Image Projection System, Terminal Apparatus, and Computer-Readable Recording Medium Recording Program

• US 20090153751A1
• Filed: 12/17/2008
• Published: 06/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Original Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Inventors: Asakura, Hirotaka, Amano, Katsuhiro
• Application Number:
  US12/337,173
• Publication Number:
  US 20090153751A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/744
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/14 Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1454 involving copying of the display data of a local workstation or window to a remote workstation or window so that an actual copy of the data is displayed simultaneously on two or more displays, e.g. teledisplay
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0464 Positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/14 Display of multiple viewports
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/31 Projection devices for colour picture display , e.g. using electronic spatial light modulators [ESLM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/3179 Video signal processing therefor

Abstract

In a case where display of an image is terminated in a predetermined display region and, then, the image is generated again based on an application program corresponding to the image of which the display is terminated, the image is generated in a region other than the predetermined display region without being projected in a visually recognizable manner. A terminal apparatus generates image data based on an application program, and terminates display of an image based on the image data. An image projection apparatus acquires a plurality of pieces of image data of images in predetermined display regions of a plurality of terminal apparatuses, combines the plurality of pieces of image data to generate composite image data, and projects an image based on the composite image data. The terminal apparatus may change a display position of the image to a display region other than the predetermined display region.

Claims

1. An image projection system comprising:

a plurality of terminal apparatuses; and

an image projection apparatus that acquires image data from each terminal apparatus via a communication path and projects an image based on the image data, wherein

the image projection apparatus includes;

an image acquisition unit that acquires a plurality of pieces of image data of images located in predetermined display regions of the respective terminal apparatuses via the communication path;

an image processing unit that combines the plurality of pieces of image data of the images located in the predetermined display regions of the respective terminal apparatuses; and

an image projection unit that projects an image based on composite image data generated by the image processing unit, and

the terminal apparatus includes;

an application program control unit that controls a predetermined application program;

an image generation unit that generates image data based on the application program controlled by the application program control unit;

a display control unit that controls display of an image based on the image data generated by the image generation unit and controls termination of the display;

a predetermined region image transmission unit that, when a position of the image based on the image data generated by the image generation unit is in the predetermined display region, partially or entirely transmits the image data of the image to the image projection apparatus via the communication path; and

an image display position change unit that changes the display position of the image to a display region other than the predetermined display region, on conditions that the display control unit terminates in the predetermined display region the display of the image generated based on the application program controlled by the application program control unit, and the image generation unit generates the image based on the application program again.

2. The image projection system according to claim 1, wherein

the terminal apparatus includes:

a display unit that displays the image based on the image data generated by the image generation unit; and

a virtual display region setting unit that sets, as the predetermined display region, a virtual display region adjoining to a display region of the display unit.

3. The image projection system according to claim 1, wherein

the terminal apparatus includes an image position determination unit that determines whether or not the position of the image, of which the display is terminated by the display control unit, is in the predetermined display region.

4. The image projection system according to claim 3, wherein

the terminal apparatus includes an image position storage unit that, when the display control unit terminates the display, stores the position of the image,

the image position determination unit of the terminal apparatus, when the display control unit terminates the display, determines whether or not the position of the image, which is stored in the image position storage unit, is in the predetermined display region, and

the image display position change unit of the terminal apparatus, when the image position determination unit determines that the position of the image is in the predetermined display region, updates the position of the image, which is stored in the image position storage unit, as the display region other than the predetermined display region.

5. The image projection system according to claim 3, wherein

the terminal apparatus includes an image position storage unit that, when the display control unit terminates the display, stores the position of the image,

the image position determination unit of the terminal apparatus, when the display control unit terminates in the predetermined display region the display of the image generated based on the application program controlled by the application program control unit, and then the image generation unit generates the image based on the application program again, determines whether or not the position of the image, which is stored in the image position storage unit, is in the predetermined display region, and

the image display position change unit of the terminal apparatus, when the image position determination unit determines that the position of the image is in the predetermined display region, updates the position of the image, which is stored in the image position storage unit, as the display region other than the predetermined display region.

6. The image projection system according to claim 1, wherein

the terminal apparatus includes:

an image display area detection unit that detects increase/decrease of a display area of the image in the predetermined display region; and

an image termination determination unit that determines whether or not the display control unit terminates the display of the image in the predetermined display region, based on a result of the detection by the image display area detection unit.

7. The image projection system according to claim 1, wherein

the terminal apparatus includes:

an image display area detection unit that detects increase/decrease of a display area of the image in the predetermined display region; and

an image generation determination unit that determines whether or not the image generation unit generates the image in the predetermined display region, based on a result of the detection by the image display area detection unit.

8. The image projection system according to claim 1, wherein

the image projection apparatus includes an image position determination unit that determines whether or not the position of the image, of which the display is terminated by the display control unit, is in the predetermined display region.

9. The image projection system according to claim 8, wherein

the terminal apparatus includes:

an image position storage unit that, when the display control unit terminates the display, stores the position of the image; and

a termination information transmission unit that, when the display control unit terminates the display, transmits termination information about termination of the display of the image to the image projection apparatus via the communication path,

the image position determination unit of the image projection apparatus determines whether or not the position of the image, which is stored in the image position storage unit, is in the predetermined display region upon reception of the termination information from the terminal apparatus via the communication path,

the image projection apparatus includes an image position shift information transmission unit that, when the image position determination unit determines that the position of the image is in the predetermined display region, transmits image position shift information about shift of the position of the image to the terminal apparatus via the communication path, and

the image display position change unit of the terminal apparatus updates the position of the image, which is stored in the image position storage unit, as the display region other than the predetermined display region upon reception of the image position shift information from the image projection apparatus via the communication path.

10. The image projection system according to claim 8, wherein

the terminal apparatus includes a generation information transmission unit that, when the image generation unit generates the image, transmits generation information about generation of the image to the image projection apparatus via the communication path,

the image position determination unit of the image projection apparatus determines whether or not the position of the image generated by the image generation unit is in the predetermined display region upon reception of the generation information from the terminal apparatus via the communication path,

the image projection apparatus includes an image position shift information transmission unit that, when the image position determination unit determines that the position of the image is in the predetermined display region, transmits image position shift information about shift of the position of the image to the terminal apparatus via the communication path, and

the image display position change unit of the terminal apparatus changes the display position of the image to the display region other than the predetermined display region upon reception of the image position shift information from the image projection apparatus via the communication path.

11. The image projection system according to claim 1, wherein

the image projection apparatus includes:

an image projection area detection unit that detects increase/decrease of a display area of the image projected by the image projection unit; and

an image termination determination unit that determines whether or not the display control unit terminates the display of the image in the predetermined display region, based on a result of the detection by the image projection area detection unit.

12. The image projection system according to claim 1, wherein

the image projection apparatus includes:

an image projection area detection unit that detects increase/decrease of a display area of the image projected by the image projection unit; and

an image generation determination unit that determines whether or not the image generation unit generates the image in the predetermined display region, based on a result of the detection by the image projection area detection unit.

13. The image projection system according to claim 1, wherein

the image projection apparatus includes:

an image operation command acquisition unit that acquires an image operation command for operating a predetermined image among the images projected by the image projection unit;

an image operation command determination unit that determines whether or not the image operation command acquired by the image operation command acquisition unit is an image termination command for terminating display of the image; and

an operation command processing unit that, when the image operation command determination unit determines that the image operation command is the image termination command, transmits an image termination command for shifting the image to the display region other than the predetermined display region to terminate the display of the image to the terminal apparatus, which has transmitted image data of the image to be operated based on the image operation command, via the communication path, and

the display control unit, upon reception of the image termination command from the image projection apparatus via the communication path, shifts the image to the display region other than the predetermined display region to terminate the display of the image in accordance with the image termination command.

14. A terminal apparatus comprising:

an application program control unit that controls a predetermined application program;

an image generation unit that generates image data based on the application program controlled by the application program control unit;

a display control unit that controls display of an image based on the image data generated by the image generation unit and controls termination of the display;

a predetermined region image transmission unit that, when positions of the image based on the image data generated by the image generation unit is located in the predetermined display region, partially or entirely transmits the image data of the image to the image projection apparatus via the communication path, in order that an image projection apparatus acquiring a plurality of pieces of image data from a plurality of terminal apparatuses via a communication path and projecting images based on the plurality of pieces of image data, projects an image obtained by combining the images located in predetermined display regions of the respective terminal apparatuses; and

an image display position change unit that changes the display position of the image to a display region other than the predetermined display region, on conditions that the display control unit terminates in the predetermined display region the display of the image generated based on the application program controlled by the application program control unit, and the image generation unit generates the image based on the application program again.

15. A computer-readable recording medium recording a program for allowing a computer to function as:

image generation means for generating image data based on an application program;

display control means for controlling display of an image based on the image data generated by the image generation means and controlling termination of the display;

predetermined region image transmission means for, when a position of the image based on the image data generated by the image generation means is in the predetermined display region, partially or entirely transmitting the image data of the image to the image projection apparatus via the communication path, in order that an image projection apparatus acquiring a plurality of pieces of image data from a plurality of terminal apparatuses via a communication path, and projecting images based on the plurality of pieces of image data, projects an image obtained by combining the images located in predetermined display regions of the respective terminal apparatuses; and

image display position change means for changing the display position of the image to a display region other than the predetermined display region, on conditions that the display control means terminates in the predetermined display region the display of the image generated based on the application program, and the image generation means generates the images based on the application program again.