JP2004354326A - Surrounding display device for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make a distance of an article and a self-vehicle to be easily recognized without giving uneasy feeling to a crew. <P>SOLUTION: A surrounding display device for the vehicle includes a camera 94, and a processing unit 92 for converting an image photographed by the camera into a bird's-eye view and displaying the converted bird's-eye view on a display unit 93. The processing unit 92 repeatedly detects the distance from the self-vehicle to the article of the vehicle surrounding, obtains a circular arc having a measured distance as a radius at the position of a distance measuring sensor as a center at each measurement of the distance based on the repeatedly detected distance, and estimates the obtained row of the circular arcs at this each measurement as the outer edge of the article. Here, the outer edge indicates a safety area. This outer edge and the self-vehicle position are superposed on the bird's-eye view and displayed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a vehicle periphery display device that displays a situation around a vehicle.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, a transmission signal is transmitted toward the periphery of a vehicle using an ultrasonic wave as a medium, and a reflection signal of the transmission signal reflected by an object around the vehicle is received. There has been proposed an ultrasonic object detection device that measures a distance to an object such as a guardrail or a person and notifies the user of the measured distance.
[0003]
According to this object detection device, the shape and position of the object cannot be specified merely by measuring the distance from the vehicle to the object, and the user cannot know the shape of the object.
[0004]
Therefore, the position information of the object around the vehicle is detected and stored using a laser radar, and a top view of the object centered on the own vehicle is drawn and displayed based on the detected position information. A display device (hereinafter, referred to as a first display device) has been proposed (for example, see Patent Document 1).
[0005]
A display device (hereinafter, referred to as a second display device) that captures a situation around the vehicle using a camera, converts the image around the vehicle captured by the camera into a bird's-eye view, and displays the converted bird's-eye view. Has been proposed (for example, see Patent Document 2).
[0006]
[Patent Document 1]
JP-A-8-50699
[Patent Document 2]
JP 2002-120675 A
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
By the way, in the first display device described above, although the top view of the object is displayed, the displayed top view alone does not make it clear to the occupant whether the object is a person or a vehicle. May cause anxiety about
[0009]
In the above-described second display device, the image around the vehicle captured by the camera is converted into a bird's-eye view and displayed. Therefore, in this case, although the occupant knows whether the object is a person or a vehicle, the bird's-eye view displays an object such as a vehicle originally standing on the ground as if it fell down on the ground. Therefore, there is a problem that the occupant loses a sense of distance between the object and the vehicle. That is, there is a problem that it is difficult for the occupant to recognize the distance between the object and the vehicle.
[0010]
The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to provide a vehicle surrounding display device that makes it easy for a passenger to recognize the distance between an object and a host vehicle without giving a feeling of anxiety. I do.
[0011]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
According to the first aspect of the present invention, the display (93), the camera means (94) for taking a camera image of the situation around the vehicle, and the camera-captured image are converted into a bird's-eye view, and are converted. Control means (92) for displaying a bird's eye view on the display, and distance measurement sensors (91a to 91h) for measuring the distance from the vehicle to an object around the vehicle;
The control means repeatedly measures the distance using the distance measurement sensor, estimates the outer edge of the object based on the repeatedly measured distance, and estimates the outer edge of the estimated object together with the own vehicle position. The display is superimposed on the bird's eye view and displayed on the display.
[0012]
Here, by displaying the bird's-eye view to the occupant, it is possible to know what the object is specifically. Further, by displaying the outer edge of the object and the position of the own vehicle, the distance between the object and the own vehicle can be easily recognized without giving the occupant a feeling of anxiety.
[0013]
Further, in estimating the outer edge of the object, as in the invention according to claim 2, every time the distance is measured by using the distance measurement sensor, the control means sets the position of the distance measurement sensor as a center. An arc having the measured distance as a radius may be obtained, and the arrangement of the arcs for each obtained measurement may be set as the outer edge of the object.
[0014]
Further, not only the invention according to claim 2 but also as in the invention according to claim 3, the control unit changes the position of the distance measurement sensor every time the distance is measured using the distance measurement sensor. An arc having a radius of the measured distance as a center may be obtained, an intersection of the obtained arcs for each measurement may be obtained, and the arrangement of the obtained intersections of the arcs may be set as the outer edge of the object.
[0015]
Also, as in the invention according to claim 4, the control means displays the safe area where the own vehicle can pass on the object on the display, thereby displaying the outer edge of the object. You may make it display on a container.
[0016]
Here, since the outer edge of the safety area indicates the outer edge of the object, to clearly display the positional relationship between the vehicle and the object to the occupant, for example, as in the invention according to claim 5, Preferably, the outer edge of the safety area is highlighted by the control means.
[0017]
Further, as the control means, as in the invention according to claim 6, transmit a transmission signal using the distance measurement sensor, and, while receiving a reflected signal of the transmission signal reflected by the object, A device for measuring the distance according to the received reflected signal may be used.
[0018]
The reference numerals in the parentheses of the above-mentioned units indicate the correspondence with the specific units described in each embodiment described later.
[0019]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
(1st Embodiment)
FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of a vehicle periphery display device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 1, the vehicle periphery display device includes distance measurement sensors 91a to 91h, a processing unit 92, a display 93, and a camera 94. The distance measuring sensors 91a to 91h are arranged in eight directions around the vehicle as shown in FIG. 1, and are used to detect safety directions 80a to 80h (see FIG. 2) in eight directions as described later. The distance between an object (obstacle) around the vehicle and the vehicle itself (hereinafter, referred to as the own vehicle) is detected.
[0020]
In FIG. 2, there is a gap in the area to be detected, but this is to make it easier to see on the drawing, and it is desirable to arrange the area so that no gap is actually formed.
[0021]
The safety areas 80a to 80h are areas formed on the side of the own vehicle with respect to objects around the vehicle and through which the own vehicle can pass without colliding with the object, that is, areas between the object and the own vehicle. .
[0022]
Here, each of the distance measuring sensors 91a to 91h includes a transmitting ultrasonic vibrator and a receiving ultrasonic vibrator, and the transmitting ultrasonic vibrator is directed to the outside of the vehicle by, for example, a bumper. The transmission signal output from the processing unit 92 is transmitted using ultrasonic waves as a medium.
[0023]
The receiving ultrasonic transducer is arranged, for example, toward the outside of the vehicle by a bumper or the like, and receives a reflected signal of a transmission signal reflected by an object around the vehicle using ultrasonic waves as a medium.
[0024]
The processing unit 92 includes a microcomputer and a memory. As described later, the processing unit 92 displays a bird's-eye view of an object around the vehicle in accordance with an image around the vehicle captured by the camera 94, and secures the bird's-eye view of the object around the vehicle. The areas 80a to 80h are superimposed and displayed together with the position of the own vehicle.
[0025]
The display 93 is disposed toward the front side of the vehicle on an instrument panel or the like in the vehicle interior, and displays a bird's-eye view of an object, a safety area, and the like as described later. As the display 93, for example, a liquid crystal display panel or the like is used.
[0026]
The camera 94 is disposed, for example, in the vicinity of a room mirror in the vehicle interior and facing the outside of the vehicle, and captures a situation around the vehicle with a camera. As the camera 94, for example, a digital camera or the like is used.
[0027]
Hereinafter, prior to the description of the specific operation of the present embodiment, the “accumulation method” that is the basis of the detection of the safety areas 80a to 80h will be described with reference to FIGS. FIGS. 3 and 4 show an example in which the safety area 80a is drawn using one distance measuring sensor 91a.
[0028]
In the accumulation method, as shown in FIG. 3, the distance r1 is detected at time t using the distance measurement sensor 91a, and the distance r2 is detected at time t + 1. Here, the distances r1 and r2 are obtained by calculating a propagation time Δt required to receive a reflected signal of the transmission signal reflected by the object 13 after transmitting the transmission signal, and multiplying the propagation time Δt by a sound speed c. This is a calculation result obtained by calculating (Δt × c) and dividing (Δt × c) by 2 (distance = Δt × c / 2).
[0029]
When the distances r1 and r2 are calculated as described above, the arcs 14 and 15 are drawn as the safe area with the position of the distance measuring sensor 91a as the center, the distances r1 and r2 as the radii, respectively. Here, the object 13 is located outside the safe area, that is, on the opposite side of the own vehicle position with respect to the safe area.
[0030]
Also, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, after calculating the distance r1 at times t, t + 1,..., T + 5, even when the vehicle moves away from the object 13 at time t + 6 and detects the distance r6, the time t, t + 1,. The arrangement of each arc obtained at t + 5 and t + 6 is estimated as a safe area.
[0031]
Here, the outer edge (outermost circumference) of each safety area indicates the edge of the object 13. As described later, such a safe area is displayed so as to be superimposed on a bird's-eye view of an object around the vehicle, and an actual edge of the object 13 (reference numeral 54 in FIG. 5) and an apparent edge of the object 13 (reference numeral 54). The situation around the vehicle is notified in distinction from reference numeral 53) in FIG.
[0032]
Next, the specific operation of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.
[0033]
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the vehicle periphery display processing of the processing unit 92, and FIGS. 7 and 8 are diagrams showing images displayed by the display 93. The processing unit 92 executes a computer program stored in the memory in advance according to the flowchart shown in FIG. The computer program is executed while the vehicle is running.
[0034]
First, as shown in FIG. 7, the display 93 displays the vehicle position with the vehicle mark 71 (S100). At this time, of the display area of the display 93, a portion other than the car mark 71 is displayed as the danger area 72. Here, the dangerous area 72 indicates an area in which an object is highly likely to be present.
[0035]
Next, the situation around the vehicle is imaged by the camera 94 to obtain an image indicating the situation around the vehicle from the camera 94, and this image is converted into a bird's-eye view and displayed on the display 93 (S110).
Next, in accordance with the reflected signals received by each of the distance measurement sensors 91a to 91h, the distance to the object in eight directions is obtained, and in accordance with the obtained distances in eight directions, the respective safety areas are obtained. Is superimposed and displayed on the bird's-eye view and the car mark 71 (S120).
[0036]
Next, the steering angle of the steering is detected from the steering angle sensor 95, the estimated course of the own vehicle is estimated according to the detected steering angle, and the estimated course is displayed on the display 93 by an arrow or the like. (S130, S140). Thereafter, the processing of S110 to S140 is repeated.
[0037]
Since such processing is performed, when the own vehicle retreats as shown by the arrow in FIG. 7, the safety area 14 (arc display) is accumulated and displayed on the display 93 as shown in FIG. Will be.
[0038]
Here, as shown in FIG. 8, the safe area 14 is cumulatively expanded with the movement of the own vehicle. However, when the object (wall) 13 exists in the rear of the vehicle, that is, in the vehicle traveling direction, the safety area 14 is formed only up to the front of the object 13, and the driver clearly recognizes that the object 13 exists. be able to. FIG. 8 shows an example in which the object 13 is located on the left rear side of the own vehicle.
[0039]
Next, the operation and effect of the present embodiment will be described. That is, the present embodiment includes a camera 94 that captures the situation around the vehicle with a camera, and a processing unit 92 that converts the captured image into a bird's-eye view and displays the converted bird's-eye view on the display 93. , The processing unit 92 repeatedly detects the distance from the host vehicle to an object (object) around the vehicle, estimates the outer edge of the safety area as the outer edge of the object based on the repeatedly detected distance, and And the position of the vehicle is superimposed and displayed on the bird's-eye view.
[0040]
Here, by displaying the bird's-eye view to the occupant, it is possible to know what the object is specifically, that is, whether the object is a person or a vehicle. Further, by displaying the safety area and the position of the own vehicle, it is possible to easily recognize the distance between the object and the own vehicle without giving the occupant a feeling of anxiety.
[0041]
In the present embodiment, the presence of the object (wall) 13 in the vehicle traveling direction is notified by cumulatively displaying the safety areas 14. Therefore, if the object is irrelevant to the traveling direction of the vehicle, the notification is not performed. Therefore, it is possible to reduce unnecessary attention of the driver.
[0042]
Next, a specific method of accumulating and displaying the safe areas will be described with reference to FIGS.
[0043]
First, in the display area of the display 93, an area 104 that needs to be monitored is provided around the vehicle (that is, around the automobile mark 71), and information points 102 (black points) at equal intervals are provided in this area 104. . Here, in the initial state shown in FIG. 7, the information points 102 are all displayed as danger points.
[0044]
However, if the own vehicle moves and a safe area is obtained, the information point in the safe area is updated as the safe point 103 (white point). In FIG. 9, the points are arranged in the form of lattice points, but they may be arranged in a staggered manner or in any arrangement.
[0045]
Next, FIG. 10 shows another method for accumulating the safe area. The area 104 that needs to be monitored around the vehicle is divided into square pixels. Initially, all pixels are displayed as dangerous pixels 102. However, if the vehicle moves and a safe area is required, the pixels in the safe area are updated as the safe pixels 103. In FIG. 10, each pixel is square, but any shape may be used.
[0046]
(2nd Embodiment)
In the second embodiment, an example is shown in which an edge 1210 of an object 13 is extracted as shown in FIG. 11 and the edge 1210 is highlighted. FIG. 12 and FIG. 13 show the vehicle surrounding display processing of the processing unit 92 in this case. FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the vehicle periphery display processing, and FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing details of the object edge extraction processing (S150) in FIG.
[0047]
First, the processing unit 92 of the present embodiment draws the safety area 14 at each time (t, t + 1, t + 2,... T + 9, t + 10,... T13) using the distance measurement sensors 91a to 91h as the vehicle moves. I do. At this time, when the detection distance measured by using the distance measurement sensors 91a to 91h is shorter than the visual field length (the longest distance measurable by the sensor) (S151: YES), the object is temporarily held as an edge. Then, if the temporarily held edge is included in the existing safety area (S153, S154), that part is deleted and only the remaining edge is drawn (S155). In this way, the edge of the object 13 can be drawn as indicated by reference numeral 1210 in FIG.
[0048]
In FIG. 11, edge drawing is not performed at the beginning and end when the detection distance is shorter than the visual field length. In this way, an edge that is far away from the edge of the object is not drawn.
[0049]
Further, by extracting the edge of the object as shown in FIGS. 11 to 13, it is possible to determine whether or not the edge 13a of the object exists in the predicted track 156 of the vehicle as shown in FIG. Therefore, it is possible to determine whether the vehicle collides with the object (interference determination) (S150 in FIG. 12). In this case, as shown in FIG. 15, the drawing of the safe area may be omitted, and only the object edge 72a may be superimposed and displayed on the bird's-eye view.
[0050]
Here, as an application example of the present embodiment, determination as to whether parallel parking is possible or not will be described. As shown in FIG. 15, when the own vehicle 171 is to park in parallel between the vehicles 174 and 175, the object edges 176 and 177 are extracted by passing in advance by the two vehicles 174 and 175. I do. Further, the distance 178 between the object edges is obtained, and it is possible to determine whether or not parallel parking is possible from the distance 178 and the total length of the own vehicle.
[0051]
In addition, as an application example of the present embodiment, parallel parking is one example, and there are many application examples, such as garage entry, narrow roads and objects, and passing between vehicles.
[0052]
Hereinafter, another method “intersection method” that does not use the above-described “accumulation method” will be described with reference to FIG.
[0053]
First, a distance r1 obtained using the distance measuring sensor 91a at time t, and a distance r1 obtained at time t + 1 using the distance measuring sensor 91a (FIG. 17 shows an example using one distance measuring sensor). When the distance is r2, an arc is drawn with the position of the distance measuring sensor 91a as the center and the distances r1 and r2 as the respective radii, and the intersection 184 thereof is obtained. FIG. 20 shows how the object shape (edge position) is estimated when the intersection method is repeated.
[0054]
In this case, the distance r1 to the object 13 is measured at each time using the distance measurement sensor 91a, and the intersection 192 is repeatedly obtained using the intersection method. Even when the user leaves the object 13 at time t + 6, the distance r6 can be measured and the intersection 193 can be obtained by the intersection method. Then, the arrangement of the intersections of these arcs is estimated as the edge (outer edge) of the object.
[0055]
For example, as shown in FIG. 19, by superimposing and displaying the line of intersection obtained by the above-mentioned intersection method on the bird's-eye view, the edge (outer edge) of the object is correctly transmitted to the driver as in the case of the above-described safety area. I can do it.
[0056]
It should be noted that, based on the positional relationship between the predicted trajectory and the detected object edge, information indicating whether or not passing between objects is possible may be transmitted to the occupant using, for example, sound, light, vibration, or the like other than the display 93. Good.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a vehicle periphery display device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the distance measuring sensor of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of an accumulation method used in the first embodiment.
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of an accumulation method used in the first embodiment.
FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a schematic operation of the first embodiment.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a process of a processing unit in FIG. 1;
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a display image of the display device of FIG. 1;
8 is a diagram showing a display image of the display device of FIG.
FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of a display method used in the first embodiment.
FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of a display method used in the first embodiment.
FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation of the vehicle surrounding display device according to the second embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a part of a display process of a processing unit according to the second embodiment.
FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating the rest of the display processing of the processing unit according to the second embodiment.
FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a display image on a display device according to the second embodiment.
FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a display image on a display device in the second embodiment.
FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating a display image of a display device according to the second embodiment.
FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating a display image on a display device according to the second embodiment.
FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an intersection method used for edge detection of an object.
FIG. 19 is a diagram showing an intersection method used for edge detection of an object.
[Explanation of symbols]
94: Camera, 93: Display, 92: Processing unit.

Claims (6)

An indicator (93);
Camera means (94) for taking a camera image of a situation around the vehicle;
Control means (92) for converting the image captured by the camera into a bird's-eye view, and displaying the converted bird's-eye view on the display device;
A distance measuring sensor (91a to 91h) for measuring a distance from the own vehicle to an object around the vehicle,
The control means repeatedly measures the distance using the distance measurement sensor, estimates the outer edge of the object based on the repeatedly measured distance, and estimates the outer edge of the estimated object together with the own vehicle position. A vehicle surrounding display device, wherein the display is superimposed on the bird's-eye view and displayed on the display. Each time the control means causes the distance measurement sensor to measure the distance, the control means obtains an arc having the measured distance as a radius around the position of the distance measurement sensor, and obtains an arc for each of the obtained measurements. 2. The vehicle surrounding display device according to claim 1, wherein the arrangement of is the outer edge of the object. Each time the control means causes the distance measurement sensor to measure the distance, the control means obtains an arc having the measured distance as a radius around the position of the distance measurement sensor, and obtains an arc for each of the obtained measurements. 2. The vehicle surrounding display device according to claim 1, wherein the intersection of the obtained arcs is determined, and the arrangement of the determined intersections of the arcs is set as the outer edge of the object. The said control means displays the outer periphery of the said object on the said display by displaying on the said display the safe area which can pass by the own vehicle position with respect to the said object. The said display is characterized by the above-mentioned. 3. The vehicle surrounding display device according to any one of 3. The vehicle surrounding display device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the control unit highlights an outer edge of the safety area and displays the safety area on the display. The control means transmits a transmission signal using the distance measurement sensor, and receives a reflection signal of the transmission signal reflected by the object, and calculates the distance in accordance with the received reflection signal. The vehicle surrounding display device according to claim 1, wherein the measurement is performed.

Images