JP2008155701A - Vehicular visual field auxiliary device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vehicular visual field auxiliary device capable of properly aquiring the circumstance at a periphery of the vehicle by a driver. <P>SOLUTION: Onto a door mirror 22 at a driver's seat 23 side of the vehicle 20, an on-vehicle camera capable of photographing a front side of the vehicle 20 is mounted. Further, a display 8 is mounted to an inner surface of a cabin of a front pillar 24 at the driver's seat 23 side. A portion corresponding to the visual field portion of the driver shut-off by the front pillar 24 of a photographing image by the on-vehicle camera is cut off and displayed on a display 8. The display 8 has a plurality of pixels, and regarding areas of the respective pixels, the area far from the eye point of the driver is set larger than the area near the eye point of the driver. Thereby, regarding the display 8, even if the respective portions are not positioned at a uniform distance from the eye point of the driver, the display image is not deflected. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicular visual field assisting device that supplements a visual field blocked by a vehicle pillar.

  It is important for the driver to secure a field of view by reducing the blind spot for safe driving of the vehicle. Especially in front of the vehicle, as other vehicles, pedestrians, bicycles, etc. approach as the vehicle travels, it is necessary to quickly obtain information around the vehicle through the driver's vision. Should have been a priority.

  Here, a camera for photographing the front of the vehicle is attached to the door mirror on the driver's seat, and the camera image is emitted from the projector provided on the rearview mirror in the vehicle interior toward the front pillar on the driver's seat and blocked by the front pillar. There has been a conventional technique related to a visual field assisting device that supplements a driver's visual field (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

The front pillar of a vehicle is a body member formed between a windshield and a door on the side of the vehicle, and has a predetermined thickness (surface area) to give the body a certain rigidity, which is often the driver's The front view was obstructed. In particular, when turning right or left, the vehicle tends to overlook pedestrians or bicycles that go straight on the pedestrian crossing. According to the above-described conventional technology, the driver's blind spot due to the front pillar is substantially eliminated by displaying the image around the vehicle by the in-vehicle camera on the front pillar, and the vehicle can be driven safely.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-199934

  However, the outer peripheral surface of the pillar of the vehicle is usually not perpendicular to the driver and is formed by a gently curved surface for reasons of interior design or to reduce damage to the occupant during a crash. Yes. For this reason, the distance from the driver of each part of the pillar is not uniform, and in the above-described conventional technology, when a camera image is projected on the surface of the pillar by the projector, the image appears distorted on the curved surface of the pillar. There was a problem. In other words, the image displayed at a position far from the driver on the pillar looks smaller than the image displayed at a position close to the driver, so that the entire camera image is distorted. A camera image distorted on the pillar surface not only makes the driver feel uncomfortable, but also prevents the driver from accurately grasping the situation around the vehicle.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a vehicular field of view assistance device that allows a driver to accurately grasp the situation around the vehicle.

  In order to solve the problems of the present invention, according to the first aspect of the present invention, an imaging means mounted on a vehicle for imaging the periphery of the vehicle and a vehicle interior side surface of a vehicle pillar having a plurality of pixels. A control means is provided that is connected to the attached display means and cuts out the field of view of the vehicle driver that is blocked by the pillars among the images taken by the photographing means, and displays on the display means. The size of each pixel of the display means is Since the pixels of the display means on the pillar are larger than those close to the driver because the pixels are set according to the distance from the driver, each part of the pillar is Even if the distance from the point is not uniform, the image displayed on the pillar is not distorted, and the driver can accurately grasp the situation around the vehicle.

  According to the invention of claim 2, the eye point position change caused by the driver changing or changing the seating position by providing the image adjusting means capable of changing the part of the image picked up by the photographing means. Regardless of this, an image that becomes a blind spot for the driver can be accurately displayed on the pillar.

  According to the invention of claim 3, when the turn signal switch of the vehicle is turned on, an image taken by the photographing means is displayed on the display means, so that a pedestrian, a bicycle, etc. that are in front of the left and right of the vehicle when turning right or left of the vehicle You wo n’t overlook.

  According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, when the steering amount of the vehicle detected by the steering sensor is equal to or greater than a predetermined amount, an image sensor by the photographing unit is displayed on the display unit, so that the existing sensor for controlling the vehicle is displayed. It can be used, and it is not necessary to provide a special switch or the like for starting up the apparatus, so that the low-cost vehicular field of view assisting apparatus can be obtained.

  Based on FIG. 1 thru | or FIG. 6, embodiment of the vision assistance apparatus 1 for vehicles by this invention is described. As shown in FIG. 1, a pair of left and right door mirrors (side mirrors) 22 are attached near the front door 21 of the vehicle 20. The door mirror 22 on the driver's seat 23 side incorporates an in-vehicle camera 4 corresponding to the photographing means of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, the light incident portion 4 a of the in-vehicle camera 4 is exposed on the front surface of the door mirror 22 and is provided so as to be able to photograph the front of the vehicle 20. The vehicle-mounted camera 4 is formed by a normal CCD camera. As will be described later, when the image is displayed on the front pillar 24, the driver who sees it has a sense of incongruity with the real image around the front pillar 24. It is not installed in a position.

  A thin display 8 corresponding to the display means of the present invention is attached to the vehicle interior side surface of the front pillar 24 on the driver's seat 23 side. The display 8 has a plurality of pixels, and is used to cut out and display the field of view of the vehicle driver that is blocked by the front pillar 24 among the images captured by the in-vehicle camera 4, but is not limited thereto. An EL (Electro Luminescence) display is used. For this reason, when the image is not displayed, it has a transparent appearance, and the pattern of the interior material on the surface of the pillar 24 is not hidden.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the display 8 is curved in accordance with the shape of the front pillar 24, is fixed on the outer peripheral surface of the front pillar 24 with an adhesive or the like, holds the display 8 from above, and has a surface thereof. A transparent acrylic plate 25 is attached for protection. The side edges 8a and 8b of the display 8 are not provided with pixels 81 to be described later, and the left edge 8a protruding from the front end of the front pillar 24 is bent and attached directly to the windshield 26. . As described above, since the display 8 is formed to be transparent, there is no problem even if it is attached to the windshield 26. On the other hand, the right edge portion 8b of the display 8 is bonded to the right side surface of the pillar 24 and is pressed and concealed by the side glass 27 when the vehicle door 21 is closed.

  FIG. 5 is a simplified diagram for explaining the details of the respective pixels 81 and 91 and the display images 10 and 11 of the display 8 and the normal display 9 according to the present embodiment. It does not show a display image. The upper part of FIG. 5 is a front view when the curved displays 8 and 9 are flattened, the middle part is a cross-sectional view of the respective displays 8 and 9, and the lower part is display images 10 and 11 of the respective displays 8 and 9. It is a front view when it sees from a driver | operator.

  In the normal display 9 shown on the left side of the upper stage, the size of the pixels 91 is uniformly formed. On the other hand, as shown on the right side of the upper stage, the plurality of pixels 81 of the display 8 according to the present embodiment is used. The size of each is not uniform and is set according to the distance from the driver as shown in the middle row, and those far from the driver's eye point (eye position) 12 are larger than those near. The size (area) is increased. Accordingly, as shown in the lower part of FIG. 5, in the case of a normal display 9 in which the areas of the plurality of pixels 91 are uniform, the left and right end portions far from the driver's eye point 13 appear small and the display image 11 is distorted. On the other hand, the display 8 according to the present embodiment does not distort the display image 10 even if each part is not at a uniform distance from the driver's eye point 12.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the turn signal switch 6 formed on the winker lever (not shown) protruding from the steering column of the driver's seat 23 is turned on by the driver's operation when the vehicle 20 turns right or left. Flash the blinker. An image adjustment switch 5 is formed on the console 28 on the left side of the driver seat 23. The image adjustment switch 5 is formed by a toggle switch, and the image of the display 8 can be adjusted by being tilted right or left by the driver. The image adjustment of the display 8 will be described later.

  The control device 2 shown in FIG. 2 corresponds to the control means of the present invention, and includes a CPU, memory (RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory, etc.), I / O, and the like. The above-described turn signal switch 6 and vehicle power source 7 are electrically connected to the control device 2. In addition, the control device 2 includes an image adjustment unit 3 (corresponding to the image adjustment unit of the present invention together with the image adjustment switch 5), to which the above-described in-vehicle camera 4, the image adjustment switch 5 and the display 8 are connected. ing. Based on the operation of the image adjustment switch 5, the image adjustment unit 3 can change the part of the in-vehicle camera 4 where the imaging is cut off. The control device 2 connects and activates the in-vehicle camera 4 and the display 8 to the vehicle power source 7, and of the image captured by the in-vehicle camera 4, a part cut out by the image adjusting unit 3 (the driver's field of view blocked by the front pillar 24 Is displayed on the display 8.

  Next, an image adjustment method of the display 8 by the image adjustment unit 3 will be described based on FIG. In FIG. 6, the diagram shown on the left side shows the relationship between the driver's eye points 12a and 12b, the blind spot by the front pillar 24, and the imaging by the in-vehicle camera 4, and is a view of the vehicle 20 as viewed from above. is there. A rectangular screen 14 shown on the right side represents the entire image captured by the in-vehicle camera 4, and a plurality of diagonal lines in the image capture 14 are cut and displayed according to the position of the driver's seat 23. Represents the edge.

  When the driver's seat 23 is in the A position, the driver operates the image adjustment switch 5 on the console 28 to activate the in-vehicle camera 4 and the display 8. The driver keeps the image adjustment switch 5 tilted to the right or left while comparing (part of) the image taken by the in-vehicle camera 4 visually displayed on the display 8 with the background around the front pillar 24. Thereby, the part of the image picked up by the in-vehicle camera 4 displayed on the display 8 (cut by the image adjustment unit 3) gradually changes (to the right part or the left part in the whole image pickup 14). Go. When the image on the display 8 coincides with the background around the front pillar 24 and the both are naturally continuous, the driver stops operating the image adjustment switch 5 and is cut out of the images taken by the in-vehicle camera 4. The part is fixed at that position (indicated by SA in the imaging 14 of the in-vehicle camera 4 in FIG. 6).

  Thereafter, when the driver's seat 23 moves from the A position to the B position, for example, when the driver changes, the relative position between the driver's eye point 12b and the front pillar 24 changes compared to the eye point 12a. For this reason, the blind spot for the driver by the front pillar 24 changes, and the display image on the display 8 and the background around the front pillar 24 do not continue in this state, and the driver feels uncomfortable with the display image on the display 8. become. Accordingly, as in the case described above, the driver operates the image adjustment switch 5 to the left while comparing the display image on the display 8 with the background around the front pillar 24. As a result, the image on the display 8 changes to that of the left part of the entire imaging 14, and the operation of the image adjustment switch 5 is stopped at the position where it matches the background around the front pillar 24 again. 8 is fixed (indicated by SB in the imaging 14 of the in-vehicle camera 4 in FIG. 6).

  Next, based on FIG. 7, the control method of the vehicle vision assistance apparatus 1 by the control apparatus 2 is demonstrated. When an accessory switch (not shown) is turned on by the driver operating the starter key of the vehicle 20 (step S701), it is determined whether or not the image adjustment switch 5 is turned on (step S702). If the accessory switch remains off, the control flow ends (step S701). When there is an image adjustment request from the driver and the image adjustment switch 5 is turned on, the control device 2 connects the vehicle-mounted camera 4 and the display 8 to the vehicle power supply 7 and starts them (step S703). If the image adjustment switch 5 is not turned on, the process proceeds to step S707 (step S702).

  After the in-vehicle camera 4 and the display 8 are activated, a portion of the field of view of the driver that is blocked by the front pillar 24 is cut out of the image captured by the in-vehicle camera 4 and displayed on the display 8, and the display by the image adjusting unit 3 as described above. 8 image adjustment is performed (step S704). The image adjustment of the display 8 is executed as long as the operation of the image adjustment switch 5 is continued (step S705). When the image adjustment is completed and the image adjustment switch 5 is turned off, the in-vehicle camera 4 and the display 8 are connected to the vehicle power source 7. And is stopped (step S706).

  Next, it is determined whether or not the turn signal switch 6 is turned on (step S707). If the turn signal switch 6 is not turned on, the process proceeds to step S712 to determine whether or not the accessory switch is turned off. When the vehicle turns right or left at an intersection or the like, when the driver turns on the turn signal switch 6 (step S707), the control device 2 connects the in-vehicle camera 4 and the display 8 to the vehicle power source 7 and starts up. In step S708, the portion of the driver's view that is blocked by the front pillar 24 is cut out and displayed on the display 8 (step S709).

  The image display on the display 8 is executed as long as the turn signal switch 6 is kept on (step S710). When the vehicle turns right and left, the winker lever is returned and the turn signal switch 6 is turned off. The in-vehicle camera 4 and the display 8 are cut off from the vehicle power source 7 and stopped (step S711). Thereafter, when the accessory switch is turned off, the control flow ends. When the accessory switch remains on, the process returns to step S702 (step S712).

  According to the present embodiment, the in-vehicle camera 4 attached to the door mirror 22 of the vehicle 20 for photographing the front of the vehicle 20 and the plurality of pixels 81 are attached to the interior side surface of the front pillar 24 of the vehicle 20. A control device 2 that is connected to the display 8 and cuts out a portion of the field of view of the vehicle driver that is blocked by the front pillar 24 from the image pickup 14 by the in-vehicle camera 4 and displays it on the display 8. The area 81 is set according to the distance from the driver's eye point 12. As a result, since the pixels 81 of the display 8 on the front pillar 24 are larger than those close to the driver, the parts of the front pillar 24 are not evenly spaced from the driver's eye point 12. In addition, the image displayed on the front pillar 24 is not distorted, and the driver can accurately grasp the situation around the vehicle 20.

  In addition, since the image adjustment switch 5 and the image adjustment unit 3 that can change the portion of the image pickup 14 cut by the in-vehicle camera 4 are provided, the eye point 12 can be changed when the driver changes or changes the seating position. Regardless of the change in position, an image that is a blind spot for the driver can be accurately displayed on the front pillar 24.

  In addition, when the turn signal switch 6 of the vehicle 20 is turned on, an image taken by the in-vehicle camera 4 is displayed on the display 8, thereby overlooking pedestrians, bicycles, and the like that are in front of the vehicle 20 when turning right or left. Nothing will happen.

<Other embodiments>
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and can be modified or expanded as follows.
By attaching the in-vehicle camera 4 to the door mirror 22 so as to be inclined, the entire imaging 14 by the in-vehicle camera 4 may be inclined with respect to the horizontal direction as shown in FIG. By doing so, the edge of the image that is cut out and displayed can be substantially parallel to the outer edge side of the entire image taken by the in-vehicle camera 4, and the calculation for specifying the portion to be taken out of the image taken 14 is performed. It becomes easy.

  In addition, when the steering amount of the vehicle 20 detected by a steering sensor (not shown) provided for displaying the expected course of the vehicle 20 on the monitor at the time of parking is greater than or equal to a predetermined amount, the control device 2 detects the vehicle-mounted camera 4. Alternatively, the display 8 may be activated to display the image taken by the in-vehicle camera 4 on the display 8. By doing so, an existing sensor for controlling the vehicle 20 can be used, and it is not necessary to provide a special switch or the like for carrying out the present invention. Can do.

In addition, the in-vehicle camera 4 is attached to the left and right (driver's side and passenger's side) door mirrors 22 and the display 8 is attached to the left and right front pillars 24 so that the field of view blocked by the left and right front pillars 24 is displayed. May be.
Alternatively, the display 8 may be attached to the center pillar or the rear pillar of the vehicle 20 so as to make the vehicle field auxiliary device 1 prevent the field of view from being blocked by the center pillar or the rear pillar.
The in-vehicle camera 4 may be attached to a part of the vehicle 20 other than the door mirror 22 such as a fender or a roof.
The display 8 can be any display device such as a liquid crystal display, a plasma display, an LED display, or a CRT.

The figure which showed the interior of the vehicle provided with the visual field assistance apparatus for vehicles by embodiment of this invention FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of the vehicular visibility assist device shown in FIG. External view showing the mounting state of the in-vehicle camera on the door mirror Cross-sectional view showing how the display is attached to the front pillar Simplified view when details of display according to this embodiment are compared with a normal display Simplified diagram showing the relationship between the position of the driver's eye point, the blind spot by the front pillar, and the imaging by the in-vehicle camera The flowchart which shows the control method of the visual field assistance apparatus for vehicles by a control apparatus The front view which showed the imaging of the vehicle-mounted camera by other embodiment

Explanation of symbols

  In the drawings, 1 is a vehicle field of view assistance device, 2 is a control device (control means), 3 is an image adjustment unit (image adjustment means), 4 is an in-vehicle camera (imaging means), and 5 is an image adjustment switch (image adjustment means). , 6 is a turn signal switch, 8 is a display (display means), 14 is an in-vehicle camera image, 20 is a vehicle, 24 is a front pillar, 81 is a pixel, and SA and SB are portions where the image is captured by the in-vehicle camera. Yes.

Claims (4)

Photographing means mounted on the vehicle for photographing the periphery of the vehicle;
Display means having a plurality of pixels and attached to the interior side surface of the vehicle pillar;
A control means connected to the photographing means and the display means, and a control means for cutting out and displaying on the display means a portion of the field of view of the vehicle driver that is blocked by the pillar among the images taken by the photographing means;
The vehicular field-of-view assistance apparatus, wherein the size of each pixel of the display means is set according to the distance from the driver.   2. The vehicular field of view assisting device according to claim 1, further comprising an image adjusting unit capable of changing a part of the image picked up by the photographing unit when operated by a driver.   3. The vehicular field of view assisting device according to claim 1, wherein when the vehicle turn signal switch is turned on, the control unit causes the display unit to display an image captured by the imaging unit.   3. The vehicular field of view assisting device according to claim 1, wherein when the vehicle steering amount detected by the steering sensor is greater than or equal to a predetermined amount, the control unit causes the display unit to display an image captured by the imaging unit. .

Images