IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, RECORDING METHOD, AND RECORDING MEDIUM

• US 20110310097A1
• Filed: 07/20/2011
• Published: 12/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nikon Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nikon Corporation
• Inventors: Ushio, Yoshijiro, Ichihara, Yutaka
• Granted Patent: US 8,675,048 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/419
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 30/40 giving the observer of a single two-dimensional [2D] image a perception of depth
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/261 with monoscopic-to-stereoscopic image conversion

Abstract

Provided is an image processing apparatus that stereoscopically displays a two-dimensional image, comprising a generating section that generates a left-side image and a right-side image by shifting the two-dimensional image left and right in a display region; and an output section that outputs the left-side image to a left eye of the user and the right-side image to a right eye of the user. The generating section generates the left-side image and the right-side image by shifting the two-dimensional image to the left and right within the display region by a distance no greater than a distance between pupils of a user.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus that stereoscopically displays a two-dimensional image, comprising:

a generating section that generates a left-side image and a right-side image by shifting the two-dimensional image left and right in a display region; and

an output section that includes the display region in which a region where the left-side image and the right-side image are not displayed together is arranged outside an effective field of vision of a user, and that outputs, via the region in which the left-side image and the right-side image are not displayed together, the left-side image to a left eye of the user and the right-side image to a right eye of the user.

2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the generating section generates the left-side image and the right-side image based on the same two-dimensional image.

3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the output section includes a display section that has a plurality of pixels arranged in a two-dimensional matrix and that includes the display region in which pixel lines that display an image to the left eye of the user and pixel lines that display an image to the right eye of the user are arranged in an alternating manner, and

the generating section generates the left-side image from pixels of the two-dimensional image corresponding to the pixel lines in the display region that display the image to the left eye, and generates the right-side image from pixels of the two-dimensional image corresponding to the pixel lines in the display region that display the image to the right eye.

4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the generating section generates the left-side image and the right-side image by shifting the two-dimensional image to the left and right within the display region by a distance no greater than a distance between pupils of the user.

5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein

the generating section generates the left-side image and the right-side image by shifting the two-dimensional image to the left and right by a distance whereby line of sight of the left eye is shifted left by no more than three degrees from a parallel state and line of sight of the right eye is shifted right by no more than three degrees from the parallel state.

6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein

the generating section generates the left-side image and the right-side image by shifting the two-dimensional image to the left and right within the display region by a distance greater than 0 and less than or equal to 90 mm.

7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the generating section adjusts a distance between the left-side image and the right-side image according to a distance between pupils of the user.

8. The image processing apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising an inter-pupil distance measuring section that measures the distance between the pupils of the user, wherein

the generating section adjusts the distance between the left-side image and the right-side image according to the distance between the pupils measured by the inter-pupil distance measuring section.

9. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising an orientation measuring section that measures orientation of a face of the user with respect to a display section that displays the left-side image and the right-side image, wherein

the generating section adjusts the distance between the left-side image and the right-side image according to the face orientation measured by the orientation measuring section.

10. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the generating section changes a distance between the left-side image and the right-side image according to position within the display region.

11. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the generating section changes a distance between the left-side image and the right-side image according to position in a vertical direction within the display region.

12. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the generating section continuously changes a distance between the left-side image and the right-side image according to position in a vertical direction within the display region.

13. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the generating section shifts each of the left-side image and the right-side image by the same distance in opposite directions from each other.

14. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the image processing apparatus stereoscopically displays a plurality of two-dimensional images included in a moving image, and

the generating section changes a distance between the left-side image and the right-side image of each two-dimensional image according to a parameter designating the distance between the left-side image and the right-side image received in association with the two-dimensional image.

15. The image processing apparatus according to claim 14, wherein

upon receiving, in association with a two-dimensional image included in the moving image, a parameter indicating that the two-dimensional image is not to be displayed stereoscopically, the generating section sets the distance between the left-side image and the right-side image to be 0.

16. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an identifying section that identifies a scene type of the two-dimensional image, wherein

the generating section changes a distance between the left-side image and the right-side image according to the scene type identified by the identifying section.

17. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the generating section changes a distance between the left-side image and the right-side image according to size of the display region in which the left-side image and the right-side image are displayed.

18. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a movement measuring section that measures movement of a head of the user, wherein

the generating section changes positions of the left-side image and the right-side image within the display region according to the head movement.

19. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the generating section generates the left-side image and the right-side image when the display region has a width expressed by Expression 1,

Expression 1 is defined as W≧

(3×

L)+(2×

D×

sin(θ

/2)),

W represents horizontal width of the display region,

D represents a distance from a viewpoint of the user to a display screen,

L represents a distance between pupils of the user, and

θ

represents an angle of an effective field of vision of the user.

20. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the generating section attaches a frame image, to be displayed as a frame, to the left-side image and the right-side image.

21. A recording medium storing thereon a program that causes a computer to function as the image processing apparatus of claim 1.

22. An image processing method for stereoscopically displaying a two-dimensional image, comprising:

generating a left-side image and a right-side image by shifting the two-dimensional image left and right in a display region; and

outputting the left-side image to a left eye of the user and the right-side image to a right eye of the user.

23. A recording method for recording image data that enables a two-dimensional image to be displayed stereoscopically, comprising:

generating image data of a left-side image and a right-side image obtained by shifting the two-dimensional image left and right within a display region;

recording the image data of the left-side image in a left-side image data storage region in a recording medium, the left-side image data storage region holding an image to be read by a reproducing apparatus and output to a left eye of a user; and

recording the image data of the right-side image in a right-side image data storage region in the recording medium, the right-side image data storage region holding an image to be read by the reproducing apparatus and output to a right eye of a user.

24. A recording medium storing thereon image data to be read by a reproducing apparatus and displayed stereoscopically, the recording medium comprising:

a left-side image data storage region holding image data of a left-side image, from among the left-side image and a right-side image generated by shifting a two-dimensional image left and right within a display region, that is read by the reproducing apparatus and output to a left eye of a user; and

a right-side image data storage region holding image data of the right-side image, from among the left-side image and the right-side image generated by shifting the two-dimensional image left and right within the display region, that is read by the reproducing apparatus and output to a right eye of the user.