Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Image superposition by optical means – Operator body-mounted heads-up display
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-25
2003-09-02
Shankar, Vijay (Department: 2673)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Image superposition by optical means
Operator body-mounted heads-up display
C345S007000, C345S009000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06614408
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention pertains generally to a new photographic or video apparatus comprising a portable electronic camera device which captures rays of light collinear with rays passing through a point approximately at the center of the lens of an eye of the user. In this way, the device causes the eye itself to become, in effect, the camera. Preferably the apparatus also includes a viewfinder system, a computer, and a wireless communications link.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In photojournalism, electronic news gathering (ENG), and in movie or video production, it is desirable to capture events in a natural manner with minimal disturbance to the subject matter being captured. Current state-of-the-art newsgathering apparatus creates a visual disturbance to others and attracts considerable attention on account of the camera crew, sound crew, the bulky equipment, and the manner in which it is deployed and used. Even when a single camera operator is assigned to a newsgathering task, the simple gesture of bringing or holding the camera up to the eye can disrupt the event being reported. Even if the size of the camera could be reduced to the point of being negligible (e.g. no bigger than the eyecup of a typical camera viewfinder, for example), the very gesture of bringing a device up to the eye is unnatural and attracts considerable attention, especially in establishments such as gambling casinos or department stores where photography is often prohibited, yet where newsworthy events frequently happen. Although there exist a variety of covert cameras which are frequently used in investigative journalism, such as a camera concealed beneath the jewel of a necktie clip, cameras concealed in baseball caps, and cameras concealed in eyeglasses, these cameras tend to produce inferior images, not just because of the technical limitations imposed by their small size, but, more importantly because they lack a means of viewing the image, as well as a means of having others view the image. In typical newsgathering scenarios, one person operates the camera while another carries a monitor to observe the technical quality of the video images. Often there is a news truck equipped with instrumentation so that technical staff can monitor the quality of the video signal, and report back to the camera crew by telephone or the like. Because of the lack of viewfinder means, and the lack of analysis/communications means between the camera operator and remote test equipment/technical staff, investigative video and photojournalism made with concealed cameras of the prior art suffers from poor composition and poor image/sound quality.
Recent experiments, as conducted by and reported by Mann, in a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) technical report titled Mediated Reality (M.R.), Vision and Modeling Group TR260, (1994), which is available online at http://wearcam.org/mr.htm, show that moderate transformations such as rotation by a few degrees or moderate image displacements, often give rise to a reversed aftereffect that is more rapidly assimilated by the wearer than either very large or very small transformations. It is also shown that effects of moderate transformations can often have a more detrimental effect on performing other tasks through the camera as well as detrimental flashbacks upon removal of the camera, than that which would arise from either extreme or negligible transformations. This work also looked into the effects of using wireless communications with a remote image processing system as a means of mediated reality. These findings suggest that merely mounting a conventional camera such as a small 35 mm rangefinder camera or a small video camcorder to a helmet, so that one can look through the viewfinder and use it it hands-free while performing other tasks, will result in poor performance at doing those tasks while looking through the camera viewfinder, in addition to the obvious shortcoming of not having technical staff or other remote collaborators available.
Part of the reason for poor performance associated with simply attaching a conventional camera to a helmet is the induced noncollinearity (failure to provide a truly orthoscopic view). Even viewfinders which correct for parallax, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,692,227 in which a rangefinder is coupled to a parallax error compensating mechanism, only correct for parallax between the viewfinder and the camera lens that is taking the picture, but do not correct for noncollinearity between rays of light passing through the viewfinder and those that would be observed with the naked eye while not looking through the camera.
An object of the invention is to provide a viewfinder means that is suitable for long-term telepresence, computer supported collaborative photojournalism etc., suitable when wearing the camera for an entire day, looking through it all the while.
An important aspect of the invention is the capability of the apparatus to mediate (augment, diminish, or otherwise alter) the visual perception of reality. Traditional camera viewfinders often include the ability to overlay virtual objects, such as camera shutter speed, or the like, on top of reality, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,664,244 which describes a viewfinder with additional information display capability.
This electronic news gathering invention is related to known displays that are used in the field of Virtual Reality (VR) in the sense that both are wearable. However, an important difference is that embodiments of the invention allow the wearer to continue to see the real world, while VR displays block out the ability to see the real world.
Displays for helmet mounted aircraft weapons aiming applications have been developed, as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,697,154, 3,833,300, 4,081,209, 4,220,400. Such displays do not directly incorporate a camera. Although they could be used to display the output image from an electronic camera (hand-held or perhaps mounted to the same helmet), the above-mentioned problems would still exist.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,806,011 describes an eyeglass-based display of a clock or the like.
Open-air viewfinders are often used on extremely low cost cameras, as well as on some professional cameras for use at night when the light levels would be too low to tolerate any optical loss in the viewfinder. Examples of open-air viewfinders used on professional cameras, in addition to regular viewfinders, include those used on the Grafflex press cameras of the 1940s (which had three different kinds of viewfinding means), as well as those used on some twin-lens reflex cameras. While such viewfinders could be used in the context of the invention, and would have the advantage of not inducing the problems such as flashback effects described above, they also fail to provide an electronically mediated reality.
Wearable display devices have been described, such as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,546,099, 5,708,449, 5,331,333, 4,636,866, but have no light sensing apparatus or wireless communications capability.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,640,221 also proposes an eye-tracking device which may be used in the context of the invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The apparatus of the invention can allow visual reality to be mediated in order to make certain that exposure is correct as well as to keep the wearer of the apparatus in the feedback loop of the photo compositional process by constantly providing the wearer with a video stream. Moreover, it is desired that the apparatus will allow the wearer to experience a computationally mediated visual reality, and for that experience to be shared through wireless communications networks so that the wearer may receive additional visual information, as well as be aware of modifications to visual reality that might arise, for example, as part of a communications process in a shared virtual environment. For such compositional and interactional capabilities, a simple air-based viewfinder is inadequate.
The invention facilitates a new form of visual art, in which the artist may capture, with relatively little effort
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