Television – Stereoscopic – Picture signal generator
Reexamination Certificate
1997-02-21
2003-01-14
Le, Vu (Department: 2613)
Television
Stereoscopic
Picture signal generator
C348S042000, C348S051000, C345S008000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06507359
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image taking and/or displaying system which can take and/or display a stereoscopic image or a wide image. More particularly, the invention relates to an image taking and/or displaying system provided with a multi-eye camera apparatus having a plurality of camera units and a displaying device which can permit an observer to observe an enlarged screen of virtual images of taken images through a compact display unit mounted on the observer's head.
2. Related Background Art
Recently used to obtain camera images close to the human vision are stereoscopic image taking apparatus which can obtain camera images by taking images of an object in a same direction, for example, through two camera units. As described in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 62-122493, a conventional stereoscopic image taking apparatus employs a stereoscopic image taking and focusing method for tracking an intersection between lens optical axes of two video cameras (hereinafter referred to as cameras) and performing focusing, based on a base length and an angle between the two cameras.
There are also various proposals of stereoscopic image displaying apparatus for displaying images taken by such multi-eye cameras. Among these stereoscopic image displaying apparatus is a so-called head-mounted display (hereinafter referred to as HMD), which is a display apparatus which can permit the observer to observe an enlarged screen of virtual images of taken images through a compact display unit mounted on the observer's head.
As for the image taking and/or displaying system mainly composed of the multi-eye camera and the HMD, there are proposed image taking and/or displaying systems, which are different from the prior art systems simply for taking and appreciating scenic images. Such systems are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,711,594, U.S. Pat. No. 3,205,303, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,670,097. In the systems, a sensor for detecting a moving direction of the observer's face is provided in the HMD, information about the moving direction is sent from the sensor to a control unit for controlling the camera posture, and a taking field of camera is changed so as to track the moving direction of the observer's face. According to this arrangement, when the observer simply changes the face into a desired direction, the camera is directed in the direction and sends an image of the external field in that direction as a camera signal to the HMD on the observer whereby the observer can observe the image in that direction.
As one close to the above system there is studied a tele-existence system in which a multi-eye camera is set on a robot equipped with a manipulator and set at a remote place or at a dangerous place, and then a stereoscopic image signal from the camera is received to be displayed on the HMD on the observer, thus enabling operations at the remote place.
The present applicant or assignee has proposed a multi-eye camera which can take a three-dimensional image and a horizontally wide image in Japanese Patent Application No. 5-211777 and an HMD display apparatus which can display a three-dimensional image and a horizontally wide image in Japanese Patent Application No. 5-92113.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Although the above conventional examples showed the system arrangement of the multi-eye camera and the HMD display apparatus, proposing the control of the camera posture and the remote operations as monitoring the stereoscopic image, they failed to suggest new image taking and/or displaying technology as a three-dimensional image taking and/or displaying system.
The conventional stereoscopic image taking and/or displaying systems had the following problems.
(1) The display apparatus cannot reproduce a change of taking conditions in image-taking, such as a change of a convergence angle. Then displayed images cannot reflect photographer's purpose, so that the observer has to watch unnatural stereoscopic images, which would result in physiological fatigue after long-time appreciation.
(2) A stereoscopic image taken through the multi-eye camera in image-taking cannot be correctly displayed on the spot as a stereoscopic image according to photographic conditions and photographic purpose. Therefore, the photographer cannot check by himself whether the image correctly reflects the photographic purpose.
As described above, the present applicant or assignee has proposed the multi-eye image taking camera which can take three-dimensional images and two-dimensional wide images and the HMD display apparatus which can display three-dimensional images and two-dimensional, horizontally wide images, but there has been no system proposed yet taking advantage of the features of the image taking camera and HMD display apparatus.
An object of the present invention is to provide an image taking and/or displaying system which can display an image correctly reflecting photographer's purpose.
An image taking and/or displaying system of the present invention is an image taking and/or displaying system which has an image-taking camera apparatus having image-taking means for producing a plurality of image signals corresponding to optical images from different visual points, and a display apparatus for guiding a pair of images displayed on a pair of image displaying means through a pair of projection optical systems to the observer's eyes so that the observer can observe enlarged, virtual images of said pair of images by the respective eyes, and in which the plurality of image signals from said image-taking camera apparatus are displayed on the pair of image displaying means in said displaying apparatus to permit the observer to observe them; or an image taking and/or displaying system which has an image-taking camera apparatus having image-taking means for producing a plurality of image signals corresponding to optical images from different visual points, and a displaying apparatus for guiding a pair of images displayed on a pair of image displaying means through a pair of projection optical systems to the observer's eyes so that the observer can observe enlarged, virtual images of said pair of images by the respective eyes and controlling positions of said displaying means relative to said projection optical systems or a focusing state of said projection optical systems whereby said displaying apparatus can control spatial positions of planes of said two virtual images between a superimposed state where the two images are superimposed on each other and an adjacent state where the two images are juxtaposed adjacent to each other, and in which the plurality of image signals from said image-taking camera apparatus are displayed on the pair of displaying means in said displaying apparatus to permit the observer to observe them. Further, the system is characterized in that control information of said image-taking camera apparatus is supplied to said displaying apparatus in addition to the plurality of image signals from said image-taking camera apparatus, and then the relative, spatial positions of said pair of enlarged, virtual images in said displaying apparatus are changed in accordance with said control information.
Further, an image taking and/or displaying system of the present invention is an image taking and/or displaying system which has an image-taking camera apparatus having image-taking means for producing a plurality of image signals corresponding to optical images from different visual points, an image information recording apparatus for recording the plurality of image signals from said image-taking camera apparatus in an image information recording medium, and a displaying apparatus for guiding a pair of images displayed on a pair of image displaying means through a pair of projection optical systems to the observer's eyes so that the observer can observe enlarged, virtual images of said pair of images by the respective eyes, and in which the plurality of image signals reproduced from the ima
Fukushima Nobuo
Hoshi Hiroaki
Iijima Katsumi
Muramoto Tomotaka
Namba Atsushi
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Le Vu
Morgan & Finnegan L.L.P.
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