JPH0622246A - Video audio reproduction device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve a sense of mount by the user and the follow-up ability of a movement of the head. CONSTITUTION:A headphone structure is adopted for mounts 10a, 10b to both ears for the video audio reproduction device, an ear pad 10 outputs a reproduced audio signal and an eye mask 11 is arranged in front of eyes in the mounting state to display a reproduced video image. Furthermore, a position sensor 12 detects a tilt or turning of the head when the device is mounted to the head and a signal processing section changes simultaneously the reproduced audio and video signals in response to an output signal from the sensor 12. The ear pads 10 are connected via a hair band 14 and the eye mask 11 and the ear pad 10 are integrated.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a video / audio reproducing apparatus for simultaneously supplying video and audio reproduced to both eyes and ears via a man-machine interface.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, there have been many devices related to so-called artificial reality (virtual reality), which allows an artificial world to be configured through a man-machine interface to give the user a sense of presence and actually experience the world as a real world. It is being commercialized. The playback device for realism is
An effective method is to mount a small display device on the head. This is because this method is very effective in that the image display section is always within the user's field of view, which greatly enhances the realism. Currently, a goggle-type mainstream display device used as a head-mounted display device is used.

The small display device uses an information display device such as a personal or portable video / audio device or a computer output device such as a liquid crystal television.

[0004]

By the way, in the goggle type reproducing apparatus, the center of gravity is on the front of the face because the display portion 41 for displaying an image, which is the majority of the reproducing apparatus 40 shown in FIG. 2, is in front of the face. And the weight balance is bad,
It was unstable. The playback device weighs about 2 kg and cannot be worn for a long time. Further, in this reproducing device, a belt or the like is fixed to stabilize the display portion. For this reason, the display portion comes into close contact with the face, and the playback device gives the user a feeling of pressure, discomfort, and fatigue due to this structure.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and in reproducing video and audio, the weight balance on the head is good and the stability is good and the wearing feeling is good in enjoying the video and audio. The purpose is to provide a device.

[0006]

A video / audio reproducing apparatus according to the present invention is a video / audio reproducing apparatus for reproducing a video and an audio signal, wherein a mounting portion to be mounted on both ears has a headphone structure and the audio signal is reproduced. A sound reproducing means for outputting a sound reproduced in the mounting portion, a video reproducing means arranged in front of the eye in the mounted state to display a reproduced video, and a position detecting means for detecting inclination and rotation of the head in the mounted state. And a signal processing means for simultaneously changing the audio and video to be reproduced according to the output signal from the position detection means, the audio reproduction means being connected via a head presser, and the video reproduction means and the video reproduction means. The problem described above is solved by having a structure in which the sound reproducing means is integrated.

Further, the signal processing means distributes the audio and video reproduction signals to the left and right sides of the head to be controlled according to the detection signal from the position detecting means, and the signal control means. Audio data reproducing means for reproducing the audio data digitized in accordance with the control signal from the audio data reproducing means, audio data processing means for performing acoustic effect processing on the output signal from the audio data reproducing means, and the control signal from the signal control means. The above problem is solved by having video data reproducing means for reproducing video data digitized according to the above, and video data processing means for performing video effect processing on an output signal from the video data reproducing means. To do.

Here, in order to reduce the weight of the entire apparatus, the signal processing means separates various signal processing sections from the display and audio reproduction sections, and connects them by an optical fiber cable and radio wave communication.

Further, the above-mentioned problem is solved by adopting a structure in which the image reproducing means is separated from the face independently on the left and right sides.

[0010]

The video / audio reproducing apparatus of the present invention can adopt the headphone structure so that the center of gravity of the video / audio reproducing apparatus can pass near the center of the body. Further, the image reproducing means is separated from the face independently on the left and right sides so that the user does not feel uncomfortable when the device is attached.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An embodiment of a video / audio reproducing apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

The video / audio reproducing apparatus of the present invention is effective in supplying the video and audio signals reproduced via the man-machine interface. The video / audio reproduction device has a headphone structure for the mounting parts 10a and 10b to be worn on both ears, and an ear pad part 1 which is a sound reproducing means for outputting a sound reproduced from the sound signal in the mounting part.
0, and an eye mask unit 11 that is a video playback unit that is placed in front of the eyes and displays a playback video in the mounted state,
A position sensor 12, which is a position detecting means for detecting the inclination and rotation of the head in the mounted state, and a signal processing part, which is a signal processing means for simultaneously changing audio and video to be reproduced according to an output signal from the position sensor 12. 13, the ear pad portion 10 is connected via a hair band portion 14 which is a head presser, and the eye mask portion 11 and the ear pad portion 10 are integrated with each other.

The integrated structure will be described with reference to FIG. The video / audio reproduction device includes a pair of eye masks 11a and 1 for both eyes and ears, respectively.
1b and ear pad parts 10a and 10b are provided. Further, the position sensor 12 is also used for the eye mask portions 11a and 11b.
A pair of position sensors 12 on the upper surfaces 11c and 11d of the respective housings
a and 12b are provided. Further, as will be described later, one position sensor 12c and one position sensor 12d are provided in the ear pad unit 10 so that the detection signal of the position sensor can be accurately obtained even when one of the eye mask units 11 is stored for one eye. It may be provided.

In the video / audio apparatus, the respective parts are connected around the ear pad part 10 which is mounted at the positions of both ears.
In the eye mask portion 11, the stay portions 15a and 15b can be fixed to the ear pad portions 10a and 10b by using screws 16a and 16b for stoppers, respectively. The stay portion 15a, 15b has a screw 16 for the stopper.
Ballast part 17 integrally connected via a and 16b
a and 17b are provided.

The ear pad parts 10a and 10b have an integrated headphone structure via the hair band part 14. The hair band portion 14 and the ear pad portion 10a,
The user fixes the video / audio reproduction device to the head through 10b.

By using the headphone type in this way, the weight of the apparatus itself can be dispersed with each part of the apparatus as a fulcrum. Further, since the video / audio reproducing device can be fixed by the hair band part and the ear pad parts 10a, 10b, the gap 18 can be provided independently between the eye mask part 11 and the user's face as shown in FIG. Be able to structure. Further, each stay portion 1
5a and 15b and the ballast portions 17a and 17b are fixed so as to keep the balance between the stopper screws 16a and 16b and the screws 16a and 16b.
The load on b can be reduced.

Thus, in addition to the two eyes shown in FIG.
It is also possible to use it for one eye shown in FIG. Further, the eye mask portion 11 of the video / audio reproducing device can be rotated 90 ° upward from the user's line of sight to be stored in parallel with the hair band portion 14.

Next, another embodiment of the video / audio reproducing apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. Here, common parts are given the same reference numerals as those used in the above-described embodiments, and description thereof will be omitted. In this embodiment, the ballast portion 17 is not used, but instead, the stay portion 15 and the hair band 14 can be movably set. The weight of the eye mask portion 11 in the video / audio reproduction device is balanced by moving the hair band portion 14 slightly on the back of the head. Stay unit 1 including the eye mask unit 11
As shown in FIG. 4, the reference numeral 5 has a configuration that enables stable fixation at the horizontal position of the head that matches the line-of-sight directions of both eyes.

With this structure, in order to improve the uncomfortable feeling of wearing the conventional device, the display on the front side is prevented from coming into close contact with the user's face, and the uncomfortable feeling at the time of wearing is improved. In addition, the weight applied to the user can be dispersed by integrally forming the headphone structure in which the fulcrum is provided in each part in a wide area.

In the video / audio reproducing device, for example, an optical fiber cable 19 is connected to the outer casing 10c of the ear pad portion 10b. The optical fiber cable 19 is connected to the signal processing unit 20. Various signal processing units necessary for reproducing a video signal are separately provided in the eye mask unit 11. By adopting this separation structure, the weight could be reduced. For the transmission of data and signals, the optical fiber cable 19 and radio communication by radio waves are used in combination to reduce the load.

An optical fiber cable 19 is used for low speed data transfer, and a radio wave data transfer is used for high speed data transfer.

FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of the signal processing circuit of the video / audio reproducing apparatus of the present invention. Here, parts used in common with the parts used in the above-described embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted.

A signal processing unit 13 which is a signal processing circuit distributes and controls audio and video reproduction signals to the left and right of the supplied head according to the detection signal from the position sensor 12 which is the position detecting means. A central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as CPU) 31 which is a control means, and an audio data reproduction section 32 which is an audio data reproduction means for reproducing audio data digitized in response to a control signal from the CPU 31.
And an audio data processing unit 33 which is an audio data processing unit for performing a sound effect process on the output signal from the audio data reproducing unit 32, and video data for reproducing the video data digitized according to the control signal from the CPU 31. A video data reproducing section 34 which is a reproducing means, and the video data reproducing section 34.
And a video data processing unit 35 which is a video data processing means for performing a video effect process on the output signal from.

Further, the audio data processing unit 33 performs acoustic effect processing on the reproduced audio, which will be described later, and uses the optical fiber cable 19 and radio waves together according to the data transfer rate to the ear pad unit 10 as described above. Supply. The ear pad unit 10 includes a voice memory 36a and a voice reproducing unit 36.
A pair of b is provided corresponding to each ear.

Similarly, the video data processing unit 35 also performs video effect processing on the reproduced video, which will be described later, and, as described above, the optical fiber cable 19 according to the data transfer rate.
And the radio wave are used together and supplied to the eye mask unit 11. The eye mask unit 11 includes a video memory 36a and a video reproducing unit 3.
A pair of 6b is provided corresponding to each eye.

The operation of the circuit will be briefly described with reference to FIG. First, the position sensor 12 is the eye mask unit 1.
A pair is provided to detect the inclination angle of the user's head with respect to the horizontal. The detected angle information is supplied to the CPU 31. The CPU 31 calculates an address for reproducing audio and video according to a program given in advance and angle information from the position sensor 12, and sends an address command to the audio data reproducing section 32 and the video data reproducing section 34, respectively.

The audio data reproducing section 32 reproduces the audio data based on an address corresponding to a control command from the CPU 31, for example, the digitized audio data. The reproduced voice data is supplied to the voice data processing unit 33. The audio data processing unit 33 sorts the audio data into left and right audio data based on the position data supplied from the CPU 31, and at the same time,
Reverberation, high-frequency emphasis, and low-frequency emphasis head acoustic effect processing are performed by a control command from the CPU 31, and are supplied to the corresponding left and right audio memory units 36a. Voice memory unit 3
6a temporarily stores the voice data and stores the voice data in the voice reproduction unit 36b.
Output to. The audio reproduction unit 36b converts audio data into an actual audio signal.

The video data reproducing section 34 reproduces the video data from the address corresponding to the control command from the CPU 31, for example, the digitized video data. The reproduced video data is supplied to the video data processing unit 35. The video data processing unit 35 distributes video data corresponding to the left and right eyes based on the position data supplied from the CPU 31, and at the same time performs video effect processing such as contour enhancement and partial omission of display according to a control command from the CPU 31. The image data is supplied to the right and left corresponding video memory units 37a. The video memory unit 37a temporarily stores video data and stores the video data in the video reproduction unit 37a.
output to b. The video reproduction unit 37b converts the video data into a video signal to be actually displayed.

With such a configuration, the video signal displayed on the eye mask section 11 and the audio signal supplied to the ear pad section 10 can be made to follow the movement of the user. This makes it possible to reproduce a high degree of realism. When used for reproducing an artificial reality environment that requires a three-dimensional effect and a realistic sensation, this video / audio reproducing device is advantageous because it can follow the movement of the head.

Further, as described above, by making the device a headphone type, the center of gravity of the device can pass near the center of the body, and the weight balance is improved.
Stable wearing is now possible.

Furthermore, by adopting a structure in which the device can be independently separated from each other so that the device does not come into close contact with the face, discomfort and fatigue during wearing can be eliminated. It has become possible to use it for both eyes, for one eye, and for storage.

[0032]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the video / audio reproducing apparatus of the present invention, in the video / audio reproducing apparatus for reproducing video and audio signals, the mounting portions to be mounted on both ears have a headphone structure. At the same time, a sound reproducing means for outputting a sound reproduced from the sound signal in the mounting portion, a video reproducing means for displaying a reproduced video arranged in front of the eye in the mounted state, a head inclination in the mounted state, It has position detecting means for detecting rotation and signal processing means for simultaneously changing audio and video to be reproduced according to an output signal from the position detecting means, and the audio reproducing means is connected via a head presser. By having a structure in which the video reproducing means and the audio reproducing means are integrated, the center of gravity of the device can be passed near the center of the body, and the weight balance can be improved. It is to allow a stable attachment.

Further, the signal processing means distributes and controls the audio and video reproduction signals to the left and right of the head to be supplied in accordance with the detection signal from the position detecting means, and the signal control means. Audio data reproducing means for reproducing the audio data digitized in accordance with the control signal from the audio data reproducing means, audio data processing means for performing acoustic effect processing on the output signal from the audio data reproducing means, and the control signal from the signal control means. A video signal to be displayed by including video data reproducing means for reproducing the video data digitized in accordance with the above, and video data processing means for performing video effect processing on the output signal from the video data reproducing means. The supplied audio signal can be made to follow the movement of the user.
This makes it possible to reproduce a high degree of realism. When used for reproducing an artificial reality environment that requires a three-dimensional effect and a realistic sensation, this video / audio reproducing device can improve the followability to the movement of the head.

Further, by disposing the image reproducing means so as to be separated from the face independently on the left and right sides, discomfort and fatigue during wearing can be eliminated and it can be selectively used for both eyes, one eye, and storage. To

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view showing a configuration of an embodiment of a video / audio reproduction device of the present invention in a binocular setting.

FIG. 2 is a top view of the video / audio reproduction device shown in FIG. 1 viewed from above when the user wears it.

FIG. 3 is an external view when the eye mask unit of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1 is set for one eye.

4 is an external view of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1 when the eye mask unit is set at the time of storage.

FIG. 5 is an external perspective view showing a configuration of another embodiment of the video / audio reproduction device of the present invention in the setting for both eyes.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a schematic block circuit configuration of a signal processing unit of the video / audio reproduction device according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a side view showing a state in which a user wears a conventional video / audio reproduction device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10a, 10b ..... ear pad part 11a, 11b ..... eye mask part 12a, 12b ..... Position sensor 14 .. Hair band parts 15a, 15b ···· Stay parts 16a, 16b ··· Screws for stoppers 17a, 17b ··· · Ballast parts

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Joji Fukuda 6-735 Kitashinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Sony Corporation

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A video / audio reproducing apparatus for reproducing video and audio signals, wherein the mounting parts to be mounted on both ears have a headphone structure, and an audio reproducing means for outputting a sound reproduced from the audio signals in the mounting part. An image reproducing means arranged in front of the eye in the mounted state to display a reproduced image, a position detecting means for detecting a tilt or rotation of the head in the mounted state, and a reproduction according to an output signal from the position detecting means. Signal processing means for simultaneously changing the audio and the video, the audio reproduction means being connected via a head presser, and the video reproduction means and the audio reproduction means having an integrated structure. Characteristic video and audio playback device. 2. The signal processing means, the signal control means for allocating and controlling the reproduction signals of audio and video to the left and right of the head to be supplied in accordance with the detection signal from the position detecting means, and the signal control means. Audio data reproducing means for reproducing audio data digitized in accordance with a control signal from the audio data reproducing means, audio data processing means for performing acoustic effect processing on an output signal from the audio data reproducing means, and a control signal from the signal control means. 3. A video data reproducing means for reproducing the video data digitized according to the above, and a video data processing means for performing a video effect processing on an output signal from the video data reproducing means. The described video / audio reproduction device. 3. The video / audio reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the video reproducing means is structured so as to be separated from the face independently on the left and right sides.