Optical: systems and elements – Single channel simultaneously to or from plural channels – By partial reflection at beam splitting or combining surface
Reexamination Certificate
1997-03-28
2001-02-20
Epps, Georgia (Department: 2873)
Optical: systems and elements
Single channel simultaneously to or from plural channels
By partial reflection at beam splitting or combining surface
Reexamination Certificate
active
06191892
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image display apparatus, and particularly to a head mounted type display apparatus or a spectacle type display apparatus which enables an image such as characters or a projected image displayed on display means to be observed as an enlarged virtual image.
2. Related Background Art
With the development of the liquid crystal display element, a head mounted display (HMD) of the so-called see-through type, in which a liquid crystal display element and an observation optical system are provided in front of an observer's eyes, and the observer observes an exterior scene through the optical system and an image is displayed on the liquid crystal display element and simultaneously shown with another image superposed on the exterior scene.
There is also known an image display apparatus in which an image displayed on a display element is changed over according to an observer's visual axis.
The conventional HMD type image display apparatus has attached thereto a mechanism for adjusting the visibility of the optical system relative to the display element, but has suffered from the problem that when the distance of an exterior scene observed by an observer greatly fluctuates, for example, from infinity to several tens of centimeters in front of the observer's eyes, the distance of the virtual image of an image displayed while being superposed on the exterior scene is greatly in discord with the observation distance and a blurred virtual image is visually confirmed.
Also, sometimes the image superposed is not necessary in the whole observation distance and for example, in an observation distance within 2 m, image information is required and in the other observation distances, the image information is not required or becomes harmful.
Also, in an image display apparatus wherein the display image is changed over by the visual axis, it is often the case that the display image is not changed over to an entirely discrete image, but it is desired to move the image being displayed and change over it so as to represent a new portion, whereas the image display apparatus according to the conventional art could not accomplish such a thing.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has as its object to provide an image display apparatus which is good in operability.
The image display apparatus of the present invention is:
(1-1) An image display apparatus of the see-through type having display means for displaying an image for an observer, an exterior scene observation optical system for observing therethrough an exterior scene forward of the observer, visual axis detecting means for detecting the visual axis directions of the observer's both eyes, and control means for detecting the gaze distance of the two eyes on the basis of the visual axis directions of the observer's both eyes detected by the visual axis detecting means, and controlling the condition of the image on the basis of the gaze distance.
Particularly, it is characterized in that
(1-1-1) the control means moves a display surface of the display means or moves a portion of an image observation optical system of the display means or electrically controls a portion of the display means on the basis of the gaze distance and forms the image of the image at the gaze distance;
(1-1-2) the control means displays the image by the display means when the gaze distance is within a predetermined distance range, and does not display the image of the display means when the gaze distance is outside the distance range,
or displays a portion of the image by the display means when the gaze distance is within a predetermined distance range, and does not display a portion of the image when the gaze distance is outside the distance range,
or displays an image by the display means when the gaze distance is within a predetermined distance range, and displays an image differing from the image when the gaze distance is outside the distance range; and
(1-1-3) the display means is provided correspondingly to the observer's both eyes, respectively.
Other several image display apparatuses of the present invention are:
(1-2) an image display apparatus having image displaying means for displaying an image for an observer, visual axis detecting means for detecting the visual axis direction of an eye, and control means for detecting a point in the image at which the observer next gazes for a predetermined time or longer when it is detected through the visual axis detecting means that the observer has gazed at a certain mark in the image for a predetermined time or longer, and moving the point in the image with the visual axis;
(1-3) an image display apparatus having image displaying means for displaying an image for an observer, visual axis detecting means for detecting the visual axis direction of an eye, and control means for detecting a point A at which the observer gazes in the image for a predetermined time or longer when it is detected through the visual axis detecting means that the observer has gazed at a mark in the image for a predetermined time or longer, and detecting a point C at which the observer next gazes in the image for a predetermined time or longer, and moving the point A in the image to the point C or moving the point C to the point A;
(1-4) an image display apparatus having image displaying means for displaying an image for an observer, visual axis detecting means for detecting the visual axis direction of an eye, and control means for detecting a point A at which the observer gazes in a window in the image for a predetermined time or longer when it is detected through the visual axis detecting means that the observer has gazed at a mark in the image for a predetermined time or longer, and moving the image of the window with the visual axis; and
(1-5) an image display apparatus having image displaying means for forming an image for an observer, visual axis detecting means for detecting the visual axis direction of an eye, and control means for moving the image at a predetermined speed in a direction corresponding to a certain mark in the image and displaying it when it is detected through the visual axis detecting means that the observer has gazed at the mark for a predetermined time or longer, and detecting that the observer's visual axis has deviated from the mark, and stopping the movement of the image.
REFERENCES:
patent: Re. 27356 (1972-05-01), La Russa
patent: 4026641 (1977-05-01), Bosserman et al.
patent: 4081209 (1978-03-01), Heller et al.
patent: 4563061 (1986-01-01), Ellis
patent: 4669810 (1987-06-01), Wood
patent: 4775217 (1988-10-01), Ellis
patent: 4852988 (1989-08-01), Velez et al.
patent: 4874214 (1989-10-01), Cheysson et al.
patent: 4969724 (1990-11-01), Ellis
patent: 5006072 (1991-04-01), Letovsky et al.
patent: 5093567 (1992-03-01), Staveley
patent: 5124839 (1992-06-01), Yamazaki et al.
patent: 5189454 (1993-02-01), Yamazaki et al.
patent: 5384654 (1995-01-01), Iba
patent: 5416876 (1995-05-01), Ansley et al.
patent: 5436763 (1995-07-01), Chen et al.
patent: 5436765 (1995-07-01), Togino
patent: 5459612 (1995-10-01), Ingleton
patent: 5479224 (1995-12-01), Yasugaki et al.
patent: 5483307 (1996-01-01), Anderson
patent: 5486841 (1996-01-01), Hara et al.
patent: 5513041 (1996-04-01), Togino
patent: 5594588 (1997-01-01), Togino
patent: 5689736 (1996-02-01), Okuyama et al.
patent: 5701202 (1997-12-01), Takahashi
patent: 5717413 (1998-02-01), Mizouchi
patent: 0 380 035 (1990-08-01), None
patent: 0 408 344 (1991-01-01), None
patent: 0 556 598 (1993-08-01), None
patent: 0 583 116 (1994-02-01), None
patent: 0 618 471 (1994-10-01), None
patent: 1578136 (1980-11-01), None
patent: 2246900 (1992-02-01), None
patent: 58-78116 (1983-05-01), None
patent: 62-214782 (1987-09-01), None
patent: 1-274736 (1989-11-01), None
patent: 2-297516 (1990-12-01), None
patent: 3-101709 (1991-04-01), None
patent: 3-109029 (1991-05-01), None
patent: 4-242630 (1992-08-01), None
patent: 5-303056 (1993-11-01), None
Isaka Kazuo
Yamazaki Shoichi
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Epps Georgia
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
Mack Ricky
LandOfFree
Image display apparatus does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Image display apparatus, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Image display apparatus will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2574833