IMAGE DISPLAYING SYSTEM AND APPARATUS FOR DISPLAYING IMAGES BY CHANGING THE DISPLAYED IMAGES BASED ON DIRECTION OR DIRECTION CHANGES OF A DISPLAYING UNIT

• US 20100040257A1
• Filed: 09/30/2009
• Published: 02/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Ito, Wataru, Ohtsuka, Shuichi, Yamada, Masahiko, Ono, Shuji, Yoda, Akira, MINO, Kazuhiro
• Granted Patent: US 8,184,156 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/106
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00204 with a digital computer or a digital computer system, e.g. an internet server programmed control between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device H04N1/32561
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/21 Intermediate information storage H04N1/387, H04N1/41 take precedence ; for control between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device H04N1/32358; indexing, editing G11B27/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/698 for achieving an enlarged field of view, e.g. panoramic image capture

Abstract

An image displaying system for displaying an image operable to change a displayed image according to a direction of a image displaying apparatus, including: an image storing unit storing thereon the image; a displaying unit operable to display the image, the displaying unit being carried by a user; a photographing unit operable to photograph exterior as a plurality of photographed images, the photographing unit being carried with the displaying unit all together; a travel distance computing unit operable to compute a travel distance of the displaying unit by analyzing the plurality of photographed images which are photographed by the photographing unit at different times; and a display control unit operable to change the image, which is different from the photographed images, based on the travel distance computed by the travel distance computing unit and to causes the displaying unit to display the image.

Claims

1. An image displaying system for displaying image, comprising:

an image storing unit storing thereon the image;

a displaying unit operable to display the image, said displaying unit being carried by a user;

a photographing unit operable to photograph exterior as a plurality of photographed images, said photographing unit being carried with said displaying unit all together;

a travel distance computing unit operable to compute a travel distance of said displaying unit by analyzing the plurality of photographed images which are photographed by said photographing unit at different times; and

a display control unit operable to change the image, which is different from photographed images, based on the travel distance computed by said travel distance computing unit and to causes said displaying unit to display the image, wherein

said image storing unit associates change information for changing the image with the travel distance of said displaying unit;

said display control unit causes said displaying unit to display the changed image based on the change information on the image associated with the travel distance computed by said distance computing unit referring to said image storing unit

said image storing unit stores an original image, of which the area is larger than that of each of the images photographable by the photographing unit, and further stores a position in the original image as the change information, and

said display control unit identifies the position in the original image based on change of direction of said displaying unit by referring to said image storing unit, trims the image from the original image so that the trimmed image is displayed on said displaying unit, and causes said displaying unit to display the image.

2. The image displaying system as claimed in claim 1, wherein

said image storing unit associates a relative direction of each of a plurality of images with respect to a direction of one of the images with each of the plurality of images, and stores them, and

said display control unit selects the image to be displayed on said displaying unit according to the relative direction.

3. The image displaying system as claimed in claim 1, wherein

said photographing unit is fixed to a rear surface of said displaying unit,

said travel distance computing unit computes a direction change of said displaying unit,

said display control unit selects an image stored on said image storing unit so that difference between direction of the image being displaying and direction of the selected image corresponds to the direction change of said displaying unit, and updates the image being displayed on said displaying unit to the selected image.

4. The image displaying system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an original image generation unit operable to generate the original image by composing the plurality of photographed images photographed by said photographing unit, and to cause said image storing unit to store the generated original image.

5. The image displaying system as claimed in claim 4, wherein said original image generation unit computes a travel distance of said photographing unit during photographing the plurality of photographed images, and associates the computed travel distance with the position in the image.

6. The image displaying system as claimed in claim 5, wherein said original image generation unit associates the associated travel distance and the position in the image with the original image, and stores them on said image storing unit.

7. The image displaying system as claimed in claim 5, wherein said original image generation unit sets one of the plurality of photographed images as a reference position image, and computes a travel distance of said photographing unit based on the other photographed images with respect to the reference position image.

8. The image displaying system as claimed in claim 4, wherein said original image generation unit computes a travel distance of said displaying unit during photographing the plurality of photographed images, associates the computed travel distance with the position in the original image, and causes said image storing unit to store them.

9. The image displaying system as claimed in claim 8, further comprising a user photographing unit operable to photograph the user, said photographing unit being located on a side of said displaying unit, wherein

said original image generation unit computes the travel distance of said displaying unit during photographing the plurality of photographed images based on a user image photographed by said user photographing unit.

10. The image displaying system as claimed in claim 1, wherein

said photographing unit comprises a fish-eye lens, and

the image displaying system further comprises an original image generation unit operable to generate the original image by correcting distortion of the photographed images photographed by said fish-eye lens and to cause said image storing unit to store the original image.

11. An image displaying apparatus operable to display an image, the image displaying apparatus being carried by a user, comprising:

a displaying unit operable to display the image;

a photographing unit operable to photograph exterior as a plurality of photographed images, said photographing unit being carried with said displaying unit all together;

a travel distance computing unit operable to compute a travel distance of said displaying unit by analyzing the plurality of photographed images which are photographed by said photographing unit at different times;

an original image generation unit operable to generate an original image, of which the area is larger than that of each of the images photographable by the photographing unit; and

a display control unit operable to change the image, which is different from the photographed images, based on the travel distance computed by said travel distance computing unit and to cause said displaying unit to display the image, said display control unit identifying the position in the original image based on change of direction of said displaying unit by referring to said original image generating unit, trims the image from the original image so that the trimmed image is displayed on said displaying unit, and causes said displaying unit to display the image.

12. The image displaying system as claimed in claim 11, wherein

a relative direction of each of a plurality of images with respect to a direction of one of the images is associated with each of the plurality of images, and

said display control unit selects the image to be displayed on said displaying unit according to the relative direction.

13. The image displaying system as claimed in claim 11, wherein

said photographing unit is fixed to a rear surface of said displaying unit,

said travel distance computing unit computes a direction change of said displaying unit,

said display control unit selects an image so that difference between direction of the image being displayed and direction of the selected image corresponds to the direction change of said displaying unit, and updates the image being displayed on said displaying unit to the selected image.

14. The image displaying system as claimed in claim 11, further comprising an original image generation unit operable to generate the original image by composing the plurality of photographed images photographed by said photographing unit.

15. The image displaying system as claimed in claim 14, wherein said original image generation unit computes a travel distance of said photographing unit during photographing the plurality of photographed images, and associates the computed travel distance with the position in the image.

16. The image displaying system as claimed in claim 15, wherein said original image generation unit associates the associated travel distance and the position in the image with the original image.

17. The image displaying system as claimed in claim 15, wherein said original image generation unit sets one of the plurality of photographed images as a reference position image, and computes a travel distance of said photographing unit based on the other photographed images with respect to the reference position image.

18. The image displaying system as claimed in claim 14, wherein said original image generation unit computes a travel distance of said displaying unit during photographing the plurality of photographed images, associates the computed travel distance with the position in the original image.

19. The image displaying system as claimed in claim 18, further comprising a user photographing unit operable to photograph the user, said photographing unit being located on a side of said displaying unit, wherein

said original image generation unit computes the travel distance of said displaying unit during photographing the plurality of photographed images based on a user image photographed by said user photographing unit.

20. The image displaying system as claimed in claim 11, wherein

said photographing unit comprises a fish-eye lens, and

the image displaying system further comprises an original image generation unit operable to generate the original image by correcting distortion of the photographed images photographed by said fish-eye lens.

21. A machine-readable medium storing thereon a plurality of machine executable instructions for controlling an image displaying apparatus operable to display an image, the image displaying apparatus being carried by a user, when executed by a machine, the machine executable instructions causing the image displaying apparatus to:

display the image on a displaying unit;

photograph a plurality of images of exterior using a photographing unit, said photographing unit being carried with said displaying unit all together;

compute a travel distance of said displaying unit using a travel distance computing unit by analyzing the plurality of photographed images which are photographed by said photographing unit at different times;

generate an original image, of which the area is larger than that of each of the images photographable by the photographing unit;

change the image, which is different from the photographed images, based on the travel distance computed by said travel distance computing unit, and cause said displaying unit to displaying the image;

identify the position in the original image based on change of direction of said displaying unit by referring to said original image generating unit;

trim the image from the original image so that the trimmed image is displayed on said displaying unit; and

cause said displaying unit to display the image.