JPH11133349A - Mead-mounted type display device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a head-mounted type display device having high visibility and allowed to be used for reading out information. SOLUTION: Pictures are displayed on a display part 5 by picture signals transmitted from various pictures signal generators through a cable 8. Display light from the display part 5 is reflected to a user's eye E by a combiner 6, which transmits external light. Since a display unit 1 is arranged just under a user's visual line direction at the time of observing forward, the user can observe pictures on the lower part of his visual field.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device in which a small and lightweight display is mounted on a head and various information can be easily checked.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a device for displaying information for work support or education support, and performing work or the like based on the information,
2. Description of the Related Art A monocular, small and lightweight image display device mounted on a head has been proposed. This is a structure in which a liquid crystal display is reflected once by an optical member and is brought to the eyes. By using an aspherical optical element for the reflective optical member, it is possible to realize a virtual image at a certain distance. is there. In addition, by using a half mirror as the optical element, information can be displayed at a place where a forward visual field is secured by transmission.

In these display devices, a case provided with a circuit for a display is provided on the side of the head, and a display is incorporated in the front of the case, and the display is disposed almost on the side of the eyeball. The light emitted from the display is reflected by the reflection optical element disposed in front of the eyeball, and the distance to the virtual image position is secured.

[0004]

However, in the conventional display device, the reflection direction (viewing direction) is adjusted by an angle or position adjustment mechanism provided on the temporal region, and the position of the reflection optical element in the field of view is adjusted. I was adjusting. Therefore, such a conventional type has the following problems.

[0005] (1) Although there is no problem in a task such as checking simple information during the task, as the amount of display information increases, it becomes necessary for the wearer to read the display content from the state of looking at the display. Become. In such a case, the position where the display image can be seen is suitable below the field of view for the following reasons.

A. In everyday life, when reading fine characters, the line of sight is often turned downward, and it is more suitable to display such information display in front (or slightly inward) of the visual field.

B. When reading the contents in detail, it is necessary to concentrate the line of sight on the contents, so that even if the structure is such that the work and walking can be visually recognized at the same time, it is difficult to see the work object and the feet during walking. Therefore, the display image of the lower display of the visual field rarely obstructs the visual field.

However, in the current type, since the display light is incident from the side, the display is inevitably seen in the left and right outer sides of the visual field.

(2) In the current apparatus, since the display light is incident from the side, it requires some skill to adjust the display to a position where the display is easily visible. This is because it is difficult to intuitively understand how the display looks if it is adjusted because the display exists on the side and the optical path must be captured as a relationship in three-dimensional space. by.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems and to provide a novel head-mounted display device in which the position where a display image can be viewed is located below the field of view.

[0011]

According to the present invention, there is provided a display device for producing a display image, a reflective optical member having a reflecting surface for reflecting display light emitted from the display device, and A head-mounted display device including a display unit including at least the display unit and the reflective optical member, and a mounting member for fixing the display unit to a wearer, wherein the display unit and the display unit of the display unit The reflective optical member is disposed directly below the wearer's forward viewing direction.

That is, in the present invention, the display and the reflective optical member are arranged directly below the line of sight at the time of forward gaze, and the center line of the optical path from the display to the reflective optical member to the eye is the line of sight. Are arranged so as to be substantially in a vertical plane including. In the present invention, the term “directly downward with respect to the direction of the line of sight” refers to 0 to about 60 degrees below the horizontal direction of the line of sight.

[0013] In the above case, the case of the display is located under the eyes.
The reflective optical member will be present in the vicinity of the cheek on the side of the nose, and the reflective optical member will be present at a position slightly above the front of the display (below the front when viewed from the eyes). Here, as the display, for example, a liquid crystal display, a plasma display,
An LCD or the like can be used. When a liquid crystal display or the like is used, a backlight is a halogen bulb, a cold cathode tube,
LEDs can be used. Further, as the reflection optical member, a semi-reflection mirror or a total reflection mirror can be used.

The mounting member includes a mounting portion for fixing the mounting unit to the head of the wearer, and an arm for holding the display unit on the mounting portion. Specifically, from the mounting portion, an arm is provided so as to wrap around the temporal region, and a display unit is attached to this tip, and this is attached with a degree of freedom at the joint at the tip of the arm, that is, an angle or It is preferable to employ a mechanism capable of adjusting the position. Examples of the mechanism capable of adjusting the angle or the position include a mechanism in which the joint at the tip of the arm is a bellows, a mechanism in which the display unit is attached to the arm with a hinge, a pivot, or the like.
It is not limited to these. Further, a space may be provided in the arm, and a circuit for processing an image input signal to the display device may be built in the space.

Since the display is located diagonally in front of the mouth and in the vicinity of the mouth, it is preferable to incorporate a microphone into the display and capture audio. The display image may be switched by the sound captured by the microphone.

Further, since the arm goes around the temporal region and passes near the ear, a speaker may be incorporated in the arm to output sound.

According to the present invention, it is possible to realize a head-mounted display device which is lightweight, easy to handle, has good visibility as a display position, and can be used for reading information. In addition, the display device of the present invention can be used to display work contents of various product manufacturing factories, assembly factories, etc., display educational information such as English conversation, famous places in tourist attractions, historic sites, aquariums, botanical gardens, showrooms, etc. Can be applied.

[0018]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is an image diagram showing a user wearing a head-mounted display device (hereinafter, HMD). 1
Is a display unit that guides display light to the wearer's eyes, a display unit 5 that emits an image based on an input image signal as display light, and a reflection optic that reflects the display light toward the wearer's eyes and transmits external light. It comprises a combiner 6 as a member and a holding unit 7 for connecting the combiner 6 to the display unit 5. Although an internal configuration of the display unit 5 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 3 described later, the display unit 5 mainly accommodates an LCD for creating a display image, a backlight, and a microphone.

Reference numeral 3 denotes an arm for holding the display unit 1. The internal structure of the arm 3 will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 3, but mainly includes a circuit for driving the display unit. The arm 3 includes an adjuster mechanism 2 for connecting the display unit 1 to the arm 3. The adjuster mechanism 2 has a bellows structure that can be elastically deformed as shown in FIG. 4A, and can adjust the yaw and roll directions as shown in FIG. 4B.

The arm 3 arranges the display unit 1 in a direction directly below the line of sight at the time of forward gaze, and the center line of the optical path from the display 5 to the reflection optical member (combiner) 6 to the eyeball E is set in the line of sight. In this case, the speaker is wrapped around the temporal region so as to be present in a vertical plane including the speaker, and a speaker is incorporated therein. Reference numeral 8 denotes a cable for transmitting image signals and the like from various image signal generators (not shown) to the display 5.

Reference numeral 4 denotes a head holder, which is composed of an elastic member extending from the top of the head to the side of the head.
Is held on the head. The head holder 4 may be accompanied by pads for preventing the display unit 1 from shifting at the head.

FIG. 2 is an image diagram of the HMD of the present invention as viewed from the inside, and the same components as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals. As shown in the figure, a speaker 9 is incorporated in the portion of the arm 3 toward the ear, and transmits a sound signal from various image signal generators (not shown) to the wearer. Display 5
The microphone opening 23 is opened inside (on the side of the wearer), so that the voice of the wearer can be captured.

FIG. 3 is a component configuration diagram in a case where a circuit for processing an image input signal to the display unit 5 is built in the arm 3 and a microphone is incorporated in the display unit 5 of the display unit 1. . The arm 3 includes arm cases 3a and 3b
And a substrate 13 is incorporated in the arm cases 3a and 3b.
It comprises a video signal driver circuit and an LCD driver circuit for driving the backlight 10, a timing circuit for turning on the backlight 11, and a receiver circuit for audio signals from the microphone 14.

The display unit 5 includes a display unit case 1a, 1
b, the display unit cases 1a, 1
b, an LCD 10, a backlight 11, a backlight lighting circuit 12, and a microphone 14 are incorporated.
D10, the backlight lighting circuit 12 and the microphone 14
It is connected to a connector on the substrate 13 via the inside of the adjuster mechanism 2.

Various video signals input from the cable 8 are converted into video signals for the LCD 10 by respective circuits on the substrate 13 and output to the LCD 10 together with timing signals for the LCD 10 generated on the substrate 13. . L
The CD 10 projects a display image in the direction of the combiner 6 by the incident light from the backlight 11. Here, the input various video signals may be video signals such as NTSC and PAL in addition to video signals output from a computer. The audio signal input from the microphone 14 is
The signal is converted into an appropriate electric signal by a receiver circuit on the substrate 13 and output to the outside through the cable 8.

The display unit cases 1a and 1b and the arm cases 3a and 3b are provided with screw holes, and are fastened by screws 15.

With the above configuration, in the HMD of the present invention,
An image is displayed on the display unit 5 by image signals transmitted from various image signal generators (not shown) via the cable 8. The display light is reflected by the combiner 6 toward the eye E of the wearer, and the combiner 6 transmits external light. Since the display unit 1 is disposed directly below the line of sight of the wearer when gaze- ing forward, the wearer can observe an image below the field of view.

In the above description, the combiner 6 is a semi-reflective mirror, but may be a total reflection mirror. Also,
The backlight 11 includes an L tube in addition to a cathode tube required for a lighting circuit.
A lighting circuit such as an ED or a light bulb that does not require a lighting circuit may be used. Further, the backlight lighting circuit 12 includes an arm case 3a,
3b.

As shown in FIG. 5, the combiner 6 '
May be provided with a function of adjusting the angle of the combiner 6 ′ in a holding unit connecting the display unit 5 ′ to the display unit 5 ′. 5A is a side view of the display unit 5 and the combiner 6, and FIG. 5B is an enlarged view of the holding unit. In the figure, 16 is a so-called hinge-shaped spherical sliding portion,
It is inserted through the notch of the display unit 5. Reference numeral 17 denotes a stopper, the angle of which is adjusted by the position where the stopper 17 is inserted.

Further, the present invention is not limited to the above configuration,
A cushion member such as sponge or rubber may be arranged in a portion near the ear inside the arm 3.

[0031]

According to the present invention, the visibility of display information is improved, and visual fatigue is reduced. In addition, adjustment for adjusting the display information to a position or an angle at which the display information is easily visible becomes easy.

Further, by incorporating a microphone into the display, there is no need to take other measures such as extending the microphone arm, and the apparatus can be simplified. In addition, by incorporating a speaker in the arm, other measures such as attaching headphones are unnecessary, and the apparatus can be simplified.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an image diagram of a user wearing an HMD.

FIG. 2 is an image diagram of the HMD viewed from the inside.

FIG. 3 is an internal structural view of an arm and a display.

FIG. 4 is an adjuster mechanism for connecting the display unit to the arm.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view of an angle adjusting mechanism.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: Display unit 2: Adjuster mechanism 3: Arm 5: Display 6: Combiner

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A display for producing a display image, a reflective optical member having a reflective surface for reflecting display light emitted from the display, and a display unit including at least the display and the reflective optical member. A head-mounted display device comprising: a mounting member for fixing the display unit to a wearer, wherein the display unit and the reflective optical member of the display unit are in a direction directly downward with respect to a forward gaze direction of the wearer. A head-mounted display device, comprising: And a mounting portion for fixing the display member to the head of the wearer, and an arm for holding the display unit on the mounting portion. 2. The head-mounted display device according to claim 1, further comprising a mechanism capable of adjusting a position. 3. The head-mounted display device according to claim 1, wherein a microphone is incorporated in a display of the display unit. 4. The head-mounted display device according to claim 2, wherein a space is provided in the arm, and a circuit for processing an image input signal to the display is built in the space. 5. The head-mounted display device according to claim 2, wherein a speaker is incorporated at a position near the ear of the arm.