WO1986001614A1

WO1986001614A1 - 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

Info

Publication number: WO1986001614A1
Application number: PCT/HU1985/000051
Authority: WO
Inventors: László HOLAKOVSZKY; József VASICZA
Original assignee: Glória Belvárosi Fodrász Vállalat
Priority date: 1984-08-29
Filing date: 1985-08-28
Publication date: 1986-03-13
Also published as: AU4774585A; EP0191085A1

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 OF 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, environment 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 environment 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 projected onto the photographic picture of the client, the photographic 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 normalized sizes. The disadvantageous character of this method is that the picture shows a motionless face and the different kinds of coiffure can not be assigned to a living person with high reliability of present ing the real appearance in t he kind of coiffure shown. The same disadvantage 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 effect. 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 ensur 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 motionless 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 projected 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 different 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. Therefor 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 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 creating t he picture of t he head of the living person and this 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 regionFor 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 abov ementioned drawbacks , disadvan tages and to create a metho d and apparatus , 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 blinding the person.

Therefore the invention concerns a method of montage-like coproj,ecting a picture taken from a living person and a picture sho wing strange body parts, environment or effects , 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 of 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 project 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 conformly shaped /in complementary form realised/ second picture before superposing the pictures onto one another. The first and the second picture both or each of them can be formed by electronic means, by known methods of picture processing.

According to the invention an apparatus has been developed 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 combining 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. Preferably, 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 complement 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 according 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 apparatus 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- projectort 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 illustrated 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 equipped 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 elements for coprojecting. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Further particulars and advantages of the invention will be apparently read from the following detailed desctiption wherein reference is made to the attached drawings showing generally embodiment intended for use in hairdressing saloons.

A living person 1 sitting or standing is observed by a TV-camera 2, e .g . a colour TV-camera or by other opto electronic means produ cing a first picture /Fig. 1/. The TV-camera 2 and generally the other optoelectronic means are conne cted to an electronic device for restoring the first 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 coprojected 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 comprise 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, the video tape recorder being equipped with electronic circuits for processing pictures. The TV-camera 2 is corinected in this case to the mentioned processing circuits and a common picture is restored on the screen 4, which can be also an ele ctronic unit or the videoprojector 3 cooperating with 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 projector 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 fromthe 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 corresponding diffused /washed-out/ zones on the screen 4 cover one another. The mentioned zones correspond to the complemen tary outlines of the masking elements.

The apparatus according to the invention can be used in an especially advantageous manner in hair dressing saloons. 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 elements 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 position oppositely to the aperture 19. The masking elements 6 and 7 are made with light zones 13 and dark zones 14 /Figures 3 and 4/ bordered by complement ary outlines. On the screen 4 a dark zone 14 is assigned to th at of the first masking element 6 /Figure 5/ and a light zone shows a detail 15 of the face of the living person 1. This detail is surrounded by a transient zone 16 whic h is washed-out , wherein the picture can. not be seen in mor e detail. The detail 15 whould be dark if only the slide pro jector 5 projects the second picture showing a kind 17 of coiffure /Figure 6/ su rrounding a transient zone 16 having generally the same dimensions as that shown in Figure 5. The common pictur e is a detail 15 with strange environment 18 /Figure 7/ which can be a kind 17 of coiffure. In this common picture a transient zone 16 is present wherein the details of the face can not be seen.

The arrangement of the Figure 1 can be used also for 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 picture showing t he person in underclothing is combined by electronic 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 equipped with a photo-camera for taking pictures from the screen 4.

The proposed method is carried out in the following way.

The living person is arranged before electronic means for taking pictur 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 appropriate electronic means, e.g. by a videoprojector having three outputs. The second picture showing a kind of coiffure , clothe s, a piece of jewelry or other environment , strange effect is coprojected with the first picture, especially 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 seeond pictures can he achieved.

The method and apparatus proposed by the invention offer very wide possibilities of showing different kinds of coiffure , clothes , jewelry, of combining different environments and effects with the picture of a liv ing person for checking a variety of possible arrangements.

Claims

1. A method of montage-like coprojecting a picture taken from a living person and a picture showing strange body parts, environment or effects, wherein a 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, characterized by taking the first picture from the living person by electronic mean , projecting it by electronic means and bringing the second pictur e during projection onto the first picture.

2. Metho d as claimed in claim 1, characterized by that 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 by that the first picture is taken from the living person in a given shape and the second picture is brought onto the first picture in a shape conform with that of the first picture.

4. An apparatus f or montage-like coprojecting a picture taken from a living person and a picture showing strange body parts , environment or effects , especially for realising 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, characterized by that the means for forming a first picture inclu de a TV-camera /2/ directed onto the living person /1/ and connected by its output to a videoprojector /3/ and that 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/.

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 element /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/ between the optical projecting device and the second masking element /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-camera /2/, the videoprojector /3/ and. the optical projecting device and defining an aperture /19/ oppositely to the screen /4/ generally in the height of the eyes of the living person /I/.

7. Apparatus according to any of claims 4 to 6, characterized in that the optical projecting device includes one or more slide projectors /5/ .

8. Apparatus according to any of claims 4 to 7, characterized in that the optical projecting device includes a film projector .

9. An apparatus for montage-like coprojecting a picture taken from a living person and a picture showing strange body parts, environment or effects, especially for realising 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 output 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 .