Control device, image display system, control method, and program

Abstract

To provide a control device that can, using a simple method, continue to display an image that was being displayed by a display device that has become abnormal in an image display system.SOLUTION: The present invention is a control device for controlling a plurality of display devices. The control device includes an abnormality detection unit that communicates with the plurality of display devices and detects abnormalities in the display devices, and an image switching unit that, when the abnormality detection unit detects an abnormality, switches a display image by inputting an image input to the abnormal display device to one of the other display devices, on the basis of the priority of images input to the plurality of display devices.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a control device, an image display system, a control method, and a program. [Background technology]

[0002] There is a known image display system that uses multiple projectors (image projection devices) to stitch together multiple projected images to display one image. In such an image display system, if one display device becomes abnormal, some images cannot be displayed, causing the multi-display image to collapse. Or, important images may not be displayed.

[0003] Patent Document 1 discloses a projection system that can switch the projector that is performing projection when a projector malfunctions. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] JP 2017-191974 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] However, the projection system disclosed in Patent Document 1 requires a spare projector to be prepared to replace the malfunctioning projector, which requires cost and effort. If an important image is being displayed on the malfunctioning display device during this time, the important image will no longer be displayed.

[0006] SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT DISCLOSURE An object of the present invention is to provide a control device in an image display system that can, in a simple manner, continue to display an image that was being displayed by a display device that has become abnormal. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] The control device of the present invention is a control device that controls a plurality of display devices, and is characterized in having an abnormality detection unit that communicates with the plurality of display devices and detects abnormalities in the display devices, and an image switching unit that, when the abnormality detection unit detects an abnormality, switches the display image by inputting the image input to the abnormal display device to one of the other display devices based on the priority of the images input to the plurality of display devices. Effect of the Invention

[0008] According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a control device in an image display system that can continue to display an image that was being displayed by a display device that has become abnormal in a simple manner. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] Block diagram of an image display system according to a first embodiment. [Diagram 2] FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an image display system according to a first embodiment. [Diagram 3] Flowchart for the control device of the first embodiment [Figure 4] Block diagram of an image display system according to a second embodiment. [Diagram 5] Flowchart for the control device of the second embodiment [Figure 6] Configuration diagram when an image projection device is used as a display device DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0010] DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, the same reference numerals are used to refer to the same components, and duplicated explanations will be omitted.

[0011] (First embodiment) An image display system 1000 according to a first embodiment will be described with reference to the block diagram of Fig. 1. The image display system 1000 is composed of display devices 100 (110, 120, 130, 140, 150), a control device 200, and an image input device 300. The image display system 1000 in Fig. 1 is composed of five display devices 100, including a first display device 110, a second display device 120, a third display device 130, a fourth display device 140, and a fifth display device 150.

[0012] In FIG. 1, the first display device 110 includes a first image input unit 111 and a first abnormality detection unit 112. The second display device 120, the third display device 130, the fourth display device 140, and the fifth display device 150 also include an image input unit and an abnormality detection unit. The first image input unit 111 is an image input circuit that receives an image signal output from an image switching unit 220 described later. The first abnormality detection unit 112 detects an abnormality such as a power supply abnormality or a display abnormality of the first display device 110, and transmits abnormality information (abnormality detection signal) to a priority image determination unit 211 described later when an image cannot be displayed. The type of abnormality detected by the abnormality detection unit may be an abnormality in which the display device cannot display an image, or an abnormality in brightness in which the display device cannot display an image at a required brightness.

[0013] The image input device 300 is a device that outputs images for multi-display. The control device 200 is a device that inputs the image signal output from the image input device 300 via an input interface such as DVI, HDMI (registered trademark), or DisplayPort.

[0014] The control device 200 is composed of a determination unit 210, an image switching unit 220, and a storage unit 230. Furthermore, the determination unit 210 is composed of a priority image determination unit 211 and an arrangement determination unit 212. The priority image determination unit 211 can receive an abnormality detection signal transmitted from at least one of the first abnormality detection unit 112, the second abnormality detection unit 122, the third abnormality detection unit 132, the fourth abnormality detection unit 142, or the fifth abnormality detection unit 152. When the priority image determination unit 211 receives an abnormality detection signal, the priority image determination unit 211 determines the priority of the display image to be displayed on each display device based on the image priority information stored in the storage unit 230.

[0015] The arrangement determination unit 212 determines the positional relationship between the display devices based on the arrangement information of the display devices stored in the storage unit 230 .

[0016] Based on the determination results from the priority image determination unit 211 and the arrangement determination unit 212, the image switching unit 220 switches the image signal transmitted from the image input device 300, and transmits the image signal to the image input units (111, 121, 131, 141, 151) of the respective display devices.

[0017] The storage unit 230 is a non-volatile memory such as an EEPROM, and stores priority (importance) information of images to be displayed on each display device and arrangement information of each display device. The priority information stored in the storage unit 230 can be set in advance by the user. For example, the user can set the importance based on different display contents, or the user can set the importance according to the display position of the different display contents. The control device 200 may also have a setting unit for the user to set the importance.

[0018] Next, the layout relationship of the image display system 1000 in the first embodiment will be described with reference to the configuration diagram of FIG.

[0019] In FIG. 2, the display devices 100 are arranged in the order of a first display device 110, a second display device 120, a third display device 130, a fourth display device 140, and a fifth display device 150 from the left. The first display device 110, the second display device 120, the third display device 130, the fourth display device 140, and the fifth display device 150 are each connected to the control device 200 by a communication cable, and control communication and video transmission are performed. Here, the case where each display device 100 and the control device 200 are connected by a communication cable is shown, but the connection method is not limited to the communication cable, and the connection may be made by wireless communication. The communication cable may be divided into a cable for control communication and a cable for video transmission.

[0020] The control device 200 receives abnormality information (abnormality detection signal) via a communication cable from the abnormality detection units included in each of the multiple display devices 100. The control device 200 also transmits image signals transmitted from the image input devices 300 to the corresponding display devices 100 via the communication cable.

[0021] In FIG. 2, a display is shown as the display device 100, but as shown in FIG. 6, the display device 100 may be an image projection device (projector) that displays an image by projecting it onto a projection surface (such as a screen). Also, as shown in FIG. 6, the arrangement of the multiple display devices may be 2 rows x 2 columns. The image display system 1000 of the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 has multiple image projection devices PJ110, PJ120, PJ130, PJ140 as the display device 100, a control device 200, and an image input device 300. The image projection devices PJ110, PJ120, PJ130, PJ140 project images S110, S120, S130, S140 onto the projection surface, respectively. The image display system 1000 forms a multi-projection image using images projected from the multiple projectors.

[0022] Projectors PJ110, PJ120, PJ130, and PJ140 and control device 200 may be connected to a network, and the display devices may be configured to be controllable by control device 200 via the network. The network may be a LAN (Local Area Network), the Internet, a WAN (Wide Area Network), or the like.

[0023] Next, a method for controlling an image display system by the control device 200 of the first embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 3. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an image switching process in the first embodiment when a display device becomes abnormal. With reference to FIG. 3, a process for switching the display image between the abnormal display device and the non-abnormal display device when any of the multiple display devices 100 becomes abnormal will be described. In the first embodiment, a process for displaying the image that was displayed on the third display device 130 by using the second display device 120 instead of the third display device 130 when the third display device 130 becomes abnormal will be described.

[0024] First, in the control method of the first embodiment, in step S100, it is determined whether or not the abnormality detection unit of each display device has detected an abnormality in the display device. If it is determined in step S100 that the display device 100 has become abnormal, the process of step S101 is executed. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S100 that the display device 100 has not become abnormal, the process of step S100 is executed again. Here, in step S100, the third abnormality detection unit 132 determines whether or not an abnormality in the third display device 130 has been detected.

[0025] In step S101, when the priority image determination unit 211 receives anomaly information from the anomaly detection unit, it detects the importance of the image input to the abnormal display device based on the priority information stored in the storage unit 230. That is, it determines whether the image input to the image input unit of each display device is important or not. Here, in step S101, when the priority image determination unit 211 receives an anomaly detection signal from the third anomaly detection unit 132, it detects the importance of the image input to the third display device 130 based on the image priority information stored in the storage unit 230. That is, it determines whether the image input to the third image input unit 131 is important or not.

[0026] In step S101, if it is determined that the image input to the image input unit of the abnormal display device is important, the process of step S102 is executed. On the other hand, in step S101, if it is determined that the image input to the image input unit of the abnormal display device is not important, the series of control methods ends. Here, if it is determined that the image input to the third image input unit 131 is important, the process of step S102 is executed. Here, since the image input to the third image input unit 131 provided in the abnormal third display device 130 is important, the priority image determination unit 211 determines that the image input to the third image input unit 131 is important among the images input to each display device.

[0027] In step S102, the priority image determination unit 211 determines the priority of the image input to the display device that is not abnormal, based on the priority information (priority information of the image) stored in the storage unit 230. Here, it is assumed that the third display device 130 has become abnormal and the image input to the second image input unit 121 is not important. Therefore, the priority image determination unit 211 compares the priorities of the images input to the image input units (111, 121, 141, 151) other than the third image input unit 131, and determines that the image input to the second image input unit 121 is not important (low priority image).

[0028] In step S103, the arrangement determination unit 212 selects a display device arranged adjacent to the abnormal display device based on the arrangement information of each display device stored in the storage unit 230. The arrangement determination unit 212 may also determine the arrangement information of each display device stored in the storage unit 230 and a display device previously set by a user. Here, in step S103, the arrangement determination unit 212 selects the second display device 120 and the fourth display device 140 as display devices arranged adjacent to the abnormal third display device 130.

[0029] In step S104, the image switching unit 220 switches between the image input to the image input unit of the abnormal display device and the image with a low priority based on the determination results obtained by the priority image determination unit 211 and the arrangement determination unit 212. Here, in step S104, the image switching unit 220 switches between the image signal input to the third image input unit 131 (high priority image) and the image signal input to the second image input unit 121 (low priority image). Then, the image switching unit 220 inputs the image signal input to the third image input unit 131 to the second image input unit 121. Note that the image switching unit 220 continues to input the original image signal to the first image input unit 111, the fourth image input unit 141, and the fifth image input unit 151 without any change. Also, the image input to the second image input unit 121 may be input to another display device. For example, an image input to the first image input section 111 and an image input to the second image input section 121 may be displayed simultaneously on the first display device.

[0030] Here, the case where the display device displaying the image with low priority obtained in step S102 is the same as the display device obtained in step S103 based on the information on the arrangement of the display devices has been described, but when they are different, it is possible to switch by giving priority to one of the judgment results. For example, when switching the display device based on the priority of the image, it is possible to switch to a display device displaying an image with a lower priority than the priority of the image displayed by the abnormal display device. Also, when switching the display device based on the display position, it is possible to switch to a display device displaying an image at a position adjacent to the position displayed by the abnormal display device. Also, it is possible to switch to a display device displaying an image with low priority among facial expression devices that display images at a position adjacent to the position displayed by the abnormal display device.

[0031] Completion of the switching of the display image in step S104 ends the process of switching the display image shown in Fig. 3. By such a process of switching the display image, the display device that was displaying the low priority image can display the image that was displayed by the abnormal display device, thereby allowing the display of the high priority image to continue. Thus, the first embodiment shows a control device and a control method that switches the display image of the abnormal display device to be displayed on another display device based on the priority image determination and the arrangement determination.

[0032] Second embodiment An image display system 2000 according to the second embodiment will be described with reference to the block diagram of Fig. 4. In Fig. 4, components common to the configuration of the image display system 1000 (Fig. 1) according to the first embodiment are given the same reference numerals as in Fig. 1, and description thereof will be omitted. The control device 200 according to the second embodiment includes a performance evaluation unit 213 in a determination unit 210, and further includes an imaging unit 240.

[0033] 4, the performance evaluation unit 213 judges the performance of each display device 100 based on the performance information of each display device 100 stored in the storage unit 230. For example, the performance of the display device 100 is judged in terms of illuminance variation, color unevenness, color reproducibility, and the like.

[0034] The imaging unit 240 is an imaging device such as a camera, and captures an image of an area including a display image displayed by each display device 100. The imaging unit 240 also transmits the captured image data (image signal) to the storage unit 230.

[0035] Next, a process for switching between the display images of the abnormal display device and the non-abnormal display device when any of the multiple display devices 100 becomes abnormal will be described with reference to the flowchart of Fig. 5. Fig. 5 is a flowchart showing the image switching process when a display device becomes abnormal in the second embodiment.

[0036] In the flowchart of Fig. 5, the processes of steps S100 to S103 are the same as those of steps S100 to S103 in the first embodiment (Fig. 3), so the description of steps S100 to S103 in the second embodiment is omitted. Also, the process of step S104 is the same as that of step S104 in the first embodiment (Fig. 5), so the description of step S104 in the second embodiment is omitted. Hereinafter, the processes of steps S201 and S202 in the flowchart of Fig. 5 will be described.

[0037] The control device 200 of the image display system determines the priority of the images in step S102, determines the arrangement of the display devices in step S103, and then causes the imaging unit 240 to capture an image of an area including the display image displayed on each display device in step S201. The imaging unit 240 transmits imaging data of the captured image to the storage unit 230.

[0038] Next, in step S202, the performance evaluation unit 213 analyzes the images of the captured image data of each display device stored in the storage unit 230, and judges performance such as illuminance variation, luminance, color unevenness, and color reproducibility.

[0039] Then, in step S104, in addition to the priority image determination and the arrangement determination, the image input to the image input unit of the abnormal display device and the image with a low priority can be switched based on the result of the performance evaluation of the display device obtained in step S202. For example, when switching the display device based on the result of the performance evaluation of the display device, it is possible to switch to a display device with a higher evaluation result than the performance of the abnormal display device.

[0040] Completion of the switching of the display image in step S104 ends the process of switching the display image shown in Fig. 5. By such a process of switching the display image, the display device that was displaying the low priority image can display the image that was displayed by the abnormal display device, thereby making it possible to continue displaying the high priority image. Thus, the second embodiment shows a control device and a control method that switches the display image of the abnormal display device to be displayed on another display device based on the results of the priority image judgment, the arrangement judgment, and the performance evaluation of the display device.

[0041] In any of the above-described embodiments, the control unit may include a notification unit 250 that notifies the user that a display device has become abnormal and the display image has been switched. The notification unit 250 can add an image notifying the user that the display device has been switched to another display device, to the high-priority display image that was being displayed by the abnormal display device. By adding the image by the notification unit 250, the control device can display an image notifying the user that the display device has been switched to another display device.

[0042] Thus, the present embodiment relates to a display device of an image display system, a display system, and a control method for an image display system. By performing multi-display using the display device of the present embodiment, even if one of the display devices included in the image display system becomes abnormal, it is possible to continue displaying the image that was being displayed on the abnormal display device.

[0043] The disclosure of each embodiment includes the following configurations and methods.

[0044] (Configuration 1) A control device for controlling a plurality of display devices, an abnormality detection unit that communicates with the plurality of display devices and detects an abnormality in the display devices; A control device characterized by having an image switching unit that, when the abnormality detection unit detects an abnormality, switches the display image by inputting the image input to the abnormal display device to one of the other display devices based on the priority of the images input to the multiple display devices.

[0045] (Configuration 2) 2. The control device according to configuration 1, further comprising a storage unit that stores information on the priority of images input to the plurality of display devices.

[0046] (Configuration 3) 3. The control device according to configuration 2, wherein the storage unit stores information on priorities of images to be input to the plurality of display devices, the priorities being set by a user.

[0047] (Configuration 4) 4. The control device according to any one of configurations 1 to 3, further comprising a setting unit that sets information on priority of images to be input to the plurality of display devices.

[0048] (Configuration 5) The control device according to any one of configurations 1 to 4, characterized in that the image switching unit switches between an image that was input to a display device that has become abnormal and an image of low priority that was input to a display device among the plurality of display devices that is not abnormal, based on the priority of the image.

[0049] (Configuration 6) The control device according to any one of configurations 1 to 5, characterized in that the image switching unit switches between the image input to the abnormal display device and the image input to the other display devices based on information regarding the arrangement of the multiple display devices.

[0050] (Configuration 7) The control device described in configuration 6, characterized in that the image switching unit selects another display device adjacent to the abnormal display device based on information regarding the arrangement of the multiple display devices, and displays the image input to the abnormal display device on the other adjacent display device.

[0051] (Configuration 8) The control device according to configuration 6, characterized in that the image switching unit selects another display device that has been set in advance based on information regarding the arrangement of the plurality of display devices, and causes the image input to the display device that has become abnormal to be displayed on the other display device that has been set.

[0052] (Configuration 9) The control device according to any one of configurations 1 to 8, further comprising a notification unit that notifies that the image switching unit has switched the display image.

[0053] (Configuration 10) 10. The control device according to configuration 9, wherein the notification unit adds information notifying that switching has been performed to the display image input by the image switching unit to the other display device.

[0054] (Configuration 11) an imaging unit that captures images displayed by the plurality of display devices; a performance evaluation unit that evaluates at least one of luminance, color unevenness, and color reproducibility for each of the plurality of display devices based on the image captured by the imaging unit; The control device according to any one of configurations 1 to 10, characterized in that the image switching unit switches the display image by inputting an image input to the display device that has become abnormal to one of the other display devices based on the performance of the display device evaluated by the performance evaluation unit.

[0055] (Configuration 12) A plurality of display devices; 12. An image display system comprising the control device according to any one of configurations 1 to 11.

[0056] (Method 1) A method for controlling a plurality of display devices, comprising the steps of: an anomaly detection step of communicating with the plurality of display devices and detecting an anomaly in the display devices; A control method characterized by having an image switching process for switching the displayed image by inputting the image input to the abnormal display device to one of the other display devices based on the priority of the images input to the plurality of display devices when an abnormality is detected in the abnormality detection process.

[0057] (Configuration 13) A program for causing a computer to execute the control method according to method 1.

[0058] Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments. The relative arrangement of the components described in these embodiments should be appropriately changed depending on the configuration of the device to which the present invention is applied and various conditions. In other words, the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and various modifications and changes are possible within the scope of the gist of the present invention.

[0059] The present invention also includes a case where a software program that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or display device having a computer capable of executing the program directly from a recording medium or via wired / wireless communication, and the program is executed. [Explanation of symbols]

[0060] 100 display device 200 Control device 210 Judgment section 211 Priority image determination unit 212 Placement judgment part 213 Performance Evaluation Department 220 Image switching unit 230 Storage section 240 Imaging unit 300 Image input device 1000 Image Display System

Claims

1. A control device for controlling a plurality of display devices, an abnormality detection unit that communicates with the plurality of display devices and detects an abnormality in the display devices; A control device characterized by having an image switching unit that, when the abnormality detection unit detects an abnormality, switches the displayed image by inputting the image input to the abnormal display device to one of the other display devices based on the priority of the images input to the multiple display devices.

2. The control device according to claim 1 , further comprising a storage unit that stores information on priorities of images input to the plurality of display devices.

3. 3. The control device according to claim 2, wherein the storage unit stores information on priorities of images to be input to the plurality of display devices, the priorities being set by a user.

4. The control device according to claim 1 , further comprising a setting unit for setting information on the priority of images to be input to the plurality of display devices.

5. The control device according to claim 1, characterized in that the image switching unit switches between an image that was input to a display device that has become abnormal and an image of low priority that was input to a display device among the plurality of display devices that is not abnormal, based on the priority of the image.

6. The control device according to claim 1, characterized in that the image switching unit switches between the image input to the abnormal display device and the image input to the other display devices based on information regarding the arrangement of the multiple display devices.

7. The control device according to claim 6, characterized in that the image switching unit selects another display device adjacent to the abnormal display device based on information regarding the arrangement of the multiple display devices, and displays the image input to the abnormal display device on the other adjacent display device.

8. The control device according to claim 6, characterized in that the image switching unit selects a pre-set other display device based on information regarding the arrangement of the plurality of display devices, and causes the image input to the display device that has become abnormal to be displayed on the pre-set other display device.

9. The control device according to claim 1 , further comprising a notification unit that notifies the user that the image switching unit has switched the display image.

10. The control device according to claim 9 , wherein the notification unit adds information notifying the user of the switching to a display image input by the image switching unit to the other display device.

11. an imaging unit that captures images displayed by the plurality of display devices; a performance evaluation unit that evaluates at least one of luminance, color unevenness, and color reproducibility for each of the plurality of display devices based on the image captured by the imaging unit; The control device according to claim 1, characterized in that the image switching unit switches the display image by inputting an image input to the display device that has become abnormal to one of the other display devices based on the performance of the display device evaluated by the performance evaluation unit.

12. A plurality of display devices; An image display system comprising the control device according to claim 1 .

13. A method for controlling a plurality of display devices, comprising the steps of: an anomaly detection step of communicating with the plurality of display devices and detecting an anomaly in the display devices; A control method characterized by having an image switching process, in which if an abnormality is detected in the abnormality detection process, the image input to the abnormal display device is switched by inputting the image input to one of the other display devices based on the priority of the images input to the multiple display devices.

14. A program causing a computer to execute the control method according to claim 13.

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