JPH09230831A - Display, information processor and its image display method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To effectively use a desk only for an operation space of a pointing device and a setting place of a key board input device by moving a display device itself and specifying an input a position of a command associated with its moving amount and moving direction. SOLUTION: A liquid crystal display 200 is held freely movably by a hold device. A CPU 101 calculates the position and the tilt angle to a reference axis of the liquid crystal display 200 by substituting a measurement result of a position sensor 302 a position calculative relation, and forms a stereoscopic image rotating by 90 deg. the viewpoint of the stereoscopic image displayed on a liquid crystal panel 203 when the fact that the display 200 is rotatively moved by 90 deg. in the direction of e.g. a Z axis is detected, and writes the image data in a VRAM 104. Since the rotation of the viewpoint, expansion/reduction of a display image and the scroll, etc., of the display image are instructed by the movement of the liquid crystal display 200 itself, the pointing device and the input device are not required.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a display for inputting information to be displayed by an electric signal for visual display, an information processing apparatus using the display, and an image display method for the information processing apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in information processing apparatuses, information input from a keyboard and information processing results are displayed on a display. In addition, commands to the information processing device are input from the keyboard in the form of character strings. In addition, the display screen of the display displays a character string or a figure indicating the content of the instruction,
An information processing apparatus that inputs a command by supporting these character strings and figures with a pointing device such as a mouse is also known.

[0003]

However, a conventional information processing apparatus of this kind such as a personal computer is installed on a desk. In particular, a pointing device such as a mouse requires a large operation space to move itself. Therefore, there is a problem to be solved in that the user occupies the desk with the information processing device and its peripheral devices.

Therefore, in view of the above points, an object of the present invention is to provide a display, an information processing apparatus and an image display method thereof, which can reduce the installation space.

[0005]

In order to achieve such an object, the invention of claim 1 is a display means for visually displaying information inputted from the outside in the form of an electric signal, and the display means is movable. And a position detecting means for detecting the moving direction and the moving amount of the display means and outputting the detection result in the form of an electric signal.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the display according to the first aspect, the display means is a liquid crystal panel in which a pixel portion displaying the information is opaque and a pixel portion not displaying the information is transparent. The image received on the back surface of the display means is passed through the transparent pixel portion to the display screen on the front surface of the display means.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, display means for visually displaying information input from the outside in the form of an electric signal, holding means for movably holding the display means, moving direction and moving amount of the display means. A display having a position detecting means for detecting the detection result and outputting the detection result in the form of an electric signal, and an information processing means for executing predetermined information processing based on the output detection result. To do.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the information processing apparatus according to the third aspect, the moving direction of the display means and the moving direction of the information displayed on the display means are associated in advance, and the information processing means. Is characterized in that the display position of the information displayed on the display means is changed in accordance with the moving direction and the moving amount indicated by the output detection result.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the information processing apparatus according to the third aspect, the position detecting means can detect the rotational movement of the display means, and the information processing means detects the position detecting means. It is characterized in that new information obtained by rotating the information displayed on the display means is created in accordance with the movement direction and the rotational movement amount, and is given to the display means.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the information processing apparatus according to the third aspect, the information processing executed by the information processing means is image enlargement processing, and the information processing is performed in a specific direction detected by the position detecting means. It is characterized in that the information displayed on the display means is enlarged according to the amount of movement, and the enlarged information is provided to the display means.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the information processing apparatus according to the third aspect, the information processing executed by the information processing means is image reduction processing, and the information processing is performed in a specific direction detected by the position detecting means. It is characterized in that the information displayed on the display means is reduced in accordance with the amount of movement, and the reduced information is provided to the display means.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, the display device is movably held, the moving direction and the moving amount of the display device are detected, and the display is performed corresponding to the detected moving direction and the moving amount of the display device. It is characterized in that the information displayed on the device is changed and displayed.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the image display method of the information processing apparatus according to the eighth aspect, in the display device, a pixel portion that displays the information is opaque and a pixel portion that does not display the information is transparent. The liquid crystal panel is characterized in that an image received on the back surface of the display device is passed through the transparent pixel portion to the display screen on the front surface of the display device.

[0014]

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

FIG. 1 shows the system configuration of an information processing apparatus to which the present invention is applied. In FIG. 1, the information processing device 100
A personal computer can be used for.
The information processing device 100 includes a CPU 101 and a system memory 1.
02, video RAM (VRAM) 103, 104, hard disk storage device 105, keyboard 106, CRT
Display 107 and input / output interface 109
Having. These components are connected to the bus 108.

The CPU 101 controls the operation of the above components according to a system program stored in the system memory 102. System memory 102 is ROM and R
In addition to the above system program, it stores a font pattern for converting a character code into an image. The calculation data of the CPU 101 is also temporarily stored in the system memory 102.

The VRAM 103 has a CRT display 1
The display image data for one screen to be displayed on 07 is stored. This image data is read by the CPU 101 at a constant cycle and transferred to the CRT display 107. The VRAM 104 stores one screen of display image data to be displayed on the liquid crystal display 200 described later.
This image data is read by the CPU 101 at regular intervals and transferred to the liquid crystal display 200 via the input / output interface 109.

The hard disk storage device 105 includes a system program used for system control, an image processing program according to the present invention, for example, a scaling program for enlarging / reducing a display image, and moving (scrolling) the display image vertically and horizontally. ), A scroll program, image processing (called 3D processing) for creating a display image when the viewpoint position of the displayed object is changed, and the like are stored. The required program among these programs is the system memory 1
No. 02 is stored (loaded) and executed by the CPU 101. A program (application program) for executing various information processing such as word processing is also stored in the hard disk storage device 105. The keyboard 106 is used to input commands to the CPU 101 and information such as characters used for various types of information processing.

The CRT display 107 is a VRAM 10
The image data stored in 3 is displayed visually. The input / output interface 109 controls the image data of the VRAM 104 under the control of the CPU 101 to display the liquid crystal display 200.
Transfer to

The liquid crystal display 200 includes an input / output interface 201, a drive circuit 202 and a liquid crystal display panel 2.
03. A known liquid crystal display panel 203 can be used. However, the pixel portion that displays the information becomes opaque, and the pixel portion that does not display the information becomes transparent,
The image received on the back surface is passed through the transparent pixel portion to the front display screen, in other words, the liquid crystal display that allows the user to see the object on the back side of the liquid crystal display panel 203 through the display screen. Panels are preferred.

The drive circuit 202 drives the pixels of the information display portion of the liquid crystal display panel so as to be opaque according to the image data. Such a liquid crystal display 200 is held by a holding device 50 so as to be movable as shown in FIG. In the example of FIG. 3, the information processing apparatus 100 is not shown, but an example in which two liquid crystal displays 200 are installed is shown.

The holding device 50 has a plurality of arms 51 and a plurality of hinges 52 that rotatably connect the arms 51. For these holding devices, mechanisms used in various robots can be used. Also, the hinge 5
The angle sensor 302 (FIG.
Is installed on the holding device 50.

Returning to FIG. 1, the position detecting device 300 having the plurality of sensors 302 transfers the detection output of the sensor 52 to the information processing device 100 via the output interface 301 in the form of a digital signal.

Display control of the liquid crystal display 200 executed in such a system configuration will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The position of the liquid crystal display 200 held by the holding device 50 in the three-dimensional space and the tilt angle of the liquid crystal display 200 are determined by the length of the arm 51 and the rotation angle of the hinge 52. It is assumed that a mathematical formula (referred to as a position calculation formula) for calculating the position and the inclination angle of is prepared in advance in an image processing program described later in the hard disk storage device 105 of the information processing device 100.

When the power is turned on, the CPU 101 reads the image processing program defining the processing procedure of FIG.
It is loaded into and starts execution in an interrupted manner at regular intervals.
In the present embodiment, an example will be described in which the user creates a stereoscopic image using 3D CAD (3D CAD) and displays the created stereoscopic image on the liquid crystal display 200.

As is well known, the stereoscopic image created when the CPU 101 executes the 3D CAD is converted into image data and stored in the VRAM 104. This image data is transferred and displayed on the liquid crystal display 200 as described above.

At the execution timing of the processing procedure of FIG. 3, the CPU 101 acquires the measurement result of each position sensor 302 of the position detecting device 300 via the output interface 301 and the input / output interface 109 (step S1).

The CPU 101 uses the position sensor 3 in the position calculation formula.
By substituting the measurement result of 02, the position of the liquid crystal display 200 and the tilt angle with respect to the reference axis are calculated (step S2). Next, the CPU 101 compares the previously calculated position and tilt angle with the position and tilt angle calculated this time, and the liquid crystal display panel 200 is rotated and moved in the Z-axis direction by 90 degrees, for example, as shown in FIG. If it is detected (YES determination in step S3), a stereoscopic image obtained by rotating the viewpoint of the stereoscopic image displayed on the liquid crystal display panel 203 by 90 degrees is created, and the image data is written in the VRAM 104 (steps S101 → S).
102). As a result, this image data is transferred to the liquid crystal display 200, and the stereoscopic image displayed has a viewpoint of 90 degrees.
It will be rotated once. Although such image processing itself is well known, the difference from the conventional example is that the liquid crystal display 200 is rotated by 90 degrees in the present embodiment, whereas in the related art, the rotation angle of the visual field is given by a numerical value of 90 from the keyboard. It becomes a point.

When the CPU 101 detects that the liquid crystal display 200 is translated in the front-back direction with respect to the user (YES determination in step S4), the CPU 101
Displays the currently displayed image on the LCD display 2
Enlarge / reduce as much as the movement amount of 00. For example, when the liquid crystal display 200 is brought close to the user, the image data obtained by reducing the displayed image is VRA.
Write to M104 (step S201). Also, when the liquid crystal display 200 is moved away from the user, image data that has undergone enlargement processing is created, and the VRAM 10
Write to 4. As a result, the currently displayed stereoscopic image is enlarged / reduced. In the past, as for the enlargement / reduction instruction, the scaling factor was input numerically from the keyboard, the amount of movement of the figure was instructed using the mouse, and the enlargement / reduction was given at a fixed scale. In the present embodiment, the difference is that the amount of movement of the liquid crystal display 200 in a specific direction is instructed.

Further, when the CPU 101 detects that the liquid crystal display 200 has been moved to the left, right, up and down with respect to the user (YES determination in step S5), the movement direction and the movement amount are made to correspond to the movement direction. Image data is created and written in the VRAM 104 (step S201). As a result, the currently displayed stereoscopic image is scroll-displayed. Conventionally, a scroll instruction is given by using a mouse to move a graphic called a scroll bar, but in the present embodiment, the amount of movement of the liquid crystal display 200 in a specific direction is used. It makes a difference.

As described above, in this embodiment, the user can instruct the rotation of the viewpoint, the enlargement / reduction of the display image, the scrolling of the display image, etc. by moving the liquid crystal display 200 itself. With respect to the instructions, a pointing device such as a mouse or an input device such as a keyboard is not required. Further, it is not necessary to make the information processing device and the display adjacent to each other as in the conventional case. In addition, the user can see the object located behind the liquid crystal display through the display screen of the liquid crystal display. Taking advantage of the characteristics of this embodiment, the following embodiment can be considered.

1) The liquid crystal display 200 also displays an image on the CRT display 107 shown in FIG. 1 which is not subjected to image processing such as enlargement / reduction. The user regards the liquid crystal display 200 as a magnifying glass and positions the liquid crystal display 200 in front of the display screen of the CRT display 107. After that, the liquid crystal display 200 is moved back and forth to scale the display only on the liquid crystal display 200 side.

2) A communication device and a video camera can be connected to the information processing device 100 to be used as a remote conference system. In this case, the image captured by the video camera of the other party is displayed on the CRT display 107. A specific image in this image, for example, a face portion can be enlarged and scrolled by a moving operation of the liquid crystal display 200 and displayed on the liquid crystal display 200.

3) When a window (a small square frame is provided in the display screen and information is displayed in this frame) display on the CRT display 107, only this window is displayed on the liquid crystal display 200. Then, enlargement and scroll processing may be executed.

4) The liquid crystal display 200 is installed adjacent to the apparatus for CT scanning the human body. By rotating the liquid crystal display 200, the stereoscopic image captured by the CT scanning device is rotated and the magnification is changed.

5) When a transparent touch panel (a well-known input device that generates an electric signal to notify the position of a finger when the finger is touched and the member of the finger touch portion is transparent) is installed on the display screen of the liquid crystal display 200. , The conventional dedicated keyboard becomes unnecessary. Further, a voice recognition device may be used for character input and may be mounted on the liquid crystal display 200.

6) When the liquid crystal display 200 is rotated while the user is sitting on the chair, it becomes difficult for the user to see the display screen. In such a case, a push button switch is installed on the liquid crystal display. While the liquid crystal display panel is moving, the CPU 101 is prevented from executing the processing procedure of FIG. 2 while the push button switch is being operated by the user (this can be realized by prohibiting interrupt processing). The user uses the liquid crystal display 200, for example, 9
After rotating the viewpoint of the stereoscopic image by 90 degrees by rotating it by 0 degree, the direction of the liquid crystal display is returned to the original position before the movement while operating the push button. As a result, the user himself / herself can see the image whose viewpoint has moved without moving.

7) Information processing device 10 using a liquid crystal display
It may be detachable from 0 and connected to a different information processing device. Further, in order to execute the processing procedure of FIG.
When 01 and VRAM 104 are built in the liquid crystal display 200, it can be connected to a conventional information processing apparatus, and the information processing apparatus does not require any system change.

8) As shown in FIG. 5, the moving direction of the liquid crystal display 200 includes six kinds of movements of parallel movement and rotational movement with respect to the X, Y and Z axes. Therefore, various types of image processing can be associated with the type of movement. For example, when the liquid crystal display is rotated about an axis perpendicular to the display screen, the display image may be rotated (rotation in a two-dimensional plane). Further, a position where the liquid crystal display 200 is stored without being used is determined in advance, and the time when the liquid crystal display 200 is stopped at this position is measured by the information processing apparatus 100 side. The power of the liquid crystal display 200 can be automatically shut off after a certain period of time.

9) It is also possible to electrically drive the arm 51 of the holding device 50 and move it according to an instruction from the information processing device 100. By making the arm 51 an electric arm, it is possible to forcibly present information to the user. Also, in the example of presenting a cross-sectional view of the brain, it is a tedious operation to finely adjust the scan images one by one, but when a push button such as a remote switch is pressed, the liquid crystal display moves in the depth direction, By pressing another button so that the liquid crystal display 200 is moved in the front direction, a fine adjustment operation for moving the liquid crystal display 200 is facilitated. Of course, it is also possible to control the movement on the information processing apparatus 100 side.

[0041]

As described above, as described above,
According to the inventions 4 and 8, the display device itself can be moved, and the command can be input and the position can be specified in association with the movement amount and the movement direction, and the device can be used as a substitute for a pointing device or a keyboard input device. You can As a result, the operating space of the pointing device and the place where the keyboard input device is installed can be effectively used on the desk. Further, the information processing device can be used even in an environment where a desk cannot be placed.

According to the second and ninth aspects of the present invention, the user can see the scene behind the display. Therefore, for example, when the display of the CRT display is enlarged and displayed on the liquid crystal display, it is easy to specify the enlarged portion. Become.

According to the fifth, sixth and seventh aspects of the invention, the moving direction of the liquid crystal display and the moving direction of the display information correspond to each other, and the user does not make a mistake in the instruction operation. Also,
As moving display types, rotation of information such as characters and images, enlargement / reduction, and parallel movement can be realized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of this embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing processing contents executed by a CPU 101.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the appearance of the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a correspondence relationship between image processing contents and a moving space.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a correspondence relationship between image processing contents and a moving space.

[Explanation of symbols]

 100 Information processing device 101 CPU 102 System memory 103, 104 VRAM 105 Hard disk storage device 106 Keyboard 107 CRT display 108 Bus 109, 201, 301 Input / output interface 200 Liquid crystal display 202 Drive circuit 203 Liquid crystal display panel 300 Position detection device 302 Sensor

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A display unit for visually displaying information input from the outside in the form of an electric signal, a holding unit for movably holding the display unit, a moving direction and a moving amount of the display unit, and A display comprising: a position detecting means for outputting a detection result in the form of an electric signal. 2. The display according to claim 1, wherein the display means is a liquid crystal panel in which a pixel portion that displays the information is opaque and a pixel portion that does not display the information is transparent, and the back surface of the display means. The image received by
A display characterized in that it is passed through a transparent pixel portion to a display screen on the surface of the display means. 3. A display means for visually displaying information input from the outside in the form of an electric signal, a holding means for movably holding the display means, a moving direction and a moving amount of the display means are detected, and An information processing apparatus comprising: a display having a position detection unit that outputs a detection result in the form of an electric signal; and an information processing unit that executes predetermined information processing based on the output detection result. 4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein a moving direction of the display means and a moving direction of information displayed on the display means are previously associated with each other, and the information processing means outputs the information. An information processing apparatus, characterized in that a display position of information displayed on the display means is changed according to a moving direction and a moving amount indicated by a detection result. 5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the position detecting means can detect the rotational movement of the display means, and the information processing means detects the moving direction and rotation detected by the position detecting means. In response to the amount of movement, create new information by rotating the information displayed on the display means,
An information processing device characterized by being provided to the display means. 6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the information processing executed by the information processing means is image enlargement processing, and the information processing is performed in accordance with a movement amount in a specific direction detected by the position detection means. An information processing apparatus, characterized in that information obtained by enlarging the information displayed on the display means is created and given to the display means. 7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the information processing executed by the information processing means is image reduction processing, and the information processing is performed in accordance with a movement amount in a specific direction detected by the position detection means. An information processing apparatus, characterized in that information obtained by reducing the information displayed on the display means is created and given to the display means. 8. A display device is movably held, a moving direction and a moving amount of the display device are detected, and displayed on the display device corresponding to the detected moving direction and moving amount of the display device. A method for displaying an image of an information processing apparatus, characterized in that the information displayed is changed and displayed. 9. The image display method for an information processing device according to claim 8, wherein the display device is a liquid crystal panel in which a pixel portion displaying the information is opaque and a pixel portion not displaying the information is transparent. An image display method for an information processing apparatus, wherein an image received on the back surface of the display device is passed through a transparent pixel portion to a display screen on the front surface of the display device.