Camera-Offset Correction for Video-See-Through Headsets
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional video-see-through head mounted display systems fail to accurately align the captured video images with the user's actual viewpoint due to camera placement discrepancies, leading to distortions in distance, position, and size perception.
Innovation Solution
A head mounted display system with at least two video cameras mounted adjacent to the display, relative to the user's pupils, and a computational device that processes the captured images to generate a view corresponding to the user's actual viewpoint, using techniques like light field rendering to correct for these discrepancies.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If video cameras are mounted on the exterior of the head mounted display, then the system can capture video images of the physical world, but the viewpoint of the captured images does not correspond to the user's actual pupil position
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary computational process that captures images from externally mounted cameras and processes them to generate corrected images that appear to originate from the user's pupil position. This mediator (image processing system) bridges the gap between the physical camera location and the virtual pupil location, allowing external camera mounting while maintaining viewpoint accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a virtual copy of the pupil viewpoint by processing camera images through computational algorithms that generate a synthesized view matching what the user would actually see from their pupil position. This copying approach allows the use of externally mounted cameras while producing images that accurately represent the internal pupil viewpoint.
2Device complexity
If cameras are mounted at different physical locations than the user's pupils, then the head mounted display can be structurally simplified, but distortions in distance, position, and size perception occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical solution of mounting cameras exactly at the pupil position with a computational solution. Instead of mechanically positioning cameras at the precise pupil location (which would complicate the device structure), the system uses image processing algorithms to correct the viewpoint, substituting mechanical precision with computational correction.
3Measurement precision
If computational processing is applied to generate images from the user's viewpoint, then viewpoint accuracy is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary computational processing of the camera images to pre-correct the viewpoint before displaying to the user. By performing the viewpoint correction in advance (preliminarily processing the images through the graphical processing unit), the system achieves accurate viewpoint alignment while managing computational complexity through efficient preprocessing.
Data Source
AI summary
A head mounted display system with video-see-through (VST) is taught. The system and method process video images captured by at least two forward facing video cameras mounted to the headset to produce generated images whose viewpoints correspond to the viewpoint of the user if the user was not wearing the display system. By generating VST images which have viewpoints corresponding to the user's viewpoint, errors in sizing, distances and positions of objects in the VST images are prevented.