JP2008176190A - Image display device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image display device realizing an interface with high visibility.
[Solution]
An imaging device 10 including an image display device is a device that combines and displays an image and additional information related to the image, and includes an image dividing unit 40 that divides the image into a plurality of blocks, and the luminance of each divided block. A luminance level measuring unit 42 that measures the level, a synthesis region determining unit 46 that determines one or more blocks as a synthesis region of additional information based on the luminance level of the block measured by the luminance level measuring unit 42, and a synthesis And a composite image generation unit 50 that generates a composite image in which the additional information is combined with the region.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to an image display device that synthesizes and displays an image and additional information related to the image.

  Conventionally, for example, as shown in Patent Document 1, there has been known an image display device that displays character information such as calendar information combined with an image. In a conventional image display device, character information to be combined with an image is often arranged at a fixed place.

In addition, an example is also known in which character information is temporarily displayed and deleted when it is not necessary so as not to disturb the image.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-4056

  As described above, in the conventional image display device, since the display area of the character information is fixedly arranged, there is a problem that it is difficult to determine the character information depending on an image to be combined. In addition, there is a method of outputting character information separated into header information of compressed data without synthesizing the image, but there is a problem that the basis as data evidence is lost by falsification.

  In view of the above background, the present invention provides an image display device that realizes an interface with high visibility.

  An image display device according to the present invention is an image display device that synthesizes and displays an image and additional information related to the image, the image dividing unit dividing the image into a plurality of blocks, and a luminance level of each of the divided blocks A measurement unit that measures the block, a synthesis region determination unit that determines one or more blocks as a synthesis region of the additional information based on the luminance level of the block measured by the measurement unit, and the additional information in the synthesis region And a composite image generation unit that generates a composite image obtained by combining the images.

  With this configuration, since the area where the additional information is synthesized is determined based on the luminance level of each block constituting the image, the additional information can be synthesized at an appropriate position according to the image, and the visibility of the additional information can be improved. it can. Here, the additional information includes, for example, character information indicating imaging date and time, apparatus settings, and the like, but information other than characters may be combined with the image. When determining a plurality of blocks as a synthesis region, an average value of the luminance levels of the plurality of blocks may be used, or the luminance level may be weighted according to the position of the block.

  In the image display device of the present invention, the composition area determination unit calculates the number of blocks necessary for displaying the additional information and determines the composition area including the number of blocks.

  With this configuration, it is possible to determine a composite region having an appropriate size according to the amount of additional information.

  In the image display device of the present invention, the composite image generation unit has a configuration in which the luminance level of the additional information is changed for each block based on the luminance level of each block configuring the composite region.

  With this configuration, the additional information is displayed at an appropriate luminance level for each block, so that the visibility of the additional information can be further improved.

  In the image display device of the present invention, the composite image generation unit has a configuration in which the luminance level of the additional information is changed for each character based on the luminance level of each block constituting the composite region.

  With this configuration, additional information is displayed at an appropriate luminance level for each character, so that the visibility of the additional information can be further improved.

  In the image display device of the present invention, the synthesis area determination unit has a configuration for determining blocks constituting the synthesis area based on a history of adding additional information to each block.

  With this configuration, since the synthesis area is determined using the history of adding the additional information to the block, for example, the synthesis area can be determined by selecting blocks uniformly. This can prevent display burn-in caused by frequent display of additional information only in a specific block.

  In the image display device of the present invention, the composite image generation unit has a configuration for combining information displayed according to an operation as the additional information.

  With this configuration, the visibility of the operation information can be improved.

  In the image display device of the present invention, the composite image generation unit has a configuration of combining information that is constantly displayed during startup of the device as the additional information.

  With this configuration, it is possible to improve the visibility of information that is constantly provided during startup of the apparatus.

  In the image display device of the present invention, the composite image generation unit has a configuration for combining the additional information after image enhancement processing.

  With this configuration, it is possible to prevent the additional information from being difficult to be discriminated due to the noise and the shape of the additional information being changed due to the enhancement of the additional information together with the image. In addition, when encoding is performed by the encoding unit, it is possible to prevent the encoded data from increasing excessively.

  According to the present invention, since the area where the additional information is synthesized is determined based on the luminance level of each block constituting the image, the additional information can be synthesized at an appropriate position according to the image, and the visibility of the additional information is improved. It has an excellent effect of being able to.

  Hereinafter, an image display apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following description, an imaging device provided with an image display device will be described as an example.

(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an imaging apparatus 10 including the image display apparatus according to the first embodiment. The imaging device 10 includes a lens 12 that collects light from a subject, an imaging element unit 14 that converts light transmitted through the lens 12 into an image signal, and a preprocessing unit 16 that performs signal processing in accordance with the imaging element unit 14. A YC separation processing unit 18 that performs image processing on the signal output from the preprocessing unit 16, an enhancement signal processing unit 20, an additional information synthesis unit 22, an encoding unit 24, and an image encoded by the encoding unit 24. Is provided with an image signal output unit 26, an operation unit 30 that receives an operation from a user, a nonvolatile memory 32 that stores data, and a control unit 28 that controls each of the above components.

  The imaging element unit 14 is configured by, for example, a CCD or a CMOS sensor, but is not limited thereto. The operation unit 30 may be configured by a keyboard or a pointing device, for example.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of the additional information combining unit 22. The additional information combining unit 22 combines additional information with the image captured by the image sensor unit 14. The additional information synthesizing unit 22 does not synthesize the additional information at a fixed position in the image, but synthesizes the additional information at an appropriate position determined according to the image. As shown in FIG. 2, the additional information combining unit 22 includes an image dividing unit 40, a luminance level measuring unit 42, a block number calculating unit 44, a combining region determining unit 46, a combining ratio determining unit 48, and a combined image. And a generation unit 50. Hereinafter, each configuration of the additional information combining unit 22 will be described.

The image dividing unit 40 divides the image captured by the image sensor unit 14 into a plurality of blocks.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a state in which an image captured by the image sensor unit 14 is divided into a plurality of blocks B by the image dividing unit 40. Here, an image taken by a microscope is taken as an example. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, the image is divided into 8 × 8 = 64 blocks. FIG. 3 is an example, and the number of divisions by the image dividing unit 40 is not limited to 64 divisions. The block B is a processing unit for determining a synthesis area. In FIG. 3, for the convenience of explanation, the boundary lines of the divided blocks B are shown, but the boundary lines are not drawn on the actual image. Note that 4 pixels × 4 pixels used in MPEG compression may be a finer block.

  The luminance level measurement unit 42 measures the luminance level of each divided block B. The luminance level measurement unit 42 may obtain an average luminance level of pixels in the block or may obtain a mode value. What is used as the luminance level of the block can be appropriately set by design.

  The number-of-blocks calculation unit 44 obtains the area area necessary for displaying the additional information based on the information amount of the additional information, and calculates the number of blocks that cover the display area.

  The synthesis area determination unit 46 determines a synthesis area where the additional information is synthesized. The synthesis area determination unit 46 determines a synthesis area in which the additional information is synthesized according to the luminance level of each block B. In addition, the synthesis area determination unit 46 determines a synthesis area based on the luminance levels of the number of blocks necessary for displaying additional information.

  FIG. 4 illustrates the processing of the synthesis region determination unit 46 when a plurality of blocks are required for displaying additional information. For example, when the display area is composed of three horizontally arranged blocks, the luminance levels of the candidate area D1, the candidate area D2,. When the display area is composed of eight vertically arranged blocks, the luminance levels of the candidate area E1, the candidate area E2,. The composite area determination unit 46 calculates the average value of the brightness levels of a plurality of blocks constituting each candidate area as the brightness level of the candidate area. Then, after calculating the brightness level of each candidate area, the composite area determination unit 46 determines an appropriate composite area in relation to the brightness level when displaying additional information. For example, when it is desired to display the additional information at a lower luminance level (that is, close to black), a candidate region having a high luminance level (that is, close to white) is determined as a synthesis region. Thereby, the brightness difference between the image and the additional information can be increased, and the visibility can be improved.

  The composition ratio determining unit 48 determines the composition ratio between the image and the additional information. The composition ratio is the ratio of the luminance level of the additional information to the luminance level of the image. The composition ratio determining unit 48 determines the composition ratio between the image and the additional information so that the additional information is displayed with a brightness difference of a predetermined value or more with respect to the image. For example, the image is determined to have a gray 80% level and the additional information has a gray 25% level. The composition ratio determination unit 48 may change the composition ratio according to the type of additional information (for example, whether the additional information is always displayed like the current time or the additional information is displayed according to the operation). .

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the additional information combining process in the imaging apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment. With reference to FIG. 5, a synthesis process of an image and additional information by the imaging apparatus 10 of the present embodiment will be described.

  The imaging device 10 receives an operation through the operation unit 30 (S10). The operation unit 30 receives, for example, an operation for changing the brightness of the screen. When the additional information is information that is always displayed during the startup of the device, for example, the current time, the next additional information is generated without performing the process of accepting the operation in the operation unit 30. Perform the process.

  Next, the control unit 28 generates additional information corresponding to the operation (S12), and inputs the generated additional information to the additional information combining unit 22. The additional information combining unit 22 divides the image captured by the image sensor unit 14 into a plurality of blocks (S14), and measures the luminance level of each block (S16). The additional information combining unit 22 calculates the number of blocks necessary for displaying the additional information (S18). Then, the additional information combining unit 22 determines an area composed of a necessary number of blocks as a combined area for combining additional information based on the luminance of the block (S20). Next, the additional information combining unit 22 determines the combination position head block of the additional information and the combining ratio of the image and the additional information (S22), and generates a combined image by combining the image and the additional information with the determined combining ratio. (S24).

  6 and 7 are diagrams showing images in which additional information is combined. 6 shows a display example of additional information when a brightness change operation is accepted, and FIG. Is displayed as additional information. In this embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, additional information close to black (low luminance level) can be synthesized and displayed on a bright (high luminance level) portion of the image. It should be noted that the position and composition ratio according to the change operation limit the ranges that can be set so that the additional information does not become difficult to see such as transparency.

  In the imaging apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment, the additional information combining unit 22 determines a combining area where the additional information is combined based on the luminance level of each block divided into a plurality of blocks. Additional information can be synthesized and visibility of the additional information can be improved.

(Second Embodiment)
Next, an imaging apparatus including the image display apparatus according to the second embodiment will be described. The basic configuration of the imaging apparatus according to the second embodiment is the same as that of the imaging apparatus according to the first embodiment (see FIG. 1), but the imaging apparatus according to the second embodiment has a combination area. A different synthesis ratio is determined for each block to be configured.

  FIG. 8A to FIG. 8C are diagrams for describing processing for determining a synthesis ratio of an image and additional information for each block. FIG. 8A is a diagram showing the blocks constituting the synthesis area. Here, an example is shown in which a synthesis region is configured by three blocks B1 to B3 arranged side by side. FIG. 8B is a diagram illustrating the luminance levels of the three blocks constituting the synthesis area. The block B1 has a luminance level P1, the block B2 has a luminance level P2, and the block B3 has a luminance level P3.

  In the present embodiment, the composition ratio determination unit 48 changes the luminance level of the additional information for each block according to the luminance levels P1 to P3 of the blocks B1 to B3. That is, as shown in FIG. 8C, the additional information displayed in the block B1 is set to the luminance level M1, the additional information displayed in the block B2 is set to the luminance level M2, and the additional information displayed in the block B3 is set to the luminance level. Let it be level M3.

  Thus, in this Embodiment, the visibility of additional information can be improved further by determining a synthetic | combination ratio for every block.

  In this embodiment, an example in which the composition ratio is determined for each block has been described. However, the composition ratio may be determined for each character.

  Fig.9 (a)-FIG.9 (c) are the figures explaining the process which determines the synthetic | combination ratio of an image and additional information for every character. FIG. 9A is a diagram showing the blocks constituting the synthesis area and the additional information synthesized with the blocks. Here, as in FIG. 8A, an example is shown in which the synthesis region is configured by three horizontally arranged blocks B1 to B3. Additional information consisting of the characters “ABC” is synthesized in the block B1, additional information consisting of the characters “DEF” is synthesized in the block B2, and additional information consisting of the characters “GHI” is synthesized in the block B3.

  FIG. 9B is a diagram showing the luminance levels of the three blocks constituting the synthesis area. Since the luminance level is measured for each block, it has one value for each block. In this example in which the composition ratio is determined for each character, a function that approximates the luminance level in a predetermined area in the block is obtained from the luminance level of each block. The composition ratio determining unit 48 subdivides the area in the block, and obtains the brightness level of the area where each character is synthesized based on the approximate function of the brightness level, as shown in FIG. 9C. In the example shown in FIG. 9C, the luminance level of the block B1 is obtained as the luminance level P1 in the central region, and is obtained as the luminance level (2 × P1 + P2) / 3 in the region close to the block B2.

  The composition ratio determination unit 48 determines the luminance level of the character according to the luminance level of the image at the position where the character is displayed. Thus, the visibility of the additional information can be further improved by finely determining the composition ratio of the image and the additional information.

  The image display device of the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the embodiment, but the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment.

  In the above-described embodiment, the synthesis area determination unit 46 may determine a synthesis area based on a history that a block has been selected as a synthesis area in the past. For example, it is possible to prevent display burn-in due to frequent display of additional information by not selecting a block that has been frequently selected as a synthesis area in the past as a synthesis area.

  In the above-described embodiment, a configuration in which a preferential display position of additional information can be set may be employed. When there are a plurality of candidate areas of the synthesis area, the synthesis area is determined based on the priority setting. For example, if priority is given to the right side of the screen, candidate areas on the right side of the screen are determined as the synthesis area when areas that are candidates for the synthesis area exist on the left and right sides of the screen. Thereby, the additional information can be displayed at a position that is easy for the user to see.

  In the embodiment described above, a shaded character may be adopted as the additional information. Even in the case where the character is shaded to make the character easy to see due to the level difference from the background, visibility can be improved by determining an appropriate synthesis area.

  In the above-described embodiment, when color additional information is synthesized with a color image, the synthesis area determination unit may select a synthesis area based on the luminance level of each component of RGB, for example. By considering the color components in this way, it is possible to improve the visibility of the additional information even in the color image.

  As described above, according to the present invention, the additional information is synthesized at an appropriate position according to the image, so that the visibility of the additional information can be improved, and the additional information is synthesized. It is useful as an image display device for displaying.

The figure which shows the structure of the imaging device of 1st Embodiment The figure which shows the structure of an additional information composition part The figure which shows the example of the state which divided the image into blocks The figure which shows the example which calculates the luminance level of the area | region used as a candidate of a synthetic | combination area | region. Flow chart showing processing for combining additional information The figure which shows the example of the image which synthesize | combined additional information The figure which shows the example of the image which synthesize | combined additional information (A) The figure which shows the example of the block which comprises a synthetic | combination area | region (b) The figure which shows the luminance level of each block which comprises a synthetic | combination area | region (c) The figure which shows the synthetic | combination ratio for every block (A) The figure which shows the example of the block which comprises a synthetic | combination area | region (b) The figure which shows the luminance level of each block which comprises a synthetic | combination area | region (c) The figure which shows the synthetic | combination ratio for every character

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Imaging device 12 Lens 14 Image pick-up element part 16 Pre-processing part 18 YC separation processing part 20 Emphasis signal processing part 22 Additional information synthetic | combination part 24 Encoding part 26 Image signal output part 28 Control part 30 Operation part 32 Non-volatile memory 40 Image division part 42 brightness level measurement unit 44 block number calculation unit 46 composite region determination unit 48 composite ratio determination unit 50 composite image generation unit

Claims (8)

An image display device for combining and displaying an image and additional information related to the image,
An image dividing unit for dividing the image into a plurality of blocks;
A measurement unit that measures the luminance level of each divided block;
Based on the luminance level of the block measured by the measurement unit, a synthesis region determination unit that determines one or more blocks as a synthesis region of the additional information;
A composite image generating unit that generates a composite image by combining the additional information with the composite region;
An image display device comprising:   The image display device according to claim 1, wherein the composite area determination unit calculates the number of blocks necessary to display the additional information, and determines the composite area including the number of blocks.   The image display device according to claim 1, wherein the composite image generation unit changes a brightness level of the additional information for each block based on a brightness level of each block configuring the composite area.   The image display device according to claim 1, wherein the synthesized image generation unit changes the luminance level of the additional information for each character based on a luminance level of each block constituting the synthesized area.   The image display device according to claim 1, wherein the synthesis area determination unit determines blocks constituting the synthesis area based on a history of adding additional information to each block.   The image display device according to claim 1, wherein the synthesized image generation unit synthesizes information displayed according to an operation as the additional information.   The image display device according to claim 1, wherein the composite image generation unit synthesizes information that is constantly displayed during startup of the device as the additional information.   The image display device according to claim 1, wherein the synthesized image generation unit synthesizes the additional information after image enhancement processing.