Head-mounted visualization device

Abstract

To provide a head-mounted visualization device that can broaden the wearer's field of view while suppressing the burden on a wearer due to increased weight.SOLUTION: A head-mounted visualization device includes a pair of line-of-sight transmission units 5, 6 attached to a head belt 2 worn on a wearer's head, and a camera 35 arranged adjacent to one line-of-sight transmission unit 6. The one line-of-sight transmission unit 6 includes a horizontally elongated rectangular prism 31 that transmits the wearer's line of sight forward while refracting the optical axis of camera 35 forward. The other line-of-sight transmission unit 5 includes a horizontally elongated rectangular prism 31 that transmits the wearer's line of sight forward. This configuration enables a wide horizontal field of view through the prisms 31 of the line-of-sight transmission units 5, 6, thereby improving the wearer's operability.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a head-mounted viewing device that can capture an image of an object viewed by a wearer. [Background technology]

[0002] The inventors of the present invention have proposed a head-mounted camera in which a cubic prism placed in front of the wearer's eyes transmits the wearer's line of sight forward and refracts the optical axis of a camera placed to the side of the prism to align it with the wearer's line of sight, as shown in Patent Document 1. With this conventional configuration, an object that the wearer is looking at can be captured from the wearer's line of sight, and by displaying the image captured by the camera on an image display device such as a monitor, the object can be viewed from the same line of sight as the wearer. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Utility Model Registration No. 3231356 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] However, in the above-mentioned conventional configuration, the wearer views an object through a cubic prism, and the wearer's field of view through the prism is determined by the size of the prism. As a result, the wearer must move their head to see outside the field of view through the prism. Therefore, in a configuration where the wearer views through a cubic prism, in order to widen the field of view through the prism, it is necessary to increase the vertical and horizontal size of the prism. However, as the size of the prism increases, the weight also increases, which increases the burden on the wearer.

[0005] The present invention proposes a head-mounted visual device that can widen the wearer's field of vision while minimizing the burden on the wearer due to increased weight. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] The present invention is a head-mounted visual device comprising: a head-mounted section to be worn on the head of a wearer; a line-of-sight member attached to the head-mounted section and allowing at least one of the wearer's left and right lines of sight to pass forward; and an imaging means arranged adjacent to the line-of-sight member and capable of capturing an image of an object through the line-of-sight member, wherein the line-of-sight member has a horizontally elongated rectangular prism that allows the wearer's line of sight to pass forward and refracts the optical axis of the imaging means forward.

[0007] In this configuration, the horizontally elongated prism allows the wearer to have a wider horizontal field of view through the prism. Since human vision generally has a wider horizontal field of view than a vertical field of view, the horizontally elongated prism widens the wearer's field of view, providing excellent comfort and dramatically improving the wearer's workability. Furthermore, compared to the conventional cubic prisms described above, which are larger in size, the horizontally elongated prism of this configuration is smaller in size at least in the vertical direction, making it lighter. This reduces the burden on the wearer caused by the weight of the prism, making it suitable for relatively long-term use.

[0008] Furthermore, the horizontally long prism allows the wearer to move their eyeball (line of sight) in a wider range in the horizontal direction, contributing to the improvement of operability and providing excellent usability. Generally, the range in which the human eyeball can move in the horizontal direction is wider and easier than in the vertical direction (up and down), which offers the excellent advantage that the wearer can easily experience the improved operability and ease of use.

[0009] In the head-mounted visual device of the present invention described above, the prism of the line-of-sight member is formed by two right-angle prisms with slopes that slope downward or upward toward the front, which are integrated by overlapping each other's slopes to form a horizontally long rectangular parallelepiped, and the slopes are provided with a transmission / reflection means that separates light incident from the front into transmitted light that passes backward and reflected light that reflects upward or downward, and the imaging means is arranged above or below the prism, and the optical axis is refracted forward by the slopes of the prism. Here, when the prism is configured as a right-angle prism having a slope that slopes downward toward the front, the light incident from the front is separated into transmitted light and reflected light that is reflected upward by the transmission / reflection means of the slope. For this reason, the imaging means is disposed above the prism. On the other hand, when the prism is configured as a right-angle prism having a slope that slopes upward toward the front, the light incident from the front is separated into transmitted light and reflected light that is reflected downward by the transmission / reflection means of the slope. For this reason, the imaging means is disposed below the prism.

[0010] In this configuration, the wearer receives transmitted light that has passed through the prism of the line-of-sight member, and the imaging means receives reflected light that has been reflected on the slope of the prism, allowing the imaging means to capture an image of the object the wearer is looking at. Here, since the imaging means is provided facing the horizontally elongated upper or lower surface of the prism, by adjusting the angle of view according to the width of the upper and lower surfaces, it is possible to capture an image that is approximately the same as the wearer's horizontal field of view through the prism. This allows the viewer of the image captured by the imaging means to see approximately the same thing as the wearer.

[0011] In the configuration of the present invention, since the imaging means captures an image reflected on the inclined surface of the prism (a so-called mirror image), the image captured by the imaging means and the image seen by the wearer will differ in vertical and horizontal directions. For this reason, the present invention is preferably configured to include a means (hereinafter referred to as a data processing means) for processing the image data so that the vertical and horizontal directions of the image data captured by the imaging means and the image seen by the wearer are aligned. With such a configuration, the image data processed by the data processing means can be output and displayed on an image display device such as a monitor, allowing a viewer of the image display device to see the same thing as the wearer.

[0012] The present invention may also be configured to include a processing means for converting image data captured by the imaging means into data that can be output as a stereoscopic image (three-dimensional image). Here, a configuration including both the processing means for converting into a stereoscopic image and the data processing means for matching the up, down, left, and right directions is preferred. [Effects of the Invention]

[0013] The head-mounted visual device of the present invention can widen the wearer's lateral field of view through the horizontally elongated prism, improving the worker's workability. Furthermore, since the weight increase due to the prism can be suppressed, the burden on the wearer due to the weight increase can be suppressed, making it suitable for relatively long-term use. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0014] [Figure 1] 1 is a perspective view showing a head-mounted visual recognition device 1 according to an embodiment. [Figure 2] 1A is a plan view of a head-mounted visual device 1, and FIG. 1B is a front view of the head-mounted visual device 1 with the magnifying glass 4 omitted. [Figure 3] 1A is a perspective view of the left line-of-sight passing unit 5 as seen from the front, FIG. 1B is a perspective view of the left line-of-sight passing unit 5 as seen from the rear, and FIG. 1C is a perspective view of the left line-of-sight passing unit 5 as seen from the front with part of the housing 21 cut away. [Figure 4]1A is a perspective view of the right line-of-sight passing unit 6 as seen from the front, FIG. 1B is a perspective view of the right line-of-sight passing unit 6 as seen from the rear, and FIG. 1C is a perspective view of the right line-of-sight passing unit 6 as seen from the front with part of the housing 22 cut away. [Figure 5] 1A is a perspective view of a prism 31, and FIG. 1B is an exploded perspective view of the prism 31. FIG. [Figure 6] 1A is an explanatory diagram showing the field of view of a wearer using a head-mounted visual recognition device 1, and FIG. 1B is an explanatory diagram showing the field of view of a wearer using a configuration using a cubic prism 81. FIG. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0015] Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the embodiments, the front-to-rear direction refers to the front-to-rear direction of a wearer wearing the head-mounted visual recognition device 1 of the embodiment, and the left-to-right direction refers to the left-to-right direction of the wearer. The left-to-right direction refers to the horizontal direction, and the up-to-down direction of the wearer refers to the vertical direction. Furthermore, in the embodiments, the terms front and front face are used interchangeably.

[0016] As shown in Figures 1 and 2, the head-mounted visual device 1 of this embodiment comprises a head belt 2 worn on the wearer's head, an illumination member 3 attached to the front center of the head belt 2 via a connecting member 7, left and right magnifying glasses 4,4 attached to the connecting member 7 via a support member 8, and left and right line-of-sight units 5,6 attached to the support member 8, and the magnifying glasses 4,4 and the line-of-sight units 5,6 are integrally formed.

[0017] The head belt 2 is adjustable in circumference size, allowing it to fit the wearer's head. The magnifying glass 4 is roughly plate-shaped. Since conventionally known configurations can be applied to the head belt 2 and the magnifying glass 4, detailed explanations will be omitted. The head belt 2 corresponds to the head-mounted portion according to the present invention.

[0018] The connecting member 7 comprises a base 11 fixed to the head belt 2, a protruding rod 12 protruding forward from the base 11, a sliding part 13 provided with a vertically long hole through which the protruding rod 12 is inserted, and an attachment part 14 provided at the lower end of the sliding part 13 so as to be tiltable in the vertical direction. A positioning part 15 is screwed to the tip of the protruding rod 12, and by fastening the positioning part 15, the vertical position of the sliding part 13 relative to the protruding rod 12 can be fixed, while by releasing the fastening of the positioning part 15, the sliding part 13 can be moved in the vertical direction relative to the protruding rod 12.

[0019] The mounting portion 14 is fitted with the illumination member 3, and the loupes 4, 4 and line-of-sight passing units 5, 6 via the support member 8. The support member 8 allows the loupes 4, 4 and line-of-sight passing units 5, 6 to be tilted relative to the mounting portion 14 (and illumination member 3). The illumination member 3, loupes 4, 4, and line-of-sight passing units 5, 6 can be moved up and down integrally and positioned and fixed at a desired vertical position by the connecting member 7. The mounting portion 14 allows them to be tilted up and down integrally relative to the sliding portion 13. Furthermore, the support member 8 allows the loupes 4, 4 and line-of-sight passing units 5, 6 to be tilted integrally relative to the mounting portion 14 and illumination member 3. In this embodiment, the left and right loupes 4, 4 are arranged adjacent to and immediately in front of the left and right line-of-sight passing units 5, 6.

[0020] The illumination member 3 is equipped with an LED light, and is connected to a power source and a switch (not shown) via a cable that supplies power to the LED light. The illumination member 3 can illuminate an object viewed through the visual recognition passing units 5 and 6, improving the visibility of the object.

[0021] Next, the line-of-sight passing units 5 and 6, which are essential parts of the present invention, will be described. 1 and 2, left and right loupes 4, 4 and line-of-sight passing units 5, 6 are fixed to the left and right sides of the support member 8, respectively. The left line-of-sight passing unit 5 comprises a housing 21 and a prism 31 disposed inside the housing 21, and the right line-of-sight passing unit 6 comprises a housing 22 and a prism 31 and a camera 35 disposed inside the housing 22. The line-of-sight passing unit 6 corresponds to the line-of-sight passing member according to the present invention, and the camera 35 corresponds to the imaging means according to the present invention.

[0022] As shown in Fig. 3, the housing 21 constituting the left-side line-of-sight unit 5 has a generally rectangular parallelepiped shape that is elongated in the left-right direction, and houses the prism 31 therein. The housing 21 has opposing windows 25, 25 formed in its front and rear surfaces. These windows 25, 25 are provided so as to face the front and rear surfaces, respectively, of the prism 31 disposed inside the housing 21. As a result, substantially the entire front surface of the prism 31 of the housing 21 is exposed forward through the window 25 in the front surface, and substantially the entire rear surface is exposed rearward through the window 25 in the rear surface.

[0023] As shown in FIG. 4 , the housing 22 constituting the right-side line-of-sight unit 6 is composed of a main body 22a having a generally rectangular parallelepiped shape elongated in the left-right direction and a protruding portion 22b having a generally rectangular parallelepiped shape protruding upward from the main body 22a, with the interior of the main body 22a and the interior of the protruding portion 22b communicating with each other. The prism 31 is housed inside the main body 22a, and the camera 35 is housed inside the protruding portion 22b. Similarly to the left-side housing 21 described above, the main body 22a has opposing windows 26, 26 formed on its front and rear surfaces. Similar to the left-side housing 21, these windows 26, 26 are provided so as to face the front and rear, respectively, of the prism 31 disposed in the main body 22a of the housing 22. As a result, the prism 31 of the housing 22 has almost the entire front surface exposed forward through the window 26 in the front portion, and almost the entire rear surface exposed rearward through the window 26 in the rear portion.

[0024] Here, the left and right magnifying glasses 4, 4 arranged just before each line-of-sight unit 5, 6 are formed to be larger in size than the window portions 25, 26 on the front surface of the housings 21, 22, and are arranged to cover the entire area of ​​the window portions 25, 26 from the front.

[0025] The prism 31 disposed in the housings 21 and 22 is a rectangular parallelepiped formed by joining two right-angle prisms 32, 32 together with their inclined surfaces 32a, 32a overlapping, and is a so-called beam splitter, as shown in Fig. 5. Here, the right-angle prism 32 has a width w between the two side surfaces of a right triangle that is longer than the base length s of the side surfaces (front-to-back width of the prism 31) and the height t (vertical width of the prism 31). The prism 31, which is made up of these two right-angle prisms 32, 32, is disposed inside the housings 21 and 22, respectively, with the inclined surfaces 32a inclined downward toward the front (see Figs. 3 and 4).

[0026] Prism 31 has a mirror coating applied to the slope 32a of the rectangular prism 32 that constitutes it, with a transmittance (transparency) of 20 to 50%. The right-side prism 31 (line-of-sight unit 6) has an anti-reflection coating applied to its front, rear, and top surfaces, and a black coating applied to the other three surfaces (left and right side surfaces and bottom surface) to suppress light input and output. Meanwhile, the left-side prism 31 (line-of-sight unit 5) has an anti-reflection coating applied to its front and rear surfaces, and a black coating applied to the other four surfaces (left and right side surfaces, top surface, and bottom surface) to suppress light input and output. The mirror coating applied to the slope 32a of rectangular prism 32 corresponds to the transmission / reflection means of the present invention.

[0027] The camera 35 disposed in the right-side line-of-sight unit 6 is configured by a CCD camera, and as shown in Fig. 4, is disposed inside the protruding portion 22b of the housing 22 with the camera lens facing the upper surface of the prism 31 disposed in the main body portion 22a of the housing 22. Here, the maximum angle of view of the camera 35 is set to at least match the width of the prism 31 so that light incident through the prism 31 is captured by the imaging element.

[0028] In these line-of-sight units 5 and 6, incident light from the loupes 4 and 4 located immediately in front of each unit enters the prisms 31 and 31 through the windows 25 and 26 of the housings 21 and 22. The incident light entering the prisms 31 and 31 is then separated into transmitted light that passes through the inclined surfaces 32a and 32a of the prisms 31 and reflected light that reflects upward from the inclined surfaces 32a. The transmitted light that passes through the prisms 31 and 31 can be viewed by the wearer through the windows 25 and 26 of the housings 21 and 22. In the right line-of-sight unit 6, the reflected light reflected from the inclined surface 32a of the prism 31 is captured by the imaging element via the lens of the camera 35. That is, the optical axis of the camera 35 is refracted forward by the inclined surface 32a of the prism 31. As a result, the camera 35 can capture images within the wearer's field of view through the horizontally elongated prism 31.

[0029] Here, in this embodiment, the configuration is such that the wearer can view the transmitted light that has passed through the prism 31 provided in the left line-of-sight passing unit 5. By providing the same prisms 31, 31 in the left and right line-of-sight passing units 5, 6, respectively, it is possible to prevent the wearer from feeling uncomfortable with the images that are reflected in the left and right eyes of the wearer through the prisms 31, 31.

[0030] As shown in FIG. 1 , the camera 35 is connected to a cable 39 and to a control device 38 via the cable 39. The control device 38 transmits and receives signals instructing the camera 35 to capture images and image data captured by the camera 35 via the cable 39, and also supplies power to the camera 35. The control device 38 can communicate image data input from the camera 35 via a network using the wireless communication function. Furthermore, the control device 38 of this embodiment includes a data processing means that processes the image data input from the camera 35 so that the up, down, left, and right directions of the image data match the image seen by the wearer. Here, the camera 35 captures an image (mirror image) reflected on the inclined surface 32a of the prism 31 from above, so the up, down, left, and right directions of the captured image differ from the image seen by the wearer (the image seen through the inclined surface 32a). The data processing means performs data processing by appropriately converting the up, down, left, and right directions of the image data captured by the camera 35 to match the image seen by the wearer. The control device 38 outputs the image data processed by the data processing means through the wireless communication function. As a result, when the image data (still image or video data) communicated through the wireless communication function is displayed on an image display device such as a monitor, the image displayed on the image display device and the image seen by the wearer through the viewing units 5 and 6 match in the up, down, left, and right directions.

[0031] The data processing means may be a conventionally known means, and details thereof will be omitted. The wireless communication function may be, for example, Wi-Fi (registered trademark) or Bluetooth (registered trademark).

[0032] In the head-mounted visual device 1 of this embodiment, the head belt 2 is attached to the wearer's head, and the left and right line-of-sight units 5, 6 are positioned directly in front of the wearer's eyes, allowing the wearer to view an object in a magnified view. The wearer's left and right eyes view the object through the prisms 31, 31 of the line-of-sight units 5, 6 and the magnifying glasses 4, 4. That is, the line of sight of the left eye passes through the left prism 31 and magnifying glass 4 to reach the object, and the line of sight of the right eye passes through the right prism 31 and magnifying glass 4 to reach the object.

[0033] Here, as described above, the left and right line-of-sight units 5 and 6 are configured with horizontally elongated rectangular parallelepiped prisms 31. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 6(A), the horizontal field of view is widened in accordance with the width of the prisms 31 (the width of the windows 25 and 26 of the housings 21 and 22). In contrast, in a conventional configuration with a cubic prism 81, the width of the cubic prism 81 is shorter than that of the prism 31 of this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6(B). Therefore, the configuration of this embodiment provides a wider horizontal field of view for the wearer than the conventional configuration. Furthermore, in this embodiment, the wearer can move their line of sight left and right within the range of the width of the prism 31. In other words, the range in which the line of sight can be moved left and right is also wider than that of the cubic prism 81 described above. For comparison, this conventional configuration has the same configuration as the embodiment except for the prism 81, and the prism 81 of the conventional configuration has the same vertical width as the prism 31 of the embodiment, and is a cube with the same vertical and horizontal widths.

[0034] As described above, the angle of view of the camera 35 of the line-of-sight unit 6 can be set to match the width of the prism 31, and therefore, an image can be captured within the wearer's field of view.

[0035] As described above, the head-mounted visual device 1 of this embodiment is configured with horizontally elongated rectangular prisms 31, 31. Therefore, the wearer's horizontal field of view is broadened in accordance with the width of the prism 31, and the range in which the wearer's gaze can be moved horizontally is also broadened. This improves the wearer's operability. Furthermore, the horizontally elongated rectangular prism 31 is lighter than a cubic prism with the same horizontal width (i.e., the same field of view) because its vertical width is shorter. As a specific example, when the horizontal width w is twice the vertical width t and the front-to-back width s is the same as the vertical width t, the prism 31 of this embodiment weighs approximately one-quarter as much as a cubic prism 81 with the same horizontal width. As described above, the configuration of this embodiment is lighter than a cubic prism with the same horizontal field of view, which reduces the burden on the wearer and makes it suitable for relatively long-term use.

[0036] Furthermore, the optical axis of the camera 35 of the line-of-sight unit 6 is refracted forward by the prism 31 (slope 32a) and reaches the object via the magnifying glass 4, and the angle of view is set in accordance with the width of the prism 31. This allows the camera 35 to capture an image of a range that is approximately the same as the wearer's left-right field of view through the horizontally elongated prism 31.

[0037] Furthermore, in the configuration of this embodiment, the control device 38 outputs (communicates) the image data captured by the camera 35 in the up, down, left, and right directions in a manner that matches the image seen by the wearer. Therefore, by displaying the output image data (still image or video data) on a monitor, anyone looking at the monitor can see the same thing as the wearer.

[0038] The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For example, the dimensions and shapes of the components in the above-described embodiments can be modified as needed.

[0039] The head-mounted visual confirmation device in the embodiment is configured with a camera in the right line-of-sight unit, but is not limited to this, and may be configured with a camera in the left line-of-sight unit, or with cameras in both the left and right line-of-sight units.

[0040] The head-mounted visual device in the embodiment is configured with a horizontally elongated prism made of a right-angle prism with a slope that slopes downward toward the front, but is not limited to this, and may be configured with a horizontally elongated prism made of a right-angle prism with a slope that slopes upward toward the front. In this configuration, light incident on the prism from the front is reflected downward by the slope, and a camera is disposed below the prism.

[0041] The head-mounted visual device in the embodiment is configured with a magnifying glass located just in front of the line-of-sight unit, but this is not limited to this, and the device may be configured without a magnifying glass, or with a magnifying glass located just behind the line-of-sight unit.

[0042] The head-mounted visual device in the embodiment is configured with a head belt to be worn on the head, but is not limited to this and may be a type that is worn by hanging it on the ears like a frame of glasses.

[0043] In the head-mounted visual device of the embodiment, the control device having a wireless communication function is configured to include a data processing means for converting the up / down / left / right directions of image data, but this is not limited to this, and the data processing means may be included in the camera. Here, if the camera is configured to also have a wireless communication function, the up / down / left / right converted image data can be directly transmitted from the camera.

[0044] In the embodiment, the head-mounted visual device is configured to include a data processing means for converting the up / down and left / right directions of the image data, but this is not limiting, and the data processing means may also be included in a receiving device or an image display device (monitor) that receives image data (data before conversion) transmitted from a control device. In this way, when the receiving device or the image display device includes the data processing means, the system includes these devices and the head-mounted visual device.

[0045] In the embodiments, the control device may be configured to include, in addition to the data processing means, a processing means for converting image data captured by the camera into data that can be output as a stereoscopic image (three-dimensional image). Also, the camera may be configured to include this processing means, or a receiving device or image display device that receives image data transmitted from the control device may be configured to include this processing means. [Explanation of symbols]

[0046] 1 Head-mounted imaging device 2 Head Belt 5,6 Line of sight unit 31 Prism 32 Right-angle prism 32a Slope 35 Camera

Claims

1. a head-mounted unit to be mounted on the head of a wearer; a line-of-sight member attached to the head-mounted portion and allowing at least one of the wearer's left and right lines of sight to pass forward; an imaging means arranged adjacent to the line-of-sight member and capable of imaging an object through the line-of-sight member; Equipped with The line-of-sight member is A head-mounted visual device comprising a horizontally elongated rectangular parallelepiped prism that passes the wearer's line of sight forward and refracts the optical axis of the imaging means forward.

2. The prism of the line-of-sight component is Two right-angle prisms each having a slope that slopes downward or upward toward the front are overlapped with each other to form an integrated rectangular parallelepiped shape, and a transmission / reflection means is provided on the slope to separate light incident from the front into transmitted light that is transmitted backward and reflected light that is reflected upward or downward, 2. The head-mounted visual device according to claim 1, wherein the imaging means is disposed above or below the prism, and the optical axis of the imaging means is refracted forward by the inclined surface of the prism.

Images