Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Olympic Optical Company, LLC

Seiichiro Tabata

Yoichi Iba

Toshiro Okamura

Takayoshi Togino

Naoto Shimada

Satoshi Imai

Kazunari Hanano

Yuki Tokuhashi

Susumu Takahashi

Tetsuhide Takeyama

Hiroyoshi Kobayashi

Kazuya Yamanaka

Katsunori Sakiyama

Akiyoshi Tochigi

Yukihiro Sugimoto

Keiichi Kuba

Masato Yasugaki

Koh Mohri

Yuji Ogasawara

Toshikazu Takayama

Hiroyuki Kurita

Osamu Konuma

Kunie Nakagiri

Kumi Kikuchi

Haruko Saikawa

Yoshiaki Hashimoto

A visual image system is constructed as including: a three-dimensional visual image reproducer for transmitting a three-dimensional video signal; a parallax quantity detecting section for detecting a parallax quantity in the three-dimensional video signal from the three-dimensional visual image reproducer; a fatigue measure estimating section for estimating the degree of fatigue based on the detected parallax quantity and outputting an image switching signal correspondingly to a fatigue measure estimating quantity; a 3D/2D image switching section for providing an output by switching between three-dimensional and two-dimensional images based on the image switching signal; and an image display section for displaying a three-dimensional image or a two-dimensional image. The visual image system thereby fulfills the capability of suitably controlling the degree of three-dimensionality of stereoscopic images by inferring from the inputted video signal the degree of effects likely to be produced on the observer.

Visual image system

The present invention is a translucent screen comprising a plurality of spherical lenses arranged in an orthohexagonal lattice structure or a tetragonal lattice structure on a two-dimensional plane, a supporting member disposed at the incident side of the spherical lenses, a diffusion plate which is disposed at the emission side of the spherical lenses where the surface at the side facing the spherical lenses is the diffusion surface, and a shield which connects the spherical lenses, defines the entrance aperture at the incident side and functions as a black matrix at the emission side, wherein the luminous flux entering diagonally is converted to the luminous flux which center is a direction approximately vertical to the main surface of the translucent screen, and are emitted.

Translucent screen

A signal representing an eyeball accommodation detected by an eyeball accommodation detector provided for the left eye L is supplied to a shift amount calculator . The shift amount calculator calculates necessary shift amounts of a right eye and left eye image corresponding to the eyeball accommodation, and supplies signals representing the necessary shift amounts to image shifters R and L. According to these signals, the image shifters R and L horizontally shift a right eye and a left eye image signal from an image generator on a right eye and as left eye LCDs R and L, respectively, to obtain an adequate binocular parallax.

Stereoscopic display that controls binocular parallax between two images and controls image reconstitution according to parallax data

The present invention provides an image display device including an LCD, a polarization switching liquid crystal cell, a birefringent plate, and an eyepiece. The LCD displays an image using a plurality of arrayed pixel locations. The polarization switching liquid crystal cell has a plurality of electrodes incorporated therein and switches the direction of polarization in which light emitted from the LCD is polarized. The birefringent plate varies the optical path of light emitted from the polarization switching liquid crystal cell depending on the direction of polarization. The eyepiece magnifies light representing an image displayed on the LCD. The LCD and polarization switching liquid crystal cell are positioned so that the distance L from the eyeballs to the virtual image plane of the LCD and the distance L from the eyeballs to the virtual image plane of the polarization switching liquid crystal cell will have the relationship of 1/L &minus;1/L &gE;0.4 D or L &lE;200 mm. Otherwise, the birefringent plate or the like is coated with an anti-reflective coating. The image display device thus makes unnecessary streaks or flickers indiscernible and displays an easy-to-see image.

Image display device

Input means ( ) receives signals representing stereo image. Image change detection means ( ) detects changes with time in stereo image represented by the signals received from the input means. High attention center presumable area determination means ( ) determines a peculiar local area of a displayed image area to be an observer's high attention center presumable area according to a result of detection by the image change detection means. Depth detection means ( ) obtains information representing the depth of the image in the particular local area specified by the high attention center presumable area determination means. Depth control means ( ) controls a quantity concerning the depth of stereo image represented by the signals received form the input means according to the depth information received form the depth detection means. Output means ( ) outputs signals representing stereo image, with the quantity concerning the depth having been controlled by the depth control means, as stereo image signals to be displayed on stereo image display means.

Stereo image display unit

In an image display apparatus including a delta-array display device and pixel position transition means for repeatedly shifting the respective pixel positions of the display device to each of positions at four points, the pixel shifted positions at the four points are: a first pixel position serving as standard; a second pixel position shifted with respect to the first, standard pixel position horizontally approximately by &frac12; of horizontal pixel pitch; a third pixel position shifted horizontally approximately by &frac34; or &frac14; of horizontal pixel pitch and vertically approximately by &frac12; of vertical pixel pitch; and a fourth pixel position shifted horizontally approximately by &frac14; or &frac34; of horizontal pixel pitch and vertically approximately by &frac12; of vertical pixel pitch. The image display apparatus is thereby provided as having an improved, doubled resolution in both vertical and horizontal directions by applying the 4-point pixel shift system to the delta-array display device.

Image display apparatus

A stereo image display apparatus is disclosed, in which the influence of display area edge portions on the viewing of stereo image is taken into considerations to enable display of stereo images without spoiling the viewer's sense just like the viewer is actually on the site of the image scene. The display of a left eye and a right eye image is controlled to have a binocular parallax substantially fixed in effect. (Specifically, image shifters,L and,R shift the left eye and right eye images according to a parallax signal.) Edge portions of a left eye and a right eye image display area are shaded off in effect and made obscure by a left eye and a right eye eyepiece optical system,L and,R.

Stereo image display apparatus

An image and voice communication system of the present invention has an image display element and a voice output element which are suitable for image and voice communication, and further includes a character image setting element capable of imaginatively setting a character image to be displayed on the image display element; a change command receive element for receiving from a communication mate a command signal for changing the character image; a character change element for changing the character image according to the command signal; and an element for causing the display element to display a character image changed by the character change element by supplying the changed character image to the display element.

Image and voice communication system and videophone transfer method

Oscillating means,wobbles or oscillates an optical axis of a light beam emitted from display face of a display device,having a display face with a plurality of pixels in a regular array in predetermined directions. Image display control means,controls the display of different images on the display device in synchronism to the oscillation of the light beam optical axis caused by the oscillating means,Then, light beam splitting means,splits the light beam from the display face into a plurality of split light beams in directions crossing the directions of the oscillation of the light beam optical axis caused by the oscillating means

Provided herein is an image display apparatus for displaying high resolution images by shifting pixels based on wobbling operation by placing a TN cell consisting of a polarization changing liquid crystal plate and a birefringence plate on the front side of an LCD to be driven by video signals, the image display apparatus being provided with a correction circuit to which video signal of the preceding filed stored to a field memory, video signal of the current field and a field discriminant signal are inputted, the LCD being driven by correction video signals generated at the correction circuit so as to display a high resolution image mitigating degradation in image quality due to response delays of the LCD and TN cell.

Image display control in synchronization with optical axis wobbling with video signal correction used to mitigate degradation in resolution due to response performance

An image display apparatus including a liquid crystal display panel (LCD) constituting an image display plane composed of a plurality of pixels arranged with a pixel pitch, a LCD driver circuit which receives an input image signal S,and displays an image on a substantially whole image display plane of the LCD as well as a part of the image on a selected region C of the image display plane by selectively shifting image display positions of the image with respect to inherent positions on said image display plane in a given direction by an integer multiple or an inverse of an integer multiple of the pixel pitch of the LCD, and a pixel shift driver circuit which effectively and selectively shifts, in synchronism with the operation of said LCD driver circuit, said image display plane in a direction opposite to said given direction in which said image display position shifting is carried out. Even if the LCD has a larger number of scanning lines or the pixel shift operation is performed by a larger number of times, the resolution can be effectively improved.

Image display apparatus with improved image portion

A stereoscopic image display apparatus having right and left display elements for displaying inputted stereoscopic image signals, right and left displaying optical systems for leading images displayed on the right and left image elements, a setting information element for outputting setting information signals on stereoscopic image display, based on the stereoscopic vision information signals about the inputted imaging distance in synchronization with the stereoscopic image signals, and a control element for controlling image position displayed on the right and left image display elements to at least optical axes of the right and left display optical systems, based on the setting information signals.

Imaging apparatus, image display apparatus and image recording and/or reproducing apparatus

A real space video signal processing unit generates right and left eye first video signals including corresponding images at different horizontal positions by processing a real space video signal from a single image sensing unit. An image signal generation unit generates right and left eye second image signals including corresponding images at different horizontal positions. A right eye video signal synthesis unit generates a right eye display signal by synthesizing the right eye second image signal with a partial region of the right eye first video signal. A left eye video signal synthesis unit generates a left eye display signal by synthesizing the left eye second image signal with a partial region of the left eye first video signal. These right and left eye display signals are displayed on a video display unit, so that the image sensed by the image sensing unit is fused at finite distance.

Stereoscopic video display apparatus which fuses real space image at

Rendering is executed under conditions corresponding to the distance of a target object to obtain stereo display data, by preliminarily controlling its conditions such as the position or orientation of two-dimensional image projection planes (A mode). Alternatively, the rendering is executed independently of the distance of the target object, and data thus obtained is subjected to an image conversion process to obtain the stereo display data (B mode).

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Hino, Japan

Seiichiro Tabata