JP2000020884A - Processor for mobile object, inter-mobile object communication system, communication method and storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable transmission and reception of desired image information. SOLUTION: A request for an image indicating the scenery of a desired spot (position information) is outputted from a following automobile 2 to a preceding automobile 1. The automobile 1 retrieves an image indicating the scenery of the desired spot from images picked-up and stored by an on-vehicle camera based on the position information, and transmits the image to the automobile 2. The automobile 2 displays the received image, and uses it for traveling guide or the like.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a camera mounted on an automobile or the like and a communication system using a position detecting device such as a car navigation device, and more particularly to wireless transmission and reception of image data from the camera.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, many electronic devices have been mounted in automobiles. Among them, GPS (Gl
obal Positioning System) The use of car navigation systems that measure the position of the vehicle based on signals from satellites and display driving guidance on a liquid crystal display is remarkable.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram showing an example of a conventional car navigation device.

[0004] 201 is a system controller, 202 is a ROM storing programs, and 203 is an RA used for storing operation modes and storing map data and the like.
M and 204 are composed of gyros and the like, detect the vehicle speed and the angle of turning, etc., and output the information to the system controller 201; 205 is a GPS antenna; 206 is a GPS unit; 206 is a GPS unit; 209, a CD-ROM device for reproducing a CD-ROM for providing map information, 209
, A CD-ROM controller; 210, a display screen drawing processing unit; 211, a VRAM for accumulating the display screen;
Is a display device composed of liquid crystal or the like, 213 is an internal bus, 2
Numeral 14 denotes an input of traveling data such as a vehicle speed and information of turning.

[0005] Under such a configuration, the system controller 201 constantly calculates the position of the own vehicle from GPS information and autonomous driving data, and outputs a driving guide display.

[0006] The car navigation device is an effective device that provides more comfortable interior space with more functions such as display of own vehicle position and map information as a vehicle guidance device, TV image and music reproduction, and the like. is there.

[0007]

However, although the conventional car navigation system has been enhanced as a travel guide function, various data can be arbitrarily transmitted and received between automobiles by taking an image with a vehicle-mounted camera equipped with a video during traveling. No practical application has been made in terms of integration with next-generation in-car devices and functions such as the environment.

[0008] Various data while traveling between a plurality of vehicles,
Especially when considering means for transmitting image data captured by an in-vehicle camera, the monitor of a car navigation device can be an effective device as a display device, but there are differences between manufacturers in terms of image and signal processing. Yes, it is not always possible to display image data. Therefore, an environment in which image data can be transmitted and received using the communication means without any problem between different types of car navigation devices and can be displayed is desired.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made under such circumstances, and a processing apparatus for a mobile unit, a communication system between mobile units, and a communication method capable of transmitting and receiving desired image information in a system having a mobile unit. , And a storage medium.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a moving object processing apparatus is provided as follows.
As described in (5), (7) and (9), the inter-mobile communication system is defined as in (6), (8) and (10) below, and the communication method is defined as in (11) below. Then, the storage medium is configured as in the following (12).

(1) Image pickup means for picking up an image of a scene outside the moving object, position detecting means for detecting the position of the moving object, and information of an image picked up by the image pickup means, which is detected by the position detecting means. A processing device for a mobile body, comprising: a processing unit for performing processing such as adding information on a specified position; and a transmission unit for wirelessly transmitting an output of the processing unit.

(2) The processing apparatus for a mobile object according to the above (1), wherein the processing means also performs processing for matching with the processing method of the device on the receiving side.

(3) In the processing apparatus for a moving body according to (1), storage means for storing the image information with position information processed by the processing means, and position information requested from the receiving side by the storage means. A search unit for searching for the image information according to the position information as a key, wherein the transmission unit transmits the image information searched for by the search unit.

(4) Position detecting means for detecting the position of the moving body, request generating means for generating a request for image information related to the information on the position detected by the position detecting means, and request generating means for generating the request. A mobile processing apparatus comprising: a transmission unit that wirelessly transmits a request; a reception unit that wirelessly receives image information from a transmission side; and a display unit that displays an image of the image information received by the reception unit.

(5) A processing apparatus for a mobile object comprising the processing apparatus for a mobile object according to any one of (1) to (3) and the processing apparatus for a mobile object according to claim 4.

(6) An inter-mobile communication system that includes a plurality of mobile bodies equipped with the mobile processing apparatus according to (5) and transmits and receives image information between the mobile bodies.

(7) In the processing device for a moving object according to any one of (1) to (5), the moving object is an automobile.

(8) The inter-mobile communication system according to (6), wherein the mobile is an automobile.

(9) In the processing apparatus for a moving body according to any one of the above (1) to (5), the position detecting means may be a GPS.
A processing device for a moving object, comprising:

(10) The inter-mobile communication system according to (6), wherein the position detecting means has a GPS.

(11) A communication method including the following steps (1) to (11).

(1) A step of taking an image of a scene outside the moving object using one of the moving objects.

(2) detecting the position of the one moving body;

(3) A step of adding information on the position detected in the step (2) to information on the image captured in the step (1).

(4) A step of detecting the position of the other moving object.

(5) A step of generating a request for image information relating to the position information detected in (4) by the other moving body.

(6) transmitting the request generated in (5) to the one mobile unit;

(7) A step of receiving the request transmitted in (6) by the one mobile unit.

(8) A step of retrieving image information relating to the request received in (7) from the image information processed in the step (3).

(9) transmitting the image information retrieved in (8) to the other mobile unit;

(10) a step of receiving the image information transmitted in (9) by the other mobile unit.

(11) A step of displaying an image of the image information received in (10).

(12) A storage medium storing a program for realizing the communication method according to (11).

[0034]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to an embodiment of an inter-vehicle communication system. Note that the present invention is not limited to vehicles, and may be applied to the form of a communication system between appropriate kinds of moving bodies such as between trains, ships, and aircraft, and between different kinds of moving bodies such as between cars and trains. In the same manner.

Further, the present invention can be similarly implemented in such a manner that a fixed station, a communication satellite, or the like is used as a base station (an image of a predetermined point is stored in advance) or a relay station to communicate with a mobile unit.

The present invention is not limited to the form of an object such as a communication system, but may be similarly implemented in the form of a communication method and further in the form of a storage medium such as a CD-ROM in which a program for realizing the communication method is stored. Can be.

[0037]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of an "inter-vehicle communication system" as an embodiment. Each equipped with a GPS navigation device using radio waves from the GPS satellite 103,
The figure shows a state in which image data is transmitted and received between a car 101 and a car 102 by wireless communication. It should be noted that the image data in this embodiment means both a still image and a moving image. Also, in FIG.
1. Wireless communication between the automobiles 102 can be executed not only during traveling.

In the wireless communication shown in FIG. 1, radio waves are transmitted and received from the antennas 104 and 105. Here, the wireless communication system may be a communication using a mobile phone, a spread spectrum communication system, or the like. Since the communication system of the mobile phone is publicly known, a supplementary explanation is omitted, but the configuration and communication operation of the spread spectrum communication system will be briefly described here.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the transmission section of the spread spectrum communication apparatus, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the reception section.

First, in FIG. 2, reference numeral 501 denotes a serial-to-parallel converter, reference numerals 502-1 to n denote multipliers, reference numeral 503 denotes a spread code generator, reference numeral 504 denotes an adder, and reference numeral 505 denotes a radio frequency (RF) for converting to a transmission frequency signal. ) The converter 506 is a transmitting antenna.

The operation of the transmission section of the spread spectrum communication apparatus configured as described above will be described below.

The input data is converted by the serial / parallel converter 501 into n parallel data. The converted data are multiplied by n different spreading code outputs of the spreading code generator 503 in n multipliers 502-1 to n, and are converted into n-channel wideband spread signals. Next, the outputs of the multipliers are added in an adder 504, and the RF converter 5
05 is output. In the RF converter 505, the added baseband broadband spread signal is converted into a transmission frequency signal having an appropriate center frequency, and transmitted from the transmission antenna 506.

Next, in FIG. 3, 511 is a receiving antenna, 512 is a radio frequency (RF) converter, and 513-1 to 513-1.
n is a correlator, 514-1 to n are spreading code generators, 515
-1 to n are synchronous circuits, 516 to 1 to n are demodulators, and 517
Is a parallel-to-serial converter.

The operation of the receiving section of the spread spectrum communication apparatus configured as described above will be described below.

The transmission signal received by the reception antenna 511 is appropriately filtered and amplified by the RF converter 512, and is converted into an intermediate frequency signal. The intermediate frequency signal is distributed to channels corresponding to n parallel spreading codes. In each channel, the correlators 513-1 to n perform correlation detection with the outputs of the spread code generators 514-1 to n corresponding to each channel, and the synchronization circuits 515-1-n establish synchronization for each channel. Then, the code phases and clocks of the respective spread code generators 514-1 to n are matched with each other, and the demodulators 516-1-n demodulate and reproduce the data. Further, the reproduced data is converted to serial data by the parallel / serial converter 517 and returned to the original data.

The above is the basic block diagram configuration of the transmission unit and the reception unit and the description of the communication operation in the spread spectrum communication system.

The transmitting apparatus and the receiving apparatus in the spread spectrum communication system described above are used as wireless communication means.

Next, the configuration of the system of this embodiment mounted on the automobile shown in FIG. 1 is shown in a block diagram 4 of FIG.

1 is a system controller, 2 is a ROM storing programs and various data, and 3 is an RA used for storing operation modes and storing map data and the like.
M and 4 are composed of a gyro or the like and detect a vehicle speed, a turning angle, and the like, and transmit the information to the system controller 1.
Autonomous measurement unit that outputs to GPS, 5 is a GPS antenna, 6 is GP
S unit, 7 a vehicle-mounted camera capable of capturing both moving images and still images, 8 a camera signal processing circuit, 9 a disk-shaped recording medium for holding image data captured by the vehicle-mounted camera, and an image composed of a recording / reproducing device and the like. A storage unit for converting the image data for displaying or transmitting the image data;
An image adjustment unit for performing adjustment processing, 11 is a Key input unit including a remote controller and a main body input unit, and 12 is a CD that provides map information.
CD-ROM device for reproducing ROM, 13 is CD-R
An OM controller 14; a drawing processing unit for a display screen;
Is a VRAM for accumulating a display screen, 16 is a display device composed of a liquid crystal or the like, 17 is a compression / decompression processing circuit for image data, 18 is a communication interface, 19 is a wireless transmission / reception unit serving as an input / output unit for wirelessly communicating data. , Which is connected to a wireless communication means such as a cellular phone or spread spectrum through a predetermined circuit. Further, reference numeral 20 denotes an internal bus, and reference numeral 21 denotes an input of traveling data such as vehicle speed and turning information, which is also used for autonomous traveling measurement.

The GPS unit 6 shown in FIG.
In addition to the navigation function, the system controller 1 calculates the position of the vehicle from the autonomous driving data calculated from the information and the driving data, and outputs the driving guide display using the map information recorded on the CD-ROM. Image data captured by the on-board camera 7 can be compressed and recorded,
It can be displayed on the display device 16, can transmit and receive image data and other command data and the like from the wireless transmission and reception unit 19 via wireless communication, can display the received image data on the display device 16, and can control and control the command input / output. Control based on commands is also performed. These units are integrally controlled by the system controller 1, and can become operation control commands by receiving an instruction from the user to the key input unit 11.

The in-vehicle camera 7 is, as shown in FIG.
It is installed inside the vehicle and is provided so as to image the front of the vehicle. However, the direction of this camera may be directed to any direction as necessary, and the mounting position may be arbitrary. Even a camera that images the back of a car,
Further, even if a plurality of cameras are mounted, such as a front camera and a rear camera, it is within the scope of the present invention.

Next, in order to explain transmission of image data, FIG. 6 shows a block diagram of a portion related to transmission in the system of the present embodiment including a car navigation device in a transmission-side automobile, and will be described.

The components shown in FIG. 6 include the system controller 1, autonomous measuring unit 4, GPS
Antenna 5, GPS receiver (in unit) 6, on-board camera 7, camera signal processing circuit 8, image storage unit 9, image adjustment circuit (in image adjustment unit) 10, compression / expansion circuit 17, wireless transmission / reception unit 19, and system A part of the controller 1 which detects the position of the vehicle and outputs it as position information; and a part of the image adjustment part which is a part of the image adjustment unit and which is based on image formats such as format, size and data amount of image data. An image method setting circuit 32 for setting for conversion and adjustment, and a compression method setting circuit 3 which is also a part of the image adjustment unit and performs setting for conversion of a compression format of image data.
3. Combining unit 34.

Next, the operation will be described.

The GPS antenna 5 receives radio waves transmitted from GPS satellites, and the GPS receiver 6 performs position determination processing by GPS. GPS information,
Further, in places where satellite radio waves do not reach, the autonomous measurement data is taken into account by the autonomous measurement unit 4, and the system controller 1 performs processing for navigation.

The own vehicle position detecting section 31 detects and outputs position information as recording data from the GPS information and the position information determined by the system controller 1.

The image captured by the on-vehicle camera 7 is digitized by the camera signal processing circuit 8 and subjected to necessary signal processing for the chrominance signal and the luminance signal to become image data. The image data output from the camera signal processing circuit 8 is multiplexed with the recording position information from the vehicle position detection unit 31 by the synthesizing unit 34 and reaches the compression / expansion processing circuit 17. Here, the image data is compressed by a predetermined compression method. The advantages of compression are to reduce the amount of recording and to improve transmission efficiency.
JPEG, JBIG, etc. for still images, MPE for moving images
G1, MPEG2 and MPEG4 are desirable compression methods, but are not limited thereto. In this embodiment, image data is compressed, recorded, and transmitted mainly using JPEG and MPEG4 in consideration of communication between vehicles, display size of a car navigation device, and the like. However, a configuration capable of supporting other compression methods and image formats is realized, and a configuration capable of conversion to another image format upon transmission is adopted.

The description of JPEG is omitted since it is a publicly known and publicly known one, but the development background and configuration of MPEG4 will be briefly described below with reference to the drawings.

In recent years, with the sophistication of image coding technology and the advance of computers, objects in an image
A scheme for segmenting and encoding each time has been proposed.
By encoding an image on an object basis, it is possible to improve the encoding efficiency by performing optimal encoding for each object, and to obtain a function of generating a new image by editing an object in the image. it can. A method of encoding moving images for each image object has been studied as the international standardized method MPEG4 (references:
"Standardization Trends of MPEG4", Eito, Journal of the Institute of Image Electronics Engineers of Japan, Vol. 25, No. 3, 1996. 223-228).

FIG. 7 shows an example of a target screen. FIG. 7 shows one frame of a moving image. Frame 4 in FIG.
01 is composed of four objects a to d.
That is, an object a representing a background, an object b representing a helicopter, an object c representing a train, and an object d representing a car. To represent these shapes,
Objects other than the background have a mask in which the black portion is outside the region and the white portion is inside the region in the rectangular regions as shown by e to g. It can handle objects with shapes. That is, the mask 406 corresponds to the object 403, the mask 407 corresponds to the object 404, and the mask 408 corresponds to the object 405.

FIG. 8 shows an outline of the encoding. The input image 301 is input to the object separation unit 302 and is separated into respective objects. In the image of FIG. 7, the objects are separated into objects 402, 403, 404, and 405.
Each of the separated objects is independently encoded. That is, the object 402 is encoded by the object encoding unit 303, the object 403 is encoded by the object encoding unit 304, the object 404 is encoded by the object encoding unit 305, and the object 405 is encoded by the object encoding unit 306. Each object encoding unit 3
The encoded data obtained in steps 03 to 306 are collected by the multiplexer 307 and sent out as code data 308.

FIG. 9 shows an outline of the decoding. The above-described code data 308 is input to the demultiplexer 309 and is separated into encoded data for each object. The separated encoded data is independently decoded. That is, the object 402 is decoded by the object decoding unit 310, the object 403 is decoded by the object decoding unit 311, the object 404 is decoded by the object decoding unit 312, and the object 405 is decoded by the object decoding unit 313. The image data obtained by each of the object decoding units 310 to 313 is arranged at a desired position of each object by the object synthesizing unit 314, and a single image is synthesized to obtain a reproduced image 315.

The above is a general description of MPEG4.

Returning to the description of FIG. 6, the image data compressed through the compression processing of the compression / expansion circuit 17 of FIG.
It reaches the recording system and the transmission system.

When recording image data, the image storage 9
To record. The storage format of the image data stored in the image storage unit 9 composed of a writable recording medium is as shown in FIG. Each image data is ID
Section, a position information section, and image data. The ID section includes ID information such as an address, and the position information section includes the vehicle position detecting section 3.
1 stores information (positional information) such as latitude and longitude for specifying a geographical position output from 1, and image data of a moving image or a still image is sequentially stored in each image data portion.

The compression circuit 17 receives the compressed image data reproduced from the image data storage section 9 or the input from the camera.
The image data compressed by is subjected to image adjustment and conversion processing by the control of the system controller 1, the image adjustment circuit 10, the image method setting circuit 32, and the compression method setting circuit 33 prior to wireless transmission. Specific image adjustment means that when a request is received from the receiving device as the transmission destination, the device information is received at the same time, and the image format, screen size, function, and manufacturer specific Image data (ROM information), etc., so that the image data can be converted to an effective image format (corresponding to the processing system in the claims) and transmitted to the receiving device so that the image data is thinned out and additional information is added. Adjust by adding, converting image format, etc. In particular, for the image compression method, conversion of the compression method, MPGE4 to MPEG2
For example, conversion to MPEG1 or non-compression is performed while appropriately adding feedback to the compression / expansion circuit 17. If the receiving device can process the MPEG data, it transmits the image data compressed in the corresponding MPEG format, and if not, decompresses the image data.
It becomes possible to transmit uncompressed image data.

Thereafter, the adjusted image data is transmitted from the wireless transmission / reception unit 19 via wireless communication, a portable telephone, or the like. Command data such as a transmission request among data received by the wireless transmission / reception unit 19 reaches the system controller 1 and becomes a control command for image transmission.

Next, FIG. 11 shows a block diagram of a part related to a transmission request and image data reception in an automobile serving as a receiving side equipped with a system including the car navigation device of the present embodiment.

The components of FIG. 11 include the system controller 1, ROM 2, autonomous measuring unit 4, GPS antenna 5, GPS receiving unit (within the unit) already described with reference to FIG.
6, a drawing processing circuit 14, a display device 16, a decompression circuit (part of a compression / decompression circuit) 17, a wireless transmission / reception unit 19, and a part of the system controller 1 to detect the position of the vehicle,
Own-vehicle-position detecting unit 31 that outputs position information,
Generating the types of images that can be handled, the configuration and capabilities of the display means, etc. from the OM2 program information and the configuration of each unit as device information, and generating an instruction command for the transmission device in a real-time image transmission mode or a stored image transmission mode. A request generating unit 41 for outputting a request, a position information detecting unit 42 for detecting position information from wirelessly transmitted data, a combining unit 43, and a data separating unit 44.

Next, the operation will be described.

The GPS antenna 5 receives a radio wave transmitted from a GPS satellite, and the GPS receiver 6 performs a GPS position determination process. GPS information,
Further, in places where satellite radio waves do not reach, the autonomous measurement data is taken into account by the autonomous measurement unit 4, and the system controller 1 performs processing for navigation.

The own-vehicle position detecting section 31 calculates the position of the vehicle from the GPS information and the position information determined by the
Information indicating the position of the vehicle is detected and output as data.
Further, necessary information is collected and output from the ROM 2 and the system controller 1 to output image formats, screen sizes, functions, and manufacturer-specific information that can be supported by the own device, and device information is generated. Data is converted into device information to be transmitted to the transmitting device, and real-time image data from a vehicle equipped with the transmitting device is obtained or stored in the past in accordance with a user's selection instructed and input from the key input unit 11. The user selects whether to obtain the read image from the image storage unit of the transmission side device and obtains the mode selection instruction information together with the device information as a request. Then, the vehicle position information and the request are combined by the combiner 43, and transmitted as a transmission request from the wireless transmission / reception unit 19 to the transmission-side device by wireless means to receive image data.

When the transmission device receives the transmission request, it determines the transmission mode of the stored image or the transmission of the real-time image data. In the case of the transmission mode, the stored image data having the corresponding position information is read from the storage device based on the position information on the receiving side in the transmission request, and the transmission is controlled.

Next, when receiving the image data, first, the data separating section 44 separates the image data body and positional information serving as additional information from the image data received by the wireless transmitting / receiving section 19. The image data is expanded by the expansion circuit 17 and displayed on the display device 16. Further, the position information is detected by the position information detecting unit 42 as position information indicating the position of the transmitting vehicle in the case of the real-time mode and the position stored therein in the case of the stored image transmission mode. The data is mixed with the map data supplied from the CD-ROM and can be displayed on the display device 16.

The above is the description of the operation of the receiving side device in FIG. By adding and adding additional data to the position information output from the vehicle position detection unit 31, an arbitrary position, for example, a point several Km ahead of the vehicle position, is calculated and set. If so, the stored image data at that position can be obtained.

FIG. 12 shows a state of the monitor in the receiving vehicle in the real time mode. As an example of the navigation display screen, a map screen 602 created from map information read from a CD-ROM is displayed on the display device 601 as a base, and a real-time image 603 from the other party's transmitting vehicle preceding a part of the screen is displayed. it's shown. And
The positions of the own vehicle and the opponent vehicle are indicated by characters such as arrows based on the respective position information. Obtaining the video from the preceding vehicle in this manner also has the effect of knowing the congestion state or running guidance while confirming the actual landscape image of the preceding point.

In the stored image reading mode,
When the preceding vehicle has passed the position where the receiving vehicle is currently located, it can be read and received from the other vehicle that has passed ahead, and the stored image can be read and received, so that the actual landscape image can be displayed for travel guidance, and this is particularly effective in complicated roads and the like. It is a target. At this time, by adjusting the position information based on the position information of the position where the receiving vehicle is present, a stored image at an arbitrary position can be requested.

Next, the main operation of the present embodiment relating to wireless transmission of image data will be described with reference to a flowchart of FIG. The flowchart of FIG.
The state related to wireless transmission between the transmitting side and the receiving side is indicated by a bold line.

First, in the mode in which the operation of the present embodiment is executed, in step S1, the receiving side generates the transmission request described above and performs wireless transmission. In step S2, when the specified or optional mounted navigation device, which keeps the transmission request receivable, receives the transmission request in step S1, it is controlled to transmit the image data thereafter, and Side device. Subsequently, in step S3, the transmission-side device determines transmission mode information from the transmission request. If the transmission mode requires a real-time image from the camera, the transmission-side device flows to the camera image input side in step S5 to store the information. If reading of the image data is requested, step S
8, the flow is shifted to the stored image transmission mode side.

In the real-time image transmission mode, in step S5, an image is input from a vehicle camera on the transmitting side, and in step S6, position information of the own vehicle is multiplexed with image data based on GPS information and the like, and in step S7, input from the camera. Compressed image data.

As the stored image transmission mode, step S
The storage image transmission mode is set as 8 and subsequently, the receiving side position information in the transmission request transmitted from the receiving side in step S9 is used as stored image data search information,
A corresponding one is searched from the position information of each image data stored in the storage medium. Here, if image data having the corresponding position information is stored in step S10, a reproduction process of the image data is performed in step S11. If there is no corresponding stored image in step S10, the flow ends here.

In the real time transmission mode, step S
The input image data from the camera compressed in step S7 or the image data reproduced in step S11 in the stored image transmission mode is subjected to image adjustment in step S12. As described above, the image adjustment is a conversion process of image data performed by the image adjustment circuit in accordance with the unique device information of the receiving device. After the image is adjusted in step S12,
In step S13, the image data is transmitted wirelessly.

On the other hand, on the receiving side, after transmitting the request in step S1, the process enters a standby for receiving image data, and if the real-time or reproduced image data transmitted through the processing on the transmitting side is received in step S14, This leads to image expansion in S16. If the image data is not received in step S14, the elapse of a predetermined time is determined in step S15. If the predetermined time has not elapsed, the image forming apparatus 100 remains on standby to wait for reception. The flow ends here because there is no data or communication is not possible due to an accident.

In step S16, the image data is expanded to decompress it. Next, in step S17, a map drawing process for displaying the map information together with the map information is performed based on the position information transmitted from the transmitting side simultaneously with the image. The map display and the transmitted image data are combined and simultaneously or selectively made displayable, and are displayed on the display device in step S18 as needed in response to transmission.

In the stored image transmission mode, when the reproduction of one unit of the image data stored for an arbitrary time is completed, or when there is a termination command from the transmitting user including the real time mode. , Step S2
At 2, the transmission is terminated, and the transmission is terminated and the flow is terminated. If the end of step S22 is not determined, the process returns to step S13 to continue wireless transmission.

If it is determined in step S19 that the image transmission has been completed on the transmitting side and that the wireless transmission has been completed, the flow on the receiving side also ends. If not, the process proceeds to step S20. In step S21, a stop command is issued as a stop command, a stop command for notifying the user of the stop is wirelessly transmitted to the transmitting side, and the process ends. The transmitting side that has received the stop command determines that the process is to be ended in step S22 and performs the end process, as in the case of the normal end. If the stop is not determined in step S20, the data is not transmitted wirelessly in a lump, but is repeatedly transmitted from the reception of the image data in step S14 in a flow such as when transmitted at predetermined intervals.
The receiving process and the display process are executed smoothly as needed.

The above is the description of the operation of this embodiment shown in the flowchart of FIG.

As described above, according to the present embodiment,
With this configuration, image data captured by the other vehicle can be displayed on the display unit of the car navigation unit of the own vehicle. At that time, the stored image data of the opponent vehicle can be searched based on the GPS information of the own vehicle, and the image data of the required optimum position can be read from the preceding opponent vehicle, which is effective in traveling guidance. Specifically, in the stored image reading mode, since the image taken and stored when the preceding vehicle has passed the position where the receiving vehicle is currently located can be read and received from the other vehicle that has already preceded, the actual traveling image can be traveled. It can be displayed for guidance, and is particularly effective in complicated alleys. Further, at this time, by adjusting the receiving side position information based on the position information of the position where the receiving vehicle is located, the transmitting side can also request the stored image stored at an arbitrary position.

Further, by obtaining a real-time image of the preceding vehicle, it is possible to adapt to avoiding traffic congestion.

Also, a car navigation device of the other vehicle,
By converting the data into image data suitable for the display device and transmitting it, it is possible to support navigation devices with different methods and standards depending on the manufacturer, and by selecting the most appropriate image format for transmission, smooth operation is possible. Transmission becomes possible.

[0091]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In a system having a moving body, a desired image can be transmitted and received.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing a use state of an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a transmission unit of the spread spectrum communication apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a receiving unit of the spread spectrum communication apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a main part of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an attached state of a vehicle-mounted camera.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a transmission unit.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of object separation.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of encoding by MPEG4.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of decoding by MPEG4.

FIG. 10 is a conceptual diagram of a storage mode.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a receiving unit.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a display example on the receiving side.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional car navigation device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 System controller 6 GPS unit 7 In-vehicle camera 16 Display device 19 Wireless transmission / reception part

Continued on front page F-term (reference) 2C032 HB03 HB25 HC02 HC05 HC23 HC32 HD04 HD12 HD26 2F069 AA03 BB21 GG07 GG59 GG65 HH30 5C054 AA02 EB05 EG01 FA04 FE18 GB01 HA28 HA30 5H180 AA01 AA25 FF04 BB13 FF13 BB13 FF13 BB13FF FF27 FF33 FF38 5K067 AA34 BB04 BB36 DD52 EE02 EE25 FF03 JJ52 JJ56

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. An image pickup means for picking up an image of a scene outside the moving body, a position detecting means for detecting a position of the moving body,
Processing means for performing processing such as adding information on the position detected by the position detection means to information on the image captured by the imaging means, and transmission means for wirelessly transmitting the output of the processing means. A processing device for a moving object. 2. The mobile processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said processing means also performs processing for matching with a processing method of a device on the receiving side. 3. The processing apparatus for a mobile object according to claim 1, wherein said storage means stores the image information with position information processed by said processing means, and the storage means stores the position information requested by the receiving side. A processing device for a mobile object, comprising: a search unit that searches for image information using its position information as a key, wherein the image information searched by the search unit is transmitted by the transmission unit. 4. A position detecting means for detecting a position of the moving object, a request generating means for generating a request for image information relating to information on the position detected by the position detecting means, and a request generated by the request generating means. Transmitting means for wirelessly transmitting image information, receiving means for wirelessly receiving image information from the transmitting side, and display means for displaying an image of the image information received by the receiving means. apparatus. 5. A processing apparatus for a mobile object, comprising the processing apparatus for a mobile object according to claim 1 and the processing apparatus for a mobile object according to claim 4. 6. A communication system between mobile units, comprising a plurality of mobile units equipped with the processing unit for mobile units according to claim 5, wherein image information is transmitted and received between the mobile units. 7. The processing apparatus for a mobile object according to claim 1, wherein the mobile object is an automobile. 8. The inter-mobile communication system according to claim 6, wherein the mobile is an automobile. 9. The processing apparatus for a mobile object according to claim 1, wherein the position detecting means has a GPS. 10. An inter-mobile communication system according to claim 6, wherein the position detecting means has a GPS. 11. A communication method comprising the following steps (1) to (11). (1) A step of capturing an external scenery with one moving object. (2) detecting the position of the one moving body; (3) In the information of the image captured in the step (1),
A step of adding information on the position detected in the step (2). (4) detecting the position of the other moving object; (5) A step of generating a request for image information relating to the position information detected in (4) by the other moving body. (6) transmitting the request generated in (5) to the one mobile unit; (7) receiving the request transmitted in (6) by the one mobile unit; (8) A step of searching for image information relating to the request received in (7) from the image information processed in step (3). (9) transmitting the image information retrieved in (8) to the other mobile unit; (10) a step of receiving the image information transmitted in (9) by the other moving object; (11) displaying an image of the image information received in (10). 12. A storage medium storing a program for realizing the communication method according to claim 11.