JP3112790B2 - Virtual reality device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a virtual reality device,
In particular, the present invention relates to a virtual reality device including a visual field direction sensor that measures a visual field direction, a drawing device that generates an image according to the visual direction, and a fixed frontal display that displays an output image from the drawing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, there has been known a virtual reality apparatus for experiencing a fictional world by capturing head direction information by a sensor and displaying an image corresponding to the head direction information on a video device mounted on the head. In such a virtual reality device, a drawing device with a small time delay is desired.

[0003] Conventionally, computer graphics of a polygon system are used for rendering of a virtual reality device.
For the background drawing method of the sky, the ground, etc., an environment mapping method in which a polygon is arranged in a spherical shape around the viewpoint and texture mapping is performed on the inner surface to draw the image, and a two-dimensional image is drawn in the viewing direction Pseudo 3D that is generated separately and superimposed on the image drawn in the polygon method
There is a method.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned environment mapping, the number of surfaces to be drawn is increased, so that there is a drawback that the drawing cost is increased.

Although the latter pseudo 3D method is excellent in terms of drawing cost, it is only pseudo, and has a drawback that it has poor applicability.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and maps a two-dimensionally recorded image of a cylindrical projection or an isometric projection onto a three-dimensional spherical surface to obtain a Euler angle, a vertical viewing angle, and a vertical viewing angle of a visual field. It is an object of the present invention to provide a virtual reality device capable of generating a moving image and a still image image in a faster and more accurate omnidirectional direction by performing fluoroscopy according to a horizontal viewing angle.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a view direction sensor for measuring a view direction,
A drawing apparatus that generates an image according to a viewing direction, and a virtual reality apparatus including a fixed frontal display that displays an output image from the drawing apparatus, wherein the drawing apparatus is an isometric or cylindrical projection image. An image input unit for inputting an image, an angle input unit for inputting information on the viewing direction from the viewing direction sensor, and mapping the input image to a sphere based on the information on the viewing direction, in the viewing direction input from the center of the sphere. It is characterized by including an image conversion unit that generates an image when viewed through, and an image output unit that outputs a video after conversion.

Here, the image conversion unit includes an image data memory for storing the input video, an arithmetic unit for generating an image corresponding to the viewing direction from the pixel information of the image data memory, And an output image memory for storing the image data. The computing means may further include: a coordinate generation unit that sequentially generates pixel coordinates of a screen; and a rotation in a viewing direction with respect to the coordinates generated by the coordinate generation unit. A viewing direction rotation unit to perform, an elevation rotation unit that rotates in an elevation direction with respect to the coordinates obtained by the viewing direction rotation unit, a mapping process to the coordinates obtained by the elevation rotation unit, etc. A mapping unit that sets angular coordinates, a horizontal rotation unit that performs horizontal rotation on the obtained conformal coordinates, and image data based on the coordinates obtained by the horizontal rotation unit. It is comprised of an image address output unit that generates an address of the memory output is desired.

[0009]

According to the above arrangement, the cylindrical projection or the isometric projection video input through the image input unit is mapped to the three-dimensional sphere based on the information on the viewing direction input through the angle input unit. It is converted into an image when viewed through the center of the sphere in the viewing direction. The converted video is output to the fixed-for-the-eye display via the image output unit. This makes it possible to accurately and quickly extract information in all viewing directions.

The image conversion unit is an image data memory;
In the case where the image processing apparatus includes an arithmetic unit and an output image memory, the image input through the image input unit is stored in the image data memory, and the arithmetic unit generates an image corresponding to the viewing direction from the pixel information of the image data memory. And stores it in the output image memory.

Further, the arithmetic means includes a coordinate generation unit, a viewing direction rotation unit, an elevation rotation unit, a mapping unit,
In the case of a horizontal rotation unit and an image address output unit, first, the coordinate generation unit sequentially generates the pixel coordinates of the screen, and then the viewing direction rotation unit sets the pixel coordinates of the screen in the viewing direction with respect to the coordinates generated by the coordinate generation unit. Perform rotation. Thereafter, the elevation rotation unit rotates the coordinates obtained by the viewing direction rotation unit in the elevation direction, and the mapping unit performs the mapping process on the coordinates obtained by the elevation rotation unit. . The obtained conformal coordinates are subjected to horizontal rotation by a horizontal rotation unit, and an image address output unit generates and outputs an address of an image data memory from the coordinates obtained by the horizontal rotation unit.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a basic configuration of a virtual reality apparatus, wherein 1 is a drawing apparatus, 2 is a sensor for measuring the direction of an operator's field of view, and 3 is a fixed-front-of-eye display for displaying an image. is there. FIG. 2 is an overall configuration diagram of the virtual reality apparatus according to the present invention, and the same elements as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals. A signal from the view direction sensor 2 is input to the drawing device 1, and an image signal is output from the drawing device 1 to a fixed-for-eye display. In the drawing apparatus 1, reference numeral 4 denotes an image conversion unit, which is an angle input unit 5 to which a signal from the view direction sensor 2 is input, an image input unit 6 to which an input image signal is supplied, and an image output unit 7 to output an image. , An image data memory 8 for storing input images, an output image memory 9 for storing output images, and a CPU 10 for performing arithmetic processing. The image conversion unit 4 inputs the visual field information from the visual field direction sensor 2 from the angle input unit 5 and the input image signal from the image input unit 6, respectively, maps the input image into a sphere, and maps the input image from the center of the sphere to the visual field. The image viewed through the direction is output to the fixed anterior eye display 3 through the generated image output unit 7.

Hereinafter, the image converter will be described.

The image data memory 8 is a memory for externally inputting and storing an input signal representing an image composed of a plurality of pixels, and can read out pixel information at an arbitrary position according to an instruction from the CPU 10. Output image memory 9
Is a memory for storing an image to be output,
And a video signal which can be written to an arbitrary position and can be displayed on the fixed-for-the-eye display 3 is output. The CPU 10 generates an image corresponding to the viewing direction from the pixel information in the image data memory 8 and outputs the generated image to the output image memory 9 by a method described later.

FIG. 3 is a processing block diagram of the CPU 10. The processing of the CPU 10 is roughly divided into a coordinate generation unit 1
1. The viewing direction rotation unit 12, the elevation direction rotation unit 13, the mapping unit 14, the horizontal direction rotation unit 15, and the image address output unit 16 are composed of six blocks, and the horizontal direction rotation angle (Head) from the viewing direction sensor 2; The horizontal angle h and the elevation angle p are calculated from the Euler angle of the visual field including the elevation angle rotation angle (Pit) and the visual field direction rotation angle (Rol), and the preset horizontal angle of view A and vertical angle of view B, This is converted into an address of the image data memory 8 and the image data memory 8 is accessed. FIG. 9 illustrates a coordinate system of a viewing direction rotation angle (Rol), a horizontal rotation angle (Head), and an elevation rotation angle (Pit), and FIG. 10 illustrates a coordinate system of conformal coordinates.

FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of the processing executed in the six blocks. FIG. 5 shows calculations performed in each unit.

First, the write address and input (pixel) coordinates (x, y) when the screen is scanned line by line from the upper left to the lower right corresponding to the pixels of the output image memory by the coordinate generation unit 11 are shown. Generate sequentially. For a screen with 512 horizontal dots and 512 vertical dots, (0, 0), (1,
0),. . . , (511,0), (0,1),. . . ,
The coordinates (511, 511) are generated.

The view direction rotation unit 12 includes a coordinate generation unit 11
Are rotated in the opposite direction by the viewing direction rotation angle Rol in accordance with the equation (1) to generate new coordinates (x, y).

[0020]

(Equation 1)

In the elevation direction rotation unit 13, the coordinates (x, y) generated by the view direction rotation unit 12 are expressed by the following equation (2).
According to (3), a new coordinate (x, y) is generated by rotating in the opposite direction by the elevation rotation angle Pit.

[0022]

(Equation 2)

[0023]

(Equation 3)

In the mapping unit 14, the coordinates (x,
y) is converted into conformal coordinates (h, p) according to equations (4) to (6).
Convert to

[0025]

(Equation 4)

[0026]

(Equation 5)

[0027]

(Equation 6)

The horizontal rotation unit 15 converts the (h, p) of the conformal coordinates into the horizontal rotation angle Hea according to equation (7).
Rotate in the opposite direction by d.

[0029]

(Equation 7)

The image address output section 16 calculates an address on the image data memory 8 from the elevation angle and the horizontal angle.

As a result, the coordinates x and y generated by the coordinate generation unit are subjected to address conversion indicating one pixel on an image drawn in conformal coordinates.

The pixel information at this address is sequentially read and stored in the output image memory 9 to complete the output video.

FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram of the conversion operation, and shows that the field of view 19 on the world map drawn in conformal coordinates is converted to the field of view 19 on a spherical surface.

FIG. 8 shows the conversion from the conversion unit to the image data memory 5.
Are plotted, and the black portion 20 is the visual field, and Pit means the angle of rotation of the visual field in the elevation direction. The viewing direction rotation angle (Rol) is 0 degree, the horizontal direction rotation angle (Head) is 90 degrees, the horizontal angle of view A and the vertical angle of view B are 180 degrees.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, two-dimensionally recorded images of the cylindrical projection or the isometric projection are mapped onto the three-dimensional spherical surface, and are perspectiveed according to the Euler angle, the horizontal angle of view, and the vertical angle of view of the visual field. By doing so, faster and more accurate images in all viewing directions can be generated. Here, if the image information stored in the image data memory 8 is updated at predetermined intervals, a moving image image is generated, and if not updated, a still image image is generated.

FIG. 6 shows another embodiment, which is a virtual reality apparatus using a combination of a three-dimensional graphic drawing apparatus and an image conversion unit. In the figure, the same configuration as FIG.
The same reference numerals are given. As in the previous embodiment, the virtual reality device of this embodiment includes a drawing device 1, a view direction sensor 2,
It is composed of an anterior fixed display 3. Drawing device 1
Is provided with an image converter 4, a three-dimensional graphic drawing device 18, and an image synthesizing device 17 for synthesizing the output video from the image converter 4 and the output video from the three-dimensional graphic drawing device 18. Here, the image conversion unit 4
Is exactly the same configuration as the image conversion unit 4 in the previous embodiment,
The video having the function and output from the image output unit 7 is input to the image synthesizing device 17. The three-dimensional graphic drawing device 18 generates a perspective image according to the viewing direction according to the information from the viewing direction sensor 1, and the image synthesizing device 17 inputs a background image from the image output unit 7 and The foreground is input from the three-dimensional graphic drawing device, and from the part where the three-dimensional graphic is not drawn,
The image from the image output unit 7 is synthesized so that it can be seen clearly,
The image is output to the fixed-for-eye display 3. As a result, a moving image and a still image image in all viewing directions in which the image input as the background and the image created by the three-dimensional graphic are superimposed are generated faster and more accurately.

[0037]

As described above, according to the virtual reality apparatus of the present invention, a two-dimensionally recorded image of a cylindrical projection or an isometric projection is mapped onto a three-dimensional spherical surface, and the image is mapped in accordance with the Euler angle of the visual field. By performing the fluoroscopy, it is possible to generate moving images and still images in all directions in a faster and more accurate manner.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an example of a basic configuration of a virtual reality device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an overall configuration diagram of an example of a virtual reality device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a processing block diagram of a CPU of the virtual reality apparatus of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a coordinate conversion operation performed in the processing block illustrated in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a conversion equation used for a coordinate conversion operation.

FIG. 6 is an overall configuration diagram of another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram of video conversion of the virtual reality device in FIG. 2;

FIG. 8 is a plot of read coordinates output from an image conversion unit.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory view of a coordinate system in a viewing direction used in the present invention.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of a coordinate system of conformal coordinates used in the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Drawing apparatus 2 View direction sensor 3 Fixed eye front display 4 Image conversion unit 5 Angle input unit 6 Image input unit 7 Image output unit 8 Image data memory 9 Output image memory 10 CPU 11 Coordinate generation unit 12 View direction rotation unit 13 Elevation direction Rotating unit 14 Mapping unit 15 Horizontal rotating unit 16 Image address output unit 17 Image synthesizing device 18 Three-dimensional graphic drawing device

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06T 17/00-17/50 G09G 5/00-5/40 G02B 27/22 G06F 3/00 H04N 13 / 00-15/00

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A view direction sensor for measuring a view direction,
A drawing apparatus that generates an image according to a viewing direction, and a virtual reality apparatus including a fixed frontal display that displays an output image from the drawing apparatus, wherein the drawing apparatus is an isometric or cylindrical projection image. An image input unit for inputting an image, an angle input unit for inputting information on the viewing direction from the viewing direction sensor, and mapping the input image to a sphere based on the information on the viewing direction, in the viewing direction input from the center of the sphere. A virtual reality apparatus comprising: an image conversion unit that generates an image when viewed through; and an image output unit that outputs a converted video. 2. The image conversion section, wherein: an image data memory for storing an input video; an arithmetic means for generating an image corresponding to a viewing direction from pixel information of the image data memory; 2. The virtual reality apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an output image memory that performs the operation. 3. A coordinate generation unit for sequentially generating pixel coordinates of a screen, a view direction rotation unit for rotating the coordinates generated by the coordinate generation unit in a view direction, and the view direction. An elevation rotation unit that performs rotation in the elevation direction with respect to the coordinates obtained by the rotation unit; a mapping unit that performs mapping processing on the coordinates obtained by the elevation rotation unit to convert the coordinates to conformal coordinates; A horizontal rotation unit for performing horizontal rotation on the conformal coordinates, and an image address output unit for generating and outputting an address of an image data memory from the coordinates obtained by the horizontal rotation unit. The virtual reality device according to claim 2.