JPH09330042A - Head-mounted display device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) 【Abstract】 PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize efficient power supply and achieve power saving, and to maintain a portable battery even when a backlight or the like which consumes a large amount of power is used as a light source of image display light. (EN) Provided is a head-mounted display device capable of lengthening a period and erasing a display image from a range of a visual field of an observer when image display is unnecessary, thereby preventing an unnecessary image from obstructing the visual field of the observer. An image display power supply amount is set to be smaller than an amount set to allow an observer to visually recognize an image when a preset power amount reduction condition is satisfied.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a head-mounted display device having image display light emitting means that can be mounted on the head of an observer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A head-mounted display device having an image display light emitting means that can be mounted on the head of an observer is used for various purposes such as for amusement and research. In such a head-mounted display device, a battery carried by an observer may be used as a power supply source of the image display power.

That is, when the power supply source and the head-mounted display device can be connected via a power supply cable, it is not necessary to use such a portable battery. However, in recent years, for example, it is assumed that an operator who operates a device or a worker who is engaged in a physical distribution work attaches the head-mounted display device and sends an image necessary for the work by wireless communication. In such a case, the observer wearing the head-mounted display device has a wide range of action, and an image signal output device such as a laser disk player, a computer, or a camera is arranged separately from the observer, and the image signal is output from the head. It is necessary to externally transmit wirelessly to the part-mounted display device. Therefore, it is difficult to supply the image display power through a cable, and it is necessary to supply the image display power from a battery carried by an observer.

[0004]

When an observer carries such a battery for power supply, it is desirable that the battery be as small and lightweight as possible. However, the smaller and lighter the battery, the smaller the power capacity, so replacement and charging will be required at an early stage. In particular, the image display light from the liquid crystal display device with a backlight,
Bringing into the observer's field of view through an optical system requires a high power consumption backlight to produce a clear image and requires frequent battery replacement.

[0005] It is an object of the present invention to provide a head mounted display which can solve the above problems.

[0006]

The first feature of the present invention is to:
In a head-mounted display device having an image display light emitting means that can be mounted on the observer's head, when the preset power amount reduction condition is satisfied, the image display power supply amount is displayed to the observer. The point is to make it less than the amount set for visual recognition. As a result, by satisfying the power amount reduction condition determined according to the necessity of supplying the image display power,
The image display power can be automatically reduced below the set amount.

A second feature of the present invention is a head-mounted display device having an image display light emitting means that can be mounted on the observer's head, and is provided with an external signal receiving means via the receiving means. When receiving an external signal that instructs to reduce the amount of power,
The point is that the supply amount of the image display power is set to be smaller than the amount set for allowing the observer to visually recognize the image. Thus, when the image display power is not required to be supplied, the image display power can be made smaller than the set amount by externally sending a signal instructing the head mounted display device to reduce the power amount. it can.

A third feature of the present invention is, in a head mounted display device having image display light emitting means that can be mounted on the observer's head, a display position for guiding the image display light to the observer's visual field range. And an optical system that is movable between the display cancellation position and the display cancellation position.When the optical system is located at the display cancellation position, the amount of power for image display is displayed to the observer. The point is to make it less than the amount set for visual recognition. Thereby, the observer displaces the optical system to the display cancel position when the image display is not necessary, so that the image display power can be made smaller than the set amount.

In the present invention, when the image display power is reduced from the set amount, the amount of reduction is not particularly limited, and the image display power may be left slightly after the reduction or may be set to zero. May be.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

The head-mounted display device 1 shown in FIG. 1 has a holder 5 that can be mounted on the head of an observer 4, a display 6 held by the holder 5, and a holder 4 on the waist of the observer 4. A control unit 7 that can be mounted via a belt 11, and a wireless communication modem 8 for receiving an external signal that is mounted on the observer 4 via the belt 11.
And The control unit 7 has a built-in battery serving as a power supply source for image display power, so that the observer 4 can carry the battery. In the present embodiment, the head-mounted display device 1 allows an image to be viewed only by one eye of the observer 4, but may be viewed by both eyes.
The display unit 6a is connected to the control unit 7 via a cable 9.

The holding portion 5 is attached to the head of the observer 4 by forming a band shape in the illustrated example, but the form is not limited and may be a helmet shape, for example. In the present invention, the head refers to a portion above the neck including the face.

The display unit 6 includes a display unit 6a for image display light, an optical system 6b for changing the optical path of the image display light to guide it to the visual field range of the observer 4, the display unit 6a and the optical system 6b. And an arm 6c for connecting to each other.

The display unit 6a is, as shown in FIG. 2, a backlight 3 composed of a cold cathode tube with a reflecting mirror.
2, an inverter 33 for controlling the frequency of the backlight 32, a heat absorption filter 34 that absorbs heat of the backlight 32, a liquid crystal panel 35, and the backlight 3 thereof.
2 and a scattering plate 36 which guides the unevenness of light to the liquid crystal panel 35. Image display light is emitted from the front surface of the liquid crystal panel 35. A CRT display, for example, may be used instead of the liquid crystal panel 35 with the backlight 32. A halogen lamp may be used as the backlight.

The optical system 6b is composed of a combiner such as a half mirror or a hologram element that changes the optical path of the image display light by reflection or diffraction and transmits the light from the front. The optical system 6b may be configured by a mirror or the like that changes the optical path by reflecting the image display light, and may further include a condensing lens system.

The control section 7 includes a controller 41, a driver 42 for the liquid crystal panel 35, a control device 43,
And an input / output interface 44. The interface 44 can process the image signal sent from the image signal generation device 50 to the controller 41 via the wireless communication modem 8 and the wireless communication modem 51 connected to the image signal generation device 50. It is converted to a different format and transmitted. Further, a signal for determining whether or not the image signal is input is transmitted from the interface 44 to the control device 43. The image signal generating device 50
Can be composed of, for example, a laser disc player, a computer, a camera, or the like. Its controller 41
Outputs a signal necessary for generating an image corresponding to the transmitted image signal to the liquid crystal panel 35 via the driver 42. Further, the controller 41 controls the inverter 33 so that the light quantity of the backlight 32 becomes a set quantity required for the observer 4 to visually recognize the image.
Output the frequency setting signal to. In the present embodiment, the image generated by the image signal generation device 50 is a still image, and the controller 41 causes the liquid crystal panel 35 to display the still image until a power amount reduction condition described later is satisfied, and also the backlight. The light quantity of 32 is maintained at the set quantity.

The control device 43 has a memory for storing a control program including preset power amount reduction conditions,
In addition to determining whether the conditions for reducing power consumption have been met,
When the condition is satisfied, the controller 4 sends a power reduction signal.
1 and a CPU for outputting to 1. In the present embodiment, the power amount reduction condition is satisfied when the image signal is not output from the image signal generation device 50 within a set time (for example, 5 minutes). The controller 41 is the controller 4
When the power amount reduction signal is sent from 3, the amount of image display power supplied from the battery 60 to the display unit 6a is made smaller than the amount set for the observer 4 to visually recognize the image. In this embodiment, the liquid crystal panel 35 is used.
Therefore, the amount of power supplied to the driver 42 is set to zero so that an image is not formed, and a signal for reducing the frequency of the inverter 33 is output to reduce the amount of power supplied to the backlight 32. The amount of light is reduced until the image cannot be visually recognized by the observer 4.

The power amount reducing condition is not limited to the above condition. For example, a sensor that detects the movement of the pupil of the observer 4 is connected to the control device 43, and the pupil of the observer 4 is connected to the optical system 6
When facing a direction other than the position of b for the set time or more, the power amount reduction condition may be satisfied. In addition, the control device 43 may be provided with a timer, and the power amount reduction condition may be satisfied by the elapse of a certain time after the image signal is output from the image signal generation device 50. Further, when a sensor that detects the opening and closing of the eyelid of the observer is connected to the control device 43 and the eyelid is closed for a certain time or longer, the power amount reduction condition may be satisfied.

FIG. 3A shows a state in which the image sent from the image signal generating device 50 is displayed by the head-mounted display device 1, and the observer 4 has its optical path changed by the optical system 6b. Both an image based on the image display light and a real object based on the light from the front that passes through the optical system 6b can be visually recognized. In the illustrated example, information of the luggage 55 carried by the viewer 4 is displayed as an image 90. (2) of FIG. 3 shows a state in which the supply amount of the image display power is reduced, and the observer 4 can visually recognize only the existing object based on the light from the front that passes through the optical system 6b.

According to the above configuration, the image display power can be automatically made smaller than the set amount by satisfying the power reduction condition. As a result, efficient power supply can be realized to save power, and the duration of the portable battery 60 can be extended even when the backlight 32, which consumes a large amount of power, is used as the light source of the image display light. You can Furthermore, when the image display is unnecessary, the display image is erased from the observer's visual field range, so that the unnecessary image can be prevented from obstructing the observer 4's visual field.

4 and 5 show a second embodiment of the present invention. The difference from the first embodiment is that, first, as shown in FIG. 4, the arm 6c that connects the optical system 6b to the emission unit 6a has a right-and-left axis as shown by an arrow P in the figure with respect to the emission unit 6a. A display position that is swingably connected to the center and that swings the optical system 6b to guide the image display light to the visual field range of the observer 4 and a display release that does not disturb the visual field range of the observer 4 The position can be changed to and from the position. Further, the optical system 6b is swingably connected to the arm 6c about the vertical axis as indicated by an arrow Q in the figure, and the swing causes the optical system 6b to move its image display light to the observer 4. The position can be changed between a display position that leads to the visual field range and a display cancel position that does not disturb the outside of the visual field range of the observer 4. Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the swing angle detection sensor 71 of the arm 6c and the swing angle detection sensor 72 of the optical system 6b are provided in the control device 43.
It is connected to the. The control device 43 controls each sensor 72
It is determined whether or not the optical system 6b is in the display cancel position by the signal from the power source, and if it is in the display cancel position, a power amount reduction signal is sent to the controller 41. Other parts are the same as those of the first embodiment, and the same parts are denoted by the same reference numerals. This allows the observer 4
By displacing the optical system 6b to the display cancel position when the image display is unnecessary, the image display power can be made smaller than the set amount. Incidentally, instead of the angle detection sensor,
For example, a proximity switch that outputs a signal when the optical system 6b is displaced to the display cancel position may be used.

Further, in each of the above-mentioned embodiments, the image signal generating device 50 may be constituted by an external computer capable of outputting an external signal instructing the reduction of the electric energy from the outside of the head mounted display device 1. In this case, the external signal is received by the head-mounted display device 1 via the wireless communication modem 8 and input to the control device 43. In response to the input of the external signal, the control device 43 sends a power amount reduction signal to the controller 41. As a result, when the power for image display is not required to be supplied, the power for image display can be made smaller than the set amount by sending a signal from the outside to the head-mounted display device 1 to instruct to reduce the amount of power. You can The external signal is output at an arbitrary time, for example, by an operator of the external computer, or it is determined by the control program of the external computer whether or not the power amount reduction condition is satisfied, and is output when the condition is satisfied. be able to.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, the image displayed by the head-mounted display device may be a moving image.

[0024]

According to the head mounted display of the present invention,
Efficient power supply can be realized to save power, and the duration of the portable battery can be extended even when a backlight or the like with high power consumption is used as a light source of image display light. Furthermore, by eliminating the display image from the observer's visual field range when the image display is unnecessary, it is possible to prevent the unnecessary image from obstructing the observer's visual field.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of a head-mounted display device according to a first embodiment of the present invention and an observer.

FIG. 2 is a configuration explanatory view of the head-mounted display device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram (1) of the head-mounted display device according to the first embodiment of the present invention showing a range of a visual field of an observer in an image display state;
(2) is a diagram showing the range of the visual field of the observer in the image display cancel state

FIG. 4 is a partial perspective view of a head-mounted display device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a structural explanatory view of a head-mounted display device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Head-mounted display device 4 Observer 6a Display unit 6b Optical system 8 Modem for wireless communication 41 Controller 43 Control device

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. In a head-mounted display device having an image display light emitting means that can be mounted on the head of an observer, when the preset power amount reduction condition is satisfied, the supply amount of image display power is changed to A head-mounted display device, characterized in that the amount is set to be smaller than that set for allowing an observer to visually recognize an image. 2. A head-mounted display device having an image display light emitting means attachable to the head of an observer, comprising an external signal receiving means, and instructing reduction of the amount of electric power via the receiving means. A head-mounted display device, characterized in that, when an external signal is received, an amount of image display power supplied is smaller than an amount set to allow an observer to visually recognize an image. 3. A head-mounted display device having an image display light emitting means that can be mounted on the observer's head, and a display position for guiding the image display light to the observer's visual field range.
An optical system that is movable between the display cancellation position and the display cancellation position, and when the optical system is positioned at the display cancellation position, allows the observer to visually recognize the image supply power of the image display power. A head-mounted display device, characterized in that the amount is set smaller than that set for the purpose.