JPH11122544A - Image pickup device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain the image pickup device in which simple layer structure, thin profile and low cost are attained, no focus adjustment is required and the handling is easy by providing a telescope array panel where lots of micro telescopes corresponding to each photographing pixel are arranged in a matrix to a front face of an image pickup panel where lots of photographing pixels are arranged in a matrix. SOLUTION: The image pickup device is provided with an image pickup panel 100 consisting of lots of image pickup pixels 110 arranged in a matrix, a telescope array panel 200 consisting of lots of micro telescopes 210 corresponding to each image pickup pixel 110 arranged in a matrix, and a convex lens arranged in front of the telescope array panel 200. Only lights with nearly the same size as a diameter of each telescope 210 and made incident nearly in parallel among the lights made incident onto each micro telescope 210 of the telescope array panel 200 through a concave lens from the front side are made incident onto each photographing pixel 110 of the image pickup panel 100.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image pickup device having a compound eye structure in which a large number of image pickup pixels are arranged in a matrix.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an image pickup apparatus having a compound eye structure in which a large number of image pickup pixels are arranged in a matrix is used.
For example, an image input / output device disclosed in JP-A-8-102924 is known. This image input / output device has a display function and an imaging function, and has a liquid crystal panel having a pixel drive element array in which pixel drive elements for driving a large number of display pixels are arranged in a matrix, and a light detection device. It has a structure in which an image pickup panel having an image pickup element array in which a large number of light receiving elements are arranged in a matrix is connected via an adhesive layer. That is, this image input / output device
An imaging device having a compound eye structure in which a large number of imaging elements are arranged in a matrix form has achieved a reduction in the thickness of an imaging device.

[0003]

However, in the above-described conventional example, the light incident on each light receiving element of the image pickup panel is a parallel light or a light having a focal point. It is necessary to provide a pinhole array, a light incident angle limiting member, or a microlens array for regulating the angle. For this reason, the layer configuration of the imaging panel becomes complicated, and the operating distance (working distance) between the optical system and the light receiving element is restricted, thereby causing a problem that the thickness and cost are hindered.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an image pickup apparatus which can achieve a reduction in thickness and cost with a simple layer structure, does not require focus adjustment, and is easy to handle.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an image pickup panel in which a large number of image pickup pixels each comprising an image pickup element are arranged in a matrix, and is arranged at a predetermined interval on the front surface of the image pickup panel. And a telescope array panel in which a large number of micro telescopes are arranged in a matrix in correspondence with each of the imaging pixels.

In the image pickup apparatus of the present invention, of the light incident on each micro telescope of the telescope array panel from the front, only the light having substantially the same size as the diameter of each micro telescope and incident substantially parallel to each other is included in each of the image pickup panels. The light enters the imaging pixel.
Then, this incident light is detected by the image pickup device of each image pickup pixel, and the detection output of each image pickup device is scanned to take out an image pickup signal, thereby taking an image.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an embodiment of an imaging apparatus according to the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view showing an example of the principle configuration of an imaging apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing an enlarged main part of the imaging device shown in FIG. 1. The imaging apparatus according to the present embodiment has an imaging panel 100 in which a large number of imaging pixels 110 are arranged in a matrix, and is arranged at a predetermined interval (operating distance G) on the front surface of the imaging panel 100. A telescope array panel 200 in which a large number of micro telescopes 210 are arranged in a matrix, and a concave lens 300 is arranged on the front surface of the telescope array panel 200.

The image pickup panel 100 has an image pickup pixel 110 arranged on a substrate 100A. The imaging pixel 110 is
For example, it is formed from an image sensor such as a photodiode or a photo sensor. The detection output of each imaging pixel 110 is transferred to an imaging circuit by a shift register or the like via a transparent electrode provided on the substrate 100A, and is reproduced as an image signal.

The telescope array panel 200 has convex lens surfaces 210A and 210B constituting each micro telescope 210 on both sides of a substrate 200A made of an optical material such as acrylic.
Is formed. That is, the micro telescope 210 of this example is a Keplerian telescope in which the convex lens surfaces 210A and 210B are combined. Then, the parallel light incident from the front convex lens surface 210A is once focused in the micro telescope 210, then becomes parallel light again on the rear convex lens surface 210B, and is guided to the imaging panel 100 side. Each micro telescope 210 is provided at a position corresponding to each imaging pixel 110.

The concave lens 300 is disposed with the concave lens surface 300A facing the telescope array panel 200 side.
This is for expanding the field of view of the imaging panel 100. In such a configuration, of the light incident on each micro-telescope 210 of the telescope array panel 200 from the front through the concave lens 300, only light having substantially the same size as the diameter of each micro-telescope 210 and incident substantially parallel thereto is captured by the imaging panel. The light is incident on each of the 100 imaging pixels 110. Then, this incident light is detected by the image pickup device of each image pickup pixel, and the detection output of each image pickup device is scanned to take out an image pickup signal, thereby taking an image.

Therefore, the conventional example described above (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No.
No. 102924), it is possible to configure an optical system that focuses at almost infinity without requiring a means for regulating the incident angle of light, and there is a restriction on the operating distance (working distance) between the optical system and the light receiving element. A small imaging device can be configured. In addition, the provision of the concave lens 300 makes it possible to arbitrarily set the imaging viewing angle. Then, since the light beam to each independent pixel is a parallel light beam, each pixel becomes focus-free, and an image pickup apparatus that is in focus from anywhere can be configured.

FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view showing a second principle example of the imaging apparatus according to the present invention. The same components as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals. This example
Fresnel concave lens 3 instead of concave lens 300 described above
10 is provided. This Fresnel concave lens 310
Is a concave lens surface 3 facing the telescope array panel 200.
10A is Fresnelized as a whole. By providing such a Fresnel concave lens 310, it is possible to further reduce the thickness of the imaging device. In such a Fresnel concave lens 310, the telescope array panel 20
Only a portion where the lens surface 210A on the zero objective side is present may be Fresnelized to partially obtain the prism effect.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing another example of the telescope array panel. Telescope array panel 200 described above
Uses a Kepler-type micro telescope 210, but the telescope array panel 220 shown in FIG. 4 uses a Galilean-type micro telescope 230. That is, the micro telescope 230 is a combination of the convex lens surface 230A on the object side and the concave lens surface 230B on the eyepiece side. Note that each micro telescope 230 is connected to each imaging pixel 11
It is arranged at the position corresponding to 0. Even in such a configuration, the same effects as those of the imaging device shown in FIG. 1 described above can be obtained.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of a main part showing details of a layer structure when the image pickup device shown in FIG. 1 is combined with a liquid crystal display device, and FIG. 6 is a front view thereof. In this example, the telescope array panel 400 is joined to a liquid crystal layer 440 also serving as an imaging panel via a color filter layer 410, a polarizing plate 420, and a transparent plate 430. Further, on the rear surface of the liquid crystal layer 440, a transparent plate 450, a polarizing plate 460, and a diffusion plate 47 are provided.
0 is provided so that the light of the rear backlight 480 is diffused and guided forward. As shown in the drawing, the telescope array panel 400 of the present example has a shielding wall 404 provided between each micro telescope 402, and each micro telescope 40
Light leakage between the two is prevented.

As shown in FIG. 6, a large number of liquid crystal display pixels 510 are arranged in a matrix on the liquid crystal layer 440, and imaging pixels 520 are arranged in a matrix between the liquid crystal display pixels 510. The micro telescope 402 is arranged corresponding to each imaging pixel 520. The area where the micro telescope 402 is not provided is a transparent panel for liquid crystal display. Also, the transparent plates 430 and 450 have
A transparent electrode 530 for driving a liquid crystal and transmitting an image signal is provided. The scanning of the image sensor is performed by an XY address switch structure, similarly to the MOS type image sensor.

The color filter layer 410 is for obtaining each color component light of R, G, and B, and contains an infrared absorbing material so as to cut off infrared light.
When a silicon photosensor is used for the image sensor, the sensitivity peak wavelength is around 800 to 900 μm. Therefore, without a color filter, the device has high sensitivity to near-infrared light and has high sensitivity even in darkness. Sensitivity can be increased. Therefore, in this example, imaging pixels without a color filter are mixed with imaging pixels with a color filter. Note that the pixels with crosses in FIG. 6 indicate imaging pixels without a color filter.

The transparent plates 430 and 450 are usually made of glass or quartz, but can be made of plastic by using a low-temperature polysilicon process. The transparent plates 430 and 450 are made of plastic. By doing so, it is also possible to obtain a bendable imaging device.

FIG. 7 is a timing chart showing the timings of the display operation and the image pickup operation in the above-described device for both image pickup and display. If display and imaging are performed simultaneously, bright light for display by the backlight will also act as stray light on the image sensor. Therefore, in order to avoid this, as shown in FIG. 7, the sensor charge of the image sensor is reset (B) during the intermittent lighting of the backlight (A) and then the accumulated sensor charge is reset. The data is transferred (C) and photometry is performed (D).

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the circuit configuration of the above-described apparatus for both image pickup and display. In this dual-purpose device, an image signal (video signal) captured by the imaging device unit 600 is transmitted to the display device unit 610 and displayed. Each device section 6 is controlled by a horizontal synchronization signal and a vertical synchronization signal output from the horizontal / vertical driver 620.
The synchronization control in steps 00 and 610 is performed.

In general, the scanning of the picked-up image is performed in a direction opposite to the scanning of the display pixels. At this time, if the captured image is displayed as it is, it will be the reverse of a normal mirror, and the left and right will not be inverted. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 8, the inverter 630 and the switch 6 are connected between the horizontal synchronization output terminal of the horizontal / vertical driver 620 and the horizontal synchronization input terminal of the display device section 610.
When the virtual mirror 40 is provided to realize a virtual mirror, the scanning direction of the display pixel or the imaging pixel is changed from the normal operation and the operation is simultaneously performed in the same direction.

That is, in the normal scanning, as shown in FIG. 6, the switch 640 is connected to the output terminal a of the inverter 630, and performs the scanning of the captured image and the scanning of the display pixels in the opposite directions. Also, when a virtual mirror is realized, the switch 640 does not pass through the inverter 630,
It is connected to the direct connection terminal b of the horizontal / vertical driver 620, and performs scanning of a captured image and scanning of display pixels in the same direction.

Next, an example in which the present invention is applied to a head-mounted display device having an imaging device and a display device will be described. FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing the principle of the optical system of the head mounted display device to which the present invention is applied. This head mounted display device is a small display device to be mounted on the head of a person, and is disposed in the optical unit by mounting a flat binoculars-type optical unit in the optical axis direction like glasses. The optical system reflects and magnifies the image from the liquid crystal display device to form a virtual image, and makes it appear as a large image in front of the eyes. For example, it is commercialized under the name of Glasstron. In this example, a 0.7-inch type
An example will be described in which the image on the liquid crystal screen of 180,000 pixels can be sensed as a large 52-inch image 2 m away.

In this embodiment, such a head-mounted display device is configured by adding the function of the image pickup device of the present invention. That is, the head-mounted display device of the present example is configured to capture an image in front of a person's field of view by the imaging device, enlarge the captured image on the display device, and show the image as a large screen image. It should be noted that the device having such a configuration can also be used as an eyeglass device for enlarging and showing an object, scenery, and the like in front.

The head-mounted display device of this embodiment shown in FIG. 1 has a concave half mirror and lens 700 disposed in front of the field of view, and the concave half mirror and lens 700.
Half mirror 71 arranged at an angle of approximately 45 ° inside the camera
0, an imaging / display device 730 arranged at a position where the reflected light from the half mirror 710 enters, and a liquid crystal shutter 790 arranged outside the concave half mirror / lens 740. Imaging / display device 730
Has a configuration similar to that of the device described with reference to FIGS. 5 to 8, and a backlight 750 is arranged on the rear surface of the imaging / display device 730. In addition, a diffuser 760 is disposed on the front surface of the imaging / display device 730 so as to make the dot light unique to the liquid crystal inconspicuous.

A concave half mirror / lens 740
Has the function of the concave lens for the above-described imaging device. That is, when the function of the imaging device is not added, only the function of the concave half mirror that reflects the image from the liquid crystal display device is sufficient. In this example, the viewing angle of the imaging device is increased by about 10 ° to 20 °. In addition, the function of the concave lens is also used. The concave half mirror / lens 740 guides the forward incident light to the rear half mirror 710, reflects the reflected light from the half mirror 710, and supplies the reflected light to the human eye. Further, the liquid crystal shutter 790 switches between making the front light enter the device and blocking it.

The half mirror 710 reflects a part of the light incident from the concave half mirror / lens 740 at 90 ° and guides the reflected light to the image pickup / display device 730, and guides the remaining part to the human eye. Therefore, in the device of the present example, since a part of the forward light directly enters the eyes when the liquid crystal shutter 790 is open, a see-through function that allows both the display image and the background image to be viewed in an overlapping manner is realized. ing. The light reflected at 90 ° by the half mirror 710 is used for imaging /
The image is guided to the display device 730 and an imaging operation is performed based on the above-described principle of the imaging device. Therefore, it is possible to record this image pickup signal or to send it to the display device side for enlarged display.

A part of the optical signal displayed by the display device of the image pickup / display device 730 is
A concave half mirror and lens 740 that reflects 90 ° at 10
It is led to. Then, a part thereof is reflected by the concave surface of the concave half mirror / lens 740, passes through the half mirror 710, is guided to the human eye, and can be viewed as the above-described enlarged image. Here, by closing the liquid crystal shutter 790 and blocking the background image, it is possible to obtain a state as if watching a large screen image in a theater.

As described above, by applying the imaging device of the present invention to a head-mounted display device,
It is possible to constitute a small-sized and light-weight imaging and display device that is easy to handle such as focus.

[0029]

As described above, in the imaging apparatus according to the present invention, a large number of micro telescopes are arranged in a matrix corresponding to each imaging pixel on the front surface of an imaging panel in which a large number of imaging pixels are arranged in a matrix. By providing the telescope array panel, only light having a size substantially the same as the diameter of each micro telescope and incident substantially parallel to each micro pixel of the micro telescopes of the telescope array panel from the front is obtained from each imaging pixel of the imaging panel. To be incident. For this reason,
With a simple layer structure, it is possible to achieve a reduction in thickness and cost, and it is possible to configure an imaging device that does not require focus adjustment and is easy to handle.

In particular, unlike the above-described conventional example, an optical system focused at almost infinity can be formed without the need for a means for regulating the incident angle of light, and the operating distance between the optical system and the light receiving element (working distance) Distance) can be reduced, and since the light flux to each independent pixel is a parallel light flux, each pixel is free of focus, and an image pickup apparatus that can focus from anywhere can be configured.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing an example of the principle configuration of an imaging device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing an enlarged main part of the imaging device shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view showing a second principle configuration example of the imaging apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing another example of the telescope array panel.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a main part showing details of a layer structure when the imaging device shown in FIG. 1 is combined with a liquid crystal display device.

6 is a front view of the device shown in FIG.

7 is a timing chart showing timings of a display operation and an imaging operation in the device shown in FIG.

8 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration in the device shown in FIG.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing the principle of an optical system of a head mounted display device to which the present invention has been applied.

[Explanation of symbols]

100 imaging panel, 110 imaging pixel, 200
… Telescope array panel, 210… Micro telescope, 3
00 ... a concave lens.

Claims (15)

[Claims] An imaging panel in which a plurality of imaging pixels each including an imaging element are arranged in a matrix; and an imaging panel arranged at a predetermined interval on a front surface of the imaging panel;
An imaging device comprising: a telescope array panel in which a large number of micro telescopes are arranged in a matrix in correspondence with each of the imaging pixels. 2. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the micro telescope is a Kepler-type or Galilean-type refraction telescope. 3. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the telescope array panel has a substrate made of an optical system material, and has a lens surface of each telescope formed on both surfaces of the substrate. 4. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a concave lens is provided on a front surface of the telescope array panel. 5. The imaging device according to claim 4, wherein the concave lens has a Fresnel lens shape. 6. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the imaging panel includes a display device in which display pixels each including a display element are arranged in a matrix between the respective imaging pixels. . 7. The imaging device according to claim 6, wherein the image captured by the imaging pixel is displayed by the display device. 8. The imaging device according to claim 7, wherein the display device has a unit that performs virtual mirror display based on an image captured by the imaging pixel. 9. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a color filter is provided between the imaging panel and the telescope array panel, corresponding to each of the imaging elements. 10. The color filter according to claim 9, wherein the color filter is selectively provided in each of the image sensors.
An imaging device according to any one of the preceding claims. 11. The imaging device according to claim 9, wherein the color filter includes an infrared cutoff filter. 12. A head mounted device that is mounted on a head of a person and captures an image in front of the field of view of the person by the imaging device, and displays the image by the display device so that the person can view the image. The imaging device according to claim 7, wherein: 13. A head mount device comprising: a concave half mirror / lens disposed in front of a field of view; a half mirror disposed at an angle of approximately 45 ° inside the concave half mirror / lens; And an imaging device including the display device disposed at a position where the reflected light is incident. The light in front of the field of view incident through the concave half mirror / lens is passed through the half mirror and guided to human eyes. At the same time, the light is reflected by the half mirror and guided to the imaging device, and the image of the display device is reflected by the concave half mirror / lens and half mirror, and the reflected light is passed through the half mirror and guided to the human eye. 13. The imaging device according to claim 12, wherein: 14. The imaging device according to claim 13, wherein a diffuser is disposed on a front surface of the imaging device, and a backlight is disposed on a rear surface of the imaging device. 15. A shutter according to claim 1, wherein a shutter is disposed outside said concave half mirror and lens.
3. The imaging device according to 3.