METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR MONTAGE-LIKE COPROJECTING A PICTURE TAKEN FROM A LIVING PERSON AND A PICTURE SHOWING STRANGE BODY PARTS, ENVIRONMENT OR EFFECTS

Abstract: In the method a first picture is taken and projected by electronic means and a second picture is brought onto the first picture during projection. The first picture is created from a living person and the second picture is coprojected with a second picture showing a strange body part, environment or effects. The proposed apparatus comprises means for forming a first picture of a living person, a screen (4) and means for restoring a second picture showing strange body parts, environment or effects on the screen (4) and according to the invention the means for forming a first picture include a TV-camera (2) directed onto the living person (1) and connected by its output to a videoprojector (3) and further the means for restoring the second picture include an optical projecting device arranged with its light output on the same side of the screen (4) as the projecting output of the videoprojector (3).

Description: METHOD OP AND APPARATUS POR MONTAGE-LIKE COPROJECTING ' A PICTURE TAKES PROM A LIVING PERSON AND A PICTURE SHOWING STRANGE BODY PARTS, ENVIRONMENT OS EFFECTS BACKGROUND OP THE INVENTION The invention concerns a method of and an apparatus for montage-like coprojecting a picture taken from' a living person and a picture showing strange " body parts, environ¬ ment or effects. According to the state of the art several methods and apparata are known, wherein a first picture showing a living person or a part of its body is combined with a second picture showing strange body parts, strange environ¬ ment or other effects. The known methods and apparata are intended for showing different kinds of coiffure, clothes, the expected appearance after a cosmetical surgical operation, for replacing a show of pieces of jewelry or glasses,etc. The PR-PS 2 392 626 shows a method of preparing montage' -like pictures - the different kinds of coiffure and wigs are reproduced on a transparent plate and thereby project- ed onto the photographic picture of the client, the photo¬ graphic picture is available in a pass or an identity card. This is a simple method for showing only coiffure making use of the fact that the said photos are generally of nor- malized sizes. The disadvantageous character of this method is that the picture shows a motionless face and the dif¬ ferent kinds of coiffure can not be assigned to a living - 2 - person with high reliability of present ing the real ap¬ pearance in t he kind of coiffure shown. The same dis¬ advantage is present when using the metho d according to the HU-PS 169495 wherei» the requirement is to have a slide with the picture of the person and one or more slides with pictures of the available kinds of coiffure , clothes etc. The coprojection of the slides should giv e the desired ef¬ fect. A further disadvantage is that the slides has to be prepared with relatively high precision - t he picture should fill out a well-defined part of the surface in order to en¬ sur e good impression of the coprojected picture . It is possible also to make use of the tv-caraera for taking a picture of the person and thereafter to process this pictu re in an appropriate ele ctronic computer unit by software methods . The picture and its processed version can be shown on a display and the program makes possible to change the art of co iffure . This is a method based also on a motion¬ less picture , however , it can be adapted without problems to showing clothes, jewelry etc . According to the method shown in the US-PS 2 061 378 granted to Henze and Tremain the client can observe its own live portrait on a transparent plate . The portrait is pro¬ jected by optical means /lenses and mirrors/ to one side of the transp arent plate and from the other side slides are pro jected to the opposite side of the plate. Thereby dif¬ ferent kinds of coiffure can be combined with the face of the living person and shown the client . According to the descripti on of the PS the optical operation is based on a single lense forwarding light of the light source. There¬ for e a high level of luminance would be required what can be harmful for the eyes of the observing person and the effect is either the pale picture or t he unability of the 5 person to observe its own portrait . Acc ording to the PR-PS 2 513 502 grant ed to J.-C. Bourgier and published in 1983 a method is proposed for showing clothes. A semitransparent mirror is used for creat¬ ing t he picture of t he head of the living person and this 10 . is combined with t he picture of a doll having the clothes to be shown. The two pic tures are conne cted at the neck part. This method can not serve as basis for showing dif ¬ ferent kinds of coiffure because of weak fitting of the appropriate picture parts , realised only in the neck region- 15 For good impression the head of t he person should be lighted much more intensively than the other body parts. SUMMARY OP THE INVENTION The inv ention has the object to avoid t he abo emention- ed drawbacks , disadvan tages and to create a metho d and ap- 20 " ' paratus , whereby it is possible to make coprojected montage - -like pictures from each detail of the body of t he person, with high sharpness of the particularities and without blind¬ ing the person. Therefore the invention concerns a method of montage- 2.5 -like coproj,ecting a picture taken from a living person and a picture sho wing strange body parts, environment or ef¬ fects , comprising the steps of creating a first pic ture showing the living person or the sele cted pa rt of it s body by means of electronic decomposition, projecting the first picture., if necessary after processing it, to a screen and superposing a second picture to the first picture, the second picture showing the strange body parts, as kinds αf coiffure, clothes, the environment or effects to be chosen for combining it with the picture of the person. The simple solution according xo the invention is to pro ect by optical means the second picture onto the first one, wherein the optical means are arranged on the same side of the screen as the means for projecting the first picture. It is especially advantageous to take a picture of given form from the person and to create a confor ly shaped /in complementary form realised/ second picture before super¬ posing the pictures onto one another. The first and the second picture both or each of them can be formed by electron¬ ic means,by known methods of picture processing. According to the invention an apparatus has been de¬ veloped for montage-like coprojecting a picture taken from a living person and a picture showing strange body parts, environment or effects, comprising means for forming a first picture from a living person including optoelectronic units as a TV-camera, electronic means for restoring the picture, a screen for displaying the restored picture and means for superposing the first picture with a second picture showing the strange body parts, as kinds of coiffure, clothes, the environment or effects to be chosen for combin¬ ing it with the picture of the person. It is especially advantageous to apply optical means - for superposing t he second picture onto the first picture and these optical means are arranged so that the ir dir ection of pro jection is the same as that of t he ele ctronic means for restoring the picture . In this case conformly shap ed. /complementary/ masking elements are applied between the means for forming the first picture and the living pe rson, and between the optical means and the screen as well. Pre¬ ferably, the masking elements should be arranged in a way that t he diffused /washed-out/ zones of the projected. pictur es on t he screen corresponding t o the complemen ary outlines of the masking elements cover one ano ther and a transient zone is formed wherein the particularit ies of t he pictur es are washed-out . The masking elements can be shaped by dark parts of a slide or a film frame , however, the most simple s olution is to apply elements cut off from thick paper. Another advantageous embodiment of t he apparatus accord¬ ing to the inv ention comprises as optical means one or more slide proje ctor s , a film projector etc . The fully electronic embodiment of the proposed appa¬ ratus can be advantageous, too . This embodiment includes a device for pro cessing the picture taken by the TV-camera and the superposition is ensured on an electronic screen on the basis of second pictures stored on a magnetic tape. The masking elements can be replaced also by electronic circuits for cutting the pictures operating according to the known methods used in the technical equipment of the television. In hair-dressing saloons it seems to be the most ad- * * - vantageous solution to apply an arrangement wherein the TV-camera, the means for restoring picture, as a video- projector t the means for superposing the pictures and the screen are surrounded by a closed outer housing having one aperture in height oppositely to the screen, the aperture cut out at the height of the eyes of the living person and having dimensions great enough for seeing the face. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OP THE DRAWINGS The invention will be described in more detail by way of example and with reference to preferred embodiments il¬ lustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein: Figure 1 is a diagram showing the apparatus according to the invention in top view, Figure 2 is the cross-section of a preferred embodiment of the proposed apparatus intended for use in hair- dressing saloons, Figure 3 is the top view of a negative covering element, Figure 4 is the top view of a positive covering element, Figure 5 shows a picture projected by the videoprojector on the basis of a picture taken by a tv-camera equippe with a first masking element from the face of a living person, Figure 6 shows a picture*projected by a slide projector when using a second masking element, and Figure 7 is a montage produced by the videoprojector and the slide projector when using the masking element for coprojecting. DBS CRI TION OF THB PREFERRED EMBODIMBNTS Further particulars and advantages of the inventio will be apparently read from the following detailed desc tion wherein reference is made to the attached drawings showing generally embodiment intended for use in hair re ing saloons. A living person 1 sitting or standing is observed b a TV-camera 2, e .g . a colour TV-camera or by other opto electronic means produ cing a first picture /Pig. 1/. The TV-camera 2 and generally the other optoelectronic means are conne cted to an electronic device for restoring the picture taken by them. This device is generally a video projector 3 forming a picture on a screen connected by cable 9 to -the TV-camera 2. A second picture is coprojec with the first picture onto the screen 4 by appropriate electronic or optical means , e . g. by a slide pro jector 5 arranged at the videoprojector 3 on the same side by the screen 4. The ap paratus according t o t he invention can compri one or more slide projectors 4, film projectors for pro jecting the second pic ture . Another possibility is to us a vid eo tape recorder for storing the second pic tures, t video tape recorder being equipped with electronic circu for processing pictures. The TV-camera 2 is corinected i this case to the mentioned processing circuits and a co picture is restored on the screen 4, which can be also ele ctronic unit or the videoprojector 3 cooperating wit the traditionally built-up screen 4. - - In t he embodiment with optical means for projecting the second picture it is very advantageous to apply first and second masking elements 6 and 7 arranged between the TV-camera 2 and the living person 1, and the slide projecto 5 and the screen 4, respe ctively. The masking elements 6 and 7 should be of complementary shapes, i.e. they should conformly cover a given surface together. This means, the dark places of the first masking element 6 are assigned to light places on t he second masking element 7 and vice versa. The f irst masking element 6 is arranged on distance d from the TV-camera 2 and the second masking element 7 on distanc D from t he slide projector 5 /Figures 1 and 2/. The distances d and D should be selected in a way that the cor¬ responding diffused /washed-out/ zones on the screen 4 cove one another. The mentioned zones correspond to the comple¬ men tary outlines of the masking elements. The apparatus according to the invention can be used in an especially advantageous manner in hair dressing saloo The appro pri ate embodiment shown in Figure 2 comprises an outer housing 10 having an aperture 19 through whic h the living person 1, looking in direction 8 can observe its own pictur e on t he screen 4. The screen 4, the TV-camera 2, the videopro je ctor 3, the slide-projector 5 , the masking ele¬ ments 6, 7 are arranged in the outer housing 10 bearing a light source 11 and a seat 12 both directed to the face of the living person 1. The seat 12 is applied for supporting the face of the living person in order to ensure it s positio oppositely to the aperture 19. The masking elements £ and 7 are made with light zo 13 and dark zones 14 /Figures 3 and 4/ bordered by compl ment ary outlines. On the screen 4 a dark zone 14 is as¬ signed to th at of the first masking element 6 /Figure 5/' and a light zone shows a detail 15 of the face of the li person 1. This detail is surrounded by a transient zone whic h is washed-out , wherein the picture can. not be seen mor e detail. The detail 15 whould be dark if only the sl pro jector 5 projects the second picture showing a kind 1 of coiffure /Figure 6/ su rrounding a transient zone 16 h generally the same dimensions as that shown in Figure 5. The common pictur e is a detail 15 with strange environme 18 /Figure 7/ which can be a kind 17 of coiffure. In thi common picture a transient zone 16 is present wherein th details of the face can not be seen. The arrangement of the Figure 1 can be used also fo showing clothes wherein the masking elements 6 and 7 are generally no t necessary and eit her a picture showing the face of the living perso n is combined by a second pictur showing t he person in underclothing is combined by elect means with pictures showing clothes * For showing jewelry it is necessary to see only the neck part of the living person 1. The apparatus according t o the invention can be equ with a photo-camera for taking pictures from the screen The proposed method is carried out in the following way. The living person is arranged before electronic mea - - for taking pictu es whereby a first picture is produced showing t he whole person or a part of it s body /head, neck , lower parts/. This picture can be taken without necessity of applying intensive light sources and restored by appro p- riate electronic means, e.g. by a videoprojector having three outputs. The second picture showing a kind of coif¬ fure , clothe s, a piece of jewelry or other environment , strange effect is coprojected with the first picture, es¬ pecially by optical means having the light oαtput on the same side of a screen as the means for restoring the first pictur e. The pictures can be shaped by optical masking element s or by electronic circuits before restoring. The el ectronic circuits for picture processing render some deformation, diminishing or magnification of the picture possible and thereby a very good conformity between the first and the 3eoond pictures can he achieved. The method and apparatus proposed by the invention of¬ fer very wide possibilities of showing different kinds of coiffure , clothes , jewelry, of combining different environ- ments and effects with the picture of a liv ing person for checking a variety of possible arrangements.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. A method of montage-like coprojecting a picture taken from a living person and a picture showing strang body parts, environment or effects, wherein a first pic is created from a living person and the second picture coprojected with a second picture showing a strange bod part, environment or effects, characterized by taking t first picture from the living person by electronic mean projecting it by electronic means and bringing the seco pictur e during projection onto the first picture. 2. Metho d as claimed in claim 1, characterized by the second picture is brought onto the first picture by pro jection realised by optical way. 3. Method according to claim 1 or 2 , characterized that the first picture is taken from the living person a given shape and the second picture is brought onto th first picture in a shape conform with that of the first picture. 4. An apparatus f or montage-like coprojecting a pi taken from a living person and a picture showing strange body parts , environment or effects , especially for real the method as claimed in any of claims 1 to 3, comprisi means for forming a first picture of a living person, a screen and means for restoring a second picture showing stran e body parts, environment or effects on the scree characterized by that the means for forming a first pic inclu de a TV-camera /2/ directed onto the living person /I/ and connected by its output to a videoprojector /3A and that the means for restoring the second picture inclu an optical projecting device arranged with its light outp on the same side of the screen /4/ as the projecting outp of the videoprojector /3/» 5. Apparatus according to claim 4, characterized in comprising a first masking element /6/ between the living person /I/ and the TV-camera /2/ and a second masking ele /7/ between the optical projecting device and the screen /'4/, wherein the distance /d/ between the TV-camera /2/ a the first masking element /6/ and the distance /D/ betwee the optical projecting device and the second masking elem /7/ is selected for creating diffused zones of generally equal dimensions on the screen /4/ during projection. 6. Apparatus according to claim 4 or 5, characterize by including an outer housing /10/ surrounding the TV-cam /2/, the videopro ector /3/ and. he optical projecting de vice and defining an aperture /19/ oppositely to the scre /4/ generally in the height of the eyes of the living per A/. 7. Apparatus according to any of claims 4 to 6, cha¬ racterized in that the optical projecting device includes one or more slide projectors /5/ » 8. Apparatus according to any of claims 4 to 7, cha- racterized in that the optical projecting device includes a film projector . 9. An apparatus for montage-like coprojecting a pict taken from a living person and a picture showing strange body parts, environment or effects, especially for realis the method as claimed in any of claims 1 to 3» comprising means for forming a first picture of a living person, a screen and means for restoring a second picture showing strange body parts, environment or effects on the screen, characteriz ed by that the means for forming the first picture include a TV-camera /2/ directed onto the living person /I/, the TV-camera /2/ being connected by its out¬ put to electronic means for picture processing, and the means fo r restoring the second picture include a magnetic video tape recorder, wherein the outputs of the electronic means and the magnetic video tape recorder are connected to the inputs of the screen /4/ restoring the combined pictur e by means of electronic circuits .

Inventors: HOLAKOVSZKY LASZLO, VASICZA JOZSEF, HOLAKOVSZKY, LASZLO, VASICZA, JOZSEF
Applicants: BELVAROSI GLORIA FODRASZ VALL
Application year: 1985
Main classification: G03B15
IPC codes: G03B15