EP0503432A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Display and image capture apparatus which enables eye contact
Assignee: NTT Inc
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Filing: 1992-03-02
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2012-03-02
Abstract
Abstract In a display and image capture apparatus for a videophone or video teleconferencing system a half-transparent mirror array (20)is disposed adjacent the display surface (1A) of a display (1) and a reflected image by the half-transparent mirror array is captured by a video camera (3). The half-transparent mirror array is formed by a plurality of micro HMs arranged in the same plane at a predetermined inclination angle and reflects incident light from a subject toward the video camera. <IMAGE>
Inventors
- 👤 Makoto Kuriki
- 👤 Hitoshi Arai
- 👤 Shigenobu Sakai
- 👤 Masato Nakamura
- 👤 Hideki Nakajima
- 👤 Shirou Suyama
- 👤 Kazutake Uehira
- 👤 Noboru Hagiwara
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-02 03:53
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04N; H04N7/00; H04N7/14; H04N7/141; H04N7/142; H04N7/144
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 24
Claim 1
Independent Claim
121 words
A display and image capture apparatus comprising: display means provided with a display surface for displaying an image; half-transparent mirror means disposed substantially opposite the front of said display surface substantially in parallel thereto, for reflecting a portion of light from a subject standing in front of said display surface and for transmitting therethrough a portion of light from said image on said display surface, said half-transparent mirror means including a plurality of micro HMs arranged in the same plane at predetermined inclination angles ϑ, respectively, for reflecting a portion of light from said subject; and image capturing means disposed near said display means, for receiving light reflected from said half-transparent mirror means and for capturing the image of said subject.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
25 words
The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said inclination angles ϑ of said micro HMs are selected in the range of between 13 and 45 degrees.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
66 words
The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said image capturing means includes distortion correcting optical means which receives reflected light from said half-transparent mirror means and enlarges or reduces said reflected light in such a direction as to correct a distortion of a reflected image caused by said half-transparent mirror means, and a video camera for capturing the corrected reflected image from said distortion correcting optical means.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
29 words
The apparatus of claim 3 wherein said distortion correcting optical means includes a curved mirror disposed outside of said display surface and in front of said half-transparent mirror means.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
63 words
The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said image capturing means includes a video camera disposed near said display means and directed forwardly thereof, and reflecting mirror means disposed outside of the outer periphery of said display surface and directed forwardly of said image capturing means, for receiving reflected light from said half-transparent mirror means and for reflecting it toward said image capturing means.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
29 words
The apparatus of claim 2 wherein, letting the width of each of said micro HMs being represented by W, said micro HMs are spaced about Wsinϑ·tan2ϑ or more apart.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
42 words
The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said display means includes first polarizing means for linearly polarizing light from said display image and said image capturing means includes second polarizing means disposed in front thereof for blocking polarized light from said display means.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
16 words
The apparatus of claim 7 wherein said display means is a transmission type liquid crystal display.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
46 words
The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said display means includes a visual field selective transparent plate interposed between said display surface and said half-transparent mirror means, said visual field selective transparent plate being opaque at a visual angle at which to view said image capturing means.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
22 words
The apparatus of claim 9 wherein said half-transparent is formed integrally with said visual field selective transparent plate on one side thereof.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
43 words
The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising control circuit means whereby said display means is held in the OFF state for a predetermined first period at fixed time intervals and said image capturing means is turned ON in each of said first periods.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
19 words
The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said half-transparent mirror means includes an antireflection layer formed on the back thereof.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
20 words
The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said half-transparent mirror means includes a light dispersing layer formed on the back thereof.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
51 words
The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said half-transparent mirror means includes a transparent substrate, a plurality of projections formed integrally with said transparent substrate on one side thereof and each having a plurality of slopes, and said micro HMs each formed on at least one of said slopes of said projections.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
31 words
The apparatus of claim 14 wherein gaps between said projections formed on said transparent substrate are filled with transparent resin so that the surface of said transparent substrate is substantially flat.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
48 words
The apparatus of claim 14 wherein said micro HMs are formed on all of said slopes of said projections and said image capturing means includes a plurality of video cameras disposed apart around said display means, for receiving reflected light from each of said slopes of said projections.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
53 words
The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said image capturing means includes a plurality of video cameras disposed apart around said display means and said micro HMs arranged on said half-transparent mirror means are formed by different micro HMs whereby light incident thereto from said subject is reflected toward said plurality of video cameras.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
121 words
The apparatus of claim 1 wherein each of said micro HMs forming said half-transparent mirror means is formed by a polarization-dependent micro beam splitter which passes therethrough one polarized component of incident light and reflects a polarized component perpendicular to said one polarized component, wherein said display means is a liquid crystal display and includes back light means, a first polarizing plate for linearly polarizing back light from said back light means and a liquid crystal panel to which said back light through said first polarizing plate, and wherein said half-transparent mirror means formed by said micro beam splitters is disposed in front of said liquid crystal panel and serves also as a second polarizing plate of said liquid crystal display.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
42 words
The apparatus of claim 18 wherein each of said micro beam splitters forming said half-transparent mirror means possesses a wavelength dependence for the reflection and transmission of incident light thereto so that it constitutes a color filter for said liquid crystal display.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
50 words
The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said half-transparent mirror means has a laminated structure formed by laminating transparent layers and half-transparent layers alternately with each other and having, as the front and back of said half-transparent mirror means, two parallel faces cut at said inclination angles to said laminated layers.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
12 words
The apparatus of claim 20 wherein said half-transparent layers are metal layers.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
24 words
The apparatus of claim 20 wherein said half-transparent layers are each dielectric layer of a refractive index different from that of said transparent layers.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
23 words
The apparatus of claim 20 wherein said half-transparent layers are each formed by a plurality of laminated dielectric layers of different refractive indexes.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
18 words
The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the transparency of each of said micro HMs is 50% or less.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
No citation records indexed.
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