JP2010134640A - Information acquisition apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information acquisition apparatus that can accurately and quickly present a driver with information about surrounding roads by reducing unnecessary information exchange. <P>SOLUTION: The information acquisition apparatus includes a transmission/reception part 11 for acquiring information about other vehicles present about an associated vehicle, a cabin imaging camera 18 and a sight line sensor 17 for detecting a driver's sight point position, and a switch 16 arranged in a cabin for the driver's operation input. When the input is made into the switch 16 while the driver's sight point position matches the position of another vehicle, the transmission/reception part 11 obtains video imaged by that vehicle and position information related to the video. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information acquisition device mounted on a vehicle such as an automobile.

Conventionally, an information acquisition device that acquires road-related information of a lane in which the host vehicle travels is known. This information acquisition device is configured to receive and acquire road-related information from roadside equipment by road-to-vehicle communication. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a lot of communication facilities on the road side, and in recent years, there has been proposed a method for acquiring road information in the traveling direction of the host vehicle from a vehicle passing on the road by inter-vehicle communication (for example, see Patent Document 1). ).
JP 2006-72472 A

However, in the above-described information acquisition device, when there are a large number of oncoming vehicles, more than necessary information is received by inter-vehicle communication by transmitting and receiving road information to all oncoming vehicles, and a huge storage capacity is required. There is a problem of becoming.
In addition, when road information is received indiscriminately, it takes time to process an enormous amount of information, and it may be impossible to display road information quickly. Furthermore, the driver may not be able to accurately grasp road information due to too much received information.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides an information acquisition device capable of reducing information transmission / reception unnecessary and presenting information on surrounding roads to a driver accurately and quickly.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, the invention described in claim 1 is an information acquisition apparatus including an acquisition unit (for example, the transmission / reception unit 11 in the embodiment) that acquires information related to other vehicles existing around the host vehicle. The line-of-sight detecting means for detecting the viewpoint position of the driver (for example, the in-vehicle video camera 18 and the line-of-sight sensor 17 in the embodiment) and the input means arranged in the vehicle compartment and capable of operation input by the driver. (E.g., the switch 16 in the embodiment), and the acquisition unit receives the input from the input unit when the position of the other vehicle and the viewpoint position of the driver coincide with each other. A video captured by another vehicle and position information related to the video are acquired.

  The invention described in claim 2 is provided with display means (for example, the navigation display 14 and HUD 15 in the embodiment) capable of displaying a road map in the invention described in claim 1, and the display means acquires the acquired information. When the position information is within a predetermined range from the host vehicle, the position corresponding to the position information is displayed superimposed on the road map.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when there is an input from the input means in a state where the viewpoint position detected by the line-of-sight detection means coincides with the position of the other vehicle, that is, the other vehicle being visually recognized by the driver. When the vehicle is selected via the input means, the host vehicle acquires only the position information related to the image captured by the other vehicle and the image such as the position where the image was captured, thereby reducing unnecessary image transmission / reception. Thus, there is an effect that it is possible to present the video captured by the other vehicle and the position information related to the video to the driver accurately and quickly.
In addition, by presenting the video to the driver as described above, it is possible to confirm the traffic situation in the traveling direction, the road surface condition, the weather, and the like.

  According to the invention described in claim 2, by displaying the position information related to the image acquired through the acquisition unit, that is, the shooting position superimposed on the road map displayed on the display unit, the driver can There is an effect that the position where the video is taken can be easily grasped while viewing the video.

Next, an information acquisition apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
As shown in FIG. 1, the information acquisition apparatus 10 according to the first embodiment is mounted on a vehicle such as an automobile, and includes a transmission / reception unit 11, a vehicle position detection unit 12, and a storage unit. 13, a navigation display 14, a HUD (head-up display) 15, a switch 16, a line-of-sight sensor 17, an in-vehicle image capturing camera 18, an out-of-vehicle image capturing camera 20, and a processing unit 21. Yes.

  The transmission / reception unit 11 transmits and receives information by inter-vehicle communication with other vehicles around the own vehicle, and transmits and receives data such as a captured image of the own vehicle or the other vehicle, and a position and time at which the image is captured. Do. Here, the vehicle's own vehicle is provided with a video camera 20 outside the vehicle, which will be described later. Also, other vehicles that transmit and receive video by inter-vehicle communication are provided with an outside-vehicle video camera 20 similar to that of the host vehicle.

  The own vehicle position detection unit 12 uses, for example, a GPS (Global Position System) signal for measuring the position of the vehicle using an artificial satellite, or D (for correcting the error of the GPS signal and improving the positioning accuracy. Differential) A positioning signal processing unit (not shown) for processing a positioning signal such as a GPS signal and a signal wave for vehicle position detection transmitted from an information transmitting device (not shown) outside the vehicle, such as VICS information, for example. And a position detection signal wave processing unit (not shown) and an autonomous navigation unit (not shown) including an appropriate gyro sensor and an accelerometer, for example.

Here, the positioning signal processing unit calculates the current position of the vehicle based on, for example, a GPS signal received from an artificial satellite or a DGPS signal received from an appropriate base station.
The position detection signal wave processing unit determines the current position of the vehicle based on road traffic information such as VICS information received by an optical signal and a radio signal from, for example, FM multiplex broadcasting or a beacon device arranged on the road. calculate.
Further, the autonomous navigation unit detects the angle change amount of the inclination angle with respect to the direction of the vehicle in the horizontal plane and the vertical direction by using, for example, a gyro sensor, and detects the acceleration of the vehicle by using, for example, an accelerometer to detect the current position of the vehicle. Is calculated.

  The storage unit 13 is composed of a computer-readable storage medium such as a magnetic disk device such as a hard disk device or an optical disk device such as a DVD, for example, map data used in a so-called car navigation device, more specifically, an elevated road or an overpass, It stores map data for displaying structures such as buildings and natural objects such as mountains, hills and trees on the navigation display 14 and the HUD 15 two-dimensionally and three-dimensionally.

  The navigation display 14 is a display such as a liquid crystal that displays a screen for so-called car navigation, and is arranged on the center console in the vehicle interior. The navigation display 14 superimposes and displays the current location, the destination, the guidance route, and the like of the host vehicle on a map around the current location, for example, according to the display control of the processing unit 21.

  The HUD 15 is provided in a position in front of the driver's seat at the top of the instrument panel of the vehicle at a position that does not obstruct the driver's front view, and has a concave mirror as its image display part, and reflects the image from inside the instrument panel.・ Project.

  The switch 16 is, for example, a push button type switch disposed on the steering wheel, and is an input means for inputting that there is an intention to acquire information from an oncoming vehicle (other vehicle) that is visually recognized by the driver. It is. When the switch 16 is pressed, the input information is output to the processing unit 21. A cancel button for canceling the input from the switch 16 may be provided.

The line-of-sight sensor 17 performs recognition processing such as feature amount calculation and shape determination using the driver's face and eyeball as a detection target, for example, on the image data input from the in-vehicle video camera 18, and the detected detection target The driver's line-of-sight vector is calculated based on the object, and further, the target position of the line-of-sight (hereinafter referred to as the viewpoint position) is obtained based on the line-of-sight vector. Then, the viewpoint position data is output to the processing unit 21. In the image data recognition processing, in the feature amount calculation processing, for example, detection based on pixel continuity is performed on the image data after binarization processing. The object is extracted and labeled, and the center of gravity and area of the extracted detection object and the aspect ratio of the circumscribed rectangle are calculated. In the shape determination process, for example, a search on image data is performed based on a predetermined pattern (for example, an outline) stored in advance, and a detection target is extracted according to the similarity to the predetermined pattern.

  The in-vehicle video camera 18 is provided on an instrument panel, an upper dashboard, or the like in the passenger compartment, and is configured by, for example, a CCD camera or a C-MOS camera that can capture images in the visible light region or the infrared region. The in-vehicle image capturing camera 18 captures infrared light reflected toward the driver's face and eyeball and visible light reflected from the driver's face and eyeball. The in-vehicle video camera 18 performs predetermined image processing such as filtering and binarization processing on the captured image, generates image data composed of pixels in a two-dimensional array, and uses this image data as the line-of-sight sensor 17. Output to.

  The outside-vehicle video camera 20 is a camera that captures a predetermined range in front and rear of the vehicle, and is attached to, for example, the vicinity of a rear-view mirror in front of the vehicle interior or the upper part of the rear glass, and performs predetermined image processing on the captured image. The image data composed of the pixels of the two-dimensional array is generated, and the generated image data is output to the processing unit 21.

  The processing unit 21 is a vehicle obtained from each or any of the positioning signal processing unit, the road traffic information processing unit, and the autonomous navigation unit in the vehicle position detection unit 12 with respect to the map data retrieved from the storage unit 13. Map matching is performed based on the current position information, and a 3D image (peripheral image) in the traveling direction viewed from the detected current position of the vehicle is read from the storage unit 13 and displayed on the HUD 15 as will be described later. Take control.

  Further, as a navigation function, the processing unit 21 stores a travel locus in the storage unit 13 based on the vehicle position information detected by the vehicle position detection unit 12 and reads map data and a travel locus from the storage unit 13. Then, the current position of the host vehicle on the map is specified by performing processing such as map matching. Then, the display control of the navigation display 14 is performed, and the current position of the host vehicle, the travel locus, and the like are displayed on the map.

  Further, the processing unit 21 specifies another vehicle by performing vehicle feature amount calculation, shape determination processing, and object identity determination on the image data captured by the outside-camera image capturing camera 20. Further, the relative position of the other vehicle included in the image is specified.

  Then, the processing unit 21 determines whether the relative position of the other vehicle matches the viewpoint position by the line-of-sight sensor 17 based on the input result of the switch 16, and when there is another vehicle whose relative position matches the viewpoint position. More specifically, the road information in the traveling direction of the own vehicle is transmitted to the other vehicle via the transmission / reception unit 11. More specifically, the video (for example, a moving image) and the shooting position of the other vehicle taken by the outside video shooting camera 20 are displayed. A request signal for transmission is output. When the video and the shooting position data from another vehicle are received, the processing unit 21 stores the video and the shooting position data in the storage unit 13.

  In addition, the processing unit 21 displays the video received from the transmission / reception unit 11 and stored in the storage unit 13 on the HUD 15. At this time, the shooting position where the video was shot is displayed in an appropriate format on a relative position display window 31 described later displayed on the HUD 15. When images in both directions of the vehicle front and the vehicle rear are taken in another vehicle, the front image and the rear image are alternately switched each time the switch 16 is pressed. Although the case where the shooting position where the video was shot is displayed on the HUD 15 has been described, it may be displayed on the navigation display 14.

The information acquisition apparatus 10 according to the first embodiment has the above-described configuration. Next, the operation of the information acquisition apparatus 10 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 2 and FIGS.
First, in step S01, the current position of the host vehicle is acquired from the host vehicle position detection unit 12.
Next, in step S <b> 02, vehicle periphery information such as travel information of other vehicles is acquired from the transmission / reception unit 11.

In step S03, the viewpoint position of the driver is detected by the line-of-sight sensor 17 based on the photographing result of the in-vehicle video photographing camera 18.
In step S04, it is determined whether or not the switch 16 has been pressed.
If the determination result in step S04 is “No” (not pressed), the execution of this routine is temporarily terminated because the driver does not intend to acquire a video.

On the other hand, if the determination result in step S04 is “Yes” (pressed), the process proceeds to step S05 to determine whether or not a vehicle (another vehicle) exists at the viewpoint position.
Here, FIG. 3 shows a view of the front of the vehicle from behind the driver, and the driver D presses the switch 16 while gazing at the other vehicle C that is an oncoming vehicle through the windshield. In FIG. 3, the symbol F indicates a preceding vehicle, and the line of sight of the driver D is indicated by a dashed arrow. In FIG. 3, for convenience of illustration, the preceding vehicle F and the other vehicle C are shown as two-dimensional images.

If the determination result in step S05 is “No” (no vehicle), the execution of this routine is temporarily terminated because there is no video transmission source.
If the determination result in step S05 is “Yes” (there is a vehicle), the process proceeds to step S06, a video and position information request is made to the vehicle existing at the viewpoint position, and the video captured by the vehicle present at the viewpoint position In addition, data on the position where the video was shot (video / position information) is acquired.

Here, FIG. 4 shows the shooting range A when the vehicle existing at the viewpoint position, that is, the other vehicle C, images the front in the traveling direction (hereinafter simply referred to as forward shooting) and the shooting distance of the image transmitted to the host vehicle J. L1 is an image of the past few minutes until immediately before the own vehicle J and the other vehicle C transmit and receive the image by inter-vehicle communication. FIG. 5 shows a shooting range B when shooting the rear of the other vehicle in the traveling direction (hereinafter simply referred to as “backward shooting”) and a shooting distance L2 of the video transmitted to the host vehicle J. is there. The shooting distance L1 and the shooting distance L2 described above correspond to the capacity of the video data, and are basically set at the same distance.
Note that if the video and position information from the vehicle at the viewpoint position are not received even after the predetermined time has elapsed, this vehicle may not have a function of capturing the video of the road. Is temporarily terminated.

In step S07, the acquired video and information on the position where the video was shot are displayed on the HUD 15.
FIG. 6 is a view seen from the same direction as in FIG. 3 described above, and shows a state in which an image taken forward from another vehicle C (hereinafter simply referred to as an image taken forward) is displayed on the HUD 15. Yes. On the screen of the video at the time of forward shooting displayed on the HUD 15, the time for displaying the time when the video was captured (showing an example in which the past time is minus-displayed with reference to the current time in FIG. 6) is displayed. A relative position display window 31 for displaying a map showing the position J1 of the host vehicle and the position Cn of the other vehicle when the image is taken at the lower part while the display unit 30 is arranged and the oncoming lane is not displayed. Is displayed. Similarly, FIG. 7 shows a state in which an image taken from the other vehicle C is displayed on the HUD 15 (hereinafter, simply referred to as an image at the time of rearward shooting). The relative position display window 31 is displayed at a position opposite to the left and right of FIG. The arrangement of the time display unit 30 and the relative position display window 31 is not limited to the position shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 as long as the position does not overlap the oncoming lane.

  Therefore, according to the above-described embodiment, when there is an input from the switch 16 in a state where the viewpoint position detected by the line-of-sight sensor 17 matches the position of the other vehicle, that is, the other vehicle being visually recognized by the driver. When the vehicle 16 is selected via the switch 16, the own vehicle only obtains the latest video taken during the shooting distances L1 and L2 by the other vehicle and the positional information related to the video such as the position and time when the video was taken. Therefore, it is possible to reduce unnecessary transmission / reception of an image and present the image captured by another vehicle and position information related to the image to the driver accurately and quickly.

  Further, the position where the video is captured is displayed by overlapping the position where the video acquired via the transmission / reception unit 11 is displayed on the map of the relative position display window 31 displayed on the HUD 15. It can be easily grasped.

  Next, an information acquisition device 50 according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The information acquisition device 50 according to the second embodiment has a function of determining a traffic jam based on a video taken by another vehicle acquired by the own vehicle in the first embodiment described above. Therefore, the same reference numerals are given to the same parts for explanation.

  As shown in FIG. 8, the information acquisition device 50 includes a transmission / reception unit 11, a vehicle position detection unit 12, a storage unit 13, a navigation display 14, a HUD (head-up display) 15, a switch 16, and a line of sight. The sensor 17, the in-vehicle image capturing camera 18, the out-vehicle image capturing camera 20, and the processing unit 121 are configured. In addition, the transmission / reception part 11, the own vehicle position detection part 12, the memory | storage part 13, the navigation display 14, the HUD (head-up display) 15, the switch 16, the gaze sensor 17, and the in-vehicle video camera 18, Since it is the same as that of 1st Embodiment mentioned above about the video camera 20 outside a vehicle, detailed description is abbreviate | omitted.

  The processing unit 121 is a vehicle obtained from each or any of the positioning signal processing unit, the road traffic information processing unit, and the autonomous navigation unit in the vehicle position detection unit 12 with respect to the map data retrieved from the storage unit 13. Map matching is performed based on the current position information, and a 3D image (peripheral image) in the traveling direction viewed from the detected current position of the vehicle is read from the storage unit 13 and displayed on the HUD 15 as will be described later. Take control.

  Further, as a navigation function, the processing unit 121 stores a travel locus in the storage unit 13 based on the vehicle position information detected by the vehicle position detection unit 12, and also stores map data and a travel locus from the storage unit 13. It reads out and performs processing such as map matching to identify the current position of the host vehicle on the map. Then, display control of the navigation display 14 is performed, and the current position of the host vehicle, the travel locus, and the like are superimposed on the map and displayed.

  Further, the processing unit 121 identifies another vehicle by performing vehicle feature amount calculation, shape determination processing, and object identity determination on the image data captured by the outside-camera image capturing camera 20. Further, the relative position of the other vehicle included in the image is specified.

  When there is an input to the switch 16, the processing unit 121 determines whether the relative position of the other vehicle matches the viewpoint position by the line-of-sight sensor 17. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 10, the relative position matches the viewpoint position. When the other vehicle C is present, road information in the traveling direction of the host vehicle is transmitted to the other vehicle C via the transmission / reception unit 11, more specifically, the past number captured by the outside-image video camera 20 of the other vehicle C. A request signal for transmitting the image of the minute, the shooting position, and the shooting time is output. When the image and the shooting position data from another vehicle are received, the processing unit 121 stores data such as the image, the shooting position, and the shooting time in the storage unit 13.

The processing unit 121 performs display control to superimpose and display traffic jam information obtained from VICS information or the like on the navigation display 14 (for example, indicated by a thin arrow in FIG. 13).
Further, the processing unit 121 includes a traffic jam estimation unit 22 that estimates traffic jam in the traveling direction of the host vehicle based on the video acquired from the other vehicle.
The traffic jam estimation unit 22 reads the video data g acquired through the transmission / reception unit 11 from the storage unit 13 (see FIG. 11), performs predetermined image processing, and performs a plurality of oncoming vehicles, that is, a plurality of vehicles that are in the lane in which the host vehicle is traveling. (The identified location is indicated by a rectangle in FIG. 12), the continuity of the vehicle is obtained by estimating the distance between these vehicles, and the traffic congestion state of the lane is estimated. When the traffic estimator 22 estimates that the lane is a traffic jam, the processor 121 identifies the traffic jam position from the shooting position of the video, and acquires traffic jam information (from other vehicles) (from other vehicles). (Information obtained from the oncoming vehicle) is additionally displayed on the map on the navigation display 14 (for example, indicated by a thick arrow in FIG. 13). The predetermined image processing is, for example, recognition processing such as vehicle feature amount calculation and shape determination.

  Next, the operation of the information acquisition apparatus 50 in the second embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 9 and FIGS. 10 to 13. The same processes as those described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, in step S01, the current position of the host vehicle is acquired from the host vehicle position detection unit 12.
Next, in step S02, vehicle periphery information such as travel information of other vehicles is acquired from the transmission / reception unit 11.

In step S03, the viewpoint position of the driver is detected by the line-of-sight sensor 17 based on the photographing result of the in-vehicle video photographing camera 18.
In step S04, it is determined whether or not the switch 16 has been pressed.
If the determination result in step S04 is “No” (not pressed), the execution of this routine is temporarily terminated because the driver does not intend to acquire a video.

On the other hand, if the determination result in step S04 is “Yes” (pressed), the process proceeds to step S05 to determine whether or not a vehicle (another vehicle) exists at the viewpoint position.
If the determination result in step S05 is “No” (no vehicle), the execution of this routine is temporarily terminated because there is no video transmission source.
If the determination result in step S05 is “Yes” (there is a vehicle), the process proceeds to step S06, a video and position information request is made to the vehicle existing at the viewpoint position, and the video captured by the vehicle present at the viewpoint position In addition, data on the position where the video was shot (video / position information) is acquired.

Next, in step S11, a traffic jam situation at a position where the video is captured is estimated by performing image processing of the video acquired from another vehicle (see FIGS. 11 and 12).
In step S12, traffic jam information is additionally displayed on the map of the navigation display 14 at the shooting position estimated to be jammed in the process of step S11, and displayed so that it can be distinguished from other vehicles. (See FIG. 13).

  Therefore, in particular, according to the second embodiment described above, even on a road that has not been updated or provided with VICS information or the like, if there is a road on which another vehicle traveling in the opposite lane of the host vehicle has already passed, there is a traffic jam. Since additional information can be acquired, the reliability of traffic jam information can be improved.

In the second embodiment described above, the case has been described in which the traffic congestion information of the lane in which the host vehicle is traveling is superimposed and displayed on the navigation display 14 based on the video acquired from the other vehicle. However, the present invention is limited to this configuration. Instead, for example, when a route to the destination is set for the host vehicle, the traffic on the entire route is acquired from another vehicle, the traffic jam is estimated, and the estimation result is displayed on the navigation display 14. You may make it do.
Moreover, although each embodiment mentioned above demonstrated the case where the image | video acquired from the other vehicle C was a moving image, the still image imaged at predetermined intervals may be sufficient.
Moreover, you may make it acquire the traffic congestion estimation data which the other vehicle produced by the image process, and in this case, the data amount transmitted / received can be reduced.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the information acquisition apparatus in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the information acquisition apparatus in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is the figure which looked at the front of the own vehicle from the driver | operator's back when the driver | operator pressed down a switch, visually recognizing other vehicles in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the imaging | photography range of the image | video at the time of the front imaging | photography acquired from the other vehicle in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure equivalent to FIG. 4 at the time of back imaging | photography. It is a figure which shows an example which displayed the image | video at the time of the front imaging | photography acquired from the other vehicle in the 1st Embodiment of this invention on HUD. It is a figure equivalent to FIG. 6 in the image | video at the time of back imaging | photography. It is a block diagram equivalent to FIG. 1 in the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart equivalent to FIG. 2 in the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure equivalent to FIG. 3 in the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the video data in the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example which specified the oncoming vehicle from the video data in the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of the navigation display in the 2nd Embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

11 Transmitter / receiver (acquisition means)
16 switches (input means)
17 Gaze sensor (gaze detection means)
18 In-car video camera (Gaze detection means)
14 Navi display (display means)
15 HUD (display means)

Claims (2)

An information acquisition device comprising an acquisition means for acquiring information related to other vehicles existing around the host vehicle,
Gaze detection means for detecting the driver's viewpoint position;
An input means arranged in the vehicle compartment and capable of operation input by the driver;
The acquisition means includes an image captured by the other vehicle and a position related to the image when there is an input from the input means in a state where the position of the other vehicle coincides with the viewpoint position of the driver. An information acquisition apparatus characterized by acquiring information. It has a display means that can display a road map,
2. The display unit according to claim 1, wherein when the acquired position information is within a predetermined range from the host vehicle, the position corresponding to the position information is displayed on the road map in an overlapping manner. Information acquisition device.

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