KR101070050B1 - Multifunctional camera module - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed are a multi-function camera module that can be simultaneously applied to a Night Vision (NV) system for securing night vision and a Lane Departure Warning System (LDWS) that detects and detects lane departure of a vehicle. The combined function camera module includes a lens for receiving an image in front of the vehicle; A dual pass filter for transmitting a visible light region and an infrared ray region in the image received by the lens; An image sensor detecting an image transmitted by the double pass filter to generate an electrical image signal; And a signal processor configured to process an image signal generated by the image sensor to generate and output a night vision image from a vehicle, and a lane detection image of a short range from a vehicle.

Camera Module, Night Vision, Lane, Departure Alarm, Infrared, Dual-Band Filter

Description

Composite function camera module {MULTIFUNCTIONAL CAMERA MODULE}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention generally relates to a camera module, and more particularly, a night vision (NV) system for securing night vision and a lane departure warning system for detecting and warning lane departure of a vehicle. The present invention relates to a multi-function camera module that can be simultaneously applied to LDWS.

Recently, the automobile market has been developed in the direction of pursuing driver's safety and convenience. Accordingly, many vehicle driving assistance systems that can increase driver's safety and convenience have been applied to actual vehicles.

Among these vehicle assistance systems, the Night Vision (NV) system uses image processing technology to help the driver secure vision at night and lanes to alert the vehicle to leave the lane regardless of the driver's will. Lane Departure Warning System (LDWS) has been put into practical use.

The night vision system is a system that detects and displays an infrared image in front of the vehicle or detects the appearance of a pedestrian lamp by using a camera module installed at the front of the vehicle at night. The lane departure warning system detects the location of the lane by photographing the front lower part of the vehicle by using a camera module installed at the front end of the vehicle, and determines that the vehicle is leaving the lane according to the detected change in the position of the lane. System.

Both the night vision system and the lane departure warning system described above require a camera module to acquire an image in front of the vehicle. Accordingly, when the night vision system and the lane departure warning system are simultaneously applied to one vehicle, two camera modules are required. However, if both camera modules for photographing the front of the vehicle are applied, overlapping costs will be incurred for capturing similar images (the front of the vehicle), and two camera modules should be placed at the front end of the vehicle. Therefore, a problem that may adversely affect the design of the vehicle exterior occurs.

Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a camera module that can be simultaneously applied to a night vision system and a lane departure warning system that are vehicle driving safety assistance devices.

The present invention provides a multi-function camera module that can be simultaneously applied to a Night Vision (NV) system for securing night vision and a Lane Departure Warning System (LDWS) that detects and detects lane departure of a vehicle. The technical problem to be solved to provide.

According to an aspect of the present invention,

A lens for receiving an image in front of the vehicle;

A dual pass filter for transmitting a visible light region and an infrared ray region in the image received by the lens;

An image sensor detecting an image transmitted by the double pass filter to generate an electrical image signal; And

Signal processing unit for processing the image signal generated by the image sensor to generate and output the image of the night vision for a distance from the vehicle and the lane detection image of the near distance from the vehicle

It provides a multi-function camera module including a.

One embodiment of the present invention may further include an infrared emitter for emitting infrared light in front of the vehicle when the signal processor outputs a night vision image. In this embodiment, the infrared emitter may emit near infrared light.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the lens may be a wide-angle lens that simultaneously receives the far-field and near-field image of the front of the vehicle.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the signal processing unit, a color processing unit for correcting the color of the image signal generated by the image sensor, the area corresponding to the distance from the vehicle in the color-corrected image signal and from the vehicle The image segmentation unit may divide and output regions corresponding to a short range, respectively, and a scaling unit converting the divided regions into a preset image size, respectively.

According to the present invention, since the night vision system and the lane departure warning system, which are convenience devices of the vehicle, can be implemented by using one camera module, the number of camera modules can be reduced to reduce costs, and one at the front end of the vehicle is provided. It is effective to make the design of the exterior of the vehicle even more by placing only the camera.

Hereinafter, various embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, embodiments of the present invention may be modified in various other forms, and the scope of the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described below. Embodiment of this invention is provided in order to demonstrate this invention more completely to the person skilled in the art to which this invention belongs. Therefore, it should be noted that the shape and size of the components shown in the drawings may be exaggerated for more clear explanation.

1 is a block diagram of a multi-function camera module according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the multi-function camera module 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a lens 11, a dual band pass filter 12, an image sensor 13, and a signal processor 14. It can be configured to include. In addition, the present invention may further include an infrared emitter 105.

The lens 11 is for receiving an image in front of the vehicle and may be implemented as a lens group including two or more individual lenses. In particular, since the present invention needs to receive a far-field image of the front of the vehicle to be used for night vision and a near-field image of the vehicle to be used for lane detection at a time, the lens 11 is implemented using a wide-angle lens. desirable.

The dual band pass filter 12 is a filter that transmits two wavelength bands so as to receive both light in the infrared region used for night vision and visible light region used for lane departure detection. desirable. FIG. 2 is a graph illustrating characteristics of a dual band pass filter applied to a multi-function camera module according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, in one embodiment of the present invention, the double band pass filter 12 may be a filter that transmits a visible light region in the 400 to 780 nm band and a near infrared (Near IR) region near 900 nm. have. The dual band pass filter 12 allows the image sensor 13 at the rear stage to receive and detect both the image of the visible region and the image of the infrared region. In one embodiment of the invention, when an infrared emitter 15 emitting infrared light is applied, the infrared pass band of the double band pass filter 12 is centered on the wavelength of the infrared light emitted from the infrared emitter 15. Can be set.

The image sensor 13 detects an image transmitted by the double band pass filter 12 and outputs an image signal converted into an electrical signal. The image sensor 13 may be implemented using a conventionally known CCD or CMOS imaging device. As for the signal output from the image sensor 13, a part of the divided region is used for night vision and lane detection through signal processing. Therefore, the image sensor 13 is preferably applied to a high pixel image sensor of at least one million pixels in order to realize the partial division region as an image having a sufficient resolution. Since the image sensor 13 receives an image transmitted through infrared rays together with an image of a visible light region to generate an image signal, the image generated by the image sensor 13 may be an image signal that is biased entirely in red.

The signal processor 14 applies various image processing techniques to the image signal output from the image sensor 13 to output an image that can be used for night vision and lane departure detection. The signal processor 14 performs a process of improving the quality of the image signal received from the image sensor 13, and at the same time, separates an area to be used for night vision in the image signal received from the image sensor 13 and lane departure. The area to be used for detection can be cropped and output. The signal processor 14 may be implemented by employing an image signal processor (ISP) chip used in a conventional camera module.

3 is a block diagram illustrating in more detail the signal processing unit of the multi-function camera module according to the embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, the signal processor 14 may include a color processor 141, an image divider 142, and a scaler 143.

The color processor 141 generates a color image by processing an image signal input from the image sensor 13. The image signal input from the image sensor 13 may be a signal representing an image represented by a Bayer pattern in which each pixel has only one color value among red, green, and blue (RGB). The color processor 141 may determine an RGB value of each pixel by interpolating an image signal of the Bayer pattern by applying a predetermined image interpolation algorithm. In addition, the color processor 141 may compensate for the color distortion represented by the RGB values determined by color interpolation. As described above, since one embodiment of the present invention filters the image using a filter that passes the infrared region, the image may be biased to the red color, and thus the color processor 141 may distort the color deflection. An algorithm may be applied to perform color processing of the image signal. In addition, the color processor 141 may process an image signal by applying various algorithms for improving image quality, such as edge enhancement and sharpness.

Meanwhile, the color processor 141 may detect a light amount of an input image signal, and generate and output a signal for triggering an operation of the infrared emitter 15 when the detected light amount is less than a preset reference. The light amount detection of the color processor 141 may be performed by calculating a brightness value (Y value) of an input image signal, or may be performed by considering a shutter speed of the image sensor 13.

The image dividing unit 142 crops an area corresponding to a long distance in front of the vehicle and an area corresponding to a short distance in front of the vehicle, from the image signal processed by the color processing unit 141. That is, the image dividing unit 142 divides an area corresponding to a far distance in front of the vehicle from the image signal subjected to color processing for night vision for securing vision at night driving, and detects the front wheel of the vehicle for lane detection. Divide the area corresponding to the near field to.

4A to 4C are diagrams each showing an example of an image detected by an image sensor of a multi-function camera module according to one embodiment of the present invention, an image for night vision, and an image for lane detection. As shown in (a) of FIG. 4, the image indicated by the image signal output from the color processor 141 is an image obtained by detecting all the received images using the wide-angle lens. The image dividing unit 142 divides the area 41 corresponding to the distance for night vision in the image output from the color processing unit 141 and outputs the same as shown in FIG. In addition, the image dividing unit 142 divides an area 42 corresponding to a short distance for detecting a lane from an image output from the color processing unit 141 and outputs the divided area 42 as shown in FIG.

The scaling unit 143 performs scaling to convert the areas divided by the image dividing unit 142 into a preset image size. The signal output from the scaling unit 143 is a signal output to another application or a separate processor connected to the camera module of the present invention, and the scaling unit 143 is another application or processor connected to the camera module of the present invention. The size of the divided area may be converted and output to a size required by. In addition, the scaling unit 143 may determine and output the image signal format of the image of the divided region as well as the size conversion. For example, if the night vision application connected to the camera module of the present invention is an NTSC standard display means, the scaling unit 143 may convert an image of a region divided for night vision into a format suitable for the NTSC standard. have.

As described above, the image signal of the division of the night vision division converted by the scaling unit 143 is input to the display means and displayed to the driver, or is input to a separate processor including a pedestrian detection algorithm, and thus the image of the division region It can be used to generate visual and / or audio alerts when pedestrians appear. In addition, when the lane detecting image converted by the scaling unit 143 is input to a separate processor including an algorithm for detecting lane departure, it is determined that the lane is moved in the divided area to leave the lane. It can be used to generate visual and / or audio alerts.

As described above, the present invention may simultaneously generate images for night vision and lane departure warning with one camera module. Therefore, according to the present invention, the cost can be reduced by reducing the number of camera modules used for the night vision and lane departure warning, and only one camera is disposed at the front end of the vehicle to further enhance the design of the exterior of the vehicle. You can expect the effect.

In the detailed description of the present invention, specific embodiments have been described, but various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be defined by the following claims and their equivalents.

1 is a block diagram of a multi-function camera module according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a graph showing the characteristics of a dual pass filter applied to the multi-function camera module according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 3 is a block diagram showing in more detail the signal processing unit of the multi-function camera module according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4A to 4C are diagrams each showing an example of an image detected by an image sensor of a multi-function camera module according to an embodiment of the present invention, an image for night vision, and an image for lane detection.

* Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings *

10: Combined Function Camera Module 11: Wide Angle Lens

12: dual-pass filter 13: image sensor

14: signal processor 15: infrared emitter

141: color processing unit 142: image segmentation unit

143: scaling unit

Claims (6)

A lens for receiving an image in front of the vehicle; A dual pass filter for transmitting a visible light region and an infrared ray region in the image received by the lens; An image sensor detecting an image transmitted by the double pass filter to generate an electrical image signal; And Signal processing unit for processing the image signal generated by the image sensor to generate and output the image of the night vision for a distance from the vehicle and the lane detection image of the near distance from the vehicle Multifunction camera module comprising a. The method of claim 1, And a infrared emitter for emitting infrared light to the front of the vehicle when the signal processor outputs a night vision image. The method of claim 2, The infrared emitter, multifunction camera module, characterized in that for emitting near-infrared light. The method of claim 1, The lens is a multi-function camera module, characterized in that the wide-angle lens for receiving the far-field and near-field image of the front of the vehicle at the same time. delete The method of claim 1, wherein the signal processing unit, A color processor which corrects the color of the image signal generated by the image sensor; An image dividing unit for dividing and outputting an area corresponding to a distance from the vehicle and an area corresponding to a short distance from the vehicle in the color corrected image signal; And And a scaling unit for converting the divided regions into preset image sizes.

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