JP2003259356A - Apparatus for monitoring surrounding of vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an apparatus for monitoring surrounding of a vehicle for displaying a video image around the vehicle on a display apparatus whereby a user can easily grasp to what extent the user can move the vehicle close when parking or the like. <P>SOLUTION: A camera provided to a door mirror photographs the surrounding of the vehicle, composes left and right video images into one image, overlaps marks and displays the composite image on the display apparatus. The mark comprises first and second forward backward direction marks 30, 31, a left right direction mark 32, and a locus mark 33 resulting from applying image conversion to: a line in parallel with the vehicle's front and rear directions passing through the tip of the door mirror; a line in parallel with the vehicle's front and rear directions passing through the door tip when the door is fully opened; a line in parallel with vehicle left right directions passing through the vicinity of a vehicle front edge; and a line representative of a predicted passing the locus of a back wheel inside of swinging of the vehicle at steering in terms of the same vision as that of the video image. Using the marks on the display apparatus 16 as indices to move the vehicle so that a surrounding wall or an obstacle or the like does not enter the vehicle side from the marks can allow the user to be able to easily pull over the vehicle to the curb and make parking while preventing contact with the surrounding part. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle periphery monitoring device for displaying an image of the periphery of a vehicle, particularly the front portion of the vehicle including the vicinity of front wheels.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional vehicle periphery monitoring device of this type, a front wheel peripheral portion is imaged by a camera device provided on the rear surface of a vehicle door mirror, and the imaged image is installed on an instrument panel or the like in a vehicle compartment. What is displayed on a display is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-272418.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional apparatus, since the image picked up by the camera apparatus is simply displayed on the display, for example, when the vehicle is moved to the side when the vehicle is stopped or parked, or when the vehicle is parked. When approaching the corners and front end of the to the wall, there is no particular indicator, and there is a problem that it is not certain how far it can approach. Therefore, in view of the above problems, the present invention is a vehicle stop,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle surroundings monitoring device capable of easily grasping how far the vehicle can be approached during parking or the like.

[0004]

Therefore, the present invention according to claim 1 is a vehicle periphery monitoring device for displaying an image of a vehicle periphery on a display means, and an image pickup means for photographing the vehicle periphery and a vehicle. A mark generator for generating at least one image of a front-back direction mark parallel to the front-rear direction or a left-right direction mark parallel to the left-right direction in front of the vehicle, and an image picked up by the image pickup means and a mark generator. A super imposer for superimposing and outputting the image of the marked mark is provided, and the output of the super imposer is displayed on the display means.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in particular, the mark generator generates images of both the front-rear direction mark parallel to the front-rear direction of the vehicle and the left-right direction mark parallel to the left-right direction in front of the vehicle. Is.

According to the third aspect of the invention, the mark generator sets the left-right direction mark at a position separated from the front end of the vehicle by a predetermined distance. Further, according to the invention of claim 4, a control switch is connected to the mark generator, and the predetermined distance can be changed by operating the control switch.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the front-rear direction mark is a line passing through a position corresponding to the left-right end of the vehicle door mirror, and the sixth aspect of the invention further generates a left-right direction mark. At this time, the line passing through the position corresponding to the tip of the door mirror in the left-right direction is made to intersect the left-right direction mark. In the invention of claim 7, the front-rear direction mark and the left-right direction mark are limited to a range that does not overlap the vehicle in the image.

According to the invention of claim 8, the front-rear direction mark is a line passing through a position corresponding to the front end of the door when the vehicle is fully opened.
A line passing through a position corresponding to the tip of the vehicle door mirror in the left-right direction and a line passing through a position corresponding to the door tip when fully opened are included.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, the mark generator further generates a trajectory mark indicating a predicted passage trajectory of the rear wheels when the vehicle turns. In the invention of claim 11, the generated trajectory mark is limited to the predicted passage trajectory of the rear wheel on the inside of the turn.

According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, the image pickup means has a video synthesizer for photographing the left and right sides of the vehicle and synthesizing the left video and the right video, and the superimposer marks the image synthesized by the video synthesizer. The images of the marks generated by the generator were superposed.

According to the thirteenth aspect of the present invention, the display switching means is provided between the superimposer and the display means, and the output of the superimposer is not displayed on the display means when the vehicle is at a predetermined vehicle speed or in reverse. According to the fourteenth aspect of the present invention, the operation switch is connected to the display switching means, and the display of the output of the superimposer on the display means is controlled by operating the operation switch.

According to a fifteenth aspect of the present invention, the image pickup means is a camera device installed in a door mirror case. In the sixteenth aspect of the present invention, the door mirror case has a shield corresponding to the lens of the camera device.

[0013]

According to the present invention, since the front-rear direction mark or the left-right direction mark which is related to the vehicle is displayed on the display by being superimposed on the image around the vehicle, it is possible to refer to the mark as an index for a narrow space. But you can easily pass, stop, or park without touching the surrounding area. For example, when you want to push the wall, curb, or white line forward, or when you are parked forward toward the wall, you can steer the mark to these objects to bring them parallel or vertically. You can stop.

[0014]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the embodiment. In addition, in FIG. 1, a vehicle body image is shown by a broken line to show the installation positions of the main parts. In this embodiment, the display 1 shared with the navigation device is used.
6 is disposed in the front portion of the vehicle compartment such as an instrument panel. Door mirror cases 3a, 3 of door mirrors 2a, 2b attached to the left and right doors Da, Db of the vehicle 1.
Camera devices 4a and 4b are installed in b, respectively. Each of the camera devices 4a and 4b is provided with a lens (not shown) so as to be able to photograph the front including the front wheel peripheral parts on the left and right of the vehicle body, and glass or transparent resin shields 5a and 5b are provided on the photographing window of the door mirror case. To protect the lens from water droplets and dirt.
The shields 5a and 5b are the door mirror cases 3a and 3b.
By being formed integrally with b, it is less likely to be damaged and wind noise is reduced. Camera devices 4a and 4b
Is connected to the video synthesizer 10, and the video synthesizer 10 synthesizes the video signals from the camera devices 4a and 4b into one screen.

A steering angle sensor 7 provided on a steering wheel (not shown) of the vehicle for detecting the steering angle of the steering wheel.
Is connected to the mark generator 11, and the mark generator 11 generates images of a plurality of marks described later. Mark generator 1
A rotary type control switch 6 is connected to the control switch 1. Video synthesizer 10 and mark generator 1
1 is connected to a super-imposer 12, which superimposes the composite image from the image synthesizer 10 and the image of the mark from the mark generator 11 into a monitor image.

The video switcher 13 connected to the display 16 is connected to the super imposer 12 and the navigation unit 15, and the video switcher 13 receives the image signal from the super imposer 12 and the navigation unit 1.
The navigation information and the image signal from 5 are switched and sent to the display 16. That is, the display 16 serves as a display means of the vehicle periphery monitoring device when displaying the image from the superimposer 12, and serves as a display means of the navigation device when displaying the image or the like from the navigation unit 15. For the control of the video switching machine 13, a momentary type operation switch 17, a vehicle speed sensor 8 and a shift position sensor 9 for detecting the shift stage of the transmission are connected. Video synthesizer 1 above
0, the mark generator 11, the super imposer 12, and the video switcher 13 are configured by using a microcomputer as an electronic control unit (ECU) 14.

The image synthesizer 10 includes camera devices 4a and 4b.
The left and right video signals are combined. Here, as shown in FIG. 2, the image a is cut out from the image A of the camera device 4a so that the image area is 50% outside the vehicle with reference to the predetermined position S closer to the vehicle center than the left front wheel. Further, the image b equivalent to 50% of the image area is similarly cut out from the image of the camera device 4b, and these are combined to be combined into one screen image G.

The mark generator 11, as shown in FIG.
A first front-rear direction mark 30, a second front-rear direction mark 31, and a left-right direction mark 3 which serve as indices when moving the vehicle.
2 and the locus mark 33 are generated. In addition, in FIG.
Reference numerals 21 and 22 denote shooting ranges of the camera devices 4a and 4b. The first front-rear direction mark 30 is the door mirror 2a,
2b is a line parallel to the vehicle front-rear direction that passes through the positions corresponding to the left and right ends of (the door mirror cases 3a and 3b of).
The second front-rear direction mark 31 indicates the doors Da and Db when fully opened.
Is a line parallel to the vehicle front-rear direction that passes through a position corresponding to the tip of the vehicle. Further, the left-right direction mark 32 is a line parallel to the vehicle left-right direction that passes through a position at a predetermined distance such as 10 cm from the front end of the vehicle forward. This predetermined distance can be arbitrarily set by the signal output of the control switch 6.

The locus mark 33 is a line indicating the predicted passage locus of the rear wheels on the inside of the turn of the vehicle in the steering state. As shown in FIG. 4, when the steering angle detected by the steering angle sensor 7 is θ, the wheel base is L, the steering gear ratio is n, and the distance between the centers of the left and right tires is W, the radius r of the rear wheel locus is It is given by the following formula. r = L / tan (θ / n) −W / 2 When the vehicle turns, the side slip of the tire causes the square of the vehicle speed. However, the present invention is used when the vehicle is stopped or parked at an hourly speed. This effect can be ignored because the speed is in the low speed range of 10 km / h or less. In addition, since the predicted passage locus of the rear wheel on the outside of the turn enters the inside of the front wheel and generally there are no obstacles, no locus mark is displayed on the outside of the turn. The locus mark 33 performs a calculation process in real time according to the signal output from the steering angle sensor 7 to change the drawing.

In the mark generator 11, each of the marks 30 to 3 is
In order to superimpose the image No. 3 on the image G shown in FIG. 2 by the camera devices 4a and 4b, the camera devices 4a and 4b
Convert to the image seen from each position. For this conversion, for example, the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-175482 is adopted to obtain a converted image as shown in FIG. The superimposer 12 superimposes the converted image of FIG. 5 from the mark generator 11 on the image G from the image synthesizer 10 shown in FIG.

The first front-rear direction mark 30 and the left-right direction mark 32 extend from the point P where they intersect to the rear side in the vehicle front-rear direction and the vehicle center side in the left-right direction, and are overlapped with the vehicle. Draw as a line limited to the area that does not overlap. This allows
An image signal as shown in FIG. 6 is output from the superimposer 12 to the video switcher 13. Video switcher 13
Is switched between the image signal from the superimposer 12 and the navigation information or image signal from the navigation unit 15 based on the input signals from the vehicle speed sensor 8 and the shift position sensor 9 or the operation of the operation switch 17, and the display 16 Send to and display

FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing the flow of switching control in the video switching machine 13. First, step 1
In 01, the input signals from the vehicle speed sensor 8 and the shift position sensor 9 are read, and the shift speed is reversed (reverse).
And the vehicle speed V is not 0 km / h, that is, the vehicle is moving backward. If the vehicle is not moving backward, the process proceeds to step 102. In step 102,
At present, the display 16 selected by the video switcher 13
It is checked whether or not the image displayed in is the image captured by the camera devices 4a and 4b from the superimposer 12. Then, when the image of the superimposer 12 is not selected, the process proceeds to step 103, and when the navigation information or the image from the navigation unit 15 is selected, the process proceeds to step 107.

In step 103, the vehicle speed V is 0 km / h.
Then, it is checked whether the operation switch 17 has been operated. When the vehicle is stopped, the image around the front wheels and the mark display are unnecessary, but when the operation switch 17 is operated, it is assumed that the mark display is requested.
In step 104, the image taken by the camera device from the superimposer 12 is selected and displayed on the display 16.
To display.

On the other hand, when the image taken by the camera device from the superimposer 12 is selected in the check in step 102, the routine proceeds to step 105, where it is checked whether the vehicle speed V is 10 km / h or more. When the vehicle speed is lower than 10 km / h, it is assumed that the vehicle will be stopped or parked. Therefore, the process proceeds to step 106, and it is checked whether or not the operation switch 17 is operated. If the operation switch 17 is not operated, the process proceeds to step 104,
The image display from the super imposer 12 is continued as it is.

When the vehicle is moving backward in the check in step 101, it is unnecessary to display the image and marks around the front wheels. Therefore, the process proceeds to step 107 and the image or the like from the navigation unit 15 is selected and the display 1 is displayed.
6 to display. Further, when the vehicle speed is 10 km / h or more in the check in step 105, the mark display is not necessary and the process proceeds to step 107.

On the other hand, when the vehicle speed is lower than 10 km / h, the vehicle is expected to be stopped or parked as described above, and the image around the front wheels and the mark display are required. When 17 is operated, it is considered that the operator has intentionally indicated that the mark display or the like is not necessary, and the process proceeds to step 107. Even when the operation switch 17 is not operated in the check in step 103, the process proceeds to step 107 to display the image or the like from the navigation unit 15 on the display 16.

The embodiment is configured as described above, and when the vehicle is stopped, parked, or passes a narrow road at a low speed, the first front-rear direction mark 30 and the second front-rear direction mark 30, which serve as indices in the images around the front wheels on the left and right of the vehicle, are displayed. An image in which the front-rear direction mark 31, the left-right direction mark 32, and the locus mark 33 are superimposed is displayed on the display 16. And the left and right direction mark 3
Since 2 is set at a position separated from the front end of the vehicle by a predetermined distance, for example, 10 cm, the gap between the front end of the vehicle and the wall can be easily grasped when the vehicle is parked while advancing toward the front wall. Further, since the predetermined distance can be changed by operating the control switch 6, for example, if the predetermined distance is set to 0 cm, the front end of the vehicle can be stopped at the parking frame or at the intersection stop line. .

Further, since the first front-rear direction mark 30 is a line passing through the position corresponding to the left and right ends of the door mirrors 2a, 2b of the vehicle, for example, an obstacle laterally or a wall parallel to the front-rear direction of the vehicle is provided. When the vehicle is squeezed in a certain place, the wall shows the first front-back direction mark 3 on the display 16.
By moving the vehicle so that it does not come to the vehicle side from 0,
The door mirror 2a or 2b can be brought close to the wall or obstacle without coming into contact therewith. As described above, for example, the lateral distance to the parking frame and the gap between the vehicle front end and the wall can be confirmed, and the vehicle can be easily parked along the parking frame.

Further, since the first front-back direction mark 30 and the left-right direction mark 32 are crossed, when turning a corner of a road, outside the bend, as shown in FIG.
The first front-back direction mark 30 and the left-right direction mark 32 can be easily passed while confirming the gap with the wall F with reference to the intersection P. Further, even when the vehicle is parked diagonally, it is possible to prevent the corner of the vehicle from coming into contact with the surroundings by referring to the intersection P. The first front-rear direction mark 30 and the left-right direction mark 32 are displayed only from the intersection P to the vehicle side in the image and in a range that does not overlap with the vehicle, so that there is no ambiguity and easy understanding. .

Since the second front-rear direction mark 31 is a line passing through the positions corresponding to the tips of the doors Da and Db when the vehicle is fully opened, the side wall on the display 16 is in the second front-rear direction. By stopping the vehicle so that it does not come closer to the vehicle side than the mark 31, it is possible to secure a gap in which the doors Da or Db do not come into contact with each other even after the vehicle is stopped. As a result, even if the door is opened carelessly when getting on and off the vehicle, it is possible to avoid contact with the wall.

Since the locus mark 33 indicates the predicted passage locus of the rear wheels when the vehicle is turning, it is shown in FIG.
As shown in (b) of, it is possible to pass while confirming the gap with the curb E by referring to the locus mark 33,
Contact is prevented. Note that the display of the trajectory mark 33 is limited to the predicted passage trajectory of the rear wheel on the inside of the turn, so the display screen does not become complicated and is not confusing.

The display 16 displays a left-side image and a right-side image of the vehicle synthesized by the image synthesizer 10 on one screen, and the marks 30 to 33 are superposed on each other. You can check the interval of
It can be easily parked in the center of the parking frame. Further, even when the vehicle is approaching at an angle and parked, it is possible to park while preventing contact with the surroundings by referring to the intersections P, P of the first left and right direction marks 30 and the left and right direction marks 32.

Further, since the video switching device 13 does not display the monitor image in which the marks are superimposed on the video images from the camera devices 4a and 4b on the display 16 when the vehicle is at a predetermined vehicle speed or more or moves backward, it is troublesome when unnecessary. There is no space, instead you can display navigation images,
The display 16 is effectively shared. Furthermore, even when the vehicle is traveling at low speed, when the operation switch 17 is operated due to a traffic jam or the like, necessary navigation information and images are displayed on the display 16 as well, so that the convenience is further improved.

Since the camera devices 4a and 4b are installed inside the door mirror cases 3a and 3b, it is possible to take a picture around the front wheels without protruding from the vehicle body. On this occasion,
Since the door mirror case is provided with the shields 5a and 5b corresponding to the lens of the camera device, the lens is protected from water droplets and dirt.

In the above embodiment, the camera device 4 is used.
Although a and 4b are installed inside the door mirror cases 3a and 3b, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be installed at any position as long as the front of the vehicle body including the front wheels can be photographed. Further, in the video synthesizer 10, the camera devices 4a, 4b
It was decided to cut 50% of the image area from each of the images and connect them to the left and right.
The images of a and b may be horizontally compressed and combined.

Further, in the mark generator 11, the locus mark 33 is calculated and changed in real time according to the signal output from the steering angle sensor 7. In addition to this, several kinds of drawing patterns are prepared. If a corresponding drawing pattern is selected and changed according to the signal output from the steering angle sensor 7, the load is lightened, and the configuration is simple and inexpensive. Further, although the electronic control unit 14 is described as being configured separately from the navigation unit 15, these may be configured integrally.

In the above embodiment, the images including the front and rear wheels on both the left and right sides are superimposed on the marks and displayed on the display. For example, in the case where the driver's seat is on the right side, Since it is possible to directly grasp the image when the face is taken out from the window, it is possible to display the image on the left side only as shown in FIG. 9, which makes it possible to provide an inexpensive device without significantly impairing the advantages of the present invention.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a procedure for synthesizing images in an image synthesizer.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a mark setting procedure.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a procedure for calculating a predicted passage trajectory of a rear wheel.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a mark image generated by a mark generator.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a monitoring image in which a mark is superimposed on a video around a vehicle.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a flow of image switching control in the video switching device.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a reference example of a mark.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a modified example of a monitoring image.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 vehicle 2a, 2b door mirror 3a, 3b door mirror case 4a, 4b camera device (imaging means) 5 shield 6 control switch 7 Steering angle sensor 8 vehicle speed sensor 9 Shift position sensor 10 Video synthesizer 11 mark generator 12 Super Imposer 13 Video switcher 14 Electronic control unit 15 Navigation unit 16 display 17 Operation switch 21, 22 Imaging range 30 First longitudinal mark 31 Second front-back direction mark 32 Left-right direction mark 33 Trace mark Da, Db door

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) B60R 21/00 628 B60R 21/00 628D G06T 1/00 330 G06T 1/00 330A

Claims (16)

[Claims] 1. A vehicle periphery monitoring device for displaying an image of the periphery of a vehicle on a display means, the image capturing means capturing an image of the periphery of the vehicle, a front-rear direction mark parallel to the front-rear direction of the vehicle, or a left-right direction in front of the vehicle. A mark generator for generating at least one image of the left-right direction parallel to the mark, and a superimposer for superimposing and outputting the image picked up by the image pickup means and the mark image generated by the mark generator. A vehicle surroundings monitoring device comprising: a display unit configured to display the output of the superimposer on the display unit. 2. A vehicle periphery monitoring device for displaying an image of the periphery of a vehicle on a display means, the image capturing means capturing an image of the periphery of the vehicle, a front-rear direction mark parallel to the front-rear direction of the vehicle, and a left-right direction in front of the vehicle. A mark generator that generates each image of the left-right direction parallel to and a superimposer that superimposes and outputs the image captured by the image capturing unit and the image of the mark generated by the mark generator. Then, the vehicle periphery monitoring device is configured to display the output of the super imposer on the display means. 3. The vehicle periphery monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein the mark generator sets the left-right direction mark at a position separated from the front end of the vehicle by a predetermined distance. 4. The mark generator is connected to a control switch, and the predetermined distance from the front end of the vehicle of the left-right direction mark can be changed by operating the control switch. Vehicle surroundings monitoring device. 5. The vehicle periphery monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein the front-rear direction mark is a line passing through a position corresponding to a front end of a vehicle door mirror in a left-right direction. 6. The front-rear direction mark is a line passing through a position corresponding to the left and right ends of a vehicle door mirror,
5. The vehicle periphery monitoring device according to claim 2, wherein the line passing through a position corresponding to the tip of the door mirror in the left-right direction intersects the left-right direction mark. 7. The vehicle periphery monitoring device according to claim 6, wherein the front-rear direction mark and the left-right direction mark are limited to a range that does not overlap the vehicle in the image. 8. The vehicle periphery monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein the front-rear direction mark is a line that passes through a position corresponding to a front end of the door when the vehicle is fully opened. 9. The vehicle periphery monitoring device according to claim 5, wherein the front-rear direction mark further includes a line passing through a position corresponding to the front end of the door when fully opened. 10. The vehicle periphery monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein the mark generator further generates a trajectory mark indicating a predicted passage trajectory of a rear wheel when the vehicle turns. 11. The trajectory mark is limited to a predicted passage trajectory of a rear wheel on the inside of a turn.
The vehicle periphery monitoring device described. 12. The image pickup means has an image synthesizer for photographing both left and right sides of the vehicle and synthesizing a left side image and a right side image,
2. The superimposer is for superimposing the image of the mark generated by the mark generator on the image synthesized by the video synthesizer.
1. The vehicle periphery monitoring device according to any one of 1. 13. The display switching means is provided between the superimposer and the display means, and the output of the superimposer is not displayed on the display means when the vehicle is at a predetermined vehicle speed or more or moves backward. The vehicle periphery monitoring device according to any one of claims 1 to 12. 14. A display switching means to which an operation switch is connected is provided between the superimposer and the display means, and the display of the output of the superimposer on the display means is controlled by operating the operation switch. The vehicle periphery monitoring device according to any one of claims 1 to 12, characterized in that. 15. The vehicle periphery monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein the image pickup means is a camera device installed in a door mirror case. 16. The vehicle periphery monitoring device according to claim 15, wherein the door mirror case includes a shield corresponding to a lens of the camera device.