Three-dimensionally viewed image providing method, and three-dimensional image display apparatus

• US 20060209183A1
• Filed: 04/15/2004
• Published: 09/21/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.), Sanyo Electric Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation), Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.), Sanyo Electric Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation), Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Murata, Haruhiko, Shioi, Masahhiro, Mashitani, Ken, Sekizawa, Hidehiko, Nomura, Toshio, Satoh, Seiji
• Application Number:
  US10/553,390
• Publication Number:
  US 20060209183A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/51
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/161 Encoding, multiplexing or demultiplexing different image signal components for multi-view video sequence encoding H04N19/597
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/178 Metadata, e.g. disparity information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/189 Recording image signals; Reproducing recorded image signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/194 Transmission of image signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/398 Synchronisation thereof; Control thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/597 specially adapted for multi-view video sequence encoding

Abstract

A transmission-side device, when transmitting as data a plurality of two-dimensional images of different viewpoints, used as stereoscopic vision-use images, transmits the data of the two-dimensional images, and in addition, viewpoint-number information allotted to each data of the two-dimensional images and viewpoint-number information as information for selecting one or more two-dimensional images, together with the data of the two-dimensional images as attached information. A transmission-side device receives the plurality of image data and the attached information, and when performing a thumb-nail display, etc., by one image out of the plurality of the image data for example, performs a process for selecting the image data from the viewpoint-number information as information for selecting the two-dimensional images.

Claims

1. A stereoscopic vision-use image providing method, when providing as data a plurality of two-dimensional images of different viewpoints, used as stereoscopic vision-use images, providing attached information composed of:

viewpoint-number information allotted to each two-dimensional image data, or information for obtaining, by an arithmetic calculation on a receiver side, viewpoint-number information in each two-dimensional image area in image data; and

viewpoint-number information as information for selecting one or more two-dimensional images,

together with the two-dimensional image data.

5. A stereoscopic vision-use image providing method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, providing

attached information composed of display-manner information indicating in what manner the two-dimensional image data selected by the information for selecting is to be displayed as a secondary image which is not a primary stereoscopic vision-use image,

together with the two-dimensional image data.

6. A stereoscopic vision-use image providing method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, providing

attached information composed of purpose-of-use information indicating for what purposes the two-dimensional image data selected by the information for selecting is to be used,

together with the two-dimensional image data.

7. A stereoscopic vision-use image providing method according to claim 6, wherein an alignment of bits and contents of purposes of use are corresponded, and in addition, “

0”

, and “

1”

of each bit mean valid/invalid of each purpose of use.

8. A stereoscopic vision-use image providing method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, providing

attached information composed of information indicating what description formats are adopted as a description format of the information,

together with the two-dimensional image data.

9. A stereoscopic vision-use image providing method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein providing of information is performed by any one of broadcasting, communicating, or recording into a recording medium.

2. A stereoscopic vision-use image providing method, when providing as data a plurality of two-dimensional images of different viewpoints, used as stereoscopic vision-use images, providing attached information composed of:

viewpoint-number information allotted to each two-dimensional image data, or information for obtaining, by an arithmetic calculation on a receiver side, viewpoint-number information in each two-dimensional image area in image data;

viewpoint-number information as information for selecting two or more two-dimensional images; and

order-of-priority information indicating an order-of-priority of the selected viewpoint numbers,

together with the two-dimensional image data.

3. A stereoscopic vision-use image providing method,

when providing as data a plurality of two-dimensional images of different viewpoints, used as stereoscopic vision-use images, providing attached information composed of:

viewpoint-number information allotted to each two-dimensional image data, or information for obtaining, by an arithmetic calculation on a receiver side, viewpoint-number information in each two-dimensional image area in image data; and

information in which the viewpoint-number information as information for selecting two or more two-dimensional images is arranged in order of priority,

together with the two-dimensional image data.

4. A stereoscopic vision-use image providing method,

when providing as data a plurality of two-dimensional images of different viewpoints, used as stereoscopic images, providing attached information composed of:

viewpoint-number information allotted to each two-dimensional image data, or information for obtaining, by an arithmetic calculation on a receiver side, viewpoint-number information in each two-dimensional image area in image data;

viewpoint-number information as information for selecting one or more two-dimensional images; and

information for indicating whether or not the plurality of two-dimensional images are an endless series of two-dimensional images,

together with the two-dimensional image data.

10. A stereoscopic image display apparatus for creating stereoscopic vision-use images based on a plurality of two-dimensional image data of different viewpoints, comprising:

a means for obtaining, from attached information attached to the two-dimensional image data, viewpoint-number information of each two-dimensional image and viewpoint-number information as information for selecting the two-dimensional images; and

a means, in a case of executing a process in which it is needed to select one or a plurality of two-dimensional image data, which is not a primary stereoscopic vision-use image process, for selecting the two-dimensional image data specified by the viewpoint-number information as information for selecting the two-dimensional images.

14. A stereoscopic image display apparatus according to any one of claims 10 to 13, wherein the process which is not a primary stereoscopic vision-use image process is a process for displaying on a screen one or a plurality of two-dimensional image data by applying thereto a reduction-in-size process in order to show contents of the plurality of two-dimensional image data of different viewpoints.

15. A stereoscopic image display apparatus according to any one of claims 10 to 13, wherein the process which is not a primary stereoscopic vision-use image process is a process for selecting, out of a plurality of two-dimensional image data of different viewpoints, one or a plurality of the two-dimensional image data for use of at least one of a print-out and an image delivery.

21. A stereoscopic image display apparatus according to any one of claims 10 to 20, comprising a means for obtaining, from the attached information, information indicating what description formats as a description format of the information is adopted, wherein,

in a case of being capable of obtaining the information, a content of the attached information is recognized based on the description format indicated in the information.

11. A stereoscopic image display apparatus for creating stereoscopic vision-use images based on a plurality of two-dimensional image data of different viewpoints, comprising:

a means for obtaining, from attached information attached to the two-dimensional image data, viewpoint-number information of each two-dimensional image and viewpoint-number information as information for selecting two or more two-dimensional images; and

a means, in a case of executing a process in which it is needed to select the certain number of two-dimensional image data, which is not a primary stereoscopic vision-use image process, for selecting the certain number of two-dimensional image data according to an order of alignment of the viewpoint-number information as information for selecting the two-dimensional images.

12. A stereoscopic image display apparatus for creating stereoscopic vision-use images based on a plurality of two-dimensional image data of different viewpoints, comprising:

a means for obtaining from attached information attached to the two-dimensional image data, viewpoint-number information of each two-dimensional image, viewpoint-number information as information for selecting two or more two-dimensional images, and order-of-priority information indicating an order-of-priority of the selected viewpoint numbers; and

a means, in a case of executing a process in which it is needed to select the certain number of two-dimensional image data, which is not a primary stereoscopic vision-use image process, for selecting the two-dimensional image data of the certain numbers based on the viewpoint-number information as information for selecting the two-dimensional images and the order-of-priority information.

13. A stereoscopic image display apparatus for creating stereoscopic vision-use images based on a plurality of two-dimensional image data of different viewpoints, comprising:

a means for obtaining from attached information attached to the two-dimensional image data viewpoint-number information of each two-dimensional image, viewpoint-number information as information for selecting the two-dimensional images, and display-manner information indicating in what manner the two dimensional image data selected by the information for selecting is to be displayed as a secondary image which is not a primary stereoscopic vision-use image;

a means, in a case of executing a process in which it is needed to select one or a plurality of two-dimensional image data, which is not a primary stereoscopic vision-use image process, for selecting the two-dimensional image data specified by the viewpoint-number information as information for selecting the two-dimensional images; and

a means for performing an image display according to the display manner based on the selected two-dimensional image data and the display manner information.

16. A stereoscopic image display apparatus for creating stereoscopic vision-use images based on a plurality of two-dimensional image data of different viewpoints, comprising:

a means for obtaining from attached information attached to the two-dimensional image data viewpoint-number information of each two-dimensional image, viewpoint-number information as information for selecting the two-dimensional images, and purpose-of-use information indicating for what purposes the two-dimensional image data selected by the information for selecting is to be used; and

a means, in a case of executing a process corresponding to the purpose of use, for selecting the two-dimensional image data specified by the viewpoint-number information as information for selecting the two-dimensional images.

17. A stereoscopic image display apparatus for creating stereoscopic vision-use images based on a plurality of two-dimensional image data of different viewpoints, comprising:

a means for obtaining, from attached information attached to the two-dimensional image data, viewpoint-number information of each two-dimensional image, and viewpoint-number information as information for selecting two or more two-dimensional images; and

a means, in a case of selecting the certain number of two-dimensional image data less than the numbers of said plurality of two-dimensional image data in a primary stereoscopic vision-use image process, for selecting the certain number of two-dimensional image data based on the viewpoint-number information as information for selecting the two-dimensional images.

18. A stereoscopic image display apparatus according to claim 17, wherein a stereoscopic vision-use image process is performed in such a manner that, out of the certain number of selected two-dimensional images, the two-dimensional image having the viewpoint-number information coincident with the viewpoint-number information as information for selecting the two-dimensional images is placed at a center of the plurality of two-dimensional images.

19. A stereoscopic image display apparatus according to claim 17 or 18, comprising a means for obtaining, from the attached information, information indicating whether or not the plurality of two-dimensional images are an endless series of images, wherein,

when obtaining the information indicating that the plurality of two-dimensional images are the endless series of images, a first two-dimensional image and a last two-dimensional image in the plurality of two-dimensional images are allowed to exist in the selected two-dimensional images of certain numbers.

20. A stereoscopic image display apparatus according to claim 17 or 18, comprising a means for obtaining, from the attached information, information indicating whether or not the plurality of two-dimensional images are not an endless series of images, wherein,

when obtaining the information indicating that the plurality of two-dimensional images are not the endless series of images, in a case that a first two-dimensional image and a last two-dimensional image in the plurality of two-dimensional images exist in the selected two-dimensional image of predetermined numbers, the selected image is shifted so that the first two-dimensional image or the last two-dimensional image are eliminated so as to newly select one or more two-dimensional images.