the image restoration for the right eye connected to the bus line 44. Board 46a, left-eye image restoration board 46b, right-eye image processing board 47
a, an image processing board 47b for the left eye, an image frame buffer memory 48a for the right eye connected to the image restoration board 46a for the right eye and the image processing board 47a for the right eye, the image restoration board 46b for the left eye and the image processing board 47 for the left eye.
Left-eye image frame buffer memory 4 connected to b
8b, and a head motion sensor interface 49 connected to the head motion sensor 30 and the bus line 44. Image processing board 4 for the right eye
7a is connected to the right-eye display control device 27a of the head-mounted display device 7, and the left-eye image processing board 47b is connected to the left-eye display control device 27b.

The computer 41 of the control device 3 controls the input / output data processing unit 2 according to the stored program. That is, when storing the image data, the data amount of the binocular image data such as the external scene A captured by the cameras 10a and 10b is compressed by the image compression boards 45a and 45b, and the compressed image data is stored. Is stored in the storage device 43. Further, when displaying an image, the image data stored in the storage device 43 is converted by the image decompression boards 46a and 46b from a compressed state into a decompressible signal, and the image signal is converted into an image frame buffer memory 48a based on the signal. Deploy at 48b. Next, the observer 2 input from the head motion sensor 30 via the head motion sensor interface 49.
Based on the signal corresponding to the movement of the head of 0, the image processing board 47a, 47b causes the image frame buffer memory 4
Display image data is cut out from the image data developed in 8a and 48b, and the display image data is sent to the display control devices 27a and 27b of the head-mounted display device 7. As a result, the right-eye display unit 21a of the head-mounted display device 7 displays the right-eye image captured by the one camera 10a, guides the image display light to the right eye of the observer 20, and the left-eye display unit 21b The image for the left eye captured by the other camera 10b is displayed, the image display light is guided to the left eye of the observer 20, and the observer 20 visually recognizes a stereoscopic image.

According to the above configuration, the head-mounted display device 7 is synchronized with the change in the visual field corresponding to the movement of the head of the observer 20 from the wide-angle image data stored in the storage device 43.
The data of the display image can be cut out and the image can be visually recognized by the observer 20. For example, (1) in FIG.
The area B indicated by the alternate long and short dash line in FIG.
In the case of the wide-angle image of the outside scene A photographed by b, if the direction of the visual field corresponding to the movement of the head is the upper left direction, the image of the area C indicated by the two-dot chain line in the figure in the wide-angle image is Each display unit 2 is cut out and as shown in (2) of FIG.
1a and 21b, and when the direction of the visual field corresponding to the movement of the head is the lower right direction, the image of the area D indicated by the broken line in the figure is cut out from the wide-angle image, and As shown in 3), it is displayed by each display unit 21a, 21b. Thereby, for example, in the virtual reality space in which a travel experience is simulated, it is possible to provide the observer 20 with the external scenery corresponding to the travel destination. The storage device 43
Not only image data but also character data, image data created by CG, etc. may be stored together and displayed together with the image data. For example, as shown in (2) and (3) of FIG. When allowing the observer 20 to visually recognize the scenery, character data such as the name of the building of the external scenery may also be visually recognized.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, a large-capacity rewritable storage device that stores wide-angle image data and a storage device interface may be provided outside the control device 3. In addition, by connecting a plurality of input / output data processing units 2 and a plurality of head-mounted display devices 7 to one control device 3 and storing the same wide-angle image in the storage device 43, the same virtual location can be obtained. It is possible for a plurality of observers in the field to visually recognize different images according to the movement of their heads. Further, the image stored in the storage device 43 may be captured by capturing an external scene or the like using a plurality of camera units, or may be captured by moving one camera unit and scanning an image capturing target. Further, when the display image does not require stereoscopic vision such as a distant view, the camera unit may be configured by a single camera. Further, the image data stored in the storage device 43 may be artificially created by CG.

[0022]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION In the image display system according to the present invention, the image data of the right-eye image captured by the camera and the image data of the left-eye image are stored as wide-angle image data, and the display device displays the right-eye image. It is preferable to have a right-eye display unit for visually recognizing image data for the observer's right eye, and a left-eye display unit for visually observing image data for the left-eye image on the left eye of the observer. This allows the observer to visually recognize a three-dimensional image.

Further, the image display system of the present invention comprises a plurality of head-mounted display devices mounted on the heads of a plurality of observers, and an image having a wider angle than the display images of the respective head-mounted display devices. Means capable of storing data, means for detecting the movement of the head of each observer, and corresponding to each detected movement of the head of each observer, from the stored image data,
It is preferable to include means for cutting out each data of the display image by each of the head-mounted display devices. This allows a plurality of observers who are virtually at the same place to visually recognize different images according to the movements of their heads.

[0024]

According to the image display system of the present invention, it is possible to provide a live-action image that changes according to the change of the visual field corresponding to the movement of the head of the observer at any time and in any place.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a configuration of an image display system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a configuration of a head-mounted display device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an image display system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 (1) of the landscape display system according to the embodiment of the present invention.
Shows a cutout area of image data, (2), (3)
Shows different image display states

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Input / output data processing unit 3 Control device 7 Head-mounted display device 20 Observer 30 Head motion sensor 43 Storage device

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A display device having a display unit mounted on an observer's head, means for storing data of an image having a wider angle than a display image by the display device, and movement of the observer's head. An image display system comprising: a detecting unit; and a unit that cuts out data of a display image displayed by the display device from the stored image data in response to the detected movement of the observer's head.