Patent Application
20130286303
The technology disclosed in this specification relates to a shutter glass device and, for example, relates to a shutter glass device for watching a stereoscopic video displaying left and right videos in a time divisional manner.
By displaying images having disparity therebetween to left and right eyes, a stereoscopic image that is seen to be stereoscopic by an observer can be presented. As one of modes for presenting a stereoscopic image, there is a mode in which images having disparity therebetween is presented to both eyes by allowing an observer to wear glasses having special optical characteristics.
For example, a time-divisional stereoscopic image display system is configured by a combination of a display apparatus displaying a plurality of mutually-different images in a time divisional manner and shutter glasses worn by an observer of the images. The display apparatus alternately displays a left-eye image and a right-eye image with a very short cycle. On the other hand, the shutter glasses worn by the observer include shutter mechanisms each configured by a liquid crystal shutter and the like in left-eye and right-eye parts. In the shutter glasses, while a left-eye image is displayed, the left-eye part of the shutter glasses transmits light, and the right-eye part shields light. In addition, while a right-eye image is displayed, the right-eye part of the shutter glasses transmits light, and the left-eye part shields light (for example, see Patent Documents 1 to 3). In other words, the display apparatus performs a time-divisional display of a left-eye image and a right-eye image, and the shutter glasses select images using the shutter mechanisms in synchronization with switching between displays of the display apparatus, whereby the left-eye image and the right-eye image are fused so as to be a stereoscopic image inside the observing user's brain.
Many conventional shutter glasses, similarly to glasses for vision correction, are structure bodies in which liquid crystal shutters are supported at left and right glass frames (for example, see Patent Document 4). The glass frame, generally, has left and right temples (earpieces of glasses) for being worn by the ears, and the temples are supported by hinges to be rotatable at glass frames (rims) fixing the lenses by hinges.
As the material of the glass frame or the temple unit of such a type, metal (a nickel•titanium alloy, gold, a shape memory alloy, or the like) or plastic (an acetate material or an ultrasonic resin) is frequently used, which is expensive. In addition, the structure is relatively complex, and, in order to perform fitting such as fine adjustment (plastic deformation) of the shape, a specialized skillful technique, a specialized device, and a specialized jig are necessary.
Glasses for vision correction, basically, are for a personal use and are purchased at glass specialty shops, and accordingly, the price is adequate, and it is preferable to perform fitting of the frames on the store side at the time of delivering the product. In contrast to this, the shutter glasses are supplements of a 3D-supporting television set and are low-priced. In addition, while the shutter glasses are sold at the same stores as those of 3D-supporting television sets, it cannot be premised that sales persons are skilled in the fitting of glasses. In addition, since there are many cases where one pair of shutter glasses is used to be common to a plurality of users watching the same 3D-supporting television set, it is meaningless to perform fitting for a single user.
Furthermore, the structure bodies that support the left and right liquid crystal shutters at the glass frames cause an oppressive feeling on the glass frames disposed on the front face and may be regarded to have insufficient designability.
An object of the technology disclosed in this specification is to provide a superior shutter glass device that is appropriately used when a stereoscopic video displaying left and right videos in a time-divisional manner is watched.
In addition, another object of the technology disclosed in this specification is to provide a superior shutter glass device that has a simple and light-weight structure, has a high degree of designability, and is fitted to each wearing user.
The present application has been made in view of the above problems, and the technology described in claim 1 is a shutter glass device including:
a left-eye liquid crystal shutter unit;
a right-eye liquid crystal shutter unit;
a transparent shield on which the left-eye liquid crystal shutter unit and the right-eye liquid crystal shutter unit are installed;
a frame unit that supports the shield; and
temple units that are connected to both left and right ends of the frame unit.
According to the technology described in claim 2, in the shutter glass device according to claim 1, the left-eye liquid crystal shutter unit and the right-eye liquid crystal shutter unit are bonded to a rear-face side of the shield.
According to the technology described in claim 3, in the shutter glass device according to claim 1, the frame unit is made from pure titanium, and the temple units are made from a titanium alloy.
According to the technology described in claim 4, in the shutter glass device according to claim 1, rear-side portions of the temple units bend toward the inner side.
According to the technology described in claim 5, the shutter glass device according to claim 1 further includes earpiece parts that are installed near rear ends of the temple units.
According to the technology described in claim 6, in the shutter glass device according to claim 5, the position of the earpiece part can be changed to a front or rear side along a longitudinal direction of the temple units.
According to the technology described in claim 7, in the shutter glass device according to claim 5, the earpiece parts are manufactured in the shape of letter “V” using elastomer-based silicon or any other flexible material, a front leg of the letter “V” includes a bending portion, and a radius of curvature of the bending portion changes in accordance with a width with which legs of the letter “V” are open.
According to the technology described in claim 8, in the shutter glass device according to claim 3, the frame unit includes bending portions bending to a rear side in both left and right ends. The temple units are supported by the frame unit to be rotatable using hinges disposed on a further end edge side than the bending portions.
According to the technology described in claim 9, the shutter glass device according to claim 1 further includes, on a rear-face side of the frame unit, an electric component housing part attached in a gap between the left-eye liquid crystal shutter unit and the right-eye liquid crystal shutter unit.
According to the technology described in claim 10, in the shutter glass device according to claim 9, the electric component housing part houses a shutter driving circuit of the left-eye liquid crystal shutter unit and the right-eye liquid crystal shutter unit, a communication circuit that performs a reception process of an infrared signal or an RF signal, and a battery that supplies power to circuits.
According to the technology described in claim 11, in the shutter glass device according to claim 9, in the electric component housing part, two, three, or more printed circuit boards used for mounting housed electric components are arranged in an overlapping manner.
According to the technology described in claim 12, in the shutter glass device according to claim 1, the frame unit supports the shield in a center portion.
According to the technology described in claim 13, in the shutter glass device according to claim 1, the shield is made from an acrylic resin that is injection-molded.
According to the technology described in claim 14, in the shutter glass device according to claim 13, an IMD film is simultaneously molded on a surface of a front-face side of the shield.
According to the technology described in claim 15, in the shutter glass device according to claim 13, the shield is molded so as to suppress birefringence.
According to the technology described in claim 16, in the shutter glass device according to claim 13, the shield is injection-molded using a fan gate.
According to the technology disclosed in this specification, there can be provided a superior shutter glass device that has a simple and light-weight structure, has a high degree of designability, and is fitted to each wearing user.
The other objects, features, and advantages of the technology disclosed in this specification will become apparent by detailed description of exemplary embodiments to be described later and the attached drawings.
(the side of the face of a user wearing the shutter glasses) of a front shield 401 is enlarged.
Hereinafter, embodiments of the technology disclosed in this specification will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
The display apparatus 11 includes a left and right image signal processing unit 120, a communication unit 124, a timing control unit 126, a gate driver 130, a data driver 132, and a liquid crystal display panel 134.
The liquid crystal display panel 134 is configured by a liquid crystal layer, a transparent electrode and a color filter layer (any of these is not illustrated in the figure) that face each other with the liquid crystal layer interposed therebetween, and the like. In addition, on the rear side of the liquid crystal display panel 134, a back light (surface light source) 136 is arranged. The back light 136 is configured by an LED (Light Emitting Diode) having a good persistence characteristic or the like. In addition, on the surface of the display screen, a polarizing plate not illustrated in the figure is arranged.
An input signal Din formed from left and right image signals DL and DR used for displaying a left-eye image R and a right-eye image L are input to the left and right image signal processing unit 120 in a transmission format, for example, a frame packing format. Inside the left and right image signal processing unit 120, an image quality correcting process such as enhancement of the sharpness of an image or contrast enhancement is performed. In order to display the left-eye image L and the right-eye image R on the liquid crystal display panel 134 in a frame sequential mode, the left and right image signal processing unit 120 alternately outputs the left and right image signals DL and DR.
The left-eye image signal DL and the right-eye image signal DR that are converted by the left and right image signal processing unit 120 are input to the timing control unit 126. The timing control unit 126 converts the left-eye image signal DL and the right-eye image signal DR, which have been input, into signals for being input to the liquid crystal display panel 134 and generates a pulse signal that is used for the operation of a panel driving circuit formed by the gate driver 130 and the data driver 132. Here, the gate driver 130 is a driving circuit generating signals for sequential driving and outputs a driving voltage to a gate bus line connected to each pixel disposed inside the liquid crystal display panel 134 in accordance with a signal transmitted from the timing control unit 126. In addition, the data driver 132 is a driving circuit outputting a driving voltage based on a video signal and generates and outputs a signal to be applied to a data line based on a signal transmitted from the timing control unit 126.
For communication between the display apparatus 11 and the shutter glasses 13, a wireless network such as infrared communication, Wi-Fi, IEEE 802.15.4, IEEE 802.15.1 (Bluetooth communication), or the like is used. The communication unit 124 transmits an information signal that is necessary for controlling the timing of the opening/closing of the left and right liquid crystal shutters 308 and 309 to the shutter glasses 13.
A synchronization packet is transmitted in a wireless manner from the display apparatus 11 to the shutter glasses 13. In a single synchronization packet, in addition to information relating to the opening/closing timing of the left and right liquid crystal shutters 308 and 309 disposed on the shutter glass 13 side, control information instructing switching between display modes is included. When an information signal is received from the display apparatus 11, the communication unit 305 inputs the information signal to the control unit 306. The control unit 306 demodulates and decodes the information signal, analyzes the written content thereof, determines the opening/closing timings of the left and right liquid crystal shutters 308 and 309, and controls the opening/closing operations of the left and right liquid crystal shutters 308 and 309 through the shutter driving circuit 307.
The shutter glasses 13 can take the synchronization with a frame sequence of the display apparatus 11 in accordance with the information signal transmitted from the display apparatus 11 side.
The display apparatus 11 alternately displays the left-eye image L and the right-eye image R on the liquid crystal display panel 134 for each field. On the shutter glasses 13 side, the left and right liquid crystal shutters 308 and 309 alternately perform opening and closing operations in synchronization with the switching between images for each field of the display apparatus 11. Inside the brain of a user observing a display image over the shutter glasses 13, the left-eye image L and the right-eye image R are fused, whereby an image displayed on the display apparatus 11 is stereoscopically recognized.
Many conventional shutter glasses, similarly to glasses for vision correction, are structure bodies in which left and right liquid crystal shutters are supported by the glass frame and have disadvantages of causing an oppressive feeling, being insufficient designability, being high priced, being heavily weighted, and the like. In contrast to this, in this specification, shutter glasses, in which the liquid crystal shutters are supported without using the glass frame, having superior designability is proposed.
The shutter glasses 400 illustrated in the figure form a structure body in which a transparent front shield 401, to which left and right liquid crystal shutters 403L and 403R are attached on the rear face (the side of the face of a user wearing the shutter glasses), is supported by a front frame 407. In addition, on both left and right ends of the front frame 407, left and right temples 402L and 402R are supported to be open or closed through hinges (not illustrated in
The left and right temples 402L and 402R, in consideration of the flexibility at the time of being worn by a user, is manufactured, for example, by using a titanium alloy (β titanium). On the other hand, the front frame 407, in consideration of maintaining the shape, is manufactured, for example, by using pure titanium (α titanium).
As can be understood from the top view illustrated in
In general glasses for vision correction or the like, left and right temples are caught at the earlobes, and a nosepiece part is brought into contact with a nose head, whereby the glasses are supported at the three points. Accordingly, a fitting operation is necessary in which the end edge portions of the temples are bent toward the lower side so as to fit the size of the head and the shape of the ears of a user wearing the glasses, and, after the fitting, the glasses are not comfortably put on by other users. In contrast to this, according to the shutter glasses 400 of this embodiment, instead of hooking the left and right temples 402L and 402R into the earlobes, the shutter glasses are supported by instant pressure generated when bending portions going toward the inner side are brought into contact with rear head portions of a user. Accordingly, the shutter glasses fit a plurality of users having mutually different sizes of the head parts without performing fitting. The left and right temples 402L and 402R, as described above, are made from a titanium alloy, have a sufficient spring characteristic, and can sufficiently respond to a difference in the size of the head part by being bent.
In addition, near rear ends of the left and right temples 402L and 402R, the earpiece parts 406L and 406R are attached.
As can be understood from the rear-side view illustrated in
The front shield 401 is manufactured using a transparent material, and the left and right liquid crystal shutters 403L and 403R are attached to the rear face (the side of the face of the user wearing the shutter glasses), which has already been described. For example, the front shield 401 made from an acrylic resin such as poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) can be manufactured through mold injection. In addition, as one method of attaching the liquid crystal shutters 403L and 403R to the surface of the front shield 401 made from an acrylic resin, there is “bonding”. For example, bonding may be performed using a double-sided tape, an UV resin, or the like.
In the liquid crystal shutters 403L and 403R bonded to the front shield 401, either a glass liquid crystal or a film liquid crystal may be used. In a case where the front shield 401 has an almost flat shape as in this embodiment, either the glass liquid crystal or the film liquid crystal may be used. On the other hand, in a case where the front shield has a curved face, for example, by being bent toward the inner side in the end edge portion, it is difficult to attach the glass liquid crystal following the curved face, and it is necessary to use the film liquid crystal.
In a time-divisional stereoscopic image displaying system, the principle of presenting a stereoscopic image is that screen switching performed on the display apparatus 11 side and the opening/closing operations of the left and right liquid crystal shutters performed on the shutter glass 13 side are synchronized with each other. In other words, the display apparatus 11 alternately displays the left-eye image and the right-eye image on the screen in the frame sequential mode, and the shutter glasses 13 transmits light in the left-eye part and shields light in the right-eye part in accordance with a display period of a left-eye image and transmits light in the right-eye part and shields light in the left-eye part in accordance with the display period of a right-eye image.
In a case where a time-divisional display is performed using the shutter glasses 13 that use the liquid crystal shutters, it may be configured such that light of a display video is polarized by overlapping polarizing plates on the surface of the display panel 134 on the display apparatus 11 side, and polarized light is not transmitted by setting the polarization direction of the liquid crystal shutter by which light is shielded to intersect the amplitude direction of the polarized light.
As in this embodiment, in a case where the left and right liquid crystal shutters 403L and 403R are bonded to the front shield 401 made from an acrylic resin, it is concerned that birefringence occurs when polarized light of a display video passes through the front shield 401.
In the arrangement of optical components as illustrated in
The former polarization element depends on the component shape, the type of the gate of the mold injector, the position of the gate, and the like. As the types of the gate, for example, there are a side gate (see
The birefringence can be predicted by a flow analysis of mold injection. The applicants of this application selected PMMA as the material and performed the flow analysis of mold injection for each gate described above. As a result, it was found that, when mold injection of the front shield 401 is performed by the side gate, a phase difference occurs, and the polarization elements are greatly disordered. Accordingly, it is predicted that non-uniformity of the contrast greatly occurs. In addition, it was found that, when mold injection of the front shield 401 is performed by a direct gate, although the polarization elements are close to be perpendicular in a place positioned far from the gate, the polarization elements are slightly disordered near the gate. In contrast to this, it was found that, when mold injection of the front shield 401 is performed by a fan gate, the polarization elements are almost perpendicular in a place positioned far from the gate, and the range in which the polarization elements are greatly disordered near the gate is very small. Summing up, since it is apparent that the fan gate is most preferable, the applicants of this application determine to perform mold injection using the fan gate.
The technologies disclosed in this specification may take the configuration as below.
(1) There is provided a shutter glass device including: a left-eye liquid crystal shutter unit; a right-eye liquid crystal shutter unit; a transparent shield on which the left-eye liquid crystal shutter unit and the right-eye liquid crystal shutter unit are installed; a frame unit that supports the shield; and temple units that are connected to both left and right ends of the frame unit.
(2) The shutter glass device described in (1) described above, in which the left-eye liquid crystal shutter unit and the right-eye liquid crystal shutter unit are bonded to a rear-face side of the shield.
(3) The shutter glass device described in (1) described above, in which the frame unit is made from pure titanium, and the temple units are made from a titanium alloy.
(4) The shutter glass device described in (1) described above, in which rear-side portions of the temple units bend toward the inner side.
(5) The shutter glass device described in (1) described above, further including earpiece parts that are installed near rear ends of the temple units.
(6) The shutter glass device described in (5) described above, in which the position of the earpiece part can be changed to a front or rear side along a longitudinal direction of the temple units.
(7) The shutter glass device described in (5) described above, in which the earpiece parts are manufactured in the shape of letter “V” using elastomer-based silicon or any other flexible material, a front leg of the letter “V” includes a bending portion, and a radius of curvature of the bending portion changes in accordance with a width with which legs of the letter “V” are open.
(8) The shutter glass device described in (3) described above, in which the frame unit includes bending portions bending to a rear side in both left and right ends, and the temple units are supported by the frame unit to be rotatable using hinges disposed on a further end edge side than the bending portions.
(9) The shutter glass device described in (1) described above, further including, on a rear-face side of the frame unit, an electric component housing part attached in a gap between the left-eye liquid crystal shutter unit and the right-eye liquid crystal shutter unit.
(10) The shutter glass device described in (9) described above, in which the electric component housing part houses a shutter driving circuit of the left-eye liquid crystal shutter unit and the right-eye liquid crystal shutter unit, a communication circuit that performs a reception process of an infrared signal or an RF signal, and a battery that supplies power to circuits. (11) The shutter glass device described in (9) described above, in which, in the electric component housing part, two, three, or more printed circuit boards used for mounting housed electric components are arranged in an overlapping manner.
(12) The shutter glass device described in (1) described above, in which the frame unit supports the shield in a center portion.
(13) The shutter glass device described in (1) described above, in which the shield is made from an acrylic resin that is injection-molded.
(14) The shutter glass device described in (13) described above, in which an IMD film is simultaneously molded on a surface of a front-face side of the shield.
(15) The shutter glass device described in (13) described above, in which the shield is molded so as to suppress birefringence.
(16) The shutter glass device described in (13) described above, in which the shield is injection-molded using a fan gate.
As above, the technologies disclosed in this specification have been described in detail with reference to specific embodiments. However, it is apparent that a modification or a substitution in the embodiments can be made by those skilled in the art in the range not departing from the concept of the technologies disclosed in this specification.
In this specification, although embodiments applied to the shutter glasses used in the time-divisional stereoscopic image displaying system have been mainly described, the concept of the technologies disclosed in this specification is not limited thereto. The technologies disclosed in this specification can be applied to various image observation glasses starting from polarized glasses used in a polarization mode in which a stereoscopic image is presented by changing the polarization status for a right-eye image and a left-eye image.
To sum up, the technologies disclosed in this specification have been described in the exemplary form, and thus, the contents written in this specification should not be construed for purposes of limitation. In order to determine the concept of the technologies disclosed in this specification, the claims should be referred to.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-187977 | Aug 2011 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2012/065015 | 6/12/2012 | WO | 00 | 4/19/2013 |
