JP2005014858A - Door mirror with built-in camera - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a door mirror with a built-in camera capable of preventing a camera image from becoming invisible by the adhesion of rain drops and dirt thereonto and suppressing wind noise. <P>SOLUTION: This door mirror 1 is mounted on the outside of the left front door of a vehicle at a position where the door mirror can be easily viewed from a driver's seat through the window of the left front door. A recess 12 facing in the front lower side is formed at the lower corner part of the forward facing cover 11 of the door mirror 1 located on the outside of the vehicle and facing in the front lower side. The lens 21 of a video camera 2 is positioned at the bottom part of the recess. Since the recess is present, a high-speed air flow on the wall surface of the cover does not almost flow in the recess by disturbance produced at the peripheral edge part of the recess. The flow of air separated slightly from the wall surface of the cover flows above the recess. As a result, rain drops or dirt contained in the air flow does not enter in the recess to prevent the lens from being contaminated and damaged. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a camera built-in door mirror.
[0002]
[Prior art]
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-272418 A video camera built in a left-side door mirror (in the case of a right-hand drive vehicle or in the case of a left-hand drive vehicle) near the front wheel of the host vehicle, which is a blind spot for the driver. 2. Description of the Related Art A vehicle periphery monitoring device that captures an image and displays it on a display device installed in a vehicle interior is known (see Patent Document 1).
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
By the way, in such a vehicle periphery monitoring device, in order to capture an image of the vicinity of the left front wheel (or right front wheel) of the host vehicle, the lens portion of the video camera protrudes forward and downward in the traveling direction on the cover of the door mirror. . Accordingly, raindrops or dust in the air adheres to the lens, making it difficult to view the video camera image.
Further, by projecting the lens portion facing forward and downward from the cover, wind noise is further increased, and the driver feels bothered.
In addition, when a transparent protective cover is provided on the front surface of the lens unit and the outer shape is molded so as to smoothly connect to the general surface of the cover, raindrops or dust in the air adheres to the protective cover, and the video from the video camera Becomes difficult to see. Moreover, attaching the protective cover increases the cost accordingly.
[0004]
In order to solve the above-described problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a camera built-in door mirror that can prevent video camera images from becoming difficult to see due to raindrops and dirt, and can suppress wind noise.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
Therefore, according to the present invention, a camera for photographing the vicinity of the front wheel of the host vehicle is built in the door mirror, a recess is provided in the cover of the door mirror, and an opening for camera photography is provided at the bottom of the recess.
[0006]
【The invention's effect】
According to the present invention, stagnation that does not generate an air flow is generated in the recess provided in the cover of the door mirror, and the air flow does not enter the interior of the recess and flows in the upper part of the recess in the lateral direction, that is, in the vehicle outer direction. Raindrops and dust contained in the dent will not adhere to the inner wall of the dent.
As a result, it is possible to prevent raindrops and dirt from adhering to the camera photographing opening at the bottom of the recess, and the camera image can be easily viewed.
[0007]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described by taking a right-hand drive vehicle as an example. FIG. 1 is a view showing a cover of a camera built-in door mirror according to the embodiment.
The door mirror 1 is attached to the outside of the left front door of the vehicle at a position that is easy to see from the driver's seat through the window of the left front door.
A recess 12 facing the front lower side is provided in a lower corner portion facing the front lower side of the cover 11 facing the front of the door mirror 1 from the outside.
An opening 22 is provided at the bottom of the recess 12 and a lens 21 of the video camera is arranged facing the front and lower side with the lens surfaces aligned.
[0008]
FIG. 2A shows a cross section taken along the line AA of FIG. The video camera 2 is attached to a camera attachment portion 13 inside the door mirror with a fixing screw 14.
As shown in (b) in which the peripheral portion 15 of the recess 12 is enlarged from the B portion, the entire periphery is connected by a smooth curved surface.
A portion indicated by a virtual line in FIG. 2A indicates a general surface of the cover 11.
[0009]
The operation of this embodiment will be described below.
First, the flow of air along the cover 11 during normal travel in the door mirror 1 of the embodiment will be described.
The airflow that hits the door mirror 1 from the front during traveling is inclined with the outer end of the door mirror 1 positioned behind the inner end supported by the door, and as shown by the arrows in FIG. Flows on the cover 11 from the inside toward the outside. Meanwhile, in the upper part of the cover 11, the air flow is directed upward, and in the lower part of the cover 11, a part is directed downward.
[0010]
The flow of air on the surface of the nearby cover 11 including the depression 12 will be described with reference to (b). Due to the presence of the depression 12, the high-speed air flow a along the wall surface of the cover 11 is disturbed away from the surface of the depression 12 at the peripheral edge 15, and almost the air flow is generated at the bottom of the depression 12. Absent.
And the flow of the layer a little away from the wall surface of the cover 11 flows along the general surface without touching the bottom of the recess 12 as shown in b.
[0011]
It was confirmed by the following experiment that there was almost no air flow on the surface in the depression 12.
A vehicle is installed in the wind tunnel laboratory, and the surface of the cover 11 is coated with white oil, and a wind corresponding to a vehicle speed of 0 to 120 km / h is continuously applied from the front of the vehicle for several minutes, and the white remaining on the cover 11 The residual state of the oil was observed.
[0012]
FIG. 4 shows the situation of the white oil remaining on the door mirror cover after the experiment. In the figure, the shaded area indicates white oil.
While the white oil has disappeared from the general surface facing the front of the cover 11, it remains on almost the entire surface of the recess 12, and in the portion along the lower corner and the outer corner of the cover 11. It remained linear. Thereby, it was confirmed that the air flow was extremely weak or absent on the surface in the recess 12.
[0013]
In the embodiment, since the connecting portion of the peripheral portion 15 of the recess 12 to the general surface of the cover 11 is a smooth curved surface, no wind noise is generated at the peripheral portion 15.
The following experiment was conducted in order to confirm the increase in wind noise by providing the depression 12 and the reduction in wind noise by providing a smooth curved surface without providing an edge at the peripheral edge 15.
(1) When the door mirror cover 11 has no recess, (2) When the recess is provided in the door mirror and there is an edge at the periphery of the recess, (3) When the periphery of the recess is a smooth curved surface A kind of door mirror was attached to the vehicle, each vehicle was installed in a wind tunnel laboratory, 120km / h wind was applied, and wind noise around the door mirror was collected by a microphone.
[0014]
FIG. 5 shows the sound pressure value of wind noise at the highest sound pressure around the door mirror, with the sound pressure on the vertical axis and the frequency of wind noise on the horizontal axis, for frequencies of 1 kHz, 2 kHz, 4 kHz, and 8 kHz. It is a plot.
It can be seen that when a dent that leaves an edge at the periphery is provided, the wind noise increases by up to 8 dB compared to a door mirror without a dent. On the other hand, it was confirmed that when the peripheral edge of the depression was smoothed with a curved surface, the wind noise was reduced to a level equivalent to that of a door mirror without depression.
The video camera 2 of the embodiment corresponds to the camera of the present invention.
[0015]
As described above, according to the present embodiment, raindrops and dust contained in the airflow generated by traveling of the vehicle do not enter the recess 12 and prevent the lens 21 disposed in the opening 22 at the bottom of the recess from being attached to the dirt. The lens 21 is hardly damaged.
As a result, the display device in the vehicle has a screen that is easy to see without any dirt or lens scratches. The trouble of wiping off the dirt on the lens is also eliminated. Further, it is not necessary to attach a protective cover, and the cost can be reduced.
[0016]
Further, even if the cover 11 is provided with the recess 12, it can be structured such that the wind noise hardly increases, and the driver does not feel uncomfortable. Since the wind noise performance is the same as that of a normal door mirror without a built-in video camera, the driver hears the same wind noise from the left and right door mirrors even during high-speed driving, and can drive comfortably.
[0017]
In the conventional structure where the lens of the camera built-in door mirror protrudes from the surface of the cover, when the door mirror hits against a wall or the like, the lens is likely to hit directly, and the video camera is easily damaged.
In the present embodiment, since the lens 21 is arranged at the bottom of the recess 12, even if the vehicle approaches the wall too much and the cover 11 is rubbed against the wall, the lens 21 is the most protruding portion of the cover 11. Because it is not, it is not rubbed.
In other words, it is possible to prevent the video camera 2 from being damaged by a light contact that is normally possible.
Furthermore, since the video camera 2 is attached with the lens surface of the lens 21 aligned with the bottom of the recess 12, it is easy to make a space between the tip of the fixing screw 14 and the recess 12.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a view showing a cover of a door mirror of the present invention.
2 is a partial cross-sectional view taken along line AA in FIG.
FIG. 3 is a view showing a state of air flow of a door mirror cover when the vehicle is running.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a result of an experiment of blowing off white oil of a door mirror cover by a wind tunnel.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a wind noise test result of a door mirror by a wind tunnel.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Door mirror 2 Video camera 11 Cover 12 Dimple 13 Camera attachment part 14 Fixing screw 15 Peripheral part 21 Lens 22 Opening

Claims (3)

A camera that captures the area around the front wheel of the vehicle is built into the door mirror,
A recess is provided in the cover of the door mirror,
A camera built-in door mirror, characterized in that an opening for photographing the camera is provided at the bottom of the recess. The camera built-in door mirror according to claim 1, wherein a peripheral edge of the recess smoothly connects to a general surface of the cover. The door mirror with a built-in camera according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the recess is provided in a lower corner portion of the cover facing a front lower side of the cover near the outside of the vehicle.

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