JPH08113082A - Dirt preventing device of vehicle video camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To prevent attaching of an exhaust gas, dust, and earth and sand caused by swallowing up of air during running of a vehicle, in a simple structure. CONSTITUTION: A vehicle has a video camera 11 attached at the rear upper end, for photographing the field in the rear of the vehicle and a camera hood 12 covering the video camera. The hood has an inflow port 12a for taking in air stream along a roof plate 10b of the vehicle and a blowoff port 12b for blowing off the air stream to the rear of the vehicle from the surrounding of the camera 11.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a video camera device which allows a driver to visually recognize a field of view behind a vehicle. More specifically, the present invention relates to a dirt prevention device for a video camera mounted on the rear side of a vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 4, in a box-shaped vehicle such as a large-sized bus 1, a video camera 2 is attached to the upper end of the rear part of the vehicle, and the video camera 2 captures a field of view behind the vehicle. However, there is a monitor equipped in the driver's seat with a device for displaying the image. This device allows the driver to check obstacles in the rear field of view, road surface conditions, distance, etc. while staying in the driver's seat, and is safe when temporarily retreating such as when parking in a narrow mountain road or in a parking lot. It is possible to improve the sex. However, as shown by the solid line arrow, the lenses of these video cameras 2 are apt to be trapped with exhaust gas and dust due to the entrainment of air behind the vehicle when the vehicle is traveling, and when traveling in the rain, dirt on the road surface is caused by the rotation of the rear wheels. It was easy to climb up and attach, so there were cases where it was not possible to fully confirm the field of view behind when actually moving backward. In order to eliminate these points, a solution such as a method of attaching a lens shutter to the camera lens portion 2a or a method of attaching a wiper to the camera lens portion 2a can be considered.

[0003]

However, when the lens shutter and the wiper are attached by these methods, there is a problem that the cost is increased because these control devices are separately required. An object of the present invention is to provide a device for preventing contamination of a video camera for a vehicle, which has a simple structure and prevents exhaust gas, dust, or dirt or the like during rainy weather from adhering to the video camera due to entrainment of air when the vehicle is traveling. To do.

[0004]

A configuration of the present invention for achieving the above object will be described with reference to FIG. 1 corresponding to an embodiment. The present invention relates to a video camera 11 mounted on an upper end of a rear part of a vehicle for taking a visual field behind the vehicle, and a video camera 1.
1 is an improvement of a vehicle 10 including a camera hood 12 that covers the vehicle 1. Its characteristic configuration is that the hood 12 takes in an airflow along the roof plate 10b of the vehicle 10 and an air outlet 12b that blows out the airflow from around the camera 11 to the rear of the vehicle.
It is where you have and.

[0005]

Operation: When the vehicle 10 travels, the roof plate 10b of the vehicle 10
The upper airflow flows in from the inflow port 12a of the hood 12. The air flow speeds up from the periphery of the video camera 11 toward the outlet 12b, and is discharged from the outlet 12b toward the rear of the bus 10. The blown airflow moves away from the video camera 11 a vortex containing dust that has been wound up around the video camera 11.

[0006]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the vehicle in this embodiment is a large-sized bus 10. A video camera 11 is attached to the upper end of the rear part of the bus with its lens 11a facing backward. Although not shown in the driver's seat, a monitor TV is provided to show the rear view projected by the video camera 11, and these devices allow the driver to be in the driver's seat while the driver is seated directly below the rear bumper 10a. You can visually check obstacles in the field of vision, road surface conditions, distance, etc. This makes it possible to move in and out at the bus terminal and make it a one-man on narrow routes, and it is also used as an auxiliary role of a bus guide for sightseeing buses when temporarily retracting such as parking in narrow mountain roads and parking lots. However, it is possible to improve safety.

A hood 12 is attached to the video camera 11 in order to protect the video camera 11 from rain and snow during rain and snow. The characteristic configuration of the present embodiment is that the hood 12 has an inlet 12a for taking in an airflow along the roof plate 10b of the bus 10 and an outlet 12b for blowing the airflow from around the video camera 11 to the rear of the bus 10. Is equipped with.

As shown in FIG. 3, the hood 12 of this embodiment.
Is made by sheet-metal working a steel plate so as to extend to the rear roof plate 10b of the bus 10, and is formed so as to rise forward toward the front of the bus. Further, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the hood 12 is configured to spread in the vehicle width direction toward the front of the bus. As a result, the cross-sectional area of the hood 12 is gradually reduced from the front of the bus to the rear.

The front opening of the hood 12 serves as an inlet 12a for taking in the air flow along the roof plate 10b of the bus 10.
As the bus 10 moves forward, the hood 12 becomes an inflow port 12
The airflow along the roof plate 10b of the bus 10 can be taken in from a. The opening at the rear of the hood 12 is an outlet 1 that blows out the airflow taken in from the inlet 12a.
2b, so that the airflow taken in from the inlet 12a of the hood 12 can be blown out to the rear of the bus 10.

As shown in FIG. 1, the video camera 11 is attached to the inner rear end of the hood 12 by a stay (not shown). The lens 11a that projects the rear view of the video camera 11 is mounted slightly inside the rear end edge of the hood 12, and the periphery of the video camera 11 and the hood 12 are mounted with a predetermined gap.

The operation of the dirt prevention device for a vehicular video camera thus constructed will be described. As shown in FIG.
Dust on the road surface, exhaust gas, or soil or the like when traveling in the rain is swirled up to the vicinity of the video camera 11 provided at the upper end of the rear portion of the bus 10 due to the eddy current caused by the traveling of the bus 10. On the other hand, the airflow on the roof plate 10b of the bus 10 flows in from the inflow port 12a of the hood 12 due to the traveling. As indicated by the solid arrow in FIG. 1, the cross-sectional area of the inflowing airflow decreases toward the rear, so that the flow velocity gradually increases. The airflow having the increased flow velocity passes around the video camera 11 and is blown from the outlet 12b toward the rear of the bus 10.

Due to the speed of the flow velocity of the blown airflow, a swirl containing dust, exhaust gas, earth and sand, etc., which has been wound up around the video camera 11, is moved away from the video camera 11 as indicated by the broken line arrow in FIG. To do so. In addition,
Although the vehicle is described as a large-sized bus in the above-mentioned embodiment, it can be applied to a medium-sized bus and a wagon-shaped vehicle, and naturally to a vehicle such as a cargo truck equipped with a TV camera for visually recognizing the rear blind spot. Can be applied.

[0013]

As described above, according to the present invention, the hood has a simple structure in which the air inlet along the roof plate for taking in the air flow and the air outlet for blowing the air flow from the periphery of the camera to the rear of the vehicle are provided. As a result, the air flow blown out from the air outlet as the vehicle travels causes the vortex containing dust that has been wound up around the video camera to move away from the video camera. As a result, it is possible to prevent exhaust gas, dust, and the like from adhering to the video camera when the vehicle is traveling.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 3 showing a dirt prevention device for a video camera for a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a view showing a bus equipped with the device, viewed from the direction B in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a rear side view of a bus equipped with the device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram corresponding to FIG. 1 showing a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Vehicle (Large Bus) 10b Roof Board 11 Video Camera 12 Camera Hood 12a Inlet 12b Outlet

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A vehicle (10) comprising: a video camera (11) attached to an upper end of a rear portion of the vehicle to capture a field of view behind the vehicle; and a camera hood (12) covering the video camera (11), The hood (12) is an inlet (12a) for taking in the airflow along the roof plate (10b) of the vehicle (10) and the airflow is taken by the camera (11).
And a blowout port (12b) blowing out from the periphery of the vehicle toward the rear of the vehicle.