JP2802182B2 - Display camera device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a display camera, and more particularly, to a new electronic camera which efficiently captures images including a photographer who is looking at a viewfinder. It is used as a camera for information gathering, crime prevention, market research, etc., which captures the figure as information, and a camera display, such as a videophone or public videophone, which realizes natural matching of the eyes on the sender side.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, a display camera apparatus in which a small display and a camera lens are arranged adjacent to each other and an image of a person watching a monitor is taken by the adjacent camera lens has been put to practical use in a videophone.

Further, a display camera apparatus has been proposed which captures an image by matching a camera lens with a line of sight of a viewer.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a display camera apparatus for capturing an image by matching the line of sight.

That is, a transparent glass plate 48 is fitted into the front opening 41a of the cabinet body 41,
A half mirror 42 is disposed adjacent to the front opening 41a at an angle of 45 degrees. And the glass plate 4
A straight line L11 connecting the center of 8 and the center of the half mirror 42
Above, a liquid crystal display 43 illuminated by a backlight 44 is arranged. Also, the half mirror 42
On a straight line L12 orthogonal to the straight line L11 at the center of
A CCD camera 46 equipped with a lens 45 is arranged.

However, in the display camera device having the above configuration, the display surface of the liquid crystal display 43 is located in the inner part of the cabinet main body 41, so that it is very difficult to see.

In order to solve the problem that the display surface of the liquid crystal display 43 is located inside the cabinet 41, a time-division photographing type display camera apparatus shown in FIG. 3 has been proposed.

That is, the screen 52 is arranged on the front of the cabinet body 51. This screen 52
Is made of, for example, light control glass, and the degree of transparency changes by controlling the applied voltage.

Then, two straight lines L13 and L14 intersecting at the center of the screen 52 are set, and the lens 53, the liquid crystal display 54 and the backlight 55 are arranged on one straight line L13. Also, the other straight line L1
4, a CCD camera 56 having a shutter 57 and a lens 58 mounted thereon is arranged.

The screen 52 is made transparent in a time-sharing manner, for example, for about 1 to 2 milliseconds every 16 milliseconds. In this transparent state, the shutter 57 is opened, and the CCD camera 56 closes the information receiving side. It is designed to capture a natural figure.

[0011]

However, in the display camera device shown in FIG. 4, the optical axis (straight line L14) of the camera and the optical axis (straight line L13) of the liquid crystal display 54 cannot be completely matched. . Therefore, especially in the case of a large display device such as a 40-inch or 60-inch display, the intersection angle between the straight line L13 and the straight line L14 becomes small, so there is not much problem.
In the case of a small display device of about 10 inches or less, there has been a problem that the intersection angle between the straight line L13 and the straight line L14 becomes large, and the line of sight shift becomes conspicuous.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a display camera capable of making the optical axis of the camera coincide with the line of sight regardless of the size of the display device. It is in.

[0013]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a display camera apparatus, comprising: a screen disposed on a front surface of a cabinet body; of provided inside, a video output unit that irradiates the image light to the screen through a half mirror, provided inside the cabinet body, the image light incident on the front of the screen through the half mirror An imaging unit for imaging, a shutter provided on a front surface of the imaging unit ,
Provided between the screen and the half mirror,
For the imaging lens system of the imaging unit and the display of the video output unit
And a common lens which is shared in a lens system, so when performing imaging by opening the shut <br/> jitter is transparent to the screen by controlling the voltage applied to the screen, the said shutter The screen and the screen are linked.

A display according to claim 2 of the present invention.
Camera device is located on the front of the cabinet body
A screen which changes transparency by an applied voltage, the
Installed inside the cabinet body, through a half mirror
And an image output unit for irradiating the screen with image light,
The half-mirror provided inside the cabinet body.
Image incident from the front of the screen through the mirror
An image pickup unit for picking up light; and an image pickup unit provided in front of the image pickup unit.
Between the shutter, the screen and the half mirror
And the imaging lens system of the imaging unit and the image output.
A common lens to be shared with the display lens system of the force section, this
Around the outer periphery between the common lens and the screen
And a cylindrical light-shielding plate provided in
When opening and taking an image, the voltage applied to the screen
Control to make the screen transparent.
And the screen are linked to each other.

[0015]

[0016]

According to the above arrangement, the video output section and the imaging section are arranged via the half mirror, and the half mirror and the screen are located on the same optical axis. The person's line of sight always coincides with the optical axis of the imaging unit. The video output from the video output unit is
Since the image is projected on the screen arranged on the front of the cabinet body, the display screen is also easy to see.

Further, by providing a common lens shared by the imaging lens system of the imaging unit and the display lens system of the video output unit, the image displayed on the screen is enlarged, and the screen becomes more easily viewable.

Further, by providing a cylindrical light-shielding plate so as to surround an outer peripheral portion between the common lens and the screen,
Since disturbance light or the like does not enter between the shared lens and the screen, the imaging quality of the imaging unit is improved.

[0019]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of a display camera device according to the present invention.

In FIG. 1, a screen 2 is arranged at an opening on the front surface of a cabinet body 1. The screen 2 is made of, for example, a light control glass, and the degree of transparency changes by controlling an applied voltage.

The half mirror 3 is arranged on the center line (straight line L1) of the screen 2 at an angle of 45 degrees. A projection lens 4 and a liquid crystal display 5 for displaying a monitor screen are provided on the rear side of the half mirror 3 (that is, on the opposite side to the screen 2) and on the center line (straight line L1) of the screen 2. And a backlight 6.

A CCD camera 10 having a shutter 8 and a lens 9 is arranged on a straight line L2 orthogonal to the straight line L1 at the center of the half mirror 3. Also, between the screen 2 and the half mirror 3
Lens 11 on the center line (straight line L1) of the screen 2.
Is provided. Also, the lens 11 and the screen 2
A cylindrical light-shielding plate 12 is arranged between them.

That is, the entire system is housed in the cabinet body 1 so as to completely block external light, so that the light of the backlight 6 of the liquid crystal display 5 does not leak outside.

The shutter 8 is provided so as to be interlocked with the screen 2 and, for example, makes the screen 2 transparent for about 1 to 2 milliseconds every 16 milliseconds in a time-division manner, for example.
In this transparent state, the shutter 8 is opened and the CCD camera 10 captures an image of the information receiving side.

The shutter 8 is used as the half mirror 3.
It is also possible to use a time-sharing mirror linked to the opening / closing operation of the screen and the voltage applied to the screen 2.

According to the above-described configuration, when the voltage applied to the screen 2 is controlled to make the screen 2 most scattered, the image light emitted from the liquid crystal display 5 emits the projection lens 4 and the light. The image is enlarged by the lens 11 and projected on the entire surface of the screen 2 to function as a monitor. With this, the person in front of screen 2
Information can be obtained from the video projected on the monitor screen.

When the voltage applied to the screen 2 is controlled to bring the screen 2 to the highest transparency state, the shutter 8 is opened, so that the image of a person in front of the screen 2 passes through the lens 11. half Te mirror 3
And is imaged by the CCD camera 10 via the shutter 8 and the lens 9.

At this time, the line of sight of the person in front of the screen 2 is determined by the optical axis of the CCD camera 10 (that is, the straight line L).
Since it coincides with 1), the person in front of the screen 2 can be photographed in a natural form photographed with the gaze point of the camera.

[0030]

[0031]

Further, in this embodiment, the lens 4 and the lens 1
1 is configured as a set to project the image light emitted from the liquid crystal display 5 onto the screen 2.
Further, the lens 9 and the lens 11 form a pair so that good image formation on the CCD camera 10 can be obtained.

When the screen 2 becomes transparent,
The light shielding plate 12 prevents unnecessary external light from entering,
The imaging quality of the camera 10 is improved.

In the above configuration, the liquid crystal display 5
Is configured to display, for example, a video output of a video tape recorder in a matrix. Then, the output of the CCD camera 10 is recorded on a video tape as an input of a video tape recorder (not shown), and the reproduced output of the recorded video tape is output to the liquid crystal display 5, so that the video including the photographer's own video is output. It is possible to record a video on a video tape while monitoring the video.

With a conventional video camera, a photographer looking at a viewfinder cannot enter the photographed image. However, in this apparatus, the photographer looks at a normal monitor with a normal camera. You will be able to take a picture.

Of course, it is also suitable as a display camera device for a videophone or videoconference.

Using this display camera device,
Because people watching the display do not notice the camera,
It is also suitable for recording the dynamics of nature, and is expected to have a different effect as a security camera from conventional cameras.

Further, since the optical axes of the liquid crystal display 5 and the CCD camera 10 are aligned at the half mirror 3, a very small or large line-of-sight camera monitor system can be realized. It is.

[0039]

The display camera device according to the first aspect of the present invention is provided with a screen disposed on the front surface of the cabinet main body, the transparency of which changes according to an applied voltage, and a half mirror provided inside the cabinet main body. a video output unit that irradiates the image light to the screen, provided inside the cabinet body, an imaging unit that captures image light incident from the front of the screen through the half mirror, the front of the imaging unit And a shutter provided between the screen and the half mirror.
The imaging lens system of the imaging unit and the video output unit
A shared lens shared with the display lens system of
When the shutter is opened and imaging is performed, the shutter and the screen are interlocked so as to control the voltage applied to the screen so as to make the screen transparent. Also in the monitor, the optical axis of the display as the video output unit and the optical axis of the camera as the imaging unit can be completely matched.
Therefore, when this is applied to a videophone, a public videophone, or the like, a natural image on the sender side having the same gaze can be captured by the camera. In addition, when applied to cameras for crime prevention, market research, and the like, it is possible to provide the information on the display and capture the natural appearance of the receiver of the information whose eyes match . In addition, imaging by the imaging unit
Lens system and the display lens system of the video output unit
Display on the screen by providing a common lens
This has the effect of enlarging the displayed image to make the screen easier to see .

The display according to claim 2 of the present invention.
Camera device is located on the front of the cabinet body
A screen whose transparency changes according to an applied voltage;
Installed inside the cabinet body, through a half mirror
And an image output unit for irradiating the screen with image light,
The half-mirror provided inside the cabinet body.
Image incident from the front of the screen through the mirror
An image pickup unit for picking up light; and an image pickup unit provided in front of the image pickup unit.
Between the shutter, the screen and the half mirror
And the imaging lens system of the imaging unit and the image output.
A shared lens that is shared with the display lens
Around the outer periphery between the common lens and the screen
And a cylindrical light-shielding plate provided in
When opening and taking an image, the voltage applied to the screen
Control to make the screen transparent.
And the screen is linked
It is suitable for both small and large monitors.
A display as a video output unit and a camera as an imaging unit
Can be completely matched. Therefore,
When this is applied to videophones, public videophones, etc.
Uses a camera to capture a natural image of the sender whose eyes match.
I can get it. Cameras for security and market research
When applied to the display, while providing information to the display
And the natural appearance of the recipient of the information with the same gaze
I can get it. Further, by providing a shared lens shared by the imaging lens system of the imaging unit and the display lens system of the video output unit, the image displayed on the screen is enlarged to provide a more easily viewable screen. Furthermore, by providing a cylindrical light-shielding plate so as to surround the outer peripheral portion between the shared lens and the screen, disturbance light and the like do not enter between the shared lens and the screen, thereby improving the imaging quality of the imaging unit. It has the effect of being able to make it.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a display camera device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a conventional display camera device.

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of a conventional display camera device.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) H04N 7/14

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A screen disposed on a front surface of a cabinet main body, the transparency of which changes according to an applied voltage; a video output unit provided inside the cabinet main body, and irradiating the screen with a video light via a half mirror; provided inside the cabinet body, an imaging unit that captures image light incident from the front of the screen through the half mirror, the shutter provided in front of the imaging unit, the screen and the half mirror Is provided between
For the imaging lens system of the imaging unit and the display of the video output unit
A shared lens shared with a lens system , wherein when the shutter is opened and an image is taken, the shutter and the screen are linked so as to control the voltage applied to the screen to make the screen transparent. A display camera device characterized by the above-mentioned. 2. A mark arranged on the front of the cabinet body.
A screen whose transparency changes according to an applied voltage ; and a half mirror provided inside the cabinet body.
Image output unit for irradiating the screen with image light through the screen
And the half-mirror provided inside the cabinet body.
Image incident from the front of the screen through the mirror
An imaging unit that captures light, a shutter provided on a front surface of the imaging unit, and a shutter provided between the screen and the half mirror;
For the imaging lens system of the imaging unit and the display of the video output unit
A shared lens shared by the lens system and an outer peripheral portion between the shared lens and the screen
And a provided a cylindrical light shielding plate as the screening when performing imaging by opening the shutter
Control the applied voltage to make the screen transparent.
, The features and to Lud I spray camera device that is interlocked with the said shutter screen.