JP2002334119A - Illumination simulation method using internet - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prepare an illumination plan based on plan information inputted as a plane view by an operation from an Internet terminal and to visually confirm an illumination effect by the illumination plan on a three-dimensional virtual space. SOLUTION: The floor plan information inputted as the plane view by the operation from the Internet terminal is converted into a three-dimensional image, displayed on a screen of the terminal, a lighting fixture selected according to the floor plan information is displayed by synthesizing it with the three- dimensional image and the illumination effect by the lighting fixture is simulated. Data to be required for simulation of illumination is transmitted from a user to a server on the Internet and its result is replied by an electronic mail, etc. For example, a view point or the direction of visual lines to observe the three-dimensional image are made possible to be specified by the operation from the terminal. In addition, a simulation result can also be recorded in a CD-R, etc., and transferred to the user at a showroom.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a lighting simulation method using the Internet.
A lighting plan suitable for the floor plan of a house input from an Internet terminal is created, and its lighting effect can be visually confirmed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a business of introducing product information of a lighting fixture on a homepage on the Internet has been widely performed. In addition, there is also a business that proposes an optimal lighting plan created by an expert or a system to a user based on the floor plan information of the house provided by a user at the time of building a new house or adding or renovating a house, and leading to sales of the product. (Our “Internet Self-Lighting Plan”).

[0003]

However, in the prior art, it was not possible to visually confirm the actual lighting effect on the created lighting plan in a three-dimensional virtual space. Even with the same layout and the same equipment, the viewing position,
The impression differs depending on the viewing direction.
Since the lighting effect varies depending on the selection of wall materials or the arrangement of furniture, it is desired to perform lighting simulation in a three-dimensional virtual space.

[0004] The present invention has been made in view of such a point, and a lighting plan is created based on floor plan information input as a plan view by an operation from an Internet terminal. It is an object to enable visual confirmation in a three-dimensional virtual space.

[0005]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, in order to solve the above-described problems, the floor plan information input as a plan view by an operation from an Internet terminal is converted into a three-dimensional image. It is characterized in that it is displayed on a screen of a terminal, a lighting device selected according to the floor plan information is synthesized and displayed on the three-dimensional image, and a lighting effect by the lighting device is simulated.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a virtual data center for lighting simulation is provided in a server on the Internet, and a user transmits data necessary for lighting simulation to the data center. .

It is preferable that a viewpoint or a line-of-sight direction for observing the three-dimensional image can be specified by an operation from the terminal. Further, a plurality of three-dimensional images observed from a plurality of viewpoints or a plurality of line-of-sight directions are stored in a recording medium and delivered to a user, and particularly preferably delivered to a user in a showroom in the real world.
5).

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a lighting simulation method using the Internet according to the present invention, and shows an example of an image displayed on a browsing screen of an Internet terminal. In the figure, reference numeral 8 denotes a main screen, which displays a state in which furniture and the like are arranged by an interior simulator described later in an interior space designed by the layout design software described later. Below the main screen 8, operation buttons 1 to 7 for viewpoint control described later are arranged so that the user can freely move in the room and observe an arbitrary direction from an arbitrary viewpoint. On the right side of the main screen 8, a product selection column 31 for selecting a desired lighting fixture 30 is displayed. A product description screen 34 is provided below the product selection field 31. When the mouse cursor is placed on any of the products displayed in the product selection field 31, a description of the product is displayed on the product description screen 34. When the left mouse button is double-clicked in this state, the image of the product is synthesized and displayed in the background space. Clicking a "lighting SIM" button 32 above the product selection field 31 with a mouse transmits a lighting simulation instruction to the server. Note that the product operation buttons 33 are used to exchange the selected product, rotate the product in a horizontal plane, or delete the product.
Is provided.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of a system for implementing the method of the present invention. The client 10 and the server 20 are connected so that information can be transmitted and received via the Internet. The server 20 includes software 21 for designing a floor plan of a house, a parts database 22 storing part data used by the floor plan design software, and a room designed by the floor plan design software for three-dimensional browsing. 3D display software 23 is provided. The client 10 is configured by a personal computer equipped with Internet browsing software (browser). Client 10
First, the user connects to the URL of the server 20 which is the system operating entity, and opens a home page where the floor plan design software 21 can be used. Then, as shown in FIG. 3, the screen used for the floor plan is automatically displayed on the browser, and the use can be started.

On the floor plan design screen shown in FIG. 3, a plurality of grid lines (grids) are drawn vertically and horizontally at equal intervals, and a user creates a floor plan in this area. The floor plan created by the user may be a floor plan of a house in which the user currently lives, or may be a floor plan of new construction or extension / renovation. The intervals between the scales (measurements) displayed at regular intervals by black triangles are 90 cm, but this can be changed to any interval (for example, 100 cm).

To design a layout, first, a component category is selected from the component category selection field 12 displayed on the right side of the screen. In the example shown in FIG. 3, “Western-style room” is selected as the component category, and “Western-style room 4.5 tatami”, “Western-style room 6.0 tatami”, and “Western-style room 8.0 tatami” are displayed in the component list display column 13. ,... Are displayed as components. In addition, you can also select a Japanese room, LDK, kitchen, washroom, toilet, bathroom, entrance, hallway, storage, window, door, opening, and other parts categories. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 4, “Japanese-style room” is selected as the component category, and “Japanese-style room 4.5 tatami”, “Japanese-style room 6.0 tatami”,
... are displayed as parts. These parts are
You may download them all at first, or each time you select them in the part category selection field 12,
The server 20 may be accessed and downloaded from the component database 22. In the component size display field 14, the name and size of the selected component are displayed. The size of the part is width (in mm) x depth (m
m Display) and the area (m ² in terms of, are displayed at a basis conversion).

Hereinafter, a specific manner of creating a floor plan will be described with reference to FIG. In the example of FIG. 5, “Japanese-style room” is selected as the component category, and “Japanese-style room 4.5 tatami” is selected from the component list display column 13, and is dragged and dropped on the floor plan 11 with the mouse. A 4.5-tatami Japanese-style room can be placed adjacent to the living room that has already been placed. The placed "4.5 tatami mat" is replaced with "6.0 tatami mat"
When the user wants to change to “Tatami”, the user clicks the delete button in FIG. 4 with the mouse to delete the part of “Japanese-style room 4.5 tatami” placed immediately before.
“0 tatami” may be selected, dragged and dropped on the floor plan 11 with the mouse, and then rearranged. Similarly, kitchens, washrooms, toilets, bathrooms, entrances, hallways, storage, windows, doors, openings, and other components can be located. If you want to delete all the placed parts and re-place them from the beginning,
The user operates the “Delete All” button in FIG. 3 or FIG. Also, if you want to change the orientation of the placed parts,
This is for operating the “rotate” button in FIG. 3 or FIG.

By operating the "deform" button in FIG. 3 or FIG. 4, the side or vertex of the fixed part is freely moved with the mouse as shown in FIG. You can also. With this method, a design with a higher degree of freedom is possible. In addition, even when a new shape is generated, there is no need to design a component, and the cost for modifying the system can be reduced.

In this way, for example, a floor plan as shown in FIG. 7A is created. Here, when the button of “see the three-dimensional floor plan” in FIG. 3 or FIG. 4 is clicked on with a mouse, a three-dimensional display command is sent to the server 20 and the three-dimensional display software 23 is activated, and the plan view 11
Is three-dimensionally displayed, and a three-dimensional layout as shown in FIG. 7B is displayed on the browser screen of the client 10. At this time, as shown in FIG. 3 or FIG.
In, necessary skeleton information such as columns a, beams b, and c for the building structure are automatically added as appropriate and reflected in the three-dimensional display. The viewpoint operation menu 1 is displayed below the three-dimensional display screen 15.
6 (operation buttons 1 to 7 described later) are arranged.

The floor plan information created as described above can be stored in the floor plan information storage database 24 of FIG. 2 or the client 10 by operating the "save" button in FIG. 3 or FIG. I have. With this storage function, the user can start the examination after the previous examination. In addition, the floor plan information that the user has examined at home can be saved and used for remote design consultation, such as having a sales person or a designer in charge browse on the network. In addition, the presence of this storage function makes it possible to utilize the result of retrieving the storage result of another person and making design changes.

Using the interior simulator 25 shown in FIG. 2, an interior simulation such as arrangement of furniture and lighting, change of interior, etc. can be performed on the floor plan information thus created. The product information such as furniture, lighting, and interior materials is obtained by reading the information stored in the interior-related database 26 and pasting it in a three-dimensional space. The result of the interior simulation is stored in the interior information storage database 27.

FIGS. 8, 9, 10 and 1 show examples of screen display of the interior simulator 25 shown in FIG. In the figure, 1 is a two-dimensional display button, 2 is a three-dimensional display button, 3 is an automatic viewpoint moving button, 4 is a moving speed setting /
A display unit, 5 is a manual viewpoint moving button, 6 is a viewpoint elevation button, 7 is a furniture display ON / OFF button, and 8 is a main screen (2
D / 3D drawing area). Such a screen is displayed on a browser screen of a client (a personal computer terminal or the like) shown in the system configuration example of FIG. 2, and the user wants to confirm by clicking a viewpoint control menu of the operation units 1 to 7 with a mouse cursor. The viewpoint can be freely changed according to the content.

First, an operation unit for switching between two-dimensional display and three-dimensional display will be described. When the 2D (two-dimensional display) button 1 shown in FIG. 1, 8 or 9 is operated,
The display of the main screen 8 is a two-dimensional display as shown in FIG. In the figure, B indicates the viewpoint position in the three-dimensional display by a butterfly mark flying in the virtual space, and C indicates the line of sight in the three-dimensional display by an arrow. In addition, L and R indicate viewing angles, a straight line L means the left end of the three-dimensional display field of view, and a straight line R means the right end of the three-dimensional display field of view. When the 3D (three-dimensional display) button 2 shown in FIG. 10 is operated, the display of the main screen 8 is changed to a three-dimensional display as shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 8 or FIG. At this time, the main screen 8 reflects the viewpoint, viewing direction, and viewing angle in the two-dimensional display of FIG.

By providing the operation unit for switching between the two-dimensional display and the three-dimensional display as described above, when the user moves in the three-dimensional virtual space and presses the button for the two-dimensional display, the bird's-eye virtual display is performed. Along with the presentation of the space, a position marker [the place where the user stood in the three-dimensional virtual space (butterfly mark B) and the direction in which he / she was looking (arrow C or the like)] is displayed.
This is effective for grasping where the whole is while moving in the three-dimensional virtual space.

Next, an operation unit for switching between automatic viewpoint movement and manual viewpoint movement will be described. The operation unit 3 in FIGS. 1, 8, 9, and 10 is an operation unit for automatic viewpoint movement. When the button described as "AutoNavi" is operated, the operation unit 3 is displayed on the sub-screen 9 in FIG. The viewpoint is automatically moved along the route indicated by the thick black line in the floor plan of the house. In the figure, ▲ indicates the start point of the automatic viewpoint movement, and ● indicates the end point of the automatic viewpoint movement. Also, FIG.
The operation unit 5 shown in FIGS. 8, 9, and 10 is an operation unit for manually moving the viewpoint, and is an operation unit for moving the viewpoint B forward, backward, left, and right.
There are two triangular buttons and two right and left curved arrow buttons for changing the direction of the arrow C indicating the line of sight. When one of the buttons is operated, the automatic viewpoint movement is stopped and switched to the manual viewpoint movement. .

Next, images of "rabbit" and "turtle" are drawn on the operation unit 4 for changing the moving speed of the viewpoint, and the moving speed of the viewpoint is indicated by a speed display bar drawn on the left side. It is a specification to display the speed of. "Rabbit"
Pressing the button increases the moving speed, and pressing the "turtle" button decreases the moving speed, and changes gradually.

Next, images of "adult" and "child" are drawn on the operation unit 6 for changing the height of the viewpoint, and the current height of the viewpoint is numerically displayed between them. . In this example, when the "adult" button is pressed, the height of the viewpoint is 10 cm.
It is designed so that the height of the viewpoint decreases by 10 cm when the "child" button is pressed. At the same time as the operation of changing the height of the viewpoint, the display of the height of the viewpoint is also changed.

Next, the operation section 7 for switching the presence or absence of furniture display will be described. Furniture is not displayed in the three-dimensional virtual space displayed on the main screen 8 of FIG. 8, but when the “furniture arrangement” button of the operation unit 7 is operated in this state, the furniture of FIG. 1, FIG. 9 or FIG. Switch to the state with furniture display. Further, when the "furniture erase" button of the operation unit 7 is operated in a state where the furniture is displayed, the state is switched to a state where the furniture is not displayed in FIG.

On the sub-screen 9 of FIG. 8, a selection column 41 of the product information of the interior material stored in the interior-related database 26 which can be used from the interior simulator 25 shown in FIG. 2 is displayed. The user can select a wall material, a floor material, a ceiling material, and the like with a mouse, and select the selected material on the main screen 8 of FIG.
You can freely change the wall material, floor material, and ceiling material by dragging and dropping it on the wall, floor, ceiling, etc.

On the sub-screen 9 in FIG. 9, a product selection column 31 is displayed in which furniture (tables, sofas, etc.) that can be arranged in the room with the floor plan and other (curtains, houseplants, etc.) can be selected with the mouse. By pasting the selected product on the main screen 8 and adjusting the direction with the product operation button 33, it is possible to arrange the desired furniture at a desired position in a desired direction.

The floor plan information created as described above is stored in the interior information storage database 27 shown in FIG. When the save button is pressed in the interior simulation system, a save instruction is transmitted to the server, and the selected interior and its arrangement information are stored in the interior information storage database 27. At the same time, the interior information is associated with the database 24 storing the floor plan during the simulation, and information for the association is stored in the database 24. Thus, when the floor plan information is called, the interior information corresponding to the floor plan information can also be called.

As described above, since it is possible to change the interior, change the furniture, change the lighting equipment, etc., it is possible to study not only a simple layout but also a more specific design while imagining a living. In addition, there is an effect that it is easy to grasp the sense of volume. In addition, because of this interior simulation function, companies that sell products to be installed in houses (lighting equipment, furniture, interior material manufacturers, etc.)
Is a product selection column in the interior simulation (Fig. 1,
In FIG. 8 and FIG. 9), products handled by the company are posted and can be used as a product introduction and sales method.
Consumers can use the floor plan design software to generate a floor plan for arranging purchased products (lighting fixtures and the like) and select a product suitable for the size and interior of the room by interior simulation. In addition, by storing data such as price and construction cost in the database of interior products, it becomes possible to estimate the selected products.

Further, the button 3 of "lighting SIM" in FIG.
By operating 2, an instruction for lighting simulation is transmitted from the client 10 to the server 20.
The lighting effect of the lighting fixture 30 to be purchased can be visually confirmed. At present, it is difficult to respond in real time because lighting simulation requires a huge calculation load. Therefore, when the user operates the “lighting SIM” button 32, a message indicating that data for lighting simulation has been transmitted to the data center is displayed on the terminal screen, and the user is notified of the result of lighting simulation. Display a screen prompting you to enter your e-mail address. Thereby, the e-mail address of the purchaser of the lighting equipment can be obtained in a natural manner. Also,
The result of the lighting simulation can be transmitted to the user as an attached file of the e-mail. Alternatively, only the URL and the password can be transmitted by the e-mail and the user can view the result on the Web. . According to the latter method, there is an advantage that even high-definition image data can be provided to the user.

[0029] Although the technology of the lighting simulation itself has existed in the past, if this technology is to be realized on the Internet, the creation of a three-dimensional space, the arrangement of interior materials and furniture, the lighting equipment, and the position of the viewpoint, which are the premise of the lighting simulation, will be described. It is necessary to input various information such as setting of the viewing direction and the like, and it is substantially impossible for the user to create all of this information and transmit it to the server. According to the system of the present embodiment, necessary software such as floor plan design software, interior simulator, and three-dimensional display software is arranged on the server 20 side, and the user can also set the viewpoint position and the line-of-sight direction by using the “lighting SIM”. The position of the viewpoint and the direction of the line of sight when the button 32 is pressed are
Client 1
Even if the communication capacity between the server 0 and the server 20 is small and the machine performance of the client 10 is low, it is possible to provide a lighting simulation service. That is, on the server 20 side, the floor plan stored in the floor plan information storage database 24, the interior information stored in the interior information storage database 27, and the position of the viewpoint when the user presses the “lighting SIM” button 32. Based on the gaze direction information, a calculation of the lighting simulation is performed, and the image data obtained as a result is transmitted to the user, or the image data is transmitted to the We.
The information for browsing on b may be transmitted to the user.

In the above example, the case where the position of the viewpoint and the direction of the line of sight are fixed has been described.
Moving image information when moving along the automatic viewpoint moving path indicated by a thick black line or all image information when freely walking through may be recorded on a CD-R and delivered to the user. For example, a mechanism in which an e-mail sent to a user is accompanied by an address for making a reservation for a visit to a show room in the real world, and a CD-R is issued in the show room to a user who connects to the address and makes a reservation for the visit. And
By doing so, it is possible to calculate the image information and store it in the server by the date and time when the user who has made the reservation visits the show room, and ends the tour when the user actually comes to the show room By CD-R
You can just burn it on the way home. In this way, there is no waste on the part of the system operator, and the user can save communication costs.

The illumination simulation is not limited to image data alone, and the result of the illuminance calculation may be numerically displayed in lux (lx). For example, FIG.
It may be possible to display the illuminance on the desk numerically,
When an arbitrary position is indicated by a mouse, the illuminance at that position may be displayed as a numerical value. In addition to the illuminance calculation, the color temperature may be calculated. With fluorescent lights, you can select different color temperatures, such as light bulb colors that are a little reddish, in addition to general natural colors and bluish white, so you can compare the warmth of the room when using each fluorescent light You may do it. Also, wallpaper and ceiling materials,
As the image data such as the pattern and color of the floor material, image data obtained by photographing the wall, ceiling, and floor of a house with a digital camera may be used. In this way, it is also possible to perform a lighting simulation of the appearance when the lighting fixture is placed at home.

[0032]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a lighting plan is created based on the floor plan information input as a plan view by an operation from the Internet terminal, and the lighting effect of the lighting plan is displayed on a three-dimensional virtual space. It can be confirmed visually.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, a virtual data center is provided on a server on the Internet so that a user can transmit data necessary for a lighting simulation. The user can be notified of the URL or password of the user by e-mail or the like, and can see the result of the lighting simulation. As a result, a service of three-dimensional lighting simulation can be provided to many users even if the server has limited capabilities.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the viewpoint or line of sight for observing the three-dimensional image is specified, there is an advantage that the calculation load for the illumination simulation can be reduced.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, a smooth three-dimensional illumination simulation can be performed even when the user freely walks through the three-dimensional virtual space or moves along a predetermined route.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the user can be guided to a showroom in the real world. In addition, even if the system has a limited capacity, it is possible to sufficiently secure the time required to execute a complicated calculation.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a display screen of an interior simulator used for implementing a method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a system used to carry out the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a display screen of floor plan design software used for implementing the method of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing another example of the display screen of the floor plan design software used for implementing the method of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a floor plan design method using floor plan design software used for implementing the method of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing another example of a floor plan design method using floor plan design software used for implementing the method of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing functions of three-dimensional display software used for implementing the method of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing another example of the display screen of the interior simulator used for implementing the method of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory view showing still another example of the display screen of the interior simulator used for implementing the method of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing another example of the display screen of the interior simulator used for implementing the method of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 30 lighting equipment 31 commodity selection field 32 lighting simulation button 33 commodity operation button 34 commodity explanation screen

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Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A floor plan that is input as a plan view by an operation from an Internet terminal is converted into a three-dimensional image and displayed on a screen of the terminal, and a lighting fixture selected according to the floor plan information is displayed on the three-dimensional image. A lighting simulation method using the Internet, wherein the lighting simulation is performed by combining the image with an image and simulating a lighting effect of the lighting device. 2. The Internet according to claim 1, wherein a virtual data center for lighting simulation is provided in a server on the Internet, and a user transmits data necessary for lighting simulation to the data center. The lighting simulation method used. 3. A lighting simulation using the Internet according to claim 1, wherein a viewpoint or a line of sight for observing the three-dimensional image can be designated by an operation from the terminal. Method. 4. The Internet according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of three-dimensional images observed from a plurality of viewpoints or a plurality of viewing directions are stored in a recording medium and delivered to a user. The lighting simulation method used. 5. The lighting simulation method using the Internet according to claim 1, wherein a result of the lighting simulation is delivered to a user in a showroom in the real world.