Wearable camera system with viewfinder means

• US 20020085843A1
• Filed: 09/18/2001
• Published: 07/04/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/1998
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: W. Stephen G. Mann
• Original Assignee: W. Stephen G. Mann
• Inventors: Mann, W. Stephen G.
• Application Number:
  US09/953,684
• Publication Number:
  US 20020085843A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 396/374
• CPC Class Codes: E03C 1/057 touchless, i.e. using sensors
• CPC Class Codes: E03D 5/105 touchless, e.g. using sensors

Abstract

A novel means and apparatus for a new kind of photography and videography is described. In particular, a wearable camera with a viewfinder suitable for long-term use is introduced. The system, in effect, absorbs and quantifies rays of light and processes this quantigraphic information on a small wearable computer system, then the processed information is re-constituted into light rays emerging to reconstruct the virtual image of objects at nearly the same position in space, or at a coordinate transformed position, as viewed by the wearer of the apparatus. The wearer of the apparatus becomes, after adaptation, an entity that seeks, without conscious thought or effort, an optimal point of vantage and camera orientation. Because of the wearer'"'"'s ability to constantly see the world through the apparatus, which may also function as an image enhancement device, the apparatus behaves as a true extension of the wearer'"'"'s mind and body, giving rise to a new genre of documentary video

Claims

1. Headgear (100) having an electronic camera (330, 530, 540) borne by said headgear and an electronic display (340) borne by said headgear, said electronic display responsive to an output from said electronic camera, wherein the improvement comprises:

reflective optics (314, 415, 510, 610, 620, 650) arranged for reflecting light such that at least a portion of a first pencil of light which would otherwise converge at a first point outside a lens assembly (710, 720;

810, 820) of said camera is reflected to a second pencil of light directed at an optical center of said lens assembly of said camera, said lens assembly comprising at least one lens, wherein said optics is further for reflecting light from said display such that said reflected light from said display forms a pencil of light approximating said first pencil of light, in order to provide substantial exact registration of what would have been seen at said first point, in the absence of said headgear, with what, in the presence of said headgear, is seen at said first point.

2. The headgear of claim 1 arranged such that, in use, said first point (390, 490) is at an eye of a wearer of said headgear.

3. The headgear of claim 2 wherein said electronic camera comprises a first camera and wherein said headgear further includes an electronic second camera (330, 530, 540) borne by said headgear, one of said first camera and said second camera comprising a wide angle camera and another of said first camera and said second camera comprising a narrow angle camera.

4. The headgear of claim 2 wherein said electronic camera comprises a narrow angle camera (540) and wherein said headgear further includes an electronic wide angle camera (530) borne by said headgear, and wherein said electronic display is responsive to an output from said narrow angle camera for providing a viewfinder for said narrow angle camera and said wide angle camera.

5. The headgear of claim 2 wherein said electronic camera comprises a wide angle camera and wherein said headgear further includes an electronic narrow angle camera borne by said headgear, and wherein said electronic display is a first electronic display and including a second electronic display (560) responsive to an output of said narrow angle camera and including optics (570) for directing light from said second electronic display to said eye of said wearer in order to provide a viewfinder for said narrow angle camera.

6. The headgear of claim 3 wherein said optics is first optics and including second optics (520) directing incoming light so that a center of a field of view of said first camera is collinear with a center of a field of view of said second camera.

7. The headgear of claim 6 wherein said second optics comprises a beamsplitter.

8. The headgear of claim 7 wherein said second optics further comprises a mirror directing incoming light to said beamsplitter.

9. The headgear of claim 1 wherein said optics comprises at least one of:

a mirror;

a beamsplitter.

10. The headgear of claim 1 wherein said optics comprises an optical element which is one of:

a mirror;

a beamsplitter,

said optical element arranged for reflecting light such that at least said portion of said first pencil of light which would otherwise converge at said first point outside said lens assembly of said camera is reflected to said second pencil of light directed at said optical center of said lens assembly of said camera, wherein said optical element is further for reflecting light from said display such that said reflected light from said display forms a pencil of light approximating said first pencil of light.

11. The headgear of claim 10 wherein light enters said camera from one side of said optical element, and wherein light reaches said first point from an opposite side of said optical element.

12. The headgear of claim 2 wherein said optics comprises at least one mirror for directing light from said electronic display to a beamsplitter in front of an eye of a wearer.

13. The headgear of claim 1 including optics arranged for reflecting light which would otherwise enter an eye of a wearer to said camera and for reflecting light from said display to said eye of a wearer such that reflected light from said display is collinear with said light which would otherwise enter said eye of said wearer.

14. The headgear of claim 13 wherein said camera and said display are opposite one another so as to have aligned optical axes and said optics comprises an optical element positioned so as to be in front of an eye of a wearer and between said camera and said electronic display.

15. The headgear of claim 14 wherein said optical element comprises a two-sided mirror making a 45 degree angle with said optical axes.

16. The headgear of claim 15, wherein the effective distance between an optical center of said lens assembly of said camera and an optical center of said two-sided mirror is equal to the effective distance between an optical center of said two-sided mirror and said eye.

17. The headgear of claim 14 wherein said optical element comprises a beamsplitter making a 45 degree angle with said optical axes and wherein said electronic display incorporates a polarizer and wherein said headgear includes a further polarizer in front of said camera oriented to block polarized light from said display.

18. The headgear of claim 17, wherein the effective distance between an optical center of said lens assembly of said camera and an optical center of said beamsplitter is equal to the effective distance between an optical center of said beamsplitter and said eye.

19. The headgear of claim 13 wherein said optics comprises a mirror and including a beamsplitter, said beamsplitter positioned between said mirror and an eye of a wearer.

20. The headgear of claim 19 wherein said beamsplitter comprises a first beamsplitter, an optical axis of said camera is perpendicular to an optical axis of said display, and said electronic display incorporates a polarizer and including a second beamsplitter interposed along said optical axes and making a 45 degree angle with said optical axes;

a polarizer in front of said camera oriented to block polarised light from said display.

21. The headgear of claim 4 further including head tracking means input with an electronic output signal of said wide angle camera.

22. The headgear of claim 21 including a processor (182;

183, 184, 185) for providing a reality window manager (192, 194, 196, 198) said processor outputting to said electronic display such that said display provides a virtual window as well as providing a viewfinder for said narrow-angle electronic camera.

23. The headgear of claim 2 including means for (i) directing incoming rays of light that would enter an eye of a wearer in an absence of said means into said camera and (ii) directing rays of light from said display into said eye of a wearer, each directed ray of light being approximately collinear with an incoming ray of light from which said each directed ray of light was derived, prior to direction of said incoming ray of light into said camera.

24. The headgear of claim 9 where said optics comprises a two sided mirror.

25. The headgear of claim 24 where said mirror comprises a flat transparent surface with a metallic coating on one side, and where said one side faces toward said camera.

26. The headgear of claim 13 where said optics includes a beamsplitter and where said optics further includes a concave reflective material discontinuity.

27. The headgear of claim 13 where said optics includes a beamsplitter and where light from said display passes through said beamsplitter at least once before travelling away from said beamsplitter and then back toward said beamsplitter and being reflected off of said beamsplitter toward an eye of said wearer.

28. The headgear of claim 27 where said display includes a polarizer.

29. The headgear of claim 27 where said display beamsplitter comprises a dichroic beamsplitter which has polarization properties.

30. The headgear of claim 1, where said headgear is eyeglasses (590, 910, 911).

31. The eyeglasses of claim 30 said optics for directing light from said electronic display to an eye of a wearer of said eyeglasses.

32. The eyeglasses of claim 30 said optics arranged for reflecting a pencil of light which would otherwise enter an eye of a wearer to an optical center of said lens assembly of said camera and for reflecting light from said display to said eye of a wearer such that said reflected light from said display is collinear with said light which would otherwise enter said eye of said wearer.

33. The eyeglasses of claim 30 wherein said optics comprises a beamsplitter implemented as a metallisation in a lens of said eyeglasses.

34. The headgear of claim 1 including a transmitter for transmitting camera signals.

35. The headgear of claim 1 wherein said headgear comprises eyeglasses having a safety strap said strap receiving an output wire from said camera and including a body pack receiving a recorder fed with said camera output wire from said strap.

36. The headgear of of claim 1 including a focusable camera and focusable display means where said focusable camera and focusable display means are such that they may be operated by a single control that focuses real light going to said camera and virtual light coming from said display onto the same depth plane.

37. The headgear of claim 1 including a camera with zoom and display means with zoom where a zoom setting of both said camera and said display means may be operated by a single control so that a virtual light principle is maintained for all zoom settings.

38. The headgear of claim 1 including an autofocus camera and remotely focusable display means where said autofocus camera drives a focus of said focusable display means.

39. The headgear of claim 1 where said camera is a left camera, said display is a left display, and said optics are left optics. and further including a right camera, right display, and right optics, similarly arranged, except that one of said cameras is an automatic focus camera and the other is a remotely focusable camera, where said automatic focus camera provides a focus output to said remotely focusable camera.

40. The headgear of claim 39 where said left display and said right display are remotely focusable displays and where said automatic camera also provides outputs to focus both of said remotely focusable displays onto the same depth plane as an object onto which said automatic focus camera is focussed.

41. The headgear of claim 1 including an automatic focus camera providing a signal to automatically adjust vergence of at least two cameras so that the optical axes of said at least two cameras intersect in the vicinity of an object to which they are focussed.

42. Camera bearing headgear, comprising:

an electronic camera borne by said headgear, said electronic camera having an adjustable camera characteristic;

an electronic display responsive to an electronic output from said electronic camera, said electronic display borne by said headgear for providing a viewfinder for said electronic camera, said electronic display having an adjustable display characteristic;

a control for adjusting said adjustable display characteristic commensurate with adjustments of said adjustable camera characteristic.

43. The headgear of claim 42 where said adjustable camera characteristic is camera focus and said adjustable display characteristic is display focus.

44. The headgear of claim 42 where said adjustable camera characteristic is camera zoom and said adjustable display characteristic is display magnification.

45. The headgear of claim 42 where said display is a stereo display, and wherein said adjustable camera characteristic is camera focus and said adjustable display characteristic is display vergence.

46. Camera bearing headgear, comprising:

an electronic camera borne by said headgear, said electronic camera having an adjustable camera characteristic;

an electronic display responsive to an electronic output from said electronic camera, said electronic display borne by said headgear for providing a viewfinder for said electronic camera, said electronic display having an adjustable display characteristic;

a display controller for adjusting said adjustable display characteristic dependent upon an adjustment of said adjustable camera characteristic.