Control device

Abstract

To enable optimization of the position of a display input unit for unspecified users.SOLUTION: A control device is provided, comprising an input unit having an area for receiving input from a user, an image capturing unit capable of capturing an image of the user, and a control unit configured to move the area up and down depending on the height of the eyes of the user based on the image captured by the image capturing unit.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a control device. [Background technology]

[0002] There are known image display devices such as digital signage that are installed in stores and the like to display images to users. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a display system that includes a drive unit that moves the position of a display. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] JP 2011-114707 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] When a display input unit such as a touch display is used in an image display device, the needs of unspecified users are diverse, including not only viewing images but also performing touch operations, and the height and posture of users are also diverse. Therefore, there is room for optimizing the position of the display input unit.

[0005] In the following, a control device is disclosed that allows for optimization of the position of a display input for an unspecified user. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] The control device in the present disclosure includes an input unit having an area for accepting user input, an imaging unit capable of imaging the user, and a control unit that raises and lowers the area in accordance with the user's eye height based on an image captured by the imaging unit. Effect of the Invention

[0007] According to the control device of the present disclosure, it is possible to optimize the position of the display input unit for unspecified users. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0008] [Figure 1] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of a control device. [Diagram 2] FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the operation of the control device. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0009] The following describes the embodiments.

[0010] FIG. 1 shows an example of the configuration and use of a control device according to this embodiment.

[0011] The image display device 1 includes a display input device 10 and a control device 100 that is connected to the display input device 10 so as to be able to transmit and receive various information. A configuration including the display input device 10 and the control device 100 corresponds to the "control device" of this embodiment.

[0012] The display input device 10 includes a display input section 16, an imaging section 18, and an audio output section 19. The display input device 10 may further include a drive section 14.

[0013] The display input unit 16 is a touch display that is integrated with a display for displaying images and a touch panel for receiving touch operations superimposed thereon. The display is, for example, an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) or an organic EL (Electro-Luminescence) display. The display input unit 16 has any dimension and size. The display input unit 16 has a size of, for example, about 100 centimeters in height and 50 centimeters in width. The size and aspect ratio are examples and are not limited to the values ​​shown here. The display input unit 16 has a display input area 17 that displays images for display and a graphical user interface (hereinafter referred to as GUI) for operation. The display input area 17 may cover the entire area of ​​the touch display or may be a part of it. The display input unit 16 displays various images and GUIs in the display input area 17 under the control of the control device 100, receives operations on the display input area 17 from users 101 and 102, and sends input information corresponding to the operations to the control device 100. The display input area 17 is configured to be movable up and down under the control of the control device 100. The display input area 17 may be raised and lowered by the display input unit 16 itself being driven to rise and fall by the drive unit 14, or the position at which the display input area 17 is formed as an image on the display input unit 16 may be raised and lowered by software processing.

[0014] The drive unit 14 has any mechanism for moving the display input unit 16 up and down while supporting it. The drive unit 14 has, for example, a guide mechanism for supporting and guiding the elevation of the display input unit 16, a motor as a power source for the elevation, and a gear mechanism for transmitting the power of the motor to the display input unit 16. The drive unit 14 operates under the control of the control device 100.

[0015] The imaging unit 18 is provided at a position and angle where it can capture images of the users 101, 102 of the display input unit 16. The imaging unit 18 is provided at an arbitrary position, for example, above the display input unit 16 in the display input device 10, but may be provided on the side of the environment in which the display input device 10 is installed. The imaging unit 18 has a visible light camera that captures an image of a subject using visible light, a distance measurement sensor that measures the distance to the subject and obtains a distance image, and a control circuit for these. The distance measurement sensor includes a ToF (Time Of Flight) camera, a LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging), and a stereo camera, and generates a distance image of the subject including distance information. The imaging unit 18 sends the captured image and the distance image to the control device 100.

[0016] The audio output unit 19 has a speaker that outputs audio to the users 101, 102 and a control circuit for the speaker. The audio output unit 19 is provided, for example, at an arbitrary position around the display input unit 16 of the display input device 10, but may be provided in the environment in which the display input device 10 is installed. The audio output unit 19 outputs audio corresponding to an audio signal sent from the control device 100.

[0017] The control device 100 may be configured integrally with the display input device 10, or may be configured as a separate information processing device capable of communicating with the display input device 10. The control device 100 has a communication unit 11, a storage unit 12, and a control unit 13.

[0018] The image display device 1 in this embodiment includes a display input unit 16 having a display input area 17 that displays an image to a user and accepts user operation input, an imaging unit 18 that can image the user, and a control unit 13 that raises and lowers the display input area 17 according to the eye height of the user detected based on the image captured by the imaging unit 18. The eye height is the height from the ground to the position of the user's eyes, and changes according to the user's situation. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, the eye height of a standing user 102 is higher than the eye height of a user 101 sitting in a wheelchair. The heights and postures (e.g., standing or sitting) of unspecified users (the number of users is an arbitrary number greater than one and is not specified) that come and go are diverse, and the eye heights are diverse. The control unit 13 raises and lowers the display input area 17 according to the average eye height of the users detected from the captured image, so that it is possible to display images and provide a GUI at an optimal height for the user. Therefore, it is possible to optimize the position of the display input area 17 for unspecified users.

[0019] The configuration of each part of the control device 100 will be described.

[0020] The communication unit 11 includes one or more communication interfaces. The communication interface is, for example, a LAN (Local Area Network) interface. The control device 100 is connected to a network including a LAN and the Internet by the communication unit 11, and transmits and receives various information.

[0021] The storage unit 12 includes, for example, one or more semiconductor memories, one or more magnetic memories, one or more optical memories, or a combination of at least two of these, that function as a main storage device, an auxiliary storage device, or a cache memory. The semiconductor memory is, for example, a random access memory (RAM) or a read only memory (ROM). The RAM is, for example, a static RAM (SRAM) or a dynamic RAM (DRAM). The ROM is, for example, an electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM). The storage unit 12 stores information used in the operation of the control unit 13 and information obtained by the operation of the control unit 13.

[0022] The control unit 13 includes one or more processors, one or more dedicated circuits, or a combination of these. The processor is, for example, a general-purpose processor such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit), or a dedicated processor such as a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) specialized for specific processing. The dedicated circuit is, for example, an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array), an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), etc. The control unit 13 executes information processing related to the operation of the control device 100 while controlling each part of the control device 100.

[0023] 2 is a flow chart illustrating the operation procedure of the image display device 1. The procedure shown here is executed by the control unit 13 at an arbitrarily set cycle. The cycle is, for example, several milliseconds to several seconds.

[0024] In step S200, the control unit 13 acquires a captured image and a distance image. The imaging unit 18 captures an image of the surroundings of the image display device 1 at an arbitrarily set frame rate and acquires a distance image. The control unit 103 acquires the captured image and the distance image from the imaging unit 18.

[0025] In step S201, the control unit 13 derives the eye height and position of each user based on the captured image. The control unit 13 detects users from the captured image by image processing such as pattern recognition, and further detects the eyes of each user. The control unit 13 derives the distance and direction from the imaging unit 18 to, for example, the center position of both eyes for each detected user or users, using the distance image. Then, the control unit 13 derives each user and the spatial coordinates of their eyes using information on the spatial coordinates of the imaging unit 18 stored in advance in the memory unit 12. Here, the eye height is specified by a vertical coordinate based on the floor or ground.

[0026] In step S202, the control unit 13 derives the amount of elevation of the display input area 17. The control unit 13 derives the distance of each user from the display input area 17 using the coordinate information of the display input area 17 stored in the storage unit 12 at any time, and derives the average (hereinafter referred to as the average distance). The control unit 13 also derives the average eye height of the users (hereinafter referred to as the average eye height). The control unit 13 derives the optimal height of the display input area 17 corresponding to the average eye height at the average distance (hereinafter referred to as the optimal height). The height of the display input area 17 is specified, for example, by the height of its center. The optimal height corresponds, for example, to 10 degrees to 15 degrees below the average eye height at the average distance. The control unit 13 then derives the difference between the current height of the display input area 17 stored in the storage unit 12 and the optimal height as the amount of elevation to be performed.

[0027] When multiple users are captured, the control unit 13 may select users to be included in the calculation of the average distance and the average eye height. For example, the control unit 13 may include only users located within an arbitrary reference distance range (for example, several tens of centimeters to several meters) from the display input area 17. The control unit 13 may also derive the moving speed of the user from the change over time of the captured image, and may include users who approach the reference distance range at an arbitrary speed or more as the users to be included in the calculation, or may exclude users who move away from the display input area 17 at an arbitrary speed or more even if they are within the reference distance range. Furthermore, when deriving the average eye height, the control unit 13 may assign a higher weight to the lower the eye height of the user, and a higher weight to the closer the distance of the user from the display input area 17. This makes it possible to give priority to users who are relatively short or who are in a sitting position and therefore have difficulty viewing the image because they are blocked by other users.

[0028] In step S203, the control unit 13 determines whether or not it is necessary to raise or lower the display input area 17. If the amount of raising or lowering is equal to or greater than an arbitrarily set reference value (e.g., 2 to 5 centimeters), the control unit 13 determines that raising or lowering is necessary (Yes) and proceeds to step S204. If the amount of raising or lowering is less than the reference value, that is, if the current height of the display input area 17 is approximately equal to the optimal height (No), this procedure ends without raising or lowering the display input area 17.

[0029] In step S204, the control unit 13 judges whether or not a user operation is being accepted. The control unit 13 judges that an input corresponding to an operation is being accepted when the control unit 13 acquires an input from the display input unit 16, and judges that an input is not being accepted when the control unit 13 does not acquire an input. The case where an input is acquired includes a case where an input is acquired within an arbitrary reference time (for example, several seconds to several tens of seconds) from the most recent input. It is also possible to judge whether or not an operation input is being accepted according to a transition state of a GUI acquired from the display input unit 16. For example, when a hierarchical menu screen is displayed as a GUI, it is possible to judge that an operation input is not being accepted in the case of the topmost hierarchy, and to judge that an operation input is being accepted in the case of a hierarchy lower than the topmost hierarchy, since there is a high probability that an operation is in progress. Alternatively, the control unit 13 may detect a behavior of the user from a change over time in a captured image, and judge whether or not an operation input is being accepted according to the behavior. For example, it is possible to judge that an operation input is being accepted when the direction of the head of the user closest to the display input unit 16 is fixed for several seconds while facing the display input area 17. If an operation is being accepted (Yes), the control unit 13 ends this procedure without raising or lowering the display input area 17. This makes it possible to avoid the inconvenience of the GUI moving during an operation for a user who is operating. On the other hand, if an operation is not being accepted (No), the control unit 13 proceeds to step S205 and raises or lowers the display input area 17.

[0030] In step S205, control unit 13 raises and lowers display input area 17. For example, control unit 13 instructs drive unit 14 to drive according to the amount of elevation, and raises and lowers display input area 17 together with display input unit 16. Alternatively, control unit 13 sends information to display input unit 16 for displaying an image in which the display position of display input area 17 has been moved according to the amount of elevation, and causes display input unit 16 to move display input area 17.

[0031] By repeating steps S200 to S205, the display input area 17 is raised or lowered to a height according to the optimal height.

[0032] According to the above-described embodiment, it is possible to optimize the position of the display input area 17 for unspecified users.

[0033] In the above-described embodiment, the processing / control program that specifies the operation of the control unit 13 of the control device 100 may be downloaded from a server device with which communication is possible via a network, or may be stored in a readable recording / storage medium and read by the control device 100 from the medium.

[0034] In the above, the embodiment has been described based on the drawings and examples, but it should be noted that those skilled in the art can easily make various modifications and corrections based on the present disclosure. Therefore, it should be noted that these modifications and corrections are included in the scope of the present disclosure. For example, the functions included in each means, each step, etc. can be rearranged so as not to be logically inconsistent, and multiple means, steps, etc. can be combined into one or divided into one. [Explanation of symbols]

[0035] 1 Image display device 10 Display and input devices 11 Communications Department 12 Storage section 13 Control section 14 Drive unit 16 Display and input section 17 Display Input Area 18 Imaging section 19 Audio output section 100 Control device

Claims

[Claim 1] An input unit having an area for receiving input from one or more users among an unspecified number of users including at least a standing user and a user sitting in a wheelchair; An imaging unit capable of imaging the plurality of users; a control unit that raises and lowers the area in accordance with an eye height of a user within a reference distance from the input unit based on an image captured by the imaging unit; have Control device.

Images