JP2010006249A - Vehicle lamp burnout reporting system and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To surely detect and report a vehicle lamp burnout in an inexpensive constitution. <P>SOLUTION: A vehicle lamp burnout reporting system is provided with: a camera (1) for photographing a vehicle circumference; an acquiring means (2a) for acquiring image data around the vehicle, photographed with the camera; an analyzing means (2b) for analyzing the acquired image data; a registering means (2c) for registering analysis data while a vehicle lamp is normally lighted; a collating means (2d) for collating analysis data of a newly acquired image with the registered analysis data; and a controlling means (2e) for determining a lamp burnout when the analysis data of the newly acquired image is different from the registered data as a result of the collation, and making a report. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle lamp outage notification system and a program for detecting and informing a vehicle lamp outage such as a brake lamp.

  The vehicle is provided with various lamps such as a headlamp, a fog lamp, a direction indicator lamp, a brake lamp, a back lamp, and a vehicle width lamp. Among these lamps, the driver is relatively easy to recognize when the front lamp of the vehicle is turned off, such as a headlamp, and the blinking cycle of the lamp changes when the direction indicator lamp is turned off. Drivers can recognize early. On the other hand, it is difficult to notice when the rear lamp of the vehicle such as a brake lamp or a back lamp is cut off, and it is dangerous to run while the lamp is off, especially at night.

As a countermeasure, there has been proposed a method in which a change in current due to disconnection of a back lamp of a vehicle is detected by a current detection circuit and a back warning sound is changed from a discontinuous sound to a continuous sound (Patent Document 1). .
In addition, the current at the time of normal lighting is stored, and the current at the time of lamp disconnection is calculated and stored with respect to this current value, and if the detected current value is smaller than the stored current value at the time of lamp disconnection, the lamp There has also been proposed one that lights a disconnection alarm lamp as it has been cut (Patent Document 2).
JP-A-5-319171 JP-A-6-135285

  Since what is proposed in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 is to detect a disconnection of a lamp by a change in current, it is necessary to incorporate a current change detection circuit specially, which is expensive and changes in temperature. If the current value is large, the current change detection circuit may malfunction.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is intended to solve the above-described problems, and an object thereof is to reliably detect and notify a vehicle lamp burnout with an inexpensive configuration.
The present invention relates to a camera that captures the vehicle periphery, an acquisition unit that acquires image data around the vehicle captured by the camera under specific environmental conditions, an analysis unit that analyzes the acquired image data, and a vehicle lamp that is normally lit Registration means for registering the analysis data of the time, collation means for collating the analysis data of the newly acquired image with the registered analysis data, and the analysis data of the newly acquired image as a result of the collation are registered And control means for notifying that the vehicle lamp is out when it is different from the analyzed data.
The present invention also includes a step of acquiring image data around a vehicle photographed by a camera under a specific environmental condition, a step of analyzing the acquired image data, a step of registering analysis data when the vehicle lamp is normally lit, and a new acquisition The step of collating the analysis data of the captured image with the registered analysis data, and if the analysis data of the newly acquired image is different from the registered analysis data as a result of the collation, it is determined that the vehicle lamp has run out and is notified. The step is executed by a computer.

  The present invention can reliably detect and notify a vehicle lamp burnout with an inexpensive configuration.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a vehicle lamp burnout notification system according to the present embodiment. The notification that the vehicle lamp has run out in the present embodiment is performed by one of the functions of the in-vehicle navigation system, but the present invention is not necessarily limited to this and may be performed by a dedicated control system.

  The camera 1 is attached to a back door or the like of the vehicle, and uses a camera that is provided to photograph the rear of the vehicle when going backward for parking or the like. Of course, the front of the vehicle may be photographed by attaching a camera to an appropriate location in the front of the vehicle. The control device 2 composed of a computer for controlling the entire system includes an acquisition unit 2a for acquiring image data captured by the camera 1 at night in a specific environmental condition, for example, a parking lot at home, and an analysis unit for analyzing the acquired image data. 2b, a registration means 2c for registering analysis data obtained by analyzing image data acquired when the vehicle lamp is normally lit; analysis data of an image newly acquired under the same specific environmental condition and registered analysis data Collating means 2d for collating, and control means 2e for judging that the vehicle lamp has run out and notifying when the analysis data of the newly acquired image differ from the registered analysis data as a result of the collation. The storage device 3 stores specific environmental conditions for photographing with the camera 1, analysis data when the vehicle lamp is normally lit, map data and guidance data necessary for navigation processing, and the like. The notification device 4 notifies the user that the vehicle lamp has run out by display / voice and alerts the user, or outputs route guidance information.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a case where the rear of the vehicle is photographed.
In FIG. 2 (a), the camera 1 is attached to the back door, and in a specific environment, for example, at night, the brake lamps 10 and 11 are turned on by stepping on the brake while parked in the home garage 20. After confirming that the lamp is normally lit, the optical images 10a and 11a (FIG. 2B) of the lamp projected on the wall of the garage are taken. The captured image data is acquired by the acquisition unit 2a and analyzed by the analysis unit 2b. For example, the color arrangement and light intensity of the left and right light images are recognized, and the registration unit 2c analyzes when the vehicle lamp is normally lit. Data is stored in the storage device 3 and registered. The place where the lighting of the vehicle lamp is taken can be arbitrarily selected by the user, but a place where it is easy to grasp the color arrangement, light intensity, etc., such as the home parking lot as described above, is a fixed point. The accuracy of recognition can be increased by selecting as.

  Then, at the same fixed point, the camera captures the image at night and recognizes the image. Similarly, the image data is analyzed and collated with the registered analysis data. If there is a difference in the collated data, the lamp is turned off. To alert the user to the user's attention. In addition, although the example which has put in the garage in the back is shown above, it is the same also in the case of forward-facing parking, and it is possible to detect a lamp break at the front of the vehicle.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the processing flow of lamp break detection.
The user selects a fixed point such as a home parking lot, stops, acquires a camera image in a state where the brake lamp is stepped on at night (steps S1 and S2), and then analyzes the color arrangement etc. of the acquired image data And it registers as analysis data at the time of normal lighting (step S3). When the user stops at the same fixed point (step S4), it is first determined whether it is night (step S5). This determination is made by the system based on, for example, an ILL (illumination) signal that controls the brightness of the monitor screen when the light is turned on. As a result of the judgment, if the analysis data for normal lighting is obtained if it is not at night, the environmental conditions of photographing are different, and the process ends because an accurate detection process cannot be performed. If it is night, camera video data is acquired (step S6) and collated with the registration data during normal lighting (step S7). As a result of the collation, if the two match, there is no lamp burnout and the process ends. If they do not match, the lamp burnout is notified by display / voice (step S9) to alert the user.

It is a block diagram which shows the example of the vehicle lamp burn-out notification system of this embodiment. It is a figure explaining the case where a vehicle back is photoed. It is a figure explaining the processing flow of a lamp break detection.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Camera, 2 ... Control apparatus, 2a ... Acquisition means, 2b ... Analysis means, 2c ... Registration means, 2d ... Collation means, 2e ... Control means, 3 ... Memory | storage device, 4 ... Notification apparatus.

Claims (2)

A camera that captures the area around the vehicle,
Acquisition means for acquiring image data around the vehicle photographed by the camera under a specific environmental condition;
An analysis means for analyzing the acquired image data;
Registration means for registering analysis data when the vehicle lamp is normally lit;
The collation means for collating the newly acquired image analysis data with the registered analysis data, and when the result of the collation is that the newly acquired image analysis data is different from the registered analysis data, Control means for judging and informing;
A vehicle lamp burnout notification system. Obtaining image data around the vehicle photographed by the camera under specific environmental conditions;
Analyzing the acquired image data;
A step of registering analysis data when the vehicle lamp is normally lit,
Collating newly acquired image analysis data with registered analysis data,
As a result of the collation, when the analysis data of the newly acquired image is different from the registered analysis data, it is determined that the vehicle lamp has run out and is notified.
A program that causes a computer to execute.

Images