The present application claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No. JP 2007-193789, filed in the Japanese Patent Office on Jul. 25, 2007, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a projection display apparatus applied to a liquid crystal projector and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
A projection display apparatus (for example, a liquid crystal projector) is being spread, which displays a picture by spatially modulating incident light on a spatial light modulation device in accordance with an electric signal applied to the spatial light modulation device, outputting the modulated light, and collecting and projecting the outgoing light. Such a projection display apparatus has generally a lamp as a light source, a condenser, and an illumination optical system for condensing light emitted from the lamp and the condenser and making the condensed light enter the spatial light modulation device. Light from the spatial light modulation device is projected by a projection lens onto a screen or the like.
Among such projection display apparatuses, in an apparatus for combining three primary color light of red light (R), green light (G), and blue light (B) (so-called 3-chip projection display apparatus), variations may occur in the precision and the like in fixation of an optical system. In this case, there is an issue such that out-of-color-registration occurs due to misregistration between lights of primary colors in a display image projected on a screen. To reduce out-of-color-registration caused by optical-mechanism factors, a projection display apparatus having a registration adjusting function of electrically correcting the out-of-color-registration has been conventionally proposed (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. H08-201937).
In the projection display apparatus, for example, there is a case that the user sees a video image from the back side of a screen, or the apparatus is used in a state where it is attached to the ceiling or the like. In the case of using the apparatus in such a manner, a video image is inverted in the horizontal direction and/or the vertical direction (image inverting function) and the inverted video image is projected so that the user can see the video image in a normal direction.
Also in the case where the image inverting function is executed, the direction of out-of-color-registration caused by misregistration between the primary color lights is unchanged even after the image inversion is performed for the reason that the misregistration occurs in hardware. Therefore, if the user tries to perform the registration adjustment by an operation on a display screen, the adjustment direction seen from the user and the actual adjustment direction are opposite to each other in the horizontal direction and/or the vertical direction. An issue arises such that it is difficult for the user to perform the registration adjustment.
It is therefore desirable to provide a projection display apparatus realizing improved operability in registration adjustment irrespective of the use situation of the apparatus.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a projection display apparatus including: a light source; a spatial light modulation device modulating, on the basis of a video signal, each of primary color lights for color display emitted from the light source; projecting means for projecting, onto a screen, each of the primary color lights modulated by the spatial light modulation device; signal processing means; and correcting means. The signal processing means performs, in accordance with an operation from a user, an image inverting process on the video signals so that an image projected on the screen is inverted in at least one of a horizontal direction and a vertical direction on the screen. The correcting means corrects, based on a correction value entered by an operation on the screen, the video signal for each of the primary color lights so as to reduce horizontal and/or vertical misregistration between the primary color light projected on the screen, and supplies the corrected video signal to the spatial light modulation device. When the image projected on the screen is inverted, the correction value with a sign is entered by an operation on the screen, the sign being different from that of misregistration direction under a coordinate system where the image is not inverted.
In the projection display apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention, light emitted from the light source is modulated by the spatial light modulation device on the basis of a video signal for each of primary color lights. The primary color light modulated is projected onto a screen, thereby displaying a video image based on the video signal. The video signals for each of the primary color lights are corrected, base on a correction value entered by an operation on the screen, so as to reduce horizontal and/or vertical misregistration between the primary color lights projected on the screen. The corrected video signal is supplied to the spatial light modulation device. As a result, occurrence of out-of-color-registration due to the misregistration between the primary color lights is suppressed, and the display quality improves. An image inverting process on the video signals is performed, in accordance with an operation from a user, so that an image projected on the screen is inverted in at least one of a horizontal direction and a vertical direction. Therefore, proper image inversion is performed on the screen by an operation from the user according to a use situation of the apparatus. In the case where the image inverting process is performed, the correction value with a sign is entered by an operation on the screen, the sign being different from that of misregistration direction under a coordinate system where the image is not inverted. Therefore, even in a use situation such that the image inversion is performed on the display screen, the operation of inputting the correction value by the user is easy.
In the projection display apparatus of the embodiment of the present invention, the video signals for each of the primary color light are corrected (registration adjustment is performed), base on the correction value entered by an operation on the screen, so as to reduce horizontal and/or vertical misregistration between the primary color lights projected on the screen. Thus, occurrence of the out-of-color-registration caused by the misregistration between the primary color lights is suppressed, and display quality may be improved. Since the image inverting process is performed on the video signal so that the image projected on the screen is inverted in at least one of the horizontal and vertical directions on the screen, proper image inversion may be performed on the screen by the operation from the user according to the use situation of the apparatus. In the case where such an image inverting process is performed, the correction value with a sign is entered by an operation on the screen, the sign being different from that of misregistration direction under the coordinate system where the image is not inverted. Therefore, even in the use situation such that the image inversion is performed on the screen, the correction value inputting operation by the user may be facilitated. Thus, irrespective of the use situation of the apparatus, the operability in the registration adjustment may be improved.
Other and further objects, features and advantages of the invention will appear more fully from the following description.
An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail hereinbelow with reference to the drawings.
The light source 11 generates white light including primary color light of red light (R), blue light (B), and green light (G) which is necessary to display a color image. The light source 11 is configured by, for example, a halogen lamp, a metal halide lamp, a xenon lamp, or the like.
The dichroic mirror 121 transmits the red light Lr and the green light Lg in the irradiation light L0 generated from the light source 11 and reflects the blue light Lb, so that the red light Lr and the green light Lg travels while being separated from the blue light Lb. The dichroic mirror 122 transmits the red light Lr out of the red light Lr and the green light Lg passed through the dichroic mirror 121 and reflects the green light Lg, thereby making the red light Lr and the green light Lg travel while being separated from each other. The green light Lg reflected by the dichroic mirror 122 travels toward the light modulator 14.
The reflection mirror 131 reflects the blue light Lb reflected by the dichroic mirror 121 toward the light modulator 14. The reflection mirrors 132 and 133 reflect the red light Lr reflected by the dichroic mirror 122 toward the light modulator 14.
The light modulator 14 includes three liquid crystal elements 14R, 14G, and 14B corresponding to the primary color light of the red light Lr, the green light Lg, and the blue light Lb, respectively. The light modulator 14 modulates the irradiation light L0 emitted from the light source 11 for each of the primary color lights (red light Lr, green light Lg, and blue light Lb) on the basis of video signals for the colors supplied from the control unit 2.
Concretely, the liquid crystal element 14R is disposed between the reflection mirror 133 and the dichroic prism 15 and modulates the incident red light Lr on the basis of the video signal for red supplied from the control unit 2. The liquid crystal element 14G is disposed between the dichroic mirror 122 and the dichroic prism 15 and modulates the incident green light Lg on the basis of the video signal for green supplied from the control unit 2. The liquid crystal element 14B is disposed between the reflection mirror 131 and the dichroic prism 15 and modulates the incident blue light Lb on the basis of the video signal for blue supplied from the control unit 2. Each of the liquid crystal elements 14R, 14G, and 14B has a structure in which, for example, a liquid crystal layer including liquid crystal molecules is sandwiched between a pair of substrates to which a drive voltage based on a video signal is applied.
The dichroic prism 15 mixes the red light Lr, green light Lg, and blue light Lb modulated by the liquid crystal elements 14R, 14G, and 14B, thereby obtaining mixture light (display light) Lout and makes the display light Lout travel along a single optical path (an optical path leading to the projection lens 16).
The projection lens 16 is disposed between the dichroic prism 15 and the screen 17 and projects the display light Lout generated by the dichroic prism 15 onto the screen 17. The screen 17 is a section to which light (display light Lout) modulated by the liquid crystal elements 14R, 14G, and 14B and projected by the projection lens 16 is projected.
The control unit 2 has a video signal processing unit 21, a registration adjusting unit 22, and a liquid crystal element driving unit 23.
The video signal processing unit 21 has the function of generating a video signal D1 (before-adjustment data D1) by performing white balance adjustment for adjusting color temperature of the input video signal Din and so-called gamma correction on the input video signal Din. By the function, adjustment to improve the quality of a display image is carried out. The video signal processing unit 21 also has the function of performing an image inverting process (image inverting function) on the input video signal Din so that image inversion is performed in at least one of the horizontal direction (H direction) and the vertical direction (V direction) in a display plane of the screen 17 in accordance with an operation from the user. The details of the image inverting process performed by the video signal processing unit 21 will be described later.
When misregistration occurs between the primary color lights Lr, Lg, and Lb projected onto the screen 17, the registration adjusting unit 22 corrects the video signal D1 (before-adjustment data D1) for each of the colors corresponding to the primary color lights Lr, Lg, and Lb so as to reduce such misregistration in accordance with an adjustment value (correction value) entered by an operation on the screen by the user (registration adjustment). The registration adjusting unit 22 supplies the adjusted video signal D2 (adjusted data D2) for each of the colors to the liquid crystal element driving unit 23. The details of the adjusting process performed by the registration adjusting unit 22 will be described later.
The liquid crystal element driving unit 23 drives each of the liquid crystal elements 14R, 14B, and 14G on the basis of the adjusted data D2 supplied from the registration adjusting unit 22.
Each of the liquid crystal elements 14R, 14B, and 14G corresponds to a concrete example of “spatial light modulation device” in the present invention, and the projection lens 16 corresponds to a concrete example of “projecting means” in the present invention. The video signal processing unit 21 corresponds to a concrete example of “signal processing means” in the present invention. The registration adjusting unit 22 corresponds to a concrete example of “correcting means” in the present invention.
Referring now to
In the liquid crystal projector 1, as shown in
In the control unit 2, first, white balance adjustment and gamma correction is performed on the input video signal Din in the video signal processing unit 21, thereby generating the video signal D1. In the registration adjusting unit 22, for example, as shown in
For example, as shown in
Specifically, first, a color to be adjusted (in this case, blue (B)) is selected by the user (step S101 in
In the registration adjustment in the horizontal direction (H direction) in the case where the image inverting process is unnecessary, it is considered that the user 5 performs the adjustment on the basis of thinking as shown in
As described above, in the registration adjusting unit 22, in the case where the misregistration occurs between the primary color lights Lr, Lg, and Lb projected on the screen 17, the video signals D1 for the colors corresponding to the primary color lights Lr, Lg, and Lb are corrected (registration adjustment is performed) so as to reduce the misregistration in accordance with the adjustment value or the like entered by the user. The corrected video signals D2 are supplied to the liquid crystal elements 14R, 14G, and 14B. As a result, occurrence of the out-of-color-registration caused by the misregistration between the primary color lights Lr, Lg, and Lb is suppressed, and display quality improves.
On the other hand, for example, in a use situation that the user 5 sees a video image (display screen 3D) projected from the projector body 10 onto the screen 17 from the side opposite to the projector body 10 with respect to the screen 17 as shown in
In this case, the image inverting process in the horizontal direction is performed. Consequently, when the user 5 tries to perform the registration adjustment by an operation on the display screen 3D, like in a comparative example shown in
Therefore, in the liquid crystal projector 1 of the embodiment, in the case where such an image inverting process is performed as shown in an adjustment menu 34 on the display screen 3E in
In the embodiment as described above, when misregistration occurs in at least one of the horizontal and vertical directions in the display screen between the primary color lights Lr, Lg, and Lb projected on the screen 17, the video signals D1 for the colors corresponding to the primary color lights Lr, Lg, and Lb are corrected (registration adjustment is performed) so as to reduce the misregistration in accordance with the adjustment value or the like entered an operation on the display screen by the user. Therefore, occurrence of the out-of-color-registration due to the misregistration between the primary color lights Lr, Lg, and Lb is suppressed, and display quality is improved. In addition, the image inverting process is performed on the input video signal Din so that the image inversion is performed in at least one of the horizontal and vertical directions in the display screen on the screen 17. Consequently, the image inversion is performed properly on the display screen by an operation from the user according to the use situation of the apparatus. In the case where such an image inverting process is performed, an adjustment value in a sign different from to that in the misregistration direction in the coordinate system in the horizontal direction (H direction) before the image inverting process is entered by an operation on the display screen. Therefore, even in the use situation such that the image inversion is performed on the display screen, an adjustment value input operation by the user is facilitated. Thus, irrespective of the use situation of the apparatus, the operability in the registration adjustment is improved.
Although the present invention has been described by the embodiment, the invention is not limited to the embodiment but may be variously modified.
For example, in the foregoing embodiment, the use situation in which the image inverting process in the horizontal direction is necessary as shown in
The present invention is also applicable to a use situation such that, as shown in
In the foregoing embodiment, the case of performing the registration adjustment in order to reduce (eliminate) the misregistration in the “−” direction has been described. On the contrary, registration adjustment for reducing (eliminating) the misregistration in the “+” direction may be performed in a manner similar to the embodiment, and similar effects may be obtained.
In the foregoing embodiment, the case of selecting a color to be adjusted by the user at the time of registration adjustment and, after that, selecting a position to be adjusted (adjustment point) as shown in
Although the so-called 3-modulation-panel projection display apparatus (projector) has been described in the embodiment, the type of the projection display apparatus is not limited to the above. The invention is also applicable to projection display apparatuses of other types as long as there is the possibility that misregistration occurs between primary color lights projected on a screen. Further, in the embodiment, the case where the spatial light modulation devices are liquid crystal elements (the liquid crystal elements 14R, 14G, and 14B) and are configured as a liquid crystal apparatus (liquid crystal projector 1) has been described. As another spatial light modulation device, for example, a DMD (Digital Micromirror Device) may be used.
Obviously many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in the light of the above teachings. It is therefore to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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P2007-193789 | Jul 2007 | JP | national |
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Number | Date | Country |
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5-014843 | Jan 1993 | JP |
08-201937 | Aug 1996 | JP |
2000-209575 | Jul 2000 | JP |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20090027569 A1 | Jan 2009 | US |