Image display method and image display system

An image display system for providing an observer with a synthesized image generated by merging a virtual space image and an image of a real space at a given viewpoint, the system comprising:

• a) an inputting unit for inputting real space image captured by an image-taking device, the real space image including a mock-up made based on three-dimensional CAD data;
• b) a measuring unit for measuring positions and orientations of the image-taking device and the mock-up and obtaining position/orientation information representing the position and orientation of the mock-up in the real space image;
• c) an area extracting unit for extracting an area including a predetermined color from the real space image, the predetermined color is different from a color of the mock-up;
• and
• d) a synthesizing unit for merging the real space image and a three-dimensional computer graphic image by superimposing the three-dimensional computer graphic image on the mock-up, except for the area including the predetermined color extracted by the area extracting unit, the area extracted by the area extracting unit is displayed before the three-dimensional computer graphic image, in the real space image based on the position/orientation information and the three-dimensional CAD data.

An image display system for providing an observer with a synthesized image generated by merging a virtual space image and an image of a real space at given position, the system comprising:

• an image taking unit adapted to capture the image of the real space including a mock-up made based on three-dimensional CAD data;
• a color storing unit adapted to store color information of a color different from a color of the mock-up;
• a measuring unit adapted to measure a position and orientation of the mock-up and a position and orientation of the image taking unit;
• a position calculation unit adapted to calculate a relative position relationship between the mock-up and the image taking unit based on the measured result by the measuring unit;
• an extracting unit adapted to extract an area including the color information from the real space image;
• a rendering unit adapted to render a computer graphic image on the mock-up, in the real space image without the area extracted by the extracting unit, the area extracted by the extracting unit is displayed before the computer graphic image, using the three-dimensional CAD data based on the relative position relationship;
• and
• an output unit adapted to output the image rendered by the rendering unit to the observer.