STEREOSCOPIC IMAGE DISPLAY DEVICE, IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, AND STEREOSCOPIC IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD

• US 20140035907A1
• Filed: 07/31/2013
• Published: 02/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NLT Technologies, Ltd. (Tianma Microelectronics Company Limited)
• Original Assignee: NLT Technologies, Ltd. (Tianma Microelectronics Company Limited)
• Inventors: SHIGEMURA, Koji, HASEGAWA, Takefumi
• Granted Patent: US 9,280,951 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/419
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/14 Display of multiple viewports
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/122 Improving the 3D impression of stereoscopic images by modifying image signal contents, e.g. by filtering or adding monoscopic depth cues H04N13/128 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/125 for crosstalk reduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/144 for flicker reduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/305 using lenticular lenses, e.g. arrangements of cylindrical lenses
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/31 using parallax barriers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/366 using viewer tracking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2213/002 Eyestrain reduction by processing stereoscopic signals or controlling stereoscopic devices

Abstract

A stereoscopic image display device, with which the influence of a CT-image by the 3D crosstalk is lightened so that a sense of discomfort is not felt by the observer even when the observing position of the observer is shifted, includes an image processing unit including: a relative position calculating unit which calculates a relative position of a stereoscopic display panel with respect to the observing position of the observer; an image filter value calculating unit which calculates an image filter value for adjusting an image blurring amount according to the relative position; and an image filtering processing unit which performs image filtering processing on image data according to the image filter value.

Claims

1. A stereoscopic image display device, comprising:

a stereoscopic display panel which includes;

a light separating module which distributes a light ray at least into two different viewpoint directions;

assuming that the direction of distributing the light ray as a first direction, a stereoscopic viewing space where a stereoscopic image is displayed by projecting a right-eye image to the right-eye of an observer and a left-eye image to the left eye of the observer, respectively;

a pseudoscopic viewing space where the left-eye image is projected to the right eye and the right-eye image is projected to the left eye, respectively, which is at a position shifted from the stereoscopic viewing space in the first direction; and

a 3D-crosstalk viewing space where the right-eye image and the left-eye image are projected to one of or both of the right eye and the left eye, which is between the stereoscopic viewing space and the pseudoscopic viewing space in the first direction;

an observer position measuring unit which measures an observing position of the observer;

a relative position calculating unit which calculates a relative position of the stereoscopic display panel with respect to the measured observing position;

an image filter value calculating unit which calculates an image filter value for adjusting an image blurring amount according to the relative position; and

an image filtering processing unit which performs image filtering processing on image data according to the image filter value.

2. The stereoscopic image display device as claimed in claim 1, wherein

at least two or more stereoscopic viewing spaces are included between pseudoscopic viewing spaces existing in the first direction, and the 3D-crosstalk viewing space exists not only between the pseudoscopic viewing space and the stereoscopic viewing space but also between the stereoscopic viewing spaces.

3. The stereoscopic image display device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a device characteristic data saving unit which saves device characteristic data containing a display characteristic of the stereoscopic display panel for the relative position; and

an image data saving unit which saves or receives the image data, wherein

the image filter value calculating unit calculates the image filter value suited for stereoscopic image display based on the relative position and the device characteristic data.

4. The stereoscopic image display device as claimed in claim 3, wherein

the relative position is an viewing angle between the observing position of the observer and a display plane of the stereoscopic display panel unit.

5. The stereoscopic image display device as claimed in claim 3, wherein:

the device characteristic data is 3D crosstalk characteristic data; and

the image filter value is calculated based on the 3D crosstalk characteristic data.

6. The stereoscopic image display device as claimed in claim 5, wherein

when it is defined among the 3D crosstalk characteristic data that an area where the 3D crosstalk amount exceeds a prescribed value is a 3D-crosstalk viewing space and an area where the 3D crosstalk amount is equal to or less than the prescribed value is a no-3D-crosstalk area, the image filter value of the 3D-crosstalk viewing space is larger than the image filter value of the no-3D-crosstalk area.

7. The stereoscopic image display device as claimed in claim 1, wherein

the image filter value calculating unit calculates the image filter values different for each of the image data so as to suppress deterioration in image quality caused by the image filtering processing.

8. The stereoscopic image display device as claimed in claim 3, further comprising a 3D crosstalk image area calculating unit which calculates a 3D crosstalk image area based on the relative position and the device characteristic data, wherein

the image filtering processing unit performs the image filtering processing on the 3D crosstalk image area among the image data according to the image filter value.

9. The stereoscopic image display device as claimed in claim 3, further comprising a temperature measuring unit which measures an environmental temperature, wherein

the image filter value calculating unit calculates the image filter value suited for stereoscopic image display based on the relative position and the device characteristic data corresponding to the environmental temperature measured by the temperature measuring unit.

10. The stereoscopic image display device as claimed in claim 3, wherein

the image filter value calculating unit calculates the image filter value suited for stereoscopic image display based on the relative position, the device characteristic data, and a parallax value of the image data.

11. The stereoscopic image display device as claimed in claim 1, wherein

the image filter value calculating unit calculates the image filter value by using a laterally asymmetric image filter shape suited for a directional characteristic of an image area where a 3D-crosstalk image by the 3D crosstalk appears.

12. The stereoscopic image display device as claimed in claim 11, wherein

the image filter value calculating unit calculates the image filter value by using a laterally asymmetric image filter shape whose left and right directions become opposite from each other between an image area displayed in a popup direction and an image area displayed in a depth direction by referring to the parallax value of the image data.

13. The stereoscopic image display device as claimed in claim 3, further comprising:

a parallax adjustment value calculating unit which calculates a parallax adjustment value suited for stereoscopic image display based on the relative position and the device characteristic data; and

a parallax adjustment processing unit which performs parallax adjustment processing on the image data according to the parallax adjustment value.

14. The stereoscopic image display device as claimed in claim 1, wherein

the image filter value calculating unit:

classifies the area into a stereoscopic viewing space where a left-eye stereoscopic image is projected to the left eye and a right-eye stereoscopic image is projected to the right eye, a pseudoscopic viewing space where a right-eye stereoscopic image is projected to the left eye and a left-eye stereoscopic image is projected to the right eye, and a 3D-crosstalk viewing space where a right-eye and a left-eye stereoscopic images are projected to the left eye or a left-eye and a right-eye stereoscopic images are projected to the right eye, according to the relative position; and

gives an image filter value larger than that of the stereoscopic viewing space or the pseudoscopic viewing space for the image data in the 3D-crosstalk viewing space when the observer moves to the pseudoscopic viewing space from the stereoscopic viewing space.

22. The stereoscopic image display device as claimed in claim 1, comprising an arbitrary viewpoint image generating unit having a function which calculates viewpoint positions of two or more virtual cameras by referring to the relative position calculated by the relative position calculating unit, wherein

the image filtering processing unit performs the image filtering processing on the image data captured from the cameras according to the image filter value calculated by the image filter value calculating unit, and takes the processed image data as a display target.

23. The stereoscopic image display device as claimed in claim 22 having N-viewpoints (N is 3 or more), wherein

the arbitrary viewpoint image generating unit detects the virtual camera which captures an image not projected to the observer among the virtual cameras of N-viewpoints by referring to the relative position calculated by the relative position calculating unit, and uncontinuously shifts the viewpoint position of the detected virtual camera in the relative position.

24. The stereoscopic image display device as claimed in claim 22, wherein:

the arbitrary viewpoint image generating unit refers to the viewpoint positions from a plurality of pieces of image data saved in the image data saving unit to specify an arbitrary viewpoint position placed between the viewpoint positions; and

repeatedly displays the image data captured from the arbitrary viewpoint position placed between the viewpoint positions according to the relative position calculated by the relative position calculating unit.

25. The stereoscopic image display device as claimed in claim 24, wherein:

the image data saved in the image data saving unit are the image data of two viewpoints in total, which are right-eye image data and left-eye image data;

the arbitrary viewpoint image generating unit refers to the two viewpoints in total from the right-eye image data and the left-eye image data to specify the arbitrary viewpoint position placed between the two viewpoint positions; and

the image data captured from the arbitrary viewpoint position placed between the two viewpoint positions is repeatedly displayed according to the relative position calculated by the relative position calculating unit.

26. The stereoscopic image display device as claimed in claim 25, wherein:

the arbitrary viewpoint image generating unit repeatedly displays the image data captured from the arbitrary viewpoint position placed between the two viewpoint positions according to the relative position in the stereoscopic viewing space of the stereoscopic display panel unit.

15. A stereoscopic image display device, comprising:

a stereoscopic display panel which includes a light separating module which distributes a light ray at least into two different viewpoint directions and includes only a stereoscopic viewing space where a stereoscopic image is displayed by projecting images of different viewpoints to both eyes of an observer, respectively;

an observer position measuring unit which measures an observing position of the observer;

a relative position calculating unit which calculates a relative position of the stereoscopic display panel with respect to the observing position;

an image filter value calculating unit which calculates an image filter value for adjusting an image blurring amount according to the relative position; and

an image filtering processing unit which performs image filtering processing on image data according to the image filter value.

16. The stereoscopic image display device as claimed in claim 15, wherein

the relative position is an viewing angle between the observing position of the observer and a display plane of the stereoscopic display panel unit.

17. The stereoscopic image display device as claimed in claim 15, wherein

the image filter value calculating unit calculates the image filter values different for each of the image data so as to suppress deterioration in image quality caused by the image filtering processing.

18. The stereoscopic image display device as claimed in claim 15, further comprising a temperature measuring unit which measures an environmental temperature, wherein

the image filter value calculating unit calculates the image filter value suited for stereoscopic image display by corresponding to the relative position and the environmental temperature measured by the temperature measuring unit.

19. The stereoscopic image display device as claimed in claim 15, wherein

the image filter value calculating unit calculates the image filter value suited for stereoscopic image display based on the relative position and a parallax value of the image data.

20. The stereoscopic image display device as claimed in claim 15, wherein

the image filter value calculating unit calculates the image filter value by using a laterally asymmetric image filter shape whose left and right directions become opposite from each other between an image area displayed in a popup direction and an image area displayed in a depth direction by referring to the parallax value held by the image data.

21. The stereoscopic image display device as claimed in claim 15, further comprising:

a parallax adjustment value calculating unit which calculates a parallax adjustment value suited for stereoscopic image display based on the relative position; and

a parallax adjustment processing unit which performs parallax adjustment processing on the image data according to the parallax adjustment value.

27. An image processing device which outputs an image data to a stereoscopic display panel which includes:

a light separating module which distributes a light ray at least into two different viewpoint directions;

assuming that the direction of distributing the light ray as a first direction, a stereoscopic viewing space where a stereoscopic image is displayed by projecting a right-eye image to the right-eye of an observer and a left-eye image to the left eye of the observer, respectively;

a pseudoscopic viewing space where the left-eye image is projected to the right eye and the right-eye image is projected to the left eye, respectively, which is at a position shifted from the stereoscopic viewing space in the first direction; and

a crosstalk area where the right-eye image and the left-eye image are projected to one of or both of the right eye and the left eye, which is between the stereoscopic viewing space and the pseudoscopic viewing space in the first direction, the image processing device comprising;

a relative position calculating unit which calculates a relative position of the stereoscopic display panel with respect to an observing position of the observer;

an image filter value calculating unit which calculates an image filter value for adjusting an image blurring amount according to the relative position; and

an image filtering processing unit which performs image filtering processing on image data according to the image filter value.

28. The image processing device as claimed in claim 27, further comprising:

an observer position measuring unit which measures the observing position of the observer;

an image data receiving unit which receives the image data before the image filtering processing is performed; and

an image data transmitting unit which outputs the image data on which the image filtering processing is performed.

29. The image processing device as claimed in claim 27, further comprising:

a device characteristic data saving unit which saves device characteristic data containing a display characteristic of the stereoscopic display panel for the relative position, wherein

the image filter value calculating unit calculates the image filter value based on the device characteristic data and the relative position.

30. A stereoscopic image processing method using a stereoscopic display panel which includes:

a light separating module which distributes a light ray at least into two different viewpoint directions;

assuming that the direction of distributing the light ray as a first direction, a stereoscopic viewing space where a stereoscopic image is displayed by projecting a right-eye image to the right-eye of an observer and a left-eye image to the left eye of the observer, respectively;

a pseudoscopic viewing space where the left-eye image is projected to the right eye and the right-eye image is projected to the left eye, respectively, which is at a position shifted from the stereoscopic viewing space in the first direction; and

a crosstalk area where the right-eye image and the left-eye image are projected to one of or both of the right eye and the left eye, which is between the stereoscopic viewing space and the pseudoscopic viewing space in the first direction, the method comprising;

measuring an observing position of the observer;

calculating a relative position of the stereoscopic display panel with respect to the observing position;

calculating an image filter value for adjusting an image blurring amount according to the relative position;

performing image filtering processing on image data according to the image filter value; and

outputting the image data on which the image filtering processing is performed to the stereoscopic display panel.

31. The stereoscopic image processing method as claimed in claim 30, comprising:

acquiring device characteristic data containing a display characteristic of the stereoscopic display panel with respect to the relative position;

calculating the image filter value based on the device characteristic data in addition to the relative position when calculating the image filter value;

acquiring the image data before performing the image filtering processing; and

performing the image filtering processing on the acquired image data when performing the image filtering processing on the image data.

32. The stereoscopic image processing method as claimed in claim 31, comprising:

calculating a 3D crosstalk image area based on the relative position and the device characteristic data; and

performing the image filtering processing on the 3D crosstalk image area among the image data when performing the image filtering processing on the image data.