Abstract:
A video display device includes: a connection detecting module configured to detect whether a shutter glasses is connected to the device; a generation module configured to generate a second frame, which is alternately displayed with a first frame included in a video content, by adding an irregular pattern to an image viewed in a predetermined color when the connection detecting module detects that the shutter glasses is connected; a display unit configured to display the video content; a video display controller configured to control the display unit to alternately display the first frame and the second frame; and a shutter glasses controller configured to control the shutter glasses to close shutters in synchronization with the time for displaying the second frame.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S) 
       [0001]    The present disclosure relates to the subject matters contained in Japanese Patent Application No. 2009-151849 filed on Jun. 26, 2009, which are incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
       FIELD 
       [0002]    The present invention relates to a video display device. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0003]    Video display devices that alternately display an image including confidential information and an image including non-confidential information and allow easy recognition of the image including the non-confidential information while acquiring the confidentiality for the confidential information have been known. 
         [0004]    For example, a video display device disclosed in JP-A-7-219489 includes a first VRAM that outputs a video signal of an image including confidential information, a second VRAM that outputs a video signal of an image including non-confidential information, a random signal generating circuit that randomly generates two types of signals, a switch unit that outputs a video signal by switching between the first VRAM and the second VRAM in synchronization with a signal from the random signal generating circuit, a luminance-level converting circuit that converts the luminance level of a video signal of an image including non-confidential information so as to be increased, and shutter glasses that open or close the shutters in synchronization with a signal from the random signal generating circuit. Accordingly, only the image including the confidential information can be presented to a user who wears the shutter glasses. On the other hand, the images can be presented to a user who does not wear the shutter glasses such that the image including non-confidential information having a high luminance level can be easily seen and the image including the confidential information cannot be easily seen. 
         [0005]    However, according to the above-described conventional video display device, a user is required to switch between the time for handling an image including confidential information and the time for not handling the image including confidential information. Accordingly, the user is required to perform the switch procedure is additionally. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0006]    A general configuration that implements the various feature of the invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The drawings and the associated descriptions are provided to illustrate embodiments of the invention and not to limit the scope of the invention. 
           [0007]      FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram representing an example of the configuration of a video display device according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0008]      FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram showing an example of the configuration of a video display device according to the embodiment of the invention. 
           [0009]      FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram representing an example of the configuration of liquid crystal shutter glasses according to the embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0010]      FIGS. 4A and 4B  are schematic diagrams showing examples of the configuration of a display image according to the embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0011]      FIGS. 5A and 5B  are schematic diagrams representing examples of combination of display of the video display device according to the embodiment of the present invention and the shutter operation of liquid crystal shutter glasses. 
           [0012]      FIG. 6  is a schematic diagram representing an example of the operation of a video display device according to the embodiment of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS 
       [0013]      FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram representing an example of the configuration of a video display device according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
         [0014]    The video display device  1 , for example, is an information processing device such as a personal computer that is configured with electronic components such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and an HDD (Hard Disc Drive). The video display device  1  includes a display unit  10  that is configured by an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) panel for displaying a video and a USB port  13  into which a USB plug  22  having liquid crystal shutter glasses  2  connected thereto is inserted. The display unit  10  displays a video in synchronization with the shutter operation of the liquid crystal shutter glasses  2  to be described later. 
         [0015]    The liquid crystal shutter glasses  2  includes lenses  20 L and  20 R that include liquid crystal shutters for controlling the fields of visions of user&#39;s left and right eyes, a cable  21  that communicates with the video display device  1  for information, and a USB (Universal Serial Bus) plug  22  that is connected to the USB port  13  of the video display device  1 . A user wearing the liquid crystal shutter glasses  2  views a video displayed in the display unit  10  of the video display device  1  through the lenses  20 L and  20 R. 
         [0016]      FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram showing an example of the configuration of a video display device according to the embodiment. 
         [0017]    The video display device  1  includes a display unit  10  that is configured by an LCD and the like and displays a video, a controller  11  that is configured by a CPU and the like, a memory  12  that is configured by an HDD and the like, and a USB port  13  that communicates with an external device having a USB plug for information. 
         [0018]    The controller  11  includes a video reproducing module  11 A that reproduces a video content  12 B to be described later, a special video generating module  11 B for generating a special video that is inserted into the video content, so that the content is not known to any person other than the user wearing the liquid crystal shutter glasses  2  at the time of reproducing the video content including confidential information, a video display control module  11 C that controls the video display of the display unit  10 , a liquid crystal shutter glasses control module  11 D that controls the operation of the liquid crystal shutter of the liquid crystal shutter glasses  2 , and a USB port connection detecting module  11 E that detects an external device connected to the USB port  13 . 
         [0019]    The memory  12  has a video display control program  12 A that allows the controller  11  to operate as the video reproducing module  11 A, the special video generating module  11 B, the video display control module  11 C, the liquid crystal shutter glasses control module  11 D, and the USB port connection detecting module  11 E and a video content  12 B that includes an ordinary video, a 3D display video, confidential information, and the like. 
         [0020]      FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram representing an example of the configuration of liquid crystal shutter glasses according to the embodiment of the present invention. 
         [0021]    The liquid crystal shutter glasses  2  include the lens  20 L that has a liquid crystal shutter  200 L and a shutter driving module  201 L, the lens  20 R that has a liquid crystal shutter  200 R and a shutter driving module  201 R, a cable  21  that is used for transmitting driving information of the liquid crystal shutter, and the USB plug  22  that is connected to the USB port  13  of the video display device  1 . 
         [0022]    The liquid crystal shutters  200 L and  200 R are driven by the shutter driving modules  201 L and  201 R. The liquid crystal shutters  200 L and  200 R repeats shuttering, for example, at the frequency of about 60 Hz. The liquid crystal shutters  200 L and  200 R are driven independently. The method of driving the liquid crystal shutters  200 L and  200 R will be described later. 
         [0023]      FIG. 4  is a schematic diagram showing an example of the configuration of a display image according to the embodiment. 
         [0024]    The image  100 A including confidential information, as represented in  FIG. 4A , is alternately displayed with an image  100 B in which random dots  100   b  are included in the image  100 A of which the colors are inverted. Accordingly, the image  100 A is recognized as the image  100 A by a user who wears the liquid crystal shutter glasses  2  by having the image  100 B be invisible by using the liquid crystal shutter. On the other hand, the image  100 A is recognized as an image  100 C including the random dots  100   c  by a user who does not wear the liquid crystal shutter glasses  2 . 
         [0025]    Hereinafter, a method of generating the image  100 B will be described. First, the color of each pixel of the image  100 A is CA=αAR+βAG+γAB by using RGB. Here, the white color is assumed to be CA=1R+1G+1B, and the black color is assumed to be CA=0R+0G+0B. Next, when the color desired to be output at the time of combining two images is determined to be CC=αCR+βCG+γCB in advance, the color of each pixel of the image  100 B is determined to be CB=(αC−αA)R+(βC−βA)G+(γC−γA)B. In addition, by setting one color of the random dot  100   b  of the image  100 B to CDB1=( 2 αC−αA)R+( 2 βC−βA)G+(2γC−γA)B and setting the other color of the random dots  100   b  to CDB2=(½αC−αA)R+(½βC−βA) G+(½γC−γA)B, the colors of the random dots of the image  100 C become CDC1=2αcR+2βcG+2γcB and CDC2=½αcR+½βcG+½γcB 
         [0026]    In addition, as represented in  FIG. 4B , the images  101 A and  101 B forming a 3D image are displayed in an alternating manner. By having the image  101 A be invisible to the right eye and the image  101 B be invisible to the left eye of a user who wears the liquid crystal shutter glasses  2 , the images  101 A and  101 B are recognized as a 3D image. On the other hand, the images  101 A and  101 B are recognized to be an image  101 C in which images are deviated from each other by a user who does not wear the liquid crystal shutter glasses  2 . 
         [0027]    Hereinafter, the operation of a video display device according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to drawings. 
         [0028]    First, a user reproduces the video content  12 B by operating the video display device  1 . Depending on the type of the video content  12 B to be reproduced, the video display device  1  and the liquid crystal shutter glasses  2  are operated as described below. 
         [0029]      FIG. 5  is a schematic diagram representing an example of combination of display of the video display device according to the embodiment of the present invention and the shutter operation of liquid crystal shutter glasses. 
         [0030]    When the images  100 A and  100 B represented in  FIG. 4A  are to be displayed, the images  100 A and  100 B are displayed in an alternating manner as represented in  FIG. 5A . In addition, in accordance with the display of the images  100 A and  100 B, the liquid crystal shutters  200 L and  200 R open the shutters at the time when the image  100 A is displayed, and the liquid crystal shutters  200 L and  200 R close the shutters at the time when the image  100 B is displayed. 
         [0031]    On the other hand, when the images  101 A and  101 B represented in  FIG. 4B  are to be displayed, the images  101 A and  101 B are displayed in an alternating manner as represented in  FIG. 5B . In addition, in accordance with the display of the images  100 A and  100 B, the liquid crystal shutter  200 R opens the shutter at the time when the image  100 A is displayed, and the liquid crystal shutter  200 L opens the shutter at the time when the image  100 B is displayed. 
         [0032]    Next, the procedure at the time when the video display device  1  selects one of the operations represented in  FIGS. 5A and 5B  will be described. 
         [0033]      FIG. 6  is a schematic diagram representing an example of the operation of a video display device according to the embodiment of the present invention. 
         [0034]    First, when the video reproducing module  11 A receives a direction for reproducing the video content  12 B (S 10 ), the USB port connection detecting module  11 E checks the connection status of the USB port  13 . 
         [0035]    When the liquid crystal shutter glasses are connected thereto (S 11 ; Yes), the video reproducing module  11 A checks whether the video content is a general format. When the video content is a general format (S 12 ; Yes), the special video generating module  11 B generates an image  100 A as represented in  FIG. 4A  for every frame from the video content  12 B (S 13 ). Next, the special video generating module  11 B generates an image in an inverted color from the image  100 A and generates an image  100 B by adding the random dots  100   b  thereto (S 14 ). 
         [0036]    Next, the liquid crystal shutter glasses control module  11 D controls the liquid crystal shutters  200 R and  200 L as represented in  FIG. 5A  (S 15 ). In addition, by controlling the display of the images  100 A and  100 B as represented in  FIG. 5A , the video display control module  11 C reproduces the video content (S 16 ). 
         [0037]    Next, when the reproduction of the video content  12 B is completed (S 17 ; Yes), the operation is completed. 
         [0038]    On the other hand, when the video content  12 B is not a general format (S 12 ; No), the video reproducing module  11 A recognizes the video content  12 B as a 3D content (S 18 ), and the liquid crystal shutter glasses control module  11 D drives the liquid crystal shutter glasses  2  as represented in  FIG. 5B  (S 19 ). In addition, the video display control module  11 C controls the display of the images  101 A and  101 B that are included in the video content  12 B as the 3D content (S 20 ) as represented in  FIG. 5B , and the process proceeds to Step S 17 . 
         [0039]    In addition, when the liquid crystal shutter glasses  2  are not connected to the USB port  13  in Step S 11  (S 11 ; No), the video reproducing module  11 A and the video display control module  11 C operate in an ordinary manner so as to reproduce the video content  12 B in accordance with the reproduction format (S 21 ). Then, the process proceeds to Step S 17 . 
         [0040]    According to the above-described embodiment, the method of reproducing the video and the method of operating the shutters of the liquid crystal shutter glasses  2  are configured to be changed based on the connection status of the liquid crystal shutter glasses  2  and the content of the video content  12 B. Accordingly, display of an image including confidential information and display of an image including information other than the confidential information can be automatically switched back and forth without user&#39;s switching the display method. 
         [0041]    In addition, the image  100 B that includes the random dots  100   b  is configured to be generated at the time of displaying an image including confidential information. Accordingly, it is relatively difficult for a user to recognize the images  100 A and  100 B, compared to a case where the random dots  100   b  are not used. Furthermore, in order to make it more difficult to recognize the image  100 A, the display time interval of the image  100 B may be set to be longer than that of the image  100 A. 
         [0042]    The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various changes may be made therein in the scope not departing from the present invention. For example, the invention is not limited to reproduction of the video content  12 B. Thus, the invention may be applied to all the videos displayed by the OS or the like of a personal computer or a video, which is displayed within a part of the window, displayed by an application or the like. Furthermore, the video content  12 B may be a motion picture or a still screen. 
         [0043]    In addition, the video reproducing module  11 A, the special video generating module  11 B, the video display control module  11 C, the liquid crystal shutter glasses control module  11 D, and the USB port connection detecting module  11 E that are used in the above-described embodiment may be read into a memory located inside the device from a memory medium such as a CD-ROM or may be downloaded into the memory located inside the device from a server or the like that is connected to a network such as the Internet. Furthermore, some or all of the means used in the above-described embodiment may be implemented by hardware such as an ASIC. 
         [0044]    Additional advantages and modifications will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the invention in its broader aspects is not limited to the specific details and representative embodiments shown and described herein. Accordingly, various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the general inventive concept as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.