Image display system and three-dimensional eyeglasses

• US 9,268,145 B2
• Filed: 04/18/2013
• Issued: 02/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Kato, Yumiko, Ozawa, Jun, Inoue, Tsuyoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Sugarman, Scott J
• Assistant Examiner(s): Choudhury, Mustak
• Application Number:
  US13/865,684
• Publication Number:
  US 20130229711A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,041 Days
• Field of Search: 359464-466, 359/458, 359/473, 348/53, 348/56, 463/40, 463/42
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/16 Devices for psychotechnics using teaching or educational appliances G09B1/00 - G09B7/00; Testing reaction times ; Devices for evaluating the psychological state
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/163 by tracking eye movement, gaze, or pupil change
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 30/00 Optical systems or apparatus for producing three-dimensional [3D] effects, e.g. stereoscopic images in microscopes G02B21/22
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/341 using temporal multiplexing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/398 Synchronisation thereof; Control thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2213/002 Eyestrain reduction by processing stereoscopic signals or controlling stereoscopic devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2213/008 Aspects relating to glasses for viewing stereoscopic images

Abstract

Provided is an image display system which can assuredly perform collaborative processing such as determination of a fatigue state of a viewer using three-dimensional eyeglasses and an image display apparatus, without increasing system scale, the image display system including: a transmitting and receiving unit included in a three-dimensional display TV which transmits to three-dimensional eyeglasses a specification-designating signal designating a specification which at least includes a data format for a communication signal; a transmitting and receiving unit included in the three-dimensional eyeglasses which receives the specification-designating signal transmitted from the three-dimensional display TV and, according to the specification designated by the received specification-designating signal, converts a biometric signal acquired by a biometric signal sensor into the communication signal, and transmits the communication signal to the three-dimensional display TV.

Claims

1. An image display system for presenting a three-dimensional image to a viewer, the image display system comprising:

an image display apparatus for alternately outputting a left-eye image and a right-eye image to be presented to a left eye and a right eye, respectively, of a viewer; and

three-dimensional eyeglasses having a left-eye shutter and a right-eye shutter for being worn by the viewer over face or head and setting the left-eye shutter to an open state when the left-eye image is displayed by the image display apparatus and setting the right-eye shutter to the open state when the right-eye image is displayed by the image display apparatus,

wherein the three-dimensional eyeglasses include;

a biometric signal measurement unit configured to measure a physical state of the viewer and acquire a biometric signal; and

a transmitting and receiving unit configured to convert the biometric signal acquired by the biometric signal measurement unit into a communication signal and transmit the communication signal to the image display apparatus,

wherein the image display apparatus includes

a transmitting and receiving unit configured to receive the communication signal transmitted from the three-dimensional eyeglasses,

wherein the transmitting and receiving unit included in the image display apparatus is configured to transmit, to the three-dimensional eyeglasses, a specification-designating signal designating a specification including a data format of the biometric signal for the communication signal, and

wherein the transmitting and receiving unit included in the three-dimensional eyeglasses is configured to (i) receive the specification-designating signal transmitted from the image display apparatus, (ii) convert the biometric signal acquired by the biometric signal measurement unit into the communication signal according to the specification including the data format of the biometric signal designated by the received specification-designating signal, and (iii) transmit, to the image display apparatus, the communication signal according to the specification including the data format of the biometric signal.

2. The image display system according to claim 1,

wherein the three-dimensional eyeglasses further include a transmission specification store storing at least one transmission specification which is information indicative of a specification in which the three-dimensional eyeglasses can transmit the communication signal to the image display apparatus,

the transmitting and receiving unit included in the three-dimensional eyeglasses is further configured to transmit the at least one transmission specification stored in the transmission specification store to the image display apparatus, and

the transmitting and receiving unit included in the image display apparatus is configured to receive the at least one transmission specification transmitted from the three-dimensional eyeglasses, and transmit to the three-dimensional eyeglasses, as the specification-designating signal, a signal indicative of at least one transmission specification selected from among the received at least one transmission specification.

3. The image display system according to claim 2,

wherein the image display apparatus further includes:

a measurement specification store storing at least one measurement specification which is information indicative of a specification in which the transmitting and receiving unit included in the image display apparatus can receive the communication signal; and

a measurement specification determination unit configured to determine a measurement specification for use in determining the physical state of the viewer, from among the at least one measurement specification stored in the measurement specification store,

wherein the transmitting and receiving unit included in the image display apparatus is configured to transmit to the three-dimensional eyeglasses, as the specification-designating signal, a signal indicative of a transmission specification corresponding to the measurement specification determined by the measurement specification determination unit, among the at least one transmission specification transmitted from the three-dimensional eyeglasses.

4. The image display system according to claim 3,

wherein the transmitting and receiving unit included in the three-dimensional eyeglasses is further configured to transmit an eyeglasses ID, which is a signal identifying the three-dimensional eyeglasses, to the image display apparatus,

the transmitting and receiving unit included in the image display apparatus is configured to receive the eyeglasses ID transmitted from the three-dimensional eyeglasses, and

the measurement specification determination unit is configured to determine whether a measurement specification corresponding to the received eyeglasses ID is stored in the measurement specification store and, determine the measurement specification as the one measurement specification when the measurement specification is stored in the measurement specification store, and request the three-dimensional eyeglasses to transmit a transmission specification stored in the transmission specification store to the image display apparatus when the measurement specification is not stored in the measurement specification store.

5. The image display system according to claim 2,

wherein the transmission specification or the specification-designating signal includes an array of plural signals indicative of the physical state of the viewer measured by the biometric signal measurement unit and information describing an amount of data of each of the plural signals.

6. The image display system according to claim 1,

wherein the biometric signal measurement unit is configured to measure electrooculogram of the viewer as the physical state of the viewer.

7. The image display system according to claim 1,

wherein the biometric signal measurement unit is configured to measure galvanic skin response or skin potential of the viewer as the physical state of the viewer.

8. The image display system according to claim 1,

wherein the biometric signal measurement unit is configured to image a portion of a body of the viewer as the physical state of the viewer.

9. The image display system according to claim 8,

wherein the biometric signal measurement unit is configured to image a vein pattern of the viewer as the physical state of the viewer.

10. The image display system according to claim 1,

wherein the biometric signal measurement unit is configured to acquire a time series signal indicative of the physical state of the viewer as the biometric signal.

11. The image display system according to claim 10,

wherein the three-dimensional eyeglasses further include a biometric signal processing unit configured to perform signal processing for generating the time series signal acquired by the biometric signal measurement unit as a numerical sequence,

the transmitting and receiving unit included in the three-dimensional eyeglasses is configured to transmit the numerical sequence acquired by the biometric signal processing unit to the image display apparatus, and

the image display apparatus further includes a viewer state determination unit configured to determine the physical state of the viewer, based on the numerical sequence transmitted from the three-dimensional eyeglasses.

12. The image display system according to claim 11,

wherein the specification-designating signal includes information specifying a data level indicative of a degree at which data included in the communication signal is to be processed, and

the biometric signal processing unit is configured to perform the signal processing, according to the data level specified by information included in the specification-designating signal transmitted from the image display apparatus.

13. The image display system according to claim 10,

wherein the three-dimensional eyeglasses further include a biometric signal processing unit configured to perform signal processing on the time series signal acquired by the biometric signal measurement unit to generate a numerical value or a numerical sequence related to a body movement of the viewer,

the transmitting and receiving unit included in the three-dimensional eyeglasses is configured to transmit the numerical value or the numerical sequence acquired by the biometric signal processing unit to the image display apparatus, and

the image display apparatus further includes a viewer state determination unit configured to determine the physical state of the viewer, based on the numerical value or the numerical sequence transmitted from the three-dimensional eyeglasses.

14. The image display system according to claim 10,

wherein the three-dimensional eyeglasses further include a biometric signal processing unit configured to perform signal processing on the time series signal acquired by the biometric signal measurement unit to generate a numerical value or a numerical sequence related to a body movement of the viewer, and determine the physical state of the viewer using the generated numerical value or the generated numerical sequence, and

the transmitting and receiving unit included in the three-dimensional eyeglasses is configured to transmit a result of determining the physical state of the viewer by the biometric signal processing unit to the image display apparatus.

15. The image display system according to claim 1,

wherein the physical state of the viewer represents a fatigue state of the viewer.

16. The image display system according to claim 1,

wherein the physical state of the viewer represents individual identification of the viewer.

17. The image display system according to claim 1,

wherein the transmitting and receiving unit included in the image display apparatus is configured to transmit, as the data format, the specification-designating signal designating the specification including a data format including at least one of a type, a number, a length, and an order of information included in the communication signal, to the three-dimensional eyeglasses.

18. Three-dimensional eyeglasses for being worn by a viewer over face or head and operating in cooperation with an image display apparatus, the three-dimensional eyeglasses comprising:

a right-eye shutter and a left-eye shutter, states of which are switchable between an open state and a closed state;

a biometric signal measurement unit configured to measure a physical state of the viewer and acquire a biometric signal; and

a transmitting and receiving unit configured to convert the biometric signal acquired by the biometric signal measurement unit into a communication signal and transmit the communication signal to the image display apparatus,

wherein the transmitting and receiving unit is configured to receive (i) a specification-designating signal designating a specification including a data format of the biometric signal for the communication signal, the specification-designating signal being transmitted from the image display apparatus, (ii) convert the biometric signal acquired by the biometric signal measurement unit into the communication signal according to the specification including the data format of the biometric signal designated by the received specification-designating signal, and (iii) transmit, to the image display apparatus, the communication signal according to the specification including the data format of the biometric signal.

19. The three-dimensional eyeglasses according to claim 18, further comprising

a transmission specification store storing at least one transmission specification which is information indicative of a specification in which the three-dimensional eyeglasses can transmit the communication signal to the image display apparatus, wherein

the transmitting and receiving unit is further configured to transmit the at least one transmission specification stored in the transmission specification store to the image display apparatus, and

the image display apparatus receives the at least one transmission specification transmitted from the three-dimensional eyeglasses, and transmits, as the specification-designating signal, a signal indicative of at least one transmission specification selected from among the received at least one transmission specification to the three-dimensional eyeglasses.

20. The three-dimensional eyeglasses according to claim 19,

wherein each of the at least one transmission specification stored in the transmission specification store includes:

any of;

information specifying a type of the biometric signal;

information specifying a level at which the biometric signal is to be processed before the three-dimensional eyeglasses transmits information to the image display apparatus;

frequency of the three-dimensional eyeglasses transmitting information to the image display apparatus;

a sampling frequency and an amount of data of the sampling frequency upon acquisition of the biometric signal;

data accuracy and an amount of data describing the data accuracy;

a time length of the biometric signal and an amount of data of the time length; and

a number of an electrode to be used for processing the biometric signal and an amount of data for describing the number of the electrode; and

any of;

an amount of data of the biometric signal for each electrode at which the biometric signal is measured; and

a type of a result of intermediate processing and an amount of data describing the result of the intermediate processing; and

a type of a result of determining the physical state of the viewer and an amount of data describing the physical state.