JP3460481B2 - Video observation device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image observing device for observing an image by looking through the eyepiece window while the user holds it in his hand or wears it on his head. The present invention relates to an image observation device of a type that changes the orientation of an image in association with movement.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, this type of image observation apparatus is
It is composed of a video generation device such as a camera and a computer graphics device, and a video observation device main body connected to the video generation device. When the camera is used as the image generation device, the camera is fixed on the photographing direction control device, and the photographing direction is controlled according to the attitude (position or orientation) of the image observation device body, In the case of a computer graphics device, if it is configured to control the arithmetic processing of image data according to the posture of the main body of the image observation device, the direction of the image can be changed in conjunction with the movement of the user's head. While observing the image, the user can get a realistic sensation as if he / she were in the image.

In order to do so, a posture detecting means such as a position sensor and an angular velocity sensor for detecting the position and direction of the user's head is built in the main body of the image observing apparatus, and the detecting means from this detecting means is used. The control means for controlling the image generation device by the detection signal may be provided on the image observation device body side or the image generation device side.

[0004]

However, in the case where the main body of the image observation apparatus is provided with an operation section for the user to remotely operate the image generation apparatus, the image when the user operates the operation section is displayed. A slight movement of the main body of the observing device is detected by the posture detecting means, whereby the control of the image generating device not intended by the user is performed. Therefore, the movement of the hand during operation causes blurring in the image being observed.

Therefore, the technical problem to be solved by the present invention is that when a user manually operates an image generating apparatus,
It is to prevent the video from changing unintentionally.

[0006]

In order to solve the above technical problems, the image observation apparatus according to the present invention is configured as follows. That is, this image observation device is connected to the image observation device main body and a movable image observation device main body including an eyepiece for the user to look into and an image display portion that can be observed from the eyepiece. A video generation device,
An operation unit provided in the image observation apparatus body for controlling the image generation apparatus, an attitude detection unit for detecting the attitude of the image observation apparatus main body, and a control unit connected to the operation unit and the attitude detection unit, The control means is an image observation apparatus configured to control the image generation apparatus according to an operation signal from the operation unit and a change in the attitude of the image observation apparatus body detected by the attitude detection means, and the operation by the user. It is characterized in that the control of the image generation device by the detection signal of the posture detection means is prohibited during the operation of the unit.

[0007] When the video generation device is composed of a camera,
The control that is performed in association with the posture change of the image observation apparatus body is the control of the shooting direction of the camera, and the control by the operation of the operation unit includes at least one of the shooting direction of the camera, the focal length of the shooting lens, and the focused state. Be done. Further, when the video generation device is configured by a computer, the control performed in association with the posture change of the video observation device body and the control by the operation of the operation unit are arithmetic processing of the recorded image data.

In the above structure, since the image control is not performed while the user is operating the operation section, the image itself does not change even if the image observing apparatus main body moves along with the movement of the hand during the operation. . For this reason, the image control which is not intended by the user is not performed, so that it is possible to prevent the image from blurring during observation.

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS. In addition,
In this image observation device, a camera is connected to the image observation device main body as an image generation device, and the camera is attached to a photographing direction control device in order to adjust the photographing direction.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the outer shape of the image observation apparatus body 1. The image observation apparatus main body 1 includes an eyepiece section 10 and an operation section 20 which are each formed into a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape.
Therefore, it is formed in a generally T-shape in a side view. Eyepiece windows 12 and 13 are formed on the eyepiece surface 10a of the eyepiece unit 10 so as to correspond to the left and right eyes of the user.
Through a glass plate 11 fixed to 13, a user can observe an image display section (not shown) provided in the eyepiece section.

On the left side of the left eyepiece window 12, the left audio output unit 1
4 is provided, and the right audio output unit 15 is provided on the right side of the right eyepiece window 13. An eyepiece detection window 16 for detecting that the user is looking through the eyepiece window is provided between the eyepiece windows 12 and 13, so that the user's forehead is closer than a predetermined distance. While viewing, the image observation device body 1
A sensor provided inside the sensor detects this. A reference numeral 18 on the upper surface 10b of the eyepiece 10 is a daylighting window.

The operation surface 20a of the operation portion 20 is formed with a recess 22 extending from both left and right ends toward the center at a position approximately at the center height, and the user puts his thumbs on the recess 22. The remaining fingers are rotated to the back surface of the operation unit to hold the image observation device body 1. Further, various operation buttons are arranged on the operation surface 20a. 23
Is an interlocking changeover switch for selecting whether or not to change the shooting direction of the camera in association with the change in the posture of the image observation apparatus body 1, 24 is a zoom up button for zooming up the image, and 25 is It is a zoom down button for zooming down the image. Reference numeral 26 is a video direction changing button used for manually changing the video direction, 27 is a manual focus button for manually focusing the video, and 28 is a focus mode switch for switching between auto focus and manual focus. , 29 are memory buttons for storing some parameters relating to image display (for example, the shooting direction of the camera, the focal length of the lens, and the focus state).

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a control system of the image observation apparatus. Image observation device body 1 and image generation device 2
Includes transmitting units 101 and 201 and receiving units 102 and 202, respectively, for transmitting and receiving signals to and from each other.
A calculation unit (control unit) 103 is connected to the transmission unit 101 of the image observation apparatus body 1, and an operation unit 104 and a posture detection unit 105 are further connected to the calculation unit 103. The operation unit 104 includes various switches 2 for operating the camera.
Corresponding to 4 to 28, the posture detection unit 105 detects the posture (position or direction) of the image observing apparatus main body 1 that changes as the user moves his / her head in the state where the user is in contact with the eye. It is composed of sensors. Also,
An image display unit 106 that allows a user to observe through the eyepiece windows 12 and 13 is connected to the receiving unit 102 of the image observation apparatus body 1.

The receiving unit 202 and the transmitting unit 2 of the video generation device 2
Between 01, the control section (control means) 203 and the camera 204 are connected from the receiving section 202 side. And
The signal relating to the position and direction of the video observing apparatus main body 1 and the operation signal processed by the calculating section 103 of the video observing apparatus main body 1 are transmitted from the transmitting section 101 of the video observing apparatus main body 1 to the receiving section 202 of the video generating apparatus 2. To the control unit 203, and the control unit 203 controls the camera 204. In addition, the image captured by the camera 204 is transmitted from the transmission unit 201 of the image generation device 2 to the image display unit 106 via the reception unit 102 of the image observation device body 1, and the image displayed there is displayed in the eyepiece window. It is observed by the user through 12 and 13.

The image observation apparatus main body 1 may be connected with a computer graphics device as the image generation apparatus 2. A block diagram in that case is shown in FIG. The video generation device 2 includes a transmission unit 211 and a reception unit 21.
2 and a computer (this is an image generation device and a control means) 213. The image observing apparatus main body 1 has the same configuration as that of the example of FIG. 2, and therefore the details thereof will not be described. However, in the configuration of this figure, a signal regarding the detected position and direction of the image observing apparatus main body 1 and an operation signal are described. The image is transmitted to the image generation device 2, and the image is changed at any time by the computer 213 according to the signals, and the image is displayed on the image display unit 1 of the image observation device body 1.
It is designed to display at 06.

Next, the control method of this image observation apparatus will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, when the image observation is started in step # 1, the interlock changeover switch 2 is operated in step # 2.
3 is turned on, and if it is turned on, in step # 3, control is started so as to change the shooting direction of the camera in conjunction with the change in the posture of the image observation apparatus body 1. Next, in step # 4, it is determined whether or not the user is operating the operation unit 104 (operation switches 24 to 28). If not, step # 4
In 5 and # 6, it is determined whether or not the image observation is completed by detecting whether or not the user is approaching the eyepiece detection window 16 (whether or not the eyepiece is in sight), and the interlock switch is turned off. Whether or not there is a continuous determination is made, and if the observation is not completed and the interlock switch is not off, the process returns to step # 4. If it is determined that the image observation has ended, the process jumps to step # 9 to end the control of this flowchart, and if the image observation has not ended but the interlock switch is turned off, the interlocking is stopped in step # 7. To do. Then, in step # 8, it is judged whether or not the image observation is finished again. If it is finished, the control by this flowchart is finished in step # 9, and if it is not finished, the process returns to step # 2 and the control is performed. Continued.

On the other hand, when it is detected in step # 2 that the interlocking switch 23 is not turned on even when the image observation is started in step # 1, it waits for a certain time in step # 10 and then jumps to step # 8. It is determined whether or not the image observation is completed. If it is not completed, the process returns to step # 2, so unless the interlocking switch 23 is turned on during image observation, repeat the operations of steps # 2, # 10, and # 8 and wait for the interlocking switch 23 to be turned on. become.

After starting the interlocking in step # 3,
When it is detected in step # 4 that the operation unit 104 is being operated, the interlocking is stopped in step # 11 to prevent the image from changing, and further, in step # 12, a certain time is waited, and then in step # 13. It is determined again whether the operation unit is operated. If it is determined that the operation is being performed, the process returns to step # 12 again and waits for a certain period of time to execute step # 13. If not, the process returns to step # 3 to restart the interlocking.

As described above, in the above configuration, the image basically changes in association with the change in the attitude of the image observation apparatus main body, but the association is stopped during the operation of the operation unit 104. Therefore, even if the image observation device body 1 moves along with the movement of the hand during operation, the image itself does not change. For this reason, since the image control which is not intended by the user due to the slight movement of the image observing apparatus main body 1 accompanying the operation of the operation unit 104 is not performed, it is possible to prevent the image from being shaken during the observation.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an external shape of a main body of an image observation apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a control system in the case where a camera is connected as an image generation device to the image observation device body of FIG.

3 is a block diagram showing a control system in the case where a computer as an image generation device is connected to the image observation device body of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a control method of the image observation device according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Video observation device body 2 Video generation device 10 Eyepiece 10a Eyepiece surface 11 glass plate 12 Left eyepiece window 13 Right eyepiece window 14 Left audio output section 15 Right audio output section 16 Eyepiece detection window 18 Daylighting window 20 Operation part 20a Operation surface 22 recess 23 Interlock switch 24 Zoom up button 25 Zoom down button 26 Image direction change button 27 Manual focus button 28 Focus mode selector switch 29 Memory button 101 transmitter 102 receiver 103 arithmetic unit (control means) 104 Operation part 105 attitude detector 106 video display 201, 211 transmitter 202,212 Receiver 203 control unit (control means) 204 camera 213 computer (control means)

Front page continuation (72) Inventor Yasushi Yasushiri, 2-3-3 Azuchi-cho, Chuo-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka Prefecture Minamita Co., Ltd. (72) Hideki Nagata 2-chome, Azuchi-cho, Chuo-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka No. 13 Osaka International Building Minolta Co., Ltd. (56) Reference JP-A-1-289226 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G02B 27/02 H04N 5/64

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A movable image observing apparatus main body having an eyepiece for a user to look into and an image display section observable from the eyepiece, and an image generating apparatus connected to the image observing apparatus main body. Apparatus, an operation unit provided in the image observation apparatus main body for controlling the image generation apparatus, an attitude detection unit for detecting an attitude of the image observation apparatus main body, and an operation unit and an attitude detection unit connected to the operation unit and the attitude detection unit. The control means is configured to control the video generation device in accordance with an operation signal from the operation section and a change in the attitude of the image observation apparatus body detected by the attitude detection means. An image observing apparatus, wherein the image observing apparatus is configured to prohibit the control of the image generating apparatus by the detection signal of the posture detecting means while the user is operating the operation unit. 2. The image generation device includes a camera, and control performed in association with a change in the attitude of the image observation device body is control of a photographing direction of the camera, and control performed by operating the operation unit includes: The image observation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising at least one of a shooting direction of the camera, a focal length of the shooting lens, and a focus state. 3. The image generating device is composed of a computer graphics device, and the control performed in conjunction with the change in the attitude of the image observing device body and the control by the operation of the operation unit perform arithmetic processing of recorded image data. The image observation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein