JP2003339060A - Display apparatus for back image/side image of vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a display apparatus capable of naturally displaying images at sides or backward of a vehicle in an intuitionally understandable way. <P>SOLUTION: After an image processing apparatus 12 applies image processing such as gamma correction and edge emphasis to a vehicle backward image outputted from a couple of CCD cameras 10 as images corresponding to right and left eyes, a control unit 14 composes the right eye image and the left eye image so as to be alternately displayed on spatially adjacent pixel lines in a screen of an image display apparatus 16, which displays the images. An ASV liquid crystal display apparatus is employed for the image display apparatus 16 and provides a wide visual angle and a fast response speed of display switching. Since polarizing plates whose transmission axis directions are orthogonal are alternately adhered to pixel lines of the image display apparatus 16 adjacent to each other, when a driver 30 views the image from the image display apparatus 16 through polarization eyeglasses 20 worn by the driver 30, the driver 30 can view a stereoscopic image in the same stereoscopic sense as that viewed from the camera positions by naked eyes. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for displaying rear and side images of a vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is known a technique for monitoring the rear or side of a vehicle for the purpose of, for example, assisting a driving operation during parking. When displaying such vehicle rear / side images, a display for displaying a navigation screen or a TV screen is commonly used. Currently, thin-type TFT liquid crystal displays are often used for these displays due to vehicle space restrictions when they are mounted on vehicles, and it is difficult to perceive the depth because images are two-dimensionally displayed. Therefore, there are problems that it is difficult to recognize obstacles such as rear and side, and it is difficult to intuitively grasp the texture and image content of the display target.

In addition, when entering a garage or passing through an obstacle on the side of a narrow road, the driver changes the posture (that is, the side) because the driver drives while checking the safety of the rear and the side. Driving operation is performed while moving the visual field position in a wide angle range with respect to the display that displays the surveillance image of the one side or the rear side. Therefore, a display having a wide field of view is required as a display.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a display device capable of displaying an image on the side or the rear of a vehicle naturally and intuitively for easy understanding.

[0005]

According to the vehicle rear / side image display device of claim 1, which is made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a vehicle rear / side image display device using a stereoscopic display is provided. Since the image of the side is displayed, it is possible to easily obtain the depth feeling, the texture of the object, and the stereoscopic effect which are difficult to be grasped by the two-dimensional display, and the image of the rear or the side of the vehicle can be naturally and intuitively understood. It can be easily displayed. As a result, it is possible to drive the vehicle with greater peace of mind than in the past.

Incidentally, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-105485 discloses a technique of providing a video camera near the driver's seat such as at both ends of a headrest to capture an image of the front of the vehicle and display it on a stereo display. ing.
However, this is for capturing an image in front of the vehicle, and the driver is not directly looking at the image displayed on the display. In other words, the screen of the display faces the upper side of the dashboard, and the image reflected by the reflector placed in front of the windshield reaches the eyes of the driver.
The substantial meaning intended by the present invention is to display a stereoscopically visible image captured by a video camera in the same field of view for a driver who is looking ahead of the vehicle through the windshield. In this way, it is provided so as to match the actual front scene seen from the driver.

On the other hand, when an image of the rear or side of the vehicle targeted by the present invention is displayed, an image of an area that is actually invisible to the driver is displayed for use. In the case of a so-called back guide monitor, which is effective when parking backwards, the area that the driver can see through the rear glass is limited, so if the vehicle is parked on the ground itself or next to the parking space, the By providing the image including the side surface of the vehicle, it is useful for the parking operation. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the problems and effects from the viewpoint completely different from the case of displaying the vehicle front image described above, and displaying the image of the vehicle rear / side by using the stereoscopic display as in the present invention, It has a very significant effect that has never been seen before.

Various types of stereoscopic displays are conceivable. For example, if a display using ASV liquid crystal or OCB mode liquid crystal is used,
A relatively wide viewing angle and a high response speed of display switching can be obtained as a plus effect. For example, as the operation of the driver when moving the vehicle backward, the body is twisted to grasp the entire rear of the vehicle, and in that state, only the face is directed forward and the vehicle rear / side image display device of the present invention is viewed. It is possible. In this case, the display device is viewed from a position different from the position of the normal face that is seated in the driver's seat and is visually recognized in front. Therefore, it is preferable that the viewing angle be as wide as possible. In addition, for example, if you see a ball rolling while the vehicle is moving backward, it is expected that a child will chase the ball and jump out toward the rear of the vehicle. It is preferable. In order to carry out this reverse stop early, it is preferable that the movement of the ball in the image is clear. Therefore, it is advantageous that the response speed of display switching is faster because such a movement can be visually recognized earlier. Also, if the image is while the vehicle is moving, the distance to other objects will change from moment to moment,
It is important to be able to accurately grasp the sense of distance (depth), and from this viewpoint, it is advantageous that such a response speed is fast.

The image to be displayed may be only on the rear side of the vehicle or only on the side of the vehicle, but as described in claim 3,
Having an image pickup means for the rear of the vehicle and an image pickup means for the side of the vehicle,
The images captured by the plurality of image capturing means may be switched and displayed, or may be displayed simultaneously.
In this way, for example, it is possible to drive while checking the rear image during backward parking and the side image when passing through a side obstacle on a narrow road.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments to which the present invention is applied will be described below with reference to the drawings. Needless to say, the embodiment of the present invention is not limited to the following examples, and various forms can be adopted as long as they are within the technical scope of the present invention.

FIG. 1A is a block diagram showing the configuration of the image display device of this embodiment. The image display device includes a CCD camera 10 as an image pickup unit, an image processing device 12, a control unit 14, and an image display 16. As shown in FIG. 1B, the CCD camera 10 is installed so as to image the rear of the vehicle and is connected to the image processing device 12. The control unit 14 is also connected to the image processing device 12 and the image display device 16, inputs information from these devices, and performs processing for controlling these devices.

The CCD camera 10 of this embodiment is shown in FIG.
As shown in (a), it is composed of a set of CCD cameras with a distance corresponding to both eyes of a human being. With the current technology, a CCD camera can be mounted on one chip, and a pair of such camera systems can be realized. Therefore, an image corresponding to the right eye (referred to as a right eye image) and an image corresponding to the left eye (referred to as a left eye image) are output from the CCD camera 10 to the image processing device 12.
The image processing device 12 subjects the left and right eye images obtained from the CCD camera 10 to image processing such as γ correction and edge enhancement to form an image signal that is easy to see, and then outputs the image signal to the control unit 14. The control unit 14 includes a CPU, ROM, RA
It is composed of a microcomputer having M and I / O, and the right-eye image and the left-eye image obtained from the image processing device 12 are alternately displayed on spatially adjacent pixel lines in the screen of the image display 16. After combining as described above, the image is output to the image display 16.

The image display 16 of this embodiment uses an ASV (Advansed Super View) liquid crystal display which is a type of stereoscopic display. Further, polarizing plates whose transmission axis directions are orthogonal to each other are attached to adjacent pixel lines of the image display device 16. Therefore, when the image from the image display 16 is viewed through the polarizing glasses 20 worn by the driver 30, the right-eye image light is transmitted only through the right part of the polarizing glasses, and the left-eye image light is Only the left part is transparent.

Therefore, the driver can see a stereoscopic image from the CCD camera position as if he were looking at the rear of the vehicle from the CCD camera position with the same stereoscopic effect as seen with the naked eye. As a result, it is possible to easily obtain a sense of depth, a texture of an object, and a stereoscopic effect that are difficult to grasp with a two-dimensional display, and it is possible to drive with peace of mind.

Further, an ASV (Advanced Super View) liquid crystal display has a relatively wide viewing angle and a fast display switching response speed. The viewing angle characteristic of the conventional TN liquid crystal display is relatively narrow as shown by the broken line in FIG. 2 (a), but the viewing angle characteristic of the ASV liquid crystal display is shown in FIG. 2 (a).
It is relatively wide as shown by the solid line inside. 2 (a)
Shows an angle range where the contrast is 10 or more. For example, as the operation of the driver when moving the vehicle backward, it is conceivable to twist the body to grasp the rear of the vehicle as a whole, and in that state, look at the image display 16 with only the face facing forward. In this case, since the image display 16 is viewed from a position different from the position of the normal face that is seated in the driver's seat and is visually recognized in front, it is preferable that the viewing angle be as wide as possible. Therefore, it is also effective in that respect.

Further, since the display switching response speed is high, the following effects can be obtained. That is, for example, if you see a ball rolling while the vehicle is moving backwards, it is expected that a child will chase the ball and jump out toward the rear of the vehicle. It is preferable. In order to carry out this reverse stop early, it is preferable that the movement of the ball in the image is clear. Therefore, it is advantageous that the response speed of display switching is faster because such a movement can be visually recognized earlier. In addition, it is important to be able to accurately grasp the sense of distance (depth) because the distance to other objects changes every moment if the image is while the vehicle is moving. High speed is advantageous. As an example of the response speed at which it is appropriate to see the ball rolling, a response speed of 100 msec or less at -30 ° C can be considered.

Furthermore, it has been found that the stereoscopic display improves the visual characteristics as compared with the conventional two-dimensional display. The graph shown in series 1 in FIG. 2 (b) shows the results of visual acuity measurement when displayed on a conventional two-dimensional display, and the graph shown in series 2 in FIG. 2 (b) is displayed on a stereoscopic display. The result of the visual acuity measurement in the case of turning on is shown. As can be seen from this result, the (apparent) visual acuity is improved and the distance that can be accurately recognized by the user is longer when the image is displayed on the stereoscopic display. As a result, it is possible to easily recognize the distance to the obstacle behind and to operate the garage with peace of mind.

[Other Embodiments] (1) In the above embodiment, the ASV is used as the CCD camera 10.
Although the case of using a liquid crystal display has been described, for example, OCB (Op
A tical compensated birefringence) mode liquid crystal display may be used. In particular, since the embodiment is realized as a space-division type three-dimensional display, the pixel resolution as an image display device is required to be twice as high as that of a non-space-division type liquid crystal display. preferable. In order to increase the response speed of the liquid crystal, the vertically aligned ones such as the ASV liquid crystal and the OCB liquid crystal are more advantageous than the horizontally aligned ones such as the TN liquid crystal.

In order to realize the binocular stereoscopic vision, the space division type stereoscopic display has been described in the above embodiment, but it may be realized by the time division type stereoscopic display. Further, instead of the liquid crystal display, a self-luminous display (EL display or VFD (fluorescent display tube) display) can be used.

(2) In the above-mentioned embodiment, the explanation was made on the assumption that an image of the rear of the vehicle is taken, as indicated by the rear view (α) in FIG. 3, but as an apparatus for taking an image of the side of the vehicle. May be realized. In the case of the side of the vehicle, it is conceivable to mount the CCD camera 10 on the side mirror 40 existing on the side opposite to the driver's seat as shown in FIG. β) and lateral anterior visual field (γ) are considered. In other words, the driver is often not visible (or hard to see) to the side of the vehicle on the side opposite to the driver's seat.
6 is preferably displayed. Then, driving while confirming such a side image of the vehicle is effective, for example, in a case of passing through a side obstacle on a narrow road.

Further, the CCD camera 10 is arranged to capture each of the three types of visual fields of the rear visual field (α), the lateral rear visual field (β) and the lateral front visual field (γ) shown in FIG. It is also possible to allow the rear and the side to be photographed, and to display an image corresponding to, for example, a user's selection operation on the image display 16. Of course, if the screen size allows, multiple images can be displayed simultaneously. A mechanical switch or a remote controller around the display or a so-called touch panel may be used to receive the user's selection operation.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image display device according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a comparison with a conventional display regarding a viewing angle characteristic and a visual acuity side result.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a field of view photographed by a CCD camera.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 ... CCD camera 12 ... Image processing device 14 ... Control unit 16 ... Image display 20 ... Polarized glasses 30 ... driver 40 ... Side mirror

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Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A vehicle rear / side image display device for displaying an image picked up by an image pickup means for picking up at least one of a rear side and a side of a vehicle, wherein a stereoscopic display is used. Behind the vehicle
Lateral image display device. 2. The vehicle rear / side image display device according to claim 1, wherein an ASV liquid crystal display or an OCB mode liquid crystal display is used as the stereoscopic display. 3. The vehicle rear / side image display device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the image pickup means has a vehicle rear image pickup means and a vehicle side image pickup means. Switching the image captured by the image capturing means,
Alternatively, a vehicle rear / side image display device characterized by displaying simultaneously.