JPH06269008A - Display device of real size - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain the display device in which a display of an object in a work space is obtained by a real size (display area and display position) by a similar sense of direction and distance to those as if the operator were in existence in the location when a physical job or the like is executed between remote locations. CONSTITUTION:An object C or the like in a real space A is picked up by a space image pickup camera 1A and its picture is sent to a display size, comparison section 4 via a communication interface 2 and a picture input section 3 and displayed on a display section 7 of a remote space B. The display size comparison section 4 applies overlay synthesis to the picture and a display picture of the display section 7 picked up by a space image pickup camera 1B to detect a difference between both the pictures. A scale correction signal transmission section 6 calculates a control variable from the difference and execute optical zoom-up/down of the space image pickup camera 1A via a communication interface 2. Thus, feedback control to magnify/reduce the picked-up image by the space image pickup camera 1A is executed so as to make the display size close to the picked-up size.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a display device capable of constructing a video space which is a combination of image pickup / display of a video system using video communication for performing cooperative work between remote places.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a technique of this kind, a technique of transmitting a video of an image pickup system to a display system at a remote place by using video communication and using a large screen display as a display means of the video, There is one that performs stereoscopic display by binocular parallax using a head mounted display.

[0003]

However, when the display device according to the above-mentioned conventional technique is used, the motion parallax or the movement of the gazing point (the movement of the line of sight relative to the head movement) is not reflected, so that the display system is not used. However, there was a problem that it was difficult to understand things such as direction, distance and depth.

By the way, for work in geographically distant places such as extreme work and remote cooperative work, there is a demand for a technique for constructing a work space using video communication by a combination of an image pickup system and a display system. In order to obtain the same sense of direction and distance as if they exist on the spot between such distant points (to correctly recognize the other party's space), the working space and the object are displayed at the actual display position similar to the actual size. It is desirable to use a display device that is displayed in a large size (display area, display position).

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and its object is to make an object in a work space a remote place when a physical work or the like is performed between the remote places. It is an object of the present invention to provide a display device capable of an actual size display (display area, display position) that allows an operator to obtain a sense of direction and a sense of distance similar to those existing on the spot.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, in the full-scale display device of the present invention, a means for imaging a remote work space or an object, a size and a position of the work space or the object are provided. Means for measuring, means for communicating the captured image, means for enlarging / reducing the captured image optically or by image processing, means for displaying the communicated image or the enlarged / reduced image And a means for calculating the size and position of the work space and the object to be displayed, and the size and position calculated by the calculating means are the same as or almost the same as the size and position measured by the measuring means. The enlargement / reduction means is controlled to be similar.

[0007]

In the full scale display device of the present invention, the size and position of the imaged work space and object are measured, and
By calculating the size and position of the work space when displaying the captured video, etc., and enlarging / reducing the captured video so that they are similar or nearly the same, they are displayed at a remote location. The display area and display position of the work space and the object to be displayed are shown to be the same size or almost the same size as the actual body, which allows the remote work space and object to have the same sense of direction as if they were there. Get a sense of distance.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, A indicates a real space and B indicates a remote space. Further, 1A is a space imaging camera for imaging the working space of the real space A and an object C existing therein 1B
Is a working space of the remote space B, which is a display space, and a space imaging camera that images the object D displayed therein, and 2 is a remote space B that is an image captured by the space imaging camera 1A.
A communication interface 3 for communicating with the user side, an image input unit 3 for extracting a work space and the shape of an object from the communicated video, and a display 4 for an extracted image from the image input unit 3 and a spatial imaging camera 1B. A display size comparing unit 5 for comparing the size and position of both images by comparing the captured images of the images, and a spatial imaging camera 1A via the communication interface 2 according to the difference detection result of the display size comparing unit 4.
Is a scale correction signal transmission unit for performing optical boom up and down to approximate the image pickup size on the real space A side and the display size on the remote space B side, and 6 is a space image pickup camera 1A communicated via the communication interface 2. Is an image processing unit that performs fine correction and distortion correction by rotation and scale conversion on the image of (4) and displays it on the display unit 7 such as a CRT.

The outline and operation of the operation of the first embodiment configured as described above will be described.

When the object C is placed on the desk in the real space A where the actual work is performed, the object C is imaged by the spatial imaging camera 1A and displayed on the display unit 7 via the communication interface 2, the image input unit 3, the image processing unit 6 and the like. To be done. The image input unit 3 extracts a work space to be compared such as a desk frame or a work target and a characteristic shape of the object C from the received video.

On the other hand, an image of the working space displayed on the display section 7 (desktop display device) of the remote space B and the object D captured by the spatial imaging camera 1B is transmitted to the display size comparison section 4. To be done. Here, as the imaging system on the remote space B side, an imaging system under the same conditions as the real space A side is used as described below.

<Imaging system condition> Distance between imaging system and imaging surface: x = x 'Focal length of imaging system lens: f = f'<Display system condition> Screen display size: α / β <α ′ / β ′ 2 (a), (b) and (c) show optical zoom up (b), down and rotation (c) by image processing,
The image which performs the correction process with respect to the remote space image (a) before a process is shown.

In the display size comparison unit 4, the image transmitted from the remote physical space A (the image extracted by the image input unit 3) and the image displayed in the remote space B (the spatial image pickup camera 1).
(B captured image) is overlay-synthesized (FIG. 2A),
For the corresponding object extracted by the image input unit 3, the difference between the size and position (coordinates, angle) of both images is detected.

The scale correction signal transmission unit 5 calculates a control amount based on the detection result of the difference, and optically zooms up and down the spatial imaging camera 1A via the communication interface 2 (see FIG. b)), feedback control is performed so as to approximate the image pickup size and the display size (relative value to the screen size). The image whose display size is close to the captured size is rotated and scale-converted (enlarged or reduced) by the image processing unit 6 to be finely corrected (FIG. 2C).
Further, the image distortion (three-dimensional component) of the peripheral part with respect to the center of the display part caused by the curvature of the display surface of the display part (CRT) 7 is also corrected at the same time. As described above, the work space and the object D are displayed with the same display area and display surface position as the work space and the object C in a remote place.

In the present embodiment, an image obtained by overlay-compositing an image of a real object or the like and an image of a display object or the like by an image pickup system under the same condition is overlay-combined, and the sizes and positions are relatively compared and measured for correction. This is an embodiment using the method, and has an advantage that a device for measuring an absolute size on the real space A side is unnecessary. In the present embodiment, the image input unit 3 and the display size comparison unit 4 correspond to means for measuring the size and position of a real object or the like, and the spatial imaging camera 1B and the display size comparison unit 4 measure the size of a display object or the like. , Corresponds to the means for calculating the position.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration diagram. In FIG. 3, A indicates a real space and B indicates a remote space. Reference numeral 1 denotes a space imaging camera that images the work space of the real space A and an object C existing therein, and 8 measures the absolute size and position of the work space and the object C from the image of the space imaging camera 1. The image measurement unit 2, 2 is a communication interface for communicating the measurement result of the image measurement unit 8 imaged by the spatial image pickup camera 1 to the remote space B side, and 9 is a display image based on the display size from the received measurement result. The control unit 5 that calculates the scale correction data so that the display area and the display position are the same as the actual measurement value of the measurement result, receives the scale correction data, and receives the scale correction data.
The scale correction signal transmission unit 10 that optically or zooms up and down to approximate the image size on the real space A side and the display size on the remote space B side is imaged by the spatial image pickup camera 1 via the communication interface 2. An image input unit 6 for receiving a video performs distortion correction on an image from the image input unit 10 and rotation and scale conversion by image processing based on a control signal from a control unit 9 and displays it on a display unit 7 such as a CRT. This is an image processing unit.

The outline and operation of the operation of the second embodiment constructed as described above will be described.

When the object C is placed on the desk in the real space A where the actual work is performed, it is picked up by the spatial image pickup camera 1 and transmitted to the image measuring section 8. The image measuring unit 8 calculates and measures the actual shape value (area, position) of the object C in the working space imaged from the function of the image component created from the experiment result and the actual value (area, position). By extracting the image component (display area) in the imaging region under the conditions of the distance between the lens and the imaging surface of the imaging system and the focal length of the lens, which are set in advance,
The area of the entity can be measured.

The shape actual measurement value measured by the image measuring unit 8 is transmitted to the control unit 9 via the communication interface 2.
On the other hand, the captured image is transmitted as image data to the image input unit 10 via the communication interface 2, and is displayed on the display unit 7 via the image processing unit 6.

In the control unit 9, the display area similar to the measured value is displayed based on the screen size of the display unit from the received measurement result,
Each control amount, that is, scale correction data is calculated so that the display position is reached. The scale correction data is obtained by calculating the image pickup area when the focal length of the lens is changed, calculating the display area of the object in the reference size, and multiplying by the coefficient term for each screen size exposed on the receiving side.
The calculated scale correction data is transmitted to the scale correction signal transmission unit 5, and the optical zoom of the spatial imaging camera 1 is performed up and down via the communication interface 2. Scale correction data is calculated as follows.

FIG. 4 shows a conceptual diagram of control of the image pickup system of this embodiment. Reference numeral 11 is a lens of the camera, and 12 is a CCD which is an imaging unit of the camera. Here, the distance between the lens and the imaging surface:
If x is the focal length of the lens: F, and the virtual image distance is L, then x = F × L / (F + L). Then, if the image pickup area of the virtual image distance is m and the camera view angle is θ, then m = 2L · tan (θ / 2). The display area of the object at the reference size can be calculated.

Further, when displaying, since the image pickup area of any virtual image distance is displayed on the display screen of the same predetermined size, the image pickup area becomes wider as the virtual image distance L increases,
The display area of the display object becomes smaller and the display area becomes inversely proportional. That is, if the screen size is set in advance, the display size of the display object can be calculated from the electrical control value of the camera focus and the like.

The image whose display size is approximated to the image pickup size is rotated and scale-converted (enlarged / reduced) by the image processing unit 6 based on the image position data calculated by the control unit 9 to be finely corrected. Further, the image distortion (three-dimensional component) of the peripheral part with respect to the center of the display part caused by the curvature of the display surface of the display part (CRT) 7 is also corrected at the same time. As described above, the work space and the object D are displayed with the same display area and display surface position as the work space and the object C in a remote place.

In this embodiment, the image of the work space and the size of the work space are measured by using the means (image measuring unit 8) for measuring the characteristic shape in the work space and the absolute size and position of the object C on the real space A side. This is an embodiment using a method of displaying the actual size on the display unit 7 of the remote space B by communicating the position data, and there is an advantage that an imaging system is not required on the remote space B side. In this embodiment, the control unit 5 corresponds to means for calculating the size and position of the display object or the like.

In the above embodiment, an example in which the image pickup size and the display size are approximated by optically zooming up and down the spatial image pickup camera on the real space side has been shown. However, the display image is enlarged by image processing. -The image size and the display size may be approximated only by reduction. As described above, the present invention can be applied in various ways in accordance with the gist thereof and can take various embodiments.

[0028]

As described above, according to the actual size display device of the present invention, it is possible to realize the function of automatically displaying the work space and the object in the remote place in the same size. This has a practical effect that a work space can be instantly created in a remote place.

Further, the isometric display device of the present invention is used for remote work, so that between a distant point, a work space and an object have the same sense of direction and distance as if they were present on the spot. Therefore, there is an advantage that the size and shape of the object are easy to understand and the workability is good. Especially when a moving object such as a ball game is used as an object, there is an advantage that the moving speed and the moving direction can be easily grasped.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

2A, 2B, and 2C are explanatory views of image processing in the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of image processing in the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1A, 1B, 1 ... Spatial imaging camera 2 ... Communication interface 3 ... Image input unit 4 ... Display size comparison unit 5 ... Scale correction signal transmission unit 6 ... Image processing unit 7 ... Display unit 8 ... Image measurement unit 9 ... Control unit 10 ... Image input section

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A means for capturing an image of a remote work space or an object, a means for measuring the size or position of the work space or object, and a means for communicating the captured image.
Enlarge the captured image optically or by image processing
Means for reducing and the communicated image or the enlargement /
It comprises a means for displaying a reduced image and a means for calculating the size and position of the workspace or object to be displayed, and the size and position calculated by the calculating means are the sizes measured by the measuring means. An actual size display device, characterized in that the enlarging / reducing means is controlled so as to be similar to or substantially similar to the position.