JP2010254084A - Instrument disposing structure - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To dispose instrument such as a driver monitoring camera to be disposed in front of a driver, without having adverse influence on a front visibility of the driver. <P>SOLUTION: On a lower surface 7a<SB>1</SB>of a bulging portion 7a of a meter hood 7, which bulges in an eaves-shape toward a vehicle rear side from an upper portion of meters 6 aligned in an instrument panel 5 in front of a steering wheel 4 of a vehicle, a storage portion is constituted by a cover 12 to dispose the driver monitoring camera 2 (instrument) by using an empty space in the bulging portion 7a. The driver monitoring camera 2 is stored in the storage portion made from the cover 12. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a device arrangement structure for arranging devices such as a driver monitoring camera in front of a driver.

  In recent years, when a driver is photographed with a driver monitoring camera while driving and the direction of the driver's face is measured, and it is determined that there is a possibility of a collision when the driver is not facing the front Development of a safety system that warns the driver is underway, and in an example where this type of safety system is applied to a passenger car, a driver monitoring camera is mounted on the top surface of the steering column, and the rim of the steering wheel is installed. The vicinity of the driver's face is photographed through the inner space (see, for example, Patent Document 1 below).

JP 2004-145725 A

  However, as shown in FIG. 9, in the case of a truck or the like, the angle θ of the steering column 1 is larger than that in the case of a passenger car, so that even if the driver monitoring camera 2 is mounted on the upper surface of the steering column 1, the driver The surveillance camera 2 may face upward and it may be difficult to photograph the face of the driver 3, and a saddle shape is formed from the upper part of the meters 6 aligned with the instrument panel 5 in front of the steering handle 4 toward the rear of the vehicle. If the driver monitoring camera 2 is relocated to the upper surface of the overhanging portion 7a of the meter hood 7 that protrudes to the front, the driver monitoring camera 2 blocks the front view 8 of the driver 3 and deteriorates the appearance, or behind the handle 4 The driver's face sometimes became difficult to shoot.

  In the figure, 7b denotes a main body of the meter hood 7, 9 denotes an eye range that statistically represents the distribution of the driver's eye positions, and 10 denotes a range that can be photographed by the driver monitoring camera 2.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to arrange a device such as a driver monitoring camera to be placed in front of a driver without adversely affecting the driver's forward view.

  The present invention relates to a device that uses an empty space in an overhanging portion of a meter hood that protrudes in a bowl shape from the upper part of meters arranged on an instrument panel in front of a steering handle of a vehicle toward the rear of the vehicle. The device arrangement structure is characterized in that a housing portion is provided so that the device can be disposed, and the device is housed in the housing portion.

  Thus, in this way, by disposing the device using the empty space in the projecting portion of the meter hood that is generally a hollow structure, the housing portion of the device is protruded greatly downward. It is possible to arrange it nicely without losing the housing part in this way, ensuring good visibility of the meters during operation, and without arranging the device on the top surface of the meter hood As a result, the driver's front view can be secured well.

  In the present invention, it is preferable to form the lower surface of the housing portion as a surface extending in the direction of the driver's line of sight, and this makes it easier to ensure the visibility of the meters during driving.

  Furthermore, in the present invention, it is preferable that the housing portion is configured to partially protrude downward on the lower surface of the overhanging portion of the meter hood, and in this way, the overhanging portion of the meter hood is caused by the protrusion of the housing portion. It becomes possible to further improve the appearance of the thickened portion as a necessary portion only.

  Further, in the present invention, it is preferable that the device is arranged at a position retracted forward of the vehicle from the tip of the protruding portion of the meter hood. In this way, direct light is projected from the protruding portion of the meter hood. It is blocked by the part and does not hit the device, and the reflected light from the device does not enter the driver's eyes.

  In the present invention, it is possible to configure the device housing portion with a separate cover, or to use the device housed in the housing portion as a driver monitoring camera.

  According to the device arrangement structure of the present invention described above, various excellent effects as described below can be obtained.

  (I) Since the device can be arranged using the empty space in the overhanging portion of the meter hood, it is possible to arrange the device with a good appearance without projecting the device greatly downward. If it is a driver monitoring camera, it can be placed at a position where it is easy to photograph the driver, and if the device is any display device, it can be placed at a position where the driver can easily see the display, and is placed in front of the driver. Devices such as a driver monitoring camera to be performed can be arranged without adversely affecting the driver's forward view.

  (II) By adopting a configuration in which the lower surface of the housing portion is formed as a surface extending in the driver's line of sight, the visibility of the meters during driving can be further ensured.

  (III) If the housing portion is configured to partially protrude downward on the lower surface of the overhang portion of the meter hood, only the necessary portion is located where the overhang portion of the meter hood becomes thick due to the protrusion of the housing portion. As a result, the appearance can be further improved.

  (IV) If the device is arranged at a position retracted to the front of the vehicle from the tip of the protruding portion of the meter hood, the direct light is blocked by the protruding portion of the meter hood and does not hit the device. Therefore, it is possible to avoid the possibility that the reflected light from the driver enters the eyes of the driver.

It is the schematic which shows an example of the form which implements this invention. It is the perspective view which looked at the meter hood of FIG. 1 from the driver | operator side. It is a front view of the meter hood of FIG. It is sectional drawing of the accommodating part of the driver | operator monitoring camera of FIG. It is an exploded view which shows the detail of the cover of FIG. It is sectional drawing of the VI-VI arrow of FIG. It is sectional drawing which shows the example which integrally formed the holding | maintenance part of the harness in the cover main body of FIG. It is sectional drawing which shows another example of a form of this invention. It is the schematic which shows a prior art example.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIGS. 1-7 shows an example of embodiment which implements this invention, In the example illustrated here, the case where the driver | operator monitoring camera 2 is arrange | positioned ahead in the driver's seat of a truck is illustrated, As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the driver monitoring camera 2 is provided on the lower surface of the projecting portion 7a of the meter hood 7 projecting in a bowl shape from the upper part of the meters 6 arranged on the instrument panel 5 in front of the steering handle 4 toward the rear of the vehicle. Is trying to arrange.

That is, as shown in detail in FIGS. 3 and 4, an opening 11 is formed on the lower surface 7 a ₁ of the projecting portion 7 a of the meter hood 7 over a required range near the center in the vehicle width direction. 11, a housing 12 for the driver monitoring camera 2 is configured by attaching a separate cover 12, and the driver monitoring camera 2 housed in the housing is centered on the width of the driver seat. Correspondingly, the driver's 3 face is captured in front through the space inside the rim of the steering handle 4.

  Here, the cover 12 is attached in a state of entering the inside of the overhanging portion 7a from the opening 11, and the driver monitoring camera 2 is arranged using an empty space in the overhanging portion 7a. The lower end of the cover 12 is arranged above the meter viewing range of the driver 3 (above the uppermost line of sight L extending from the driver's eye range 9 toward the meters 6 in FIG. 1). The lower surface 13a of the driver 3 is formed as a surface extending in the line-of-sight direction of the driver 3. The lower surface 13a of the cover 12 is preferably provided with a slight curved shape that bulges downward to increase the strength against thermal deformation and external force.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the cover 12 includes a cover body 13 that forms a shelf-like portion on which the driver monitoring camera 2 is placed, and a lid that closes the front portion (vehicle rear surface portion) of the cover body 13. 14, and a latching portion 15 protruding from the center of the back surface of the cover main body 13 is fixed to the main body 7 b side of the meter hood 7 via a clip 16 (see FIG. 4), wings 17 formed on both sides of the cover body 13 are fixed to the body 7b side of the meter hood 7 via screws 18 (see FIG. 6). Further, the cover body 13 is provided with a boss 23 for mounting the driver monitoring camera 2 (see FIG. 5).

  Further, the lid 14 can be detachably attached to the cover body 13 by opening a window 19 so that the driver monitoring camera 2 can photograph the face of the driver 3. The claw portion 20 is formed at the upper end portion thereof, and the claw portion 20 can be hooked to the inside of the tip end of the overhang portion 7a of the meter hood 7 (see FIG. 4).

  Then, if the driver monitoring camera 2 is installed on the cover body 13 and the front portion thereof is closed by the lid body 14 is assembled in advance as a subassembly, the assembling property in the placement work of the driver monitoring camera 2 is improved. It becomes good. At this time, as shown in FIG. 7, it is convenient to integrally form the holding portion 22 of the harness 21 on the cover body 13.

  Furthermore, the opening 11 in the overhanging portion 7a of the meter hood 7 may be appropriately cut out as necessary only for a vehicle on which the driver monitoring camera 2 needs to be arranged. The projecting portion 7a of the meter hood 7 can be shared by a vehicle that requires the arrangement of the camera 2 and a vehicle that does not need to reduce the cost.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 4, the driver monitoring camera 2 is arranged at a position where the cover 12 is retracted by a required length x to the front of the vehicle from the tip of the protruding portion 7 a of the meter hood 7. The direct light is blocked by the overhanging portion 7a of the meter hood 7 so as not to hit the driver monitoring camera 2.

In the present embodiment, an example is shown in which the opening 11 is formed in the lower surface 7a ₁ of the overhanging portion 7a of the meter hood 7 and the housing portion of the driver monitoring camera 2 is configured by a separate cover 12. However, as shown in FIG. 8, the housing 13 ′ corresponding to the cover body 13 is integrally formed on the projecting portion 7 a of the meter hood 7, and the front portion thereof is closed with a separate lid 14. It may be adopted.

  Thus, if the arrangement structure of the driver monitoring camera 2 is configured in this way, the driver monitoring camera 2 is utilized by utilizing the empty space in the overhanging portion 7a of the meter hood 7 that is generally hollow. By disposing the cover 12, it is possible to arrange the cover 12 constituting the housing portion of the driver monitoring camera 2 in a good-looking manner without projecting greatly downward, and thus the cover 12 of the driver monitoring camera 2 is moved downward. The visibility of the meters 6 during driving is ensured by not projecting greatly, and the front view 8 of the driver 3 is also good because the driver monitoring camera 2 does not have to be arranged on the upper surface of the meter hood 7. Secured.

  Therefore, according to the above embodiment, the driver monitoring camera 2 can be arranged using the empty space in the overhanging portion 7a of the meter hood 7, so that the cover 12 of the driver monitoring camera 2 is moved downward. The driver monitoring camera 2 can be arranged at a position where it is easy to photograph the driver, and the driver monitoring camera 2 can be placed in the driver's front view 8. It can be placed without adverse effects.

In particular, in this embodiment, the lower surface 13a of the cover 12 that forms the housing portion is formed as a surface extending in the direction of the driver's line of sight, thereby making it easier to ensure the visibility of the meters 6 during driving. Furthermore, since the cover 12 that constitutes the housing portion of the driver monitoring camera 2 is configured to partially protrude downward on the lower surface 7a ₁ of the projecting portion 7a of the meter hood 7, the housing portion It is possible to further improve the appearance by using only the necessary portion as the portion where the protruding portion 7a of the meter hood 7 is thickened by the protrusion of the cover 12 forming the above.

  Moreover, since the driver monitoring camera 2 is arranged at a position retracted forward of the vehicle from the tip of the overhanging portion 7a of the meter hood 7, direct light is blocked by the overhanging portion 7a of the meter hood 7. The driver monitoring camera 2 can be prevented from hitting and the reflected light from the driver monitoring camera 2 can be prevented from entering the eyes of the driver, and direct light is applied to the photographing lens of the driver monitoring camera 2. It is also possible to prevent a shooting failure from occurring.

  Note that the device arrangement structure of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and in the illustrated example, it is described in the case of a truck, but it can be similarly applied to a passenger car. Of course, the device accommodated in the accommodating portion does not necessarily have to be a driver monitoring camera, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.

1 Steering column 2 Driver monitoring camera (equipment)
3 Driver 4 Steering handle 5 Instrument panel 6 Meters 7 Meter hood 7a Overhang 8 Front view 12 Cover (housing)
13 'containment

Claims (6)

  Equipment can be arranged on the lower surface of the overhanging portion of the meter hood that protrudes in a bowl shape from the upper part of the meters lined up on the instrument panel in front of the steering wheel of the vehicle toward the rear of the vehicle using the empty space in the overhanging portion A device arrangement structure characterized in that a housing portion is provided and the device is housed in the housing portion.   2. The device arrangement structure according to claim 1, wherein the lower surface of the housing portion is formed as a surface extending in the driver's line-of-sight direction.   3. The device arrangement structure according to claim 1, wherein the housing portion is configured to partially protrude downward on the lower surface of the overhang portion of the meter hood.   The device arrangement structure according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the device is arranged at a position retracted forward of the vehicle from the tip of the protruding portion of the meter hood.   The device arrangement structure according to claim 1, 2, 3, or 4, wherein the device housing portion is configured by a separate cover.   6. The device arrangement structure according to claim 1, wherein the device housed in the housing portion is a driver monitoring camera.

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