The present application claims priority to Japanese Priority Patent Application JP 2011-027368 filed in the Japan Patent Office on Feb. 10, 2011, the entire content of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The present technology relates to a display and a displaying method in which stereoscopic display is performed with use of a plurality of parallax images having parallax therebetween.
Techniques of performing stereoscopic display include a glass system with use of glasses for stereoscopic vision and a naked-eye system capable of achieving stereoscopic vision by naked eyes without glasses for stereoscopic vision. A typical glass system is a shatter glass system using shutter glasses with a left-eye shutter and a right-eye shutter. In the shutter glass system, a left-eye parallax image and a right-eye parallax image are alternately displayed on a two-dimensional display panel at high speed in a frame-sequential manner. Then, the left-eye shutter and the right-eye shutter are alternately opened and closed in synchronization with switching of the parallax images to allow only the left-eye parallax image and the right-eye parallax image to enter the left eye and a right eye of a viewer, respectively, thereby achieving stereoscopic vision.
On the other hand, typical naked-eye systems include a parallax barrier system and a lenticular lens system. In the parallax barrier system and the lenticular lens system, parallax images for stereoscopic vision (a right-eye image and a left-eye image in the case of two viewpoints) which are spatially separated from one another are displayed on a two-dimensional display panel, and the parallax images are separated by parallax in a horizontal direction by a parallax separation structure to achieve stereoscopic vision. In the parallax barrier system, as the parallax separation structure, a parallax barrier having slit-like openings is used. In the lenticular system, as the parallax separation structure, a lenticular lens including a plurality of cylindrical split lenses arranged in parallel is used.
In the case where the above-described stereoscopic display is performed, depth perception (magnitude of depth perception) of stereoscopic vision perceived by a viewer varies depending on magnitude of parallax between parallax images. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. H9-121370 and 2004-289527 disclose techniques of optimizing magnitude of parallax; however, these optimizing techniques are not necessarily best.
It is desirable to provide a display and a displaying method capable of performing favorable stereoscopic display with, for example, intended magnitude of depth perception irrespective of a viewing distance.
According to an embodiment of the technology, there is provided a display including: a display section displaying a stereoscopic image based on stereoscopic image data; a detection section detecting a viewing distance of a viewer; and an adjustment section modifying magnitude of parallax of the stereoscopic image data from first magnitude of parallax to second magnitude of parallax, in which the adjustment section modifies a correspondence relationship between the first magnitude of parallax and the second magnitude of parallax depending on the detected viewing distance.
According to an embodiment of the technology, there is provided a displaying method including: detecting a viewing distance; modifying magnitude of parallax of stereoscopic image data from first magnitude of parallax to second magnitude of parallax; and displaying a stereoscopic image based on the modified stereoscopic image data, in which in modification to the second magnitude of parallax, a correspondence relationship between the first magnitude of parallax and the second magnitude of parallax is modified depending on the detected viewing distance.
In the display or the displaying method according to the embodiment of the technology, the magnitude of parallax of stereoscopic image data is modified from the first magnitude of parallax to the second magnitude of parallax. At this time, the magnitude of parallax is adjusted to allow a correspondence relationship between the first magnitude of parallax and the second magnitude of parallax to be modified depending on the viewing distance. Therefore, for example, the magnitude of parallax of the stereoscopic image data is modified depending on the viewing distance to compensate for a decline in viewer's depth perception sensitivity.
In the display or the displaying method according to the embodiment of the technology, the magnitude of parallax of the stereoscopic image data is modified from the first magnitude of parallax to the second magnitude of parallax, and at this time, the correspondence relationship between the first magnitude of parallax and the second magnitude of parallax is modified depending on the viewing distance; therefore, the magnitude of parallax of the stereoscopic image data is allowed to be modified depending on, for example, the viewing distance to compensate for a decline in viewer's depth perception sensitivity. Therefore, irrespective of the viewing distance, favorable stereoscopic display is allowed to be performed with, for example, an intended magnitude of depth perception.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, and are intended to provide further explanation of the technology as claimed.
Additional features and advantages are described herein, and will be apparent from the following Detailed Description and the figures.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments and, together with the specification, serve to explain the principles of the technology.
The present application will be described in detail referring to the accompanying drawings according to an embodiment.
The display section 10 is configured of a two-dimensional display such as a liquid crystal display panel, an electroluminescence display panel or a plasma display. A plurality of pixels are two-dimensionally arranged on a display screen of the display section 10. Images are displayed on the display screen of the display section 10 according to a stereoscopic display system of the stereoscopic display.
The stereoscopic display system of the stereoscopic display is not specifically limited. For example, a glass system such as a shutter glass system or a naked-eye system such as a parallax barrier system or a lenticular lens system may be used. For example, in the case of the shutter glass system, parallax images corresponding to two viewpoints, i.e., left and right viewpoints (a left-eye parallax image and a right-eye parallax image) are alternately displayed on the display section 10 in a time-divisional manner. Moreover, for example, in the naked-eye system, a parallax composite image created by combining parallax images corresponding to a plurality of viewpoints (parallax images corresponding to two viewpoints, i.e., left and right viewpoints or parallax images corresponding to a plurality of viewpoints) in one screen is displayed on the display section 10. In other words, a plurality of parallax images which are spatially separated from one another are displayed.
The camera 11 detects a viewer 1 and takes an image of the viewer 1. The distance estimating section 21 estimates and detects a viewing distance of the viewer 1 by analyzing the image taken by the camera 11. The viewing distance is allowed to be detected by, for example, a face tracking technique. It is to be noted that the viewing distance is typically a distance from a display plane of the display section 10 to a central position between both eyes of the viewer 1.
The correction factor retaining section 22 retains data for adjusting magnitude of parallax. The correction factor retaining section 22 retains first relationship data (data obtained from geometrically estimated values illustrated in
The binocular parallax adjustment calculating section 23, the binocular parallax adjusting section 24, and the image producing section 25 adjust magnitude of parallax of input stereoscopic image data depending on the viewing distance to compensate for a decline in depth perception sensitivity of the viewer 1, thereby producing stereoscopic image data which is to be actually displayed on the display section 10. The input stereoscopic image data is image data including a plurality of parallax images according to the stereoscopic display system. The binocular parallax adjustment calculating section 23 calculates an adjustment value for the magnitude of parallax of the input stereoscopic image data, based on the correspondence relationship between magnitude of parallax and magnitude of depth perception stored in the correction factor retaining section 22. The binocular parallax adjusting section 24 allows the image producing section 25 to produce stereoscopic image data with adjusted magnitude of parallax, based on the calculated adjustment value for the magnitude of parallax. More specifically, the binocular parallax adjustment calculating section 23 calculates magnitude of depth perception corresponding to first magnitude-to-be-adjusted of parallax of stereoscopic image data, based on the first relationship data (geometrically estimated values which will be described later), and obtains, as an adjustment value for the magnitude of parallax, second magnitude of parallax corresponding to the calculated magnitude of depth perception from the second relationship data (an actual measured value which will be described later). The binocular parallax adjusting section 24 controls the image producing section 25 to modify the magnitude of parallax of the input stereoscopic image data from the first magnitude of parallax to the second magnitude of parallax. The display control section 26 allows stereoscopic image data with the adjusted magnitude of parallax produced by the image producing section 25 to be displayed on the display section 10.
As illustrated in
Z(x)=Z0·x/(x+d) (1)
The above-described Z(x) is geometrically estimated theoretical magnitude of depth perception; however, depth perception sensitivity varies depending on the viewing distance Z0 according to human visual characteristics. In
It is apparent from
The first relationship data (data obtained from the geometrically estimated values illustrated in
When the magnitude-to-be-adjusted of parallax (the first magnitude of parallax) of stereoscopic image data comes to be equal to or larger than a predetermined maximum value, to adjust the magnitude of parallax in the above-described manner, the magnitude of depth perception may be fixed while compensating for a decline in viewer's depth perception sensitivity. For example, as illustrated in
In the above description, the first and second relationship data representing the correspondence relationship between magnitude of parallax and magnitude of depth perception are retained in the correction factor retaining section 22, and the binocular parallax adjustment calculating section 23 calculates the second magnitude of parallax based on these two relationship data; however, the second magnitude of parallax may be calculated without directly using the magnitude of depth perception.
For example, a lookup table illustrated in the following Table 1 is retained as relationship data in the correction factor retaining section 22. The relationship data illustrated in Table 1 represents a mutual correspondence relationship among the viewing distance Z0, the first magnitude x of parallax (the magnitude-to-be-adjusted of parallax) and the second magnitude x′ of parallax (the adjusted magnitude of parallax). The second magnitude x′ of parallax is a value obtained by adding an adjustment value Ax to the first magnitude x of parallax. The adjustment value Ax is determined in advance from data obtained from the geometrically estimated values illustrated in
In the above description, the correspondence relationship between the first magnitude x of parallax and the second magnitude x′ of parallax is variable depending on the viewing distance Z0; however, the magnitude of parallax may be also variably controlled according to the pupillary distance d (a distance between both eyes) of the viewer 1. It is apparent from
In the modification, the distance estimating section 21 detects the pupillary distance d in addition to the viewing distance Z0 of the viewer 1 by analyzing an image taken by the camera 11. For example, relationship data representing a mutual correspondence relationship among the pupillary distance d, the viewing distance Z0, the first magnitude x of parallax (magnitude-to-be-adjusted of parallax), and the second magnitude x′ of parallax (adjusted magnitude of parallax) is stored in the correction factor retaining section 22. For example, a lookup table illustrated in Table 1 in the above-described first modification is determined at each of a plurality of estimated pupillary distances d to be stored as relationship data. The binocular parallax adjustment calculating section 23 calculates an adjustment value (the second magnitude x′ of parallax) for the magnitude of parallax of the input stereoscopic image data, based on relationship data corresponding to the viewing distance Z0 and the pupillary distance d. The binocular parallax adjusting section 24 allows the image producing section 25 to produce stereoscopic image data with adjusted magnitude of parallax, based on the calculated second magnitude of parallax.
As described above, in the stereoscopic display according to the embodiment, the magnitude of parallax of stereoscopic image data is adjusted depending on the viewing distance to compensate for a decline in the depth perception sensitivity; therefore, irrespective of the viewing distance, favorable stereoscopic display is allowed to be performed with intended magnitude of depth perception. The magnitude of depth perception declines with an increase in the viewing distance according to human visual characteristics; however, in the stereoscopic display according to the embodiment, even in the case where the viewing distance is increased, a decline in the magnitude of depth perception is suppressed.
The present technology is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and may be variously modified.
For example, the technology is allowed to have the following configurations.
(1) A display including:
a display section displaying a stereoscopic image based on stereoscopic image data;
a detection section detecting a viewing distance of a viewer; and
an adjustment section modifying magnitude of parallax of the stereoscopic image data from first magnitude of parallax to second magnitude of parallax,
in which the adjustment section modifies a correspondence relationship between the first magnitude of parallax and the second magnitude of parallax depending on the detected viewing distance.
(2) The display according to (1), in which
the second magnitude of parallax has a value optimized to compensate the first magnitude of parallax for a decline in viewer's depth perception sensitivity, the decline depending on the viewing distance.
(3) The display according to (1) or (2), further including a storage section holding relationship data representing a mutual correspondence relationship among the viewing distance, the first magnitude of parallax, and the second magnitude of parallax,
in which the adjustment section modifies the magnitude of parallax of the stereoscopic image data from the first magnitude of parallax to the second magnitude of parallax based on the relationship data.
(4) The display according to any one of (1) to (3), in which
when the first magnitude of parallax comes to be equal to or larger than a predetermined maximum value, the adjustment section maintains the second magnitude of parallax at a fixed value which corresponds to the predetermined maximum value.
(5) The display according to any one of (1), (2) and (4), further including a storage section holding first relationship data and second relationship data, the first relationship representing a correspondence relationship between magnitude of parallax and magnitude of depth perception without consideration of a decline in depth perception sensitivity, the second relationship data representing a correspondence relationship between magnitude of parallax and magnitude of depth perception with consideration of a decline in depth perception sensitivity, the decline depending on the viewing distance,
in which the adjustment section calculates magnitude of depth perception corresponding to the first magnitude of parallax based on the first relationship data, and obtains, from the second relationship data, the second magnitude of parallax corresponding to the calculated magnitude of depth perception.
(6) The display according to any one of (1), (2) and (4), in which
the detection section further detects a pupillary distance of a viewer, and
the adjustment section modifies the correspondence relationship between the first magnitude of parallax and the second magnitude of parallax depending on both the detected viewing distance and the detected pupillary distance.
(7) The display according to (6), further including a storage section holding relationship data representing a mutual correspondence relationship among the pupillary distance, the viewing distance, the first magnitude of parallax, and the second magnitude of parallax,
in which the adjustment section modifies the magnitude of parallax of the stereoscopic image data from the first magnitude of parallax to the second magnitude of parallax based on the relationship data.
It should be understood that various changes and modifications to the presently preferred embodiments described herein will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present subject matter and without diminishing its intended advantages. It is therefore intended that such changes and modifications be covered by the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2011-027368 | Feb 2011 | JP | national |