Stereoscopic video display apparatus and stereoscopic video display method

• US 9,215,452 B2
• Filed: 10/28/2011
• Issued: 12/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Watanabe, Tatsumi
• Primary Examiner(s): Prince, Jessica M
• Application Number:
  US13/284,038
• Publication Number:
  US 20120044330A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,509 Days
• Field of Search: 348/54
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 30/27 involving lenticular arrays
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 30/31 involving active parallax barriers involving directional light or back-light sources G02B30/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/315 the parallax barriers being time-variant
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/351 for displaying simultaneously
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/376 for tracking left-right translational head movements, i.e. lateral movements

Abstract

A stereoscopic video display apparatus includes: a two-dimensional display unit which selects, for each of parallax images having a parallax from a reference parallax image, at least one pixel sequence on a panel, and displays each of the parallax images using the selected pixel sequence; a barrier part which divides light from the pixel sequences such that the respective parallax images are displayed at predetermined positions; a position detecting unit which detects the positions of viewers; and a parallax image arrangement control unit which specifies viewing positions possible for the left eyes of the viewers from among the detected viewing positions other than the viewing positions for the right eyes, and cause the two-dimensional display unit to respectively display the parallax images predetermined for the left eyes at the specified positions.

Claims

1. A stereoscopic video display apparatus which displays a set of parallax images captured at multiple viewpoints and having a parallax from a reference parallax image and thereby enables a plurality of viewers to simultaneously watch a stereoscopic video generated from the set of parallax images without wearing any special glasses, said stereoscopic video display apparatus comprising:

a two-dimensional display unit configured to select, for each of the parallax images, at least one pixel sequence from pixel sequences of the parallax image, and display the parallax image using the at least one pixel sequence;

a dividing unit configured to divide light from the pixel sequences for the respective parallax images such that the respective parallax images are displayed at predetermined display positions;

a position detecting unit configured to detect a position of each of the viewers watching the stereoscopic video; and

a parallax image arrangement control unit configured to (i) specify, for each of the viewers at the detected positions, a display position from among the predetermined display positions other than a display position for a right eye of the viewer, and (ii) control display of the respective parallax images so that said two-dimensional display unit displays a starting parallax image having a lowest parallax image number among the parallax images, at the specified display position,

wherein the parallax images produce pseudo stereoscopy when a parallax image number of a parallax image which enters the right eye of at least one of the viewers is smaller than a parallax image number of a parallax image which enters a left eye of the viewer.

2. The stereoscopic video display apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the number of the parallax images is a number that satisfies “

the number of the viewers+1”

.

3. The stereoscopic video display apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a display position interval control unit configured to divide a position interval between the predetermined display positions at which the respective parallax images in the set are displayed,

wherein said parallax image arrangement control unit is configured to control display of the respective parallax images using the number of position interval segments resulting from the division by said display interval control unit according to the detected display positions, the number of parallax images being a value obtained according to “

the number of viewers ×

the number of position interval segments +1”

.

4. The stereoscopic video display apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a parallax image generating unit configured to selectively perform interpolation and extrapolation of two of the set of parallax images captured at the multiple viewpoints to generate the set of parallax images other than the two parallax images, the two parallax images being a right-eye image and a left-eye image.

5. The stereoscopic video display apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said dividing unit is a barrier part which serves as a barrier to allow the respective parallax images to be displayed at the predetermined display positions.

6. The stereoscopic video display apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said dividing unit is a lenticular part which allows the respective parallax images to be displayed at the predetermined display positions by controlling refraction angles of cylindrical lenses placed on a lenticular board.

7. The stereoscopic video display apparatus according to claim 6,

wherein said cylindrical lenses are liquid crystal lenses.

8. The stereoscopic video display apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the number of the viewers is larger than or equal to 3.

9. The stereoscopic video display apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said stereoscopic video display apparatus is a television apparatus.

10. The stereoscopic video display apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said position detecting unit is configured to detect the number of the viewers,

the number of the parallax images is a first number when a first number of viewers is detected, and is a second number different from the first number when a second number of viewers is detected, and

said dividing unit is configured to display the first number of parallax images at the first number of predetermined display positions when the first number of viewers is detected, and display the second number of parallax images at the second number of predetermined display positions when the second number of viewers is detected.

11. A stereoscopic video display method of displaying a set of parallax images captured at multiple viewpoints and having a parallax from a reference parallax image and thereby enabling a plurality of viewers to simultaneously watch a stereoscopic video generated from the set of parallax images without wearing any special glasses, said stereoscopic video display method comprising:

selecting, for each of the parallax images, at least one pixel sequence from pixel sequences of the parallax image, and displaying the parallax image using the at least one pixel sequence;

dividing light from the pixel sequences for the respective parallax images such that the respective parallax images are displayed at predetermined display positions;

detecting a position of each of the viewers watching the stereoscopic video; and

(i) specifying, for each of the viewers at the detected positions, a display position from among the predetermined display positions other than a display position for a right eye of the viewer, and (ii) controlling display of the respective parallax images so that a starting parallax image having a lowest parallax image number among the parallax images is displayed at the specified display position,

wherein the parallax images produce pseudo stereoscopy when a parallax image number of a parallax image which enters the right eye of at least one of the viewers is smaller than a parallax image number of a parallax image which enters a left eye of the viewer.