JP2008162310A - Vehicular imaging device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vehicular imaging device capable of adjusting height of a visual sensor installed on the vehicle from a ground surface to the approximately same level. <P>SOLUTION: A first imaging means 11L has: a first visual sensor 20L for outputting first imaging data; and a first drive mechanism 40L for moving the first visual sensor 20L in a height direction, and is arranged at a left side of the vehicle. A second imaging means 11R has: a second visual sensor 20R for outputting second imaging data; and a second drive mechanism 40R for moving the second visual sensor 20R in the height direction, and is arranged at a right side of the vehicle. A control means 50 adjusts the first visual sensor 20L and the second visual sensor 20R such that the height of the first visual sensor 20L and the height of the second visual sensor 20R become approximately same height by the first drive mechanism 40L and the second drive mechanism 40R based on the first imaging data and the second imaging data. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicular imaging apparatus that monitors the surroundings of a vehicle with a visual sensor.

Conventionally, various vehicle imaging devices for confirming the surrounding situation of a vehicle have been proposed, and for example, disclosed in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2. The imaging device for a vehicle disclosed in Patent Document 1 includes a visual sensor 2 disposed on a roof of the vehicle 1 and displays an image captured by the visual sensor 2 on a display provided in the vehicle 1. The vehicle 1 is monitored around the vehicle 1 (see FIG. 7).
Japanese Patent No. 3627914 JP 2006-35876 A

  However, when the visual sensor 2 is installed on the roof of the vehicle 1, a blind spot area A is generated in the vicinity of the vehicle. When trying to reduce the blind spot area A, it is necessary to attach the visual sensor 2 to a high position on the roof of the vehicle 1, but the installation of the visual sensor 2 at a high position of the vehicle 1 hinders traveling, Not desirable. Therefore, in order to image the vicinity of the vehicle 1, it is desirable to install the visual sensor 2 near the outer periphery of the vehicle 1, for example, on the bumper of the vehicle 1.

  A vehicle imaging device in which visual sensors 2L and 2R are attached to a bumper 3 of a vehicle 1 is proposed in Patent Document 2. Such an imaging apparatus for a vehicle has visual sensors 2L and 2R attached to the left end and right end of a bumper 3 of the vehicle 1, and a plurality of images captured by the respective visual sensors 2L and 2R are simultaneously received by the vehicle 1. It is displayed by the indicator inside.

However, when the heights H1 and H2 of the visual sensors 2L and 2R are different from each other, even if images of objects having substantially the same distance from the visual sensors 2L and 2R are captured and displayed on the display, The apparent size at will be different. For this reason, a vehicle driver who sees the video displayed by the display device has a problem that it is difficult to grasp the sense of distance to the object.
The present invention has been made in view of this problem, and provides a vehicular imaging apparatus that can adjust the height of a visual sensor installed in a vehicle from the ground to be substantially the same.

  As described in claim 1, the present invention includes a first visual sensor 20L that outputs first imaging data, and a first drive mechanism 40L that moves the first visual sensor 20L in the height direction. The first imaging means 11L disposed on the left side of the vehicle, the second visual sensor 20R that outputs the second imaging data, and the second visual sensor 20R are moved in the height direction. A second drive mechanism 40R that is disposed on the right side of the vehicle, and the first drive based on the first image data and the second image data. And a control means 50 for adjusting the height of the first visual sensor 20L and the height of the second visual sensor 20R to be substantially the same by the mechanism 40L and the second drive mechanism 40R. It is a thing.

  Further, according to the present invention, the first visual sensor 20L and the second visual sensor 20R have a light transmitting surface 26a on which the ambient light L in the predetermined visual field range S is incident. An optical member 26 made of a conductive material, a reflection member 25 that is provided integrally with the optical member 26 and reflects the ambient light L, and an image sensor 23 that images the ambient light L reflected by the reflection member 25. Are omnidirectional visual sensors.

  Further, according to the present invention, as described in claim 3, the first visual sensor 20L and the second visual sensor 20R are provided with a light emitting element 30 disposed outside the predetermined visual field range S. It is.

  In addition, the present invention includes a lid 32 made of a light-transmitting material and covering the light emitting element 30 as described in claim 4.

  Further, according to the present invention, as described in claim 5, the lid body 32 has a groove portion 32a for preventing the adhesive 33 for joining the lid body 32 to the optical member 26 from leaking. is there.

  Since the height of the first visual sensor and the height of the second visual sensor are substantially the same height, there is little discomfort when displaying multiple images taken by each visual sensor at the same time. It is easy to grasp the distance.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. The vehicle imaging device includes a first imaging unit 11L and a second imaging unit 11R. The first and second imaging means 11L and 11R have visual sensors 20L and 20R and drive mechanisms 40L and 40R, respectively.

The visual sensors 20L and 20R are omnidirectional visual sensors each including an optical member 21, a case body 22, an image sensor 23, a circuit board 24, and a reflective layer 25 (see FIGS. 3 and 4). .
The optical member 21 is made of a solid translucent resin (for example, polycarbonate) and has a light incident portion 26 and a light guide portion 27. The light incident portion 26 of the optical member 21 has an incident surface 26a on which the ambient light L is incident and a hyperboloid-shaped concave portion 26b. The reflective layer 25 made of aluminum (Al) is formed in the concave portion 26b. Is formed. The reflective layer 25 is formed by coating the recess 26b by a method such as vapor deposition.

  The light guide portion 27 of the optical member 21 guides the ambient light L reflected by the reflective layer 25 to the image sensor 23, and has a substantially cylindrical shape. The light guide unit 27 has a cylindrical outer peripheral surface 27 a and an output surface 27 b that faces the image sensor 23. The visual sensor device 20 has a visual field range S, and ambient light L in the visual field range S enters the light incident part 26 from the incident surface 26 a, is reflected by the reflective layer 25, and is reflected by the light guide part 27. Guided to the image sensor 23.

The case body 22 includes a bottom wall portion 22a and a cylindrical side wall portion 22b, and the optical member 21 is fixed to the side wall portion 22b. The image sensor 23 is mounted on the circuit board 24 and fixed to the bottom wall portion 22 b of the case body 22.
A circuit board 31 on which the light emitting diode 30 is mounted is disposed on the upper surface of the optical member 21, and the light emitting diode 30 and the circuit board 31 are joined to the optical member 21 with a transparent adhesive 33. Covered with The lid 32 is made of a translucent resin (for example, polycarbonate), and transmits light emitted from the light emitting diode 30. The lid 32 is formed with a groove 32a for preventing the transparent adhesive 33 from leaking to the outside.

  The drive mechanisms 40L and 40R have motors 41L and 41R, a support member 42, and a case 43, respectively (see FIG. 2). The visual sensors 20L and 20R are attached to the left end and the right end of the bumper 34 of the vehicle via drive mechanisms 40L and 40R, and include racks and pinions (not shown) provided in the motors 41L and 41R and the support member 42. ) And the height position can be changed. The light emitted from the light emitting diode 30 serves as an index indicating the position of the bumper 34 of the vehicle.

  FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an electrical configuration of the vehicle imaging device. The control unit 50 includes an image input circuit 51, a CPU 52, a RAM 53, and a ROM 54. The image input circuit 51 receives the omnidirectional image data output from the visual sensors 20L and 20R, performs predetermined image processing, and then outputs the display image data to the RAM 53. The display image data temporarily stored in the RAM 53 is displayed on the display device 60 via the CPU 52.

  Next, a processing procedure for causing the control means 50 to substantially match the heights of the two visual sensors 20L and 20R will be described in detail with reference to FIG. In the following description, the height of the visual sensor 20L is used as a reference, and the height of the visual sensor 20R is substantially matched with the visual sensor 20L.

First, the control means 50 acquires omnidirectional image data from the visual sensor 20L (step S1). Next, another visual sensor 20R shown in the acquired omnidirectional image data is extracted (step S2). The other visual sensor 20R extraction method is as follows.
In the omnidirectional image data, a region having high luminance and substantially matching the chromaticity of the light emitting diode 30 is extracted and binarized. Next, the center coordinates of the binarized area are obtained, and the center coordinates are regarded as the position of the visual sensor 20R on the omnidirectional image data.

  Next, the depression angle of the visual sensor 20R viewed from the visual sensor 20L is calculated by a predetermined arithmetic expression (step S3), and it is determined whether or not the height of the visual sensor 20L and the height of the visual sensor 20R are substantially the same. (Step S4). In step S4, it can be determined whether or not the height of the visual sensor 20L and the height of the visual sensor 20R are substantially the same, depending on whether or not the depression angle obtained in step S3 is “0”. If it is determined that the depression angle obtained in step S3 is approximately “0”, the process is terminated. If it is determined that the depression angle is not “0”, the depression sensor approaches the direction in which the depression angle approaches “0”. The motor 41R is driven so that the height of 20R changes (step S5), and then the process returns to step S1 to repeat the above processing.

  In the present embodiment, the heights of the two visual sensors 20L and 20R are substantially matched. However, the heights of three or more visual sensors may be substantially matched. In this case, not all other visual sensors appear in the image of the visual sensor that is the reference for height, so the heights of other visual sensors that can be captured by the reference visual sensor are approximately the same. After that, the other visual sensor having the same height is set as the second reference height, and the height of the third visual sensor having the mismatched height is matched with the second reference height in the above-described procedure. Thus, the heights of all the visual sensors are substantially the same.

  The present invention is not limited to this embodiment, and various modifications are possible. For example, the shape of the recess 26b of the visual sensors 20L and 20R is a hyperboloid, but the visual sensor The shape of the recesses 26b of 20L and 20R may be a rotationally symmetric body other than a hyperboloid.

The front view of the vehicle which shows embodiment of this invention. The general-view figure which shows embodiment same as the above. The enlarged view of the visual sensor which shows embodiment same as the above. The enlarged view of the visual sensor which shows embodiment same as the above. The block diagram which shows embodiment same as the above. The flowchart which shows embodiment same as the above. The side view of the vehicle which shows a prior art example. The front view of the vehicle which shows another prior art example.

Explanation of symbols

11L First imaging means 11R Second imaging means 20L Visual sensor (first visual sensor)
20R visual sensor (second visual sensor)
23 Image sensor 25 Reflective layer (reflective member)
26 Optical member 26a Incident surface 30 Light emitting diode (light emitting element)
32 Lid 32a Groove 40L Drive mechanism (first drive mechanism)
40R drive mechanism (second drive mechanism)
50 Control means S Predetermined field of view L Ambient light

Claims (5)

A first visual sensor that outputs first imaging data; and a first drive mechanism that moves the first visual sensor in a height direction, and is disposed on the left side of the vehicle. Imaging means;
A second visual sensor that outputs second imaging data; and a second drive mechanism that moves the second visual sensor in a height direction, and is disposed on the right side of the vehicle. Imaging means;
Based on the first imaging data and the second imaging data, the height of the first visual sensor and the height of the second visual sensor are determined by the first driving mechanism and the second driving mechanism. Control means for adjusting the height to be substantially the same,
An imaging apparatus for a vehicle, comprising:   The first visual sensor and the second visual sensor include an optical member made of a translucent material having an incident surface on which ambient light in a predetermined visual field range is incident, and the ambient light provided integrally with the optical member. 2. The vehicular image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the vehicular image pickup apparatus includes an omnidirectional visual sensor including a reflection member that reflects light and an image pickup device that picks up the ambient light reflected by the reflection member.   The imaging apparatus for a vehicle according to claim 2, wherein the first visual sensor and the second visual sensor are provided with light emitting elements arranged outside the predetermined visual field range.   The vehicle imaging device according to claim 3, further comprising a lid made of a translucent material and covering the light emitting element.   The vehicular imaging apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the lid has a groove portion that prevents leakage of an adhesive for joining the lid to the optical member.

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