JP2008037118A - Display for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a display for a vehicle, in which a dead zone to a driver can be displayed without complicating image processing. <P>SOLUTION: The display for a vehicle is provided with a dead zone photography means 3 to photograph a dead zone to a driver produced by a car body member 15, and a display means 5 to display the dead zone photographed by the dead zone photography means 3 to the driver. The display means 5 is disposed on the car body member 15. A head part position detection means 4 is provided to detect the position of the head part of the driver. The dead zone photography means 3 and the head part position detection means 4 are disposed on the car body member 15 almost along an axial line connecting the car body member to the position of the head part of the driver as normally seated. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a display device for a vehicle that assists the field of view of a driver of the vehicle.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is known a vehicle display device that assists a driver's field of view by displaying an image around a vehicle captured by a photographing unit such as a camera at a position where the driver can visually recognize the image. In this vehicular display device, an image projected on a V-shaped mirror is photographed by a CCD camera disposed on the back of a rearview mirror or in the vicinity of a driver's seat sun visor, and an eye point detector or a seat position detection sensor is detected from the photographed images. The blind spot area is extracted based on the output of the image, and the extracted image is subjected to processing such as left-right symmetric conversion, and the image is displayed on a liquid crystal display installed along the front pillar (for example, see Patent Document 1). ).
JP 2004-64131 A

  By the way, the above-described display device for a vehicle captures an image through a V-shaped mirror, and it is necessary to correct and display a shift in the left, right, up, down, and front and rear directions with respect to the captured image. There was a problem that became complicated.

  Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a vehicle display device that can display a driver's blind spot area without complicated video processing.

In order to solve the above-described problems, the invention described in claim 1 is directed to a driver's blind spot area (for example, the right blind spot area a and the left blind spot in the embodiment) formed by a vehicle body member (for example, the front pillar 15 in the embodiment). A blind spot photographing means (for example, the external camera 3 in the embodiment) for photographing the area c), and a display means (for example, the liquid crystal display 5 in the embodiment) for displaying the blind spot area photographed by the blind spot photographing means to the driver. In the vehicular display device (e.g., the vehicular display device 1 in the embodiment), the display means is disposed on the vehicle body member, and the head position detection means (e.g., implementation) detects the driver's head position. Provided with an internal camera 4), and the blind spot photographing means and the head position detecting means are connected to the vehicle body member and the normal sitting state And wherein in a state substantially along the head position and the axis connecting the disposed in the vehicle body member.
With this configuration, when the blind spot area is displayed on the display unit, it is not necessary to correct the shift in the front-rear direction with respect to the captured image, and only the correction in the left-right and vertical directions is required.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a deviation detecting means for detecting how much the driver's head position detected by the head position detecting means is deviated from the axis (for example, a deviation in the embodiment). A detection means 6) is provided.
By comprising in this way, a driver | operator's blind spot area | region can be set in consideration of a driver | operator's head position.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided correction means (for example, the correction means 7 in the embodiment) for extracting the driver's blind spot area from the image photographed by the blind spot photographing means.
By comprising in this way, the image | video of the area | region which is a driver | operator's blind spot by a vehicle body member can be displayed so that the surrounding scenery which a driver | operator can visually recognize is supplemented.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the blind spot area is displayed on the display means, it is not necessary to correct the shift in the front-rear direction with respect to the captured image, and only the correction in the left-right and vertical directions is performed. Therefore, there is an effect that the processing of the video can be facilitated.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the driver's blind spot area can be set in consideration of the driver's head position, the driver can recognize an accurate blind spot area. .

  According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the image of the area that is the blind spot of the driver by the vehicle body member can be displayed so as to supplement the surrounding scenery that is visible to the driver, There is an effect that it can be recognized without a sense of incongruity as the surrounding scenery that is actually visually recognized.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
In addition, the definition which shows the attachment direction and position of each apparatus in this embodiment shall define a right direction and a left direction toward a vehicle advancing direction by making a vehicle advancing direction ahead.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a vehicle display device according to the present embodiment.
As shown in FIG. 1, the vehicle display device 1 includes an ECU (Electronic Control Unit) 2 having a CPU (Central Processing Unit) that controls the vehicle display device 1 and a CCD camera capable of photographing the periphery of the vehicle. The camera is composed of an external camera 3, an internal camera 4 comprising a CCD camera capable of photographing the periphery of the driver's head, and a liquid crystal display 5 capable of displaying an image photographed by the external camera 3.
The external camera 3, the internal camera 4 and the liquid crystal display 5 are connected to the ECU 2 through a communication cable such as an optical fiber cable.

Here, the ECU 2 includes a deviation detection unit 6 and a correction unit 7.
The deviation detection means 6 detects how much the driver's head position is deviated from the head position in the normal seating state based on the video taken by the internal camera 4. The normal seating state of the driver may be obtained from the position of the headrest of the driver's seat, and a representative head position among the images photographed by the internal camera 4 may be the normal seating state. As a method of detecting the driver's head position, the driver's eye position (eye point) is detected by analyzing the image of the driver's eyes and face obtained by the internal camera 4 through image processing. What you do is common.

The correction means 7 extracts the driver's blind spot area from the video imaged by the external camera 3 based on the detection result obtained from the deviation detection means 6. Furthermore, the shape of the extracted image of the blind spot area is changed according to the head position of the driver.
The video obtained by the correction means 7 is configured to be displayed on the liquid crystal display 5 arranged at a position corresponding to the video.

  Moreover, the liquid crystal display 5 is arrange | positioned between the area | region which becomes a blind spot from a driver | operator, and a driver | operator. Note that a plurality of liquid crystal displays 5 are prepared when there are a plurality of areas that are blind spots from the driver.

Next, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the mounting position of each device of the vehicle display device and the shooting direction of the camera. 3 is an enlarged view of the outer surface of the right front pillar, and FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of the inner surface of the right front pillar. Here, as an example, the vehicle display device 1 that displays the driver's blind spot area with respect to the driver's forward view will be described.
As shown in FIG. 2, a driver's seat 12 on which a driver is seated is formed in the right front of the vehicle 11. A front pillar 15 is positioned between a front window glass 13 disposed in front of the vehicle 11 and a door glass 14 disposed on a door of a driver seat 12 and a passenger seat (not shown).
The external camera 3 is installed at a position substantially along an axis connecting the front pillar 15 and the position of the head of a normally seated driver. Further, the internal camera 4 is arranged so as to open the photographing direction with the external camera 3 180 degrees, that is, back to back.

  The external camera 3 and the internal camera 4 are installed in a vehicle interior, and the external camera 3 is arranged so that the outside can be photographed from the side of the door glass 14 rather than the side of the front window glass 13 of the front pillar 15. This arrangement is preferable because it can prevent the flow of raindrops around the front window glass 13, the stagnation of snow removed by the wiper, and the shielding of the visual field due to the passage of the wiper blade.

  The external camera 3 and the internal camera 4 are installed on the left and right front pillars 15 respectively. The right external camera 3 is installed so as to be able to photograph the direction of the right imaging area b including the right blind spot area a by the right front pillar 15. The left external camera 3 is installed so as to be capable of photographing the direction of the left photographing area d including the left blind spot area c by the left front pillar 15.

The liquid crystal display 5 is installed on the side of the front pillar 15 facing the passenger compartment so as to cover the front pillar 15.
The ECU 2 is configured as a part of a control unit (not shown) installed inside the vehicle 11.

Next, the operation will be described.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a processing method of the vehicle display device.
As shown in FIG. 5, in Step 1 (S1), a relational expression between the driver's head position and the polygon coordinates and texture coordinates of the image displayed on the liquid crystal display 5 is set.
This relational expression is a mapping conversion using a determinant from the optical characteristics of the camera lens system, the driver's head position, the direction / position relation of the external camera 3 and the internal camera 4, and the direction / position relation of the liquid crystal display 5. As derived. In this embodiment, one method for setting a relational expression will be described.

  With the external camera 3, the internal camera 4, and the liquid crystal display 5 installed in the vehicle 11, the head position of the driver is photographed by the internal camera 4, and five images (in the center in the vertical direction) are captured. Left and right end parts, upper and lower end parts in the center in the left-right direction, and center part) or more measurement points are set.

  Next, a rectangular polygon with a grid-like test pattern pasted as a texture is prepared and displayed on the liquid crystal display 5 so that the test pattern image becomes an upright image without distortion from the viewpoint of the driver. Adjust the four vertices of to obtain their coordinates (for distortion correction).

In a state where the four vertex coordinate control of the quadrilateral polygon obtained above is valid (controlled in conjunction with the head position), the video of the external camera 3 is pasted on the texture to the quadrilateral polygon. Adjust the texture coordinates of the quadrilateral polygon so that the image when it is displayed on the liquid crystal display 5 matches the external part (scenery) that is a blind spot, and acquire those coordinates (direction and enlargement) Ratio control).
Then, using these coordinate data, an approximate expression that linearly complements between the head positions obtained from the measurement points is obtained and used as a coordinate control function. Here, the control accuracy improves as the amount of each data increases.

When the setting of S1 is completed, the process proceeds to step 2 (S2).
In S2, it is determined whether or not the external camera 3 has acquired the latest external video. Until the video is acquired, S2 is repeated. When the video is acquired, the process proceeds to step 3 (S3).
In S3, the driver's head periphery is photographed by the internal camera 4, the position information of the driver's eye point is acquired by the deviation detection means 6 in the ECU 2, and the process proceeds to Step 4 (S4). Here, if the driver's head position is constant, the blind spot area by the front pillar 15 is substantially constant regardless of the driver's line of sight. The position of the person's eyes).

In S4, the vertex coordinates of the quadrilateral polygon are acquired based on the position information of the driver's eye point obtained in S3, and the process proceeds to Step 5 (S5) (deviation detection means 6). This quadrilateral polygon is a target to which an external image is pasted as a moving image texture. The vertex coordinates are composed of three-dimensional data, and the texture coordinates are composed of two-dimensional data.
In S5, the texture coordinates of the quadrilateral polygon obtained in S4 are acquired, and the process proceeds to Step 6 (S6).
In S6, the image captured by the external camera 3 is rendered on the texture coordinates of the quadrilateral polygon obtained in S5 (correction means 7), and the process proceeds to Step 7 (S7).

In S7, the rendered video is displayed on the liquid crystal display 5.
Since the driver's blind spot area is continuously moved by driving the vehicle, the above-described S2 to S7 are repeated continuously, and the liquid crystal display 5 is controlled so that an accurate image of the blind spot area is always displayed. The If displayed on the liquid crystal display 5, it will progress to step 8 (S8).
In S8, it is determined whether or not the operation is continuing. When the operation is continuing, the process returns to S2, and when the operation is ended, the above-described processing is also ended.

Here, a monocular camera is adopted as the internal camera 4 and is controlled only by direction data from the monocular camera. The principle that can be configured with a monocular camera will be described.
The external camera 3 and the internal camera 4 are arranged in the vicinity of the liquid crystal display 5 installed on the front pillar 15, and these three are collectively regarded as the coordinate origin. At this time, the direction of the blind spot by the front pillar 15 and the direction of the driver's head move symmetrically with respect to this origin.
Then, the direction of the driver's head position can be calculated with the two-dimensional planar coordinates of the video imaged by the internal camera 4, and there is no need for three-dimensional processing. Therefore, the internal camera 4 can be configured with a monocular camera.

Next, a description will be given of a mapping conversion method for displaying an external image captured by the external camera 3 on the liquid crystal display 5 installed on the front pillar.
FIG. 6 is an image diagram of map conversion when displaying an external camera image on a liquid crystal display. FIG. 6A shows a case where the driver's head is located outside the center of the driver's seat, and FIG. When the head is at the center position of the driver's seat, (c) is when the driver's head is closer to the passenger seat than the center of the driver's seat, and the upper row shows the positional relationship between the outside world image and the front pillar, The lower part is an image diagram showing the information obtained by mapping the information in the upper part to a planar object.
Here, the driver and the liquid crystal display 5 installed on the front pillar 15 are hardly facing each other. Accordingly, when viewing the direction of the front pillar 15 from the driver's seat 12, not only the position but also the shape of the external image to be extracted to the liquid crystal display 5 is changed by the movement of the driver's head position.

  As shown in FIG. 6, when the driver's head is outside the center of the driver's seat 12, the driver's head is at the center of the driver's seat 12, and the driver's head is the driver's seat. In the case of being closer to the passenger seat than the center of 12, the blind spot area e changes not only in position but also in shape. On the liquid crystal display 5, a blind spot area e in the lower part of FIG.

  The shape change (mapping conversion) shown in FIG. 6 usually requires a coordinate conversion process of 1600 × 480 points = 768,000 times / frame even if it is limited to the lower quadrangular portion (dead angle area e). By setting a texture map for a plane object in advance and controlling only the coordinates of its four vertices as a function of the head position coordinates, most of the processing burden can be left to the video processor as a texture pasting process. . As a result, it is possible to realize real-time deformation in parallel with head position recognition (pattern matching) 15 times per second with a single in-vehicle computer.

Next, FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing the relationship between the field of view of the vehicle 11 seen from the eye point of the driver seated in the driver's seat 12 and the captured image taken by the external camera 3.
A right blind spot image f of the right blind spot area a by the right front pillar 15 is displayed on the liquid crystal display 5 installed on the inner surface of the right front pillar 15, and a left blind spot picture g of the left blind spot area c by the left front pillar 15 is displayed. It is displayed on the liquid crystal display 5 installed on the inner surface of the left front pillar 15. The images displayed on the respective images are the images taken by the external camera 3 after the shift detection means 6 and the correction means 7 are processed.

  According to the above-described embodiment, the external camera 3 is installed at a position substantially along the axis connecting the front pillar 15 and the head position of the normally seated driver, and the internal camera 4 is connected to the external camera 3 in the shooting direction. Were installed to open 180 degrees, that is, back to back. Further, the liquid crystal display 5 was installed on the side of the front pillar 15 facing the vehicle interior so as to cover the front pillar 15.

  With this configuration, the direction of the driver's head position can be calculated using the two-dimensional coordinates of the image captured by the internal camera 4 and the image captured by the external camera 3 can be calculated. On the other hand, the image can be displayed simply by correcting the horizontal and vertical shifts, and the processing can be facilitated.

  In addition, by extracting the video in a shape substantially along the shape of the front pillar 15 that causes the blind spot area, only the necessary video can be obtained, and the video corresponding to the blind spot area is almost the same as that seen with the naked eye. Can be displayed in size.

  Further, since the liquid crystal display 5 covers almost the entire front pillar 15 and the image is projected on almost the entire front pillar 15 and is seen through the front pillar 15, it is intuitively in the blind spot area. A pedestrian or the like can be recognized. In addition, it is not necessary to move the line of sight of the driver as compared with the case where it is mainly displayed on the car navigation display installed at the center of the front panel, so that it is possible to reliably recognize pedestrians etc. in the blind spot area. it can.

  Then, the image taken by the external camera 3 is processed by the deviation detecting means 6 and the correcting means 7 so that the driver can accurately display the blind spot area image on the liquid crystal display 5 without feeling uncomfortable.

In addition, this invention is not restricted to embodiment mentioned above, You may employ | adopt the following aspects.
In the above embodiment, the CCD camera is adopted as the external camera and the internal camera, but any camera may be used. In addition, although each camera is installed in the vehicle interior, it may be installed outside the vehicle interior as long as the camera is waterproofed. If a small internal camera is arranged in the liquid crystal display, an external camera and an internal camera can be arranged inside the front pillar.
In the above embodiment, the external camera is described as being photographed from the door glass side of the right front pillar, but may be arranged so as to be photographed from the front window glass side.
In the embodiment described above, the liquid crystal display is used as the display unit. However, the liquid crystal display may not be used as long as a necessary image can be displayed.
In the above embodiment, the driver's front view has been described. However, a similar vehicle display device may be installed in the rear pillar that blocks the driver's rear view, or may be installed in other parts. Absent.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the display apparatus for vehicles in embodiment of this invention. It is a schematic diagram which shows the attachment position of each apparatus of the display apparatus for vehicles in embodiment of this invention, and the imaging | photography direction of a camera. It is an outer surface enlarged view of the front pillar in the embodiment of the present invention. It is an inner surface enlarged view of the front pillar in the embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a process of the display apparatus for vehicles in embodiment of this invention. It is an image figure of map conversion at the time of displaying on a liquid crystal display from an external camera picture in an embodiment of the present invention, (a) is a case where a driver's head is outside the center of a driver's seat, and (b) is driving. When the driver's head is at the center of the driver's seat, (c) is when the driver's head is closer to the passenger seat than the center of the driver's seat, and the upper row shows the positional relationship between the external image and the front pillar. The lower part is an image diagram showing the information obtained by mapping the upper part information to a planar object. It is a schematic diagram which shows the example of a video display of the display apparatus for vehicles in embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Display apparatus for vehicles 3 ... External camera (dead angle imaging | photography means) 4 ... Internal camera (head position detection means) 5 ... Liquid crystal display (display means) 6 ... Deviation detection means 7 ... Correction means 15 ... Front pillar (vehicle body) A) Right blind spot area (dead spot area) c ... Left blind spot area (dead spot area)

Claims (3)

In a vehicle display device provided with a blind spot photographing means for photographing a blind spot area of a driver formed by a vehicle body member and a display means for displaying the blind spot area photographed by the blind spot photographing means to the driver.
The display means is disposed on the vehicle body member;
Providing a head position detecting means for detecting the driver's head position;
The blind spot photographing means and the head position detecting means are arranged on the vehicle body member in a state substantially along an axis line connecting the vehicle body member and the head position of the driver in a normally seated state. Vehicle display device.   The vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising a displacement detection unit configured to detect how much the driver's head position detected by the head position detection unit is deviated from the axis. Display device. 3. The vehicle display device according to claim 1, further comprising a correction unit that extracts a blind spot region of the driver from the image captured by the blind spot imaging unit.

Images