JP4946238B2 - Vehicle periphery photographing transmission device and vehicle periphery photographing transmission program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle periphery photographing transmission device and a vehicle periphery photographing transmission program.

  Conventionally, facility information (POI information) has been widely used in map display devices, navigation devices, and the like. In order for the facility information to follow the closing of a store or the opening of a new store, frequent updates are required. In order to frequently update facility information, it is necessary to continuously collect changes in facilities. In fact, investigators conduct daily surveys.

Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for detecting an error in facility information using the voice of a user of a vehicle. According to this technique, voice information of a user who points out an error in facility information is collected from the vehicle to the center, and the center updates the facility information based on the information.
JP 2004-239727 A

  However, with the technique described in Patent Document 1, it is necessary for the user to speak out the facility information error, which places a burden on the user.

  An object of this invention is to implement | achieve the update of facility information by a novel method in view of the said point.

In the first feature of the present invention for achieving the above object, a vehicle periphery photographing transmission device mounted on a vehicle includes a camera for photographing the periphery of the vehicle, and is further photographed in the past for a certain facility. Get past images. Then, the vehicle periphery photographing transmission device identifies the relative position of the facility in the past image with respect to the intersection in the past image, and based on the acquired position of the intersection in the past image and the identified relative position. the said facility image in the captured image (hereinafter, referred to corresponding position image) to identify the corresponding position image, but to determine the same in either with the facility of an image in the past image acquired, When the determination result is negative, the captured image is transmitted to the center.

As a result, a photographed image indicating that there is something different from the facility in the location of the facility in the stored image is transmitted to the center, so that the center or the device or person who acquired the information through the center The facility information can be updated based on the comparison result information . In addition, by using the relative position from the intersection in this way, it is possible to more accurately identify the target image to be compared with the facility in the past image.

  Moreover, the vehicle periphery imaging | photography transmission apparatus may identify the present position of the said vehicle. In that case, the vehicle periphery photographing transmission device acquires the photographing viewpoint position when the past image is photographed, determines whether or not the acquired photographing viewpoint position and the specified current position are the same, and the determination result Based on being positive, the surroundings of the vehicle may be photographed with a camera. In this way, by performing shooting when the vehicle approaches the shooting position of the acquired past image, it is possible to reduce unnecessary shooting and information transmission. Here, “the photographing viewpoint position and the current position are the same” means that even if the two positions are exactly the same, within a range of an allowable error (for example, 10 meters, a travel distance of 0.1 seconds, etc.). Including the same case.

  Further, the vehicle periphery photographing transmission device may further specify the traveling direction of the vehicle. In this case, the vehicle periphery photographing transmission device further acquires a photographing direction when the past image is photographed, and “the acquired photographing viewpoint position is the same as the specified current position, and the acquired photographing direction and It may be determined whether or not the specified traveling direction is the same. As described above, by performing shooting when the vehicle traveling in the shooting direction approaches the shooting position of the acquired past image, it is possible to reduce unnecessary shooting and transmission of information. Shooting with a camera is always performed and may be held in a storage medium for a certain period of time together with additional information such as shooting time and shooting position. With such a configuration, it is possible to acquire a necessary image from a storage medium without having to shoot instantly.

Further, the vehicle periphery photographing transmission device may further specify a travel lane of the vehicle. In this case, the vehicle periphery photographing transmission device further acquires the lane of the photographing viewpoint position when the past image is photographed, and “the acquired photographing viewpoint position is the same as the specified current position, and the photographing viewpoint It may be determined whether or not the lane at the position is the same as the lane in the specified traveling direction. In this way, at the shooting position of the acquired past image, shooting is performed when the vehicle traveling on the lane where the shooting position is located, thereby reducing unnecessary shooting and transmission of information. It is Ru can.

Further, the vehicle periphery photographing transmission device compares the image of the signboard of the facility with the image corresponding to the position of the signboard in the corresponding position image among the images of the facility in the past image , and the comparison result Accordingly, it may be determined whether the corresponding position image is the same as the image of the facility in the past image. In view of the fact that only the signboard may change without changing the outline and design of the building, and that the signboard represents the feature of the facility, it is more It is possible to detect changes in facilities with high accuracy.

A first feature of the present invention is a vehicle periphery photographing transmission program for a vehicle periphery photographing transmission device mounted on a vehicle, the past image obtaining means for obtaining a past image photographed in the past for a facility, wherein the facility in the past in the image, the relative position with respect to the intersection of the past in the image, identified, located and identified the relative position of the intersection in the photographed image obtained by the camera for photographing the periphery of this the vehicle photographed Based on the above, the image of the position corresponding to the facility in the captured image (hereinafter referred to as the corresponding position image) is specified, and the corresponding position image is the image of the facility in the past image acquired by the acquisition unit. comparing means for determining whether or not the same as, and when the determination result of the comparison means is negative, the transmitting means for transmitting the captured image to the center, the machine computer Vehicle around shooting the transmission program to be. Can also be understood.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described. 1 and 2 schematically show an outline of the operation of the present embodiment. The vehicle 2 traveling on the road 1 acquires the captured image 3 by capturing the front at a specific point on the road 1. Then, the stored image 4 recorded in advance in the device of the vehicle 2 and photographed in the past at the photographing point is compared with the photographed image 3.

  In order to realize such an operation of the vehicle 2, a vehicle navigation device 5 is mounted on the vehicle 2. The vehicle 2 can communicate with the center 8 connected to the communication network 7 via the communication network 7 connected to the base station 6 by wirelessly connecting to the base station 6 for wireless communication by the operation described below. it can. Then, as a result of the comparison, the vehicle 2 transmits the captured image 3 to the center 8 if the image of the facility in the stored image 4 is different from the image at the position corresponding to the facility in the captured image 3. . The center 8 receives the transmitted captured image 3 and updates the information of the facility based on the captured image 3 automatically or based on a user operation.

  FIG. 3 shows a hardware configuration of the vehicle navigation device 5. This vehicle navigation device 5 includes a camera 10, a position detector 11, an image display device 12, an operation switch group 13, a speaker 14, a wireless communication unit 15, a RAM 16, a ROM 17, a map data acquisition unit 18, and a control circuit 19. is doing.

  The camera 10 is attached to the vehicle 2, captures a specific direction (for example, forward) with respect to the traveling direction of the vehicle 2 based on control from the control circuit 19, and outputs a captured image that is a result of the capturing to the control circuit 19. To do.

  The position detector 11 includes a well-known sensor (not shown) such as a geomagnetic sensor, a gyroscope, a vehicle speed sensor, and a GPS receiver. The current position and direction of the vehicle based on the characteristics of each of these sensors. Is output to the control circuit 19. The image display device 12 displays a video based on the video signal output from the control circuit 19.

  The operation switch group 13 includes a plurality of mechanical switches provided in the vehicle navigation device 5 and an input device such as a touch panel provided so as to overlap the display surface of the image display device 12. A signal based on the touch is output to the control circuit 19.

  The wireless communication unit 15 performs predetermined wireless reception processing such as amplification, frequency conversion, demodulation, and A / D conversion on a signal received by an antenna (not shown), and outputs the result to the control circuit 19. In addition, the wireless communication unit 15 performs predetermined wireless transmission processing such as D / A conversion, modulation, frequency conversion, amplification, and the like on the data input from the control circuit 19 and outputs the resultant signal to the antenna. . By such an operation, the wireless communication unit 15 can wirelessly connect to the base station 6 and communicate with the center 8 via the wireless connection based on the control of the control circuit 19.

  The map data acquisition unit 18 includes a nonvolatile storage medium such as an HDD and a device that reads and writes data from and to the storage medium. The map data acquisition unit 18 can acquire the program executed by the control circuit 19, map data for route guidance, and the like in these storage media.

  The map data has road data and facility data. The road data includes link position information, type information, node position information, type information, information on connection relations between nodes and links, and the like. The facility data has a plurality of records for each facility, and each record has data indicating name information, location information, land lot number information, telephone number information, facility type information, etc. of the target facility. Yes. Some of these records have past shooting information of the target facility. Each past shooting information includes stored image data (corresponding to the past image in the claims) data, shooting viewpoint position data, shooting direction data, signboard position data, and the like.

  The stored image data includes only the road and the target facility (and the signboard of the facility) in an image of a specific direction (for example, forward) around the vehicle or the like traveling on the road. This is an extracted image while keeping. This stored image is taken by a manufacturer or the like before creating map data. FIG. 4 shows an example 40 of the image indicated by the stored image data. The stored image 40 includes images of roads 41 to 44, an intersection 45 to which these roads are connected, a facility building 46 in front of the intersection 45, and a facility signboard 47. One stored image data may include images of a plurality of facility buildings. In this case, past photographing information including the stored image data is shared by records of a plurality of facilities.

  The shooting viewpoint position data is data indicating the position of the vehicle (for example, a position on a specific link 100 meters from the start point node of the link) when the stored image is shot. The shooting direction data is data indicating the traveling direction of the vehicle (for example, the direction from the link start point node to the end point node) when the stored image is shot. The signboard position data is data indicating the relative position (for example, the upper right end and the lower right end) of the signboard image with respect to the facility building image in the stored image. The photographing viewpoint position data, the photographing direction data, and the signboard position data are created when the corresponding stored image data is included in the map data.

  The control circuit (corresponding to a computer) 18 executes a program for the operation of the vehicle navigation device 5 read from the ROM 17 or the map data acquisition unit 18, and at the time of executing the RAM 16, the ROM 17, and the map data acquisition Information is read from the unit 18, information is written to the RAM 16 and the map data acquisition unit 18, and signals are exchanged with the position detector 11, the image display device 12, the operation switch group 13, and the speaker 14.

  Specific processing performed by the control circuit 19 executing the program includes current position specifying processing, guidance route calculation processing, map display control processing, route guidance processing, facility data update processing, facility photographing / transmission processing, and the like. .

  The current position specifying process is a process for specifying the current position and direction of the vehicle based on a signal from the position detector 11 using a known technique such as map matching.

  The map display control process acquires part of the map data via the map data acquisition unit 18 according to the current position specified by the current position specifying process, the operation by the operation switch group 13, and a request from other processes. Then, a map is generated for the acquired part based on the road data and facility data therein, and the generated map data is drawn on the image display device.

  The guide route calculation process calculates an optimum guide route from the current position to the destination based on the current position specified by the current position specifying process and the destination specified by the user using the operation switch group 13. It is processing.

  The route guidance process is a process for assisting the driver in order to drive the host vehicle along the guidance route. Specifically, in the route guidance process, the control circuit 19 instructs the driver in the direction of travel or the like by voice or image when the vehicle 2 approaches the guidance intersection. The instruction using the voice is performed using the speaker 14, and the instruction using the image is realized by requesting the map display control process to display an enlarged view of the intersection.

  Hereinafter, the operation of the vehicle navigation device 5 for facility data update processing and facility photographing / transmission processing will be described. FIG. 5 shows an example of the transmission timing of signals exchanged between the vehicle navigation device 5 and the center 8 in the facility data update process and the facility photographing / transmission process. The vehicle navigation apparatus 5 transmits a signal 510 including an image captured by the camera 10 to the center 8 as necessary by performing facility imaging / transmission processing. For this facility photographing / transmission process, the control circuit 19 repeatedly executes the program 100 shown in FIG.

  In the execution, first, in step 105, the control circuit 19 uses the map data acquisition unit 18 to read past photographing information, more specifically, a plurality of photographing viewpoint position data and photographing direction data in the past photographing information. Subsequently, in step 110, the current position specifying process is executed to calculate the position of the host vehicle 2.

  Subsequently, at step 120, based on the execution results of steps 105 and 110, it is determined whether or not the vehicle 2 is in the same running state as when the stored image was taken by another vehicle or the like. Here, “same” means “same within a predetermined allowable error range”. Specifically, in this determination, the current position of the vehicle 2 is the same as any one of the plurality of shooting start point position data (for example, within an allowable error range of 10 meters), and the traveling direction of the vehicle 2 Is the same as the shooting direction data corresponding to the one shooting start position data, a positive result is obtained, and a negative result is obtained otherwise. If the determination result is affirmative, step 130 is subsequently executed. If the determination result is negative, execution of the program 100 once is terminated.

  In step 130, the periphery of the vehicle 2 is imaged using the camera 10, and the resulting captured image is acquired. FIG. 7 shows an example 70 of the acquired captured image. The captured image 70 includes images of an intersection 71, a facility building 72, a facility signboard 73, and other buildings.

Subsequently, in step 140, a stored image corresponding to the target traveling state determined to be the same traveling state in step 120 is read. Subsequently, in step 150, it is determined whether or not the captured image acquired in step 130 and the stored image acquired in step 140 are the same. More specifically, an image of a facility to be compared in the stored image (hereinafter referred to as image A) and an image of a position corresponding to the facility in the captured image (as an example of the corresponding position image in the claims) (Hereinafter referred to as image B) is determined. Here, “same” means “same within a predetermined allowable error range”. If the determination result is negative, step 160 is subsequently executed. If the determination result is affirmative, one execution of the program 100 ends.

  In step 160, the captured image acquired in step 130 is transmitted to the center 8 using the wireless communication unit 15. After step 160, one execution of the program 100 ends.

  For the determination in step 150, the control circuit 19 executes the program 200 shown in FIG. This program 200 is a part of the program 100. In the execution of the program 200, the control circuit 19 first detects the white line of the road using the image recognition technique for each of the stored image and the captured image acquired as described above in step 210, and the detected white line. The position at which the two intersect is specified as the position of the intersection.

  Subsequently, at step 220, the positions of the images A and B to be compared are specified in each image. Specifically, in the stored image, the facility in the stored image is based on the relationship between the position information in the record of the facility corresponding to the stored image and the position information of the intersection (ie, node) in the road data. Relative position with respect to the intersection (that is, relative position with respect to the intersection of image A). This relative position is, for example, a position immediately below and right from the intersection, or a position away from the intersection by ¼ of the image length to the upper left. Alternatively, the position of the structure other than the road is extracted from the stored image by the image recognition technique, the image at the position is set as the image A, and the above-described relative position is specified based on the position of the image A. Also good. Furthermore, based on the specified relative positional relationship and the position of the intersection in the captured image, the image B at the position corresponding to the facility in the captured image is specified.

  Subsequently, in step 230, the building part of the specified image A and the building part of the image B are compared, and it is determined whether or not their contours and designs (for example, color, pattern, texture) match. Here, the building portions of the images A and B are portions excluding the signboard portions of the images A and B. The position of the signboard portion in the image A is specified based on the signboard position data for the facility in the facility data. Also, the position of the signboard portion in the image B is specified as being the same as the position of the signboard portion in the image A. If the determination result of step 230 is affirmative, step 240 is subsequently executed, and if it is negative, step 260 is subsequently executed.

  In step 240, the sign part of the specified image A and the sign part of the image B are compared, and it is determined whether or not their contours and designs match. If the determination result of step 240 is affirmative, step 250 is subsequently executed, and if it is negative, step 260 is subsequently executed.

  In step 250, as the determination result in step 120, it is determined that the two images A and B are the same image. In step 260, as the determination result in step 120, it is determined that the two images A and B are different images. After steps 250 and 260, execution of program 200 ends.

By causing the control circuit 19 to execute such a program 100, the vehicle navigation device 5 is based on the information on the position where the stored image was taken (see step 105) and the current vehicle position (see step 110). When it is determined that the vehicle 2 is in the same driving state (specifically, the driving position and the driving direction) when the stored image is taken by another vehicle or the like (see step 120), the stored image acquired from the map data (step 140) and whether the image at the position corresponding to the facility in the currently captured image (see step 130) is the same (see step 150), and the determination result is negative. but when those, sends this captured image to the center 8 (see step 160), when the determination result is affirmative, shooting time Refrains from transmitting an image to the center 8.

  As a result, a photographed image indicating that there is something different from the facility in the location of the facility in the stored image is transmitted from the vehicle navigation device 5 to the center 8, so that information is transmitted via the center 8 or the center 8. The device or person who has acquired the information can update the facility information based on the information of the comparison result.

  Further, as a result of the comparison between the two images, the operation of the vehicle navigation device 5 that transmits the captured image when they are different, and the transmission of the captured image is suppressed when the two images are the same as a result of the comparison. By the operation of the vehicle navigation device 5, the center 8 side can determine that there is a high possibility that the comparison result is different when the image is received. That is, these vehicle navigation devices 5 transmit information on the comparison result between the stored image and the captured image through such an overall operation.

  Further, the vehicle navigation device 5 acquires the shooting viewpoint position when the stored image is shot, determines whether or not the acquired shooting viewpoint position is the same as the specified current position, and the determination result is Based on being positive, the periphery of the vehicle 2 is photographed with a camera. As described above, by performing shooting only when the vehicle 2 approaches the shooting position of the acquired past image, wasteful shooting and information transmission can be reduced.

  Further, the vehicle navigation device 5 acquires the shooting direction when the stored image is shot, and identifies “the acquired shooting viewpoint position is the same as the specified current position and the acquired shooting direction is specified. It is determined whether or not the traveling direction is the same. As described above, by performing shooting when the vehicle traveling in the shooting direction at the past shooting position of the stored image approaches, it is possible to further reduce unnecessary shooting and transmission of information.

  Further, in the comparison between the image A of the facility in the stored image and the image B at the position corresponding to the facility in the captured image taken this time (see step 150 and the program 200 in FIG. 8), the vehicle navigation device 5 The intersection in each image is identified from the stored image and the white line of the road in the captured image (see step 210), and corresponds to the facility in the captured image based on the relative position to the intersection of the facility in the stored image. The position is specified (see step 220). The contour and color of the image of the building of the facility in the image A match the contour and design of the image at the position corresponding to the building in the image B (see step 230), and in the image A When the outline and color of the image of the signboard of the facility coincide with the outline and design of the image at the position corresponding to the signboard in the image B (see step 240), the image A and the image B are the same. It is determined that it exists (see step 250). When even one of these does not match, it is determined that the image A and the image B are not the same (see step 260).

  As described above, the vehicle navigation device 5 identifies the positional relationship between the facility in the stored image and the intersection in the stored image, and the above-described correspondence is based on the position of the intersection in the captured image and the identified positional relationship. Image B is specified. In this manner, by using the relative position from the intersection, the image B to be compared with the facility in the stored image can be identified with higher accuracy.

  In addition, the vehicle navigation device 5 compares the image of the signboard of the facility with the image corresponding to the position of the signboard in the image B among the images of the facility in the past image, so that the image B And image A may be compared. Considering that only the signboard may change without changing the outline and design of the building, and that the signboard represents the feature of the facility, it is more It is possible to detect changes in facilities with high accuracy.

  The center 8 that receives the signal 510 of FIG. 5 transmitted in this way is a well-known computer (personal computer, workstation, etc.) having a communication function, and is a vehicle navigation device via the communication network 7 and the base station 6. 5 can be communicated with. The center 8 has a rewritable nonvolatile storage medium (for example, a hard disk) that stores the map data as described above.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the operation procedure of the center 8. Every time the center 8 receives the signal 510 transmitted from the vehicle navigation device 5, the center 8 determines that an image has been received in step 310, and subsequently, in step 320, updates the facility data based on the received image. .

  In updating the facility data, the center 8 presents the received captured image to the operator by displaying it on the image display device. The operator looks at the captured image, determines how to update the facility data, and inputs the updated content according to the determination to the center 8. The center 8 updates the facility data in the map data based on this input. Alternatively, the storage medium of the center 8 may store in advance an image of a signboard for each of a plurality of types of facilities (a specific type of convenience store, a specific type of family restaurant, etc.). At this time, the center 8 searches for the signboard image in the storage medium from the received photographed image by a well-known pattern matching technique, the type of the signboard found, the position of the found signboard in the photographed image, and the photographed image. The facility data may be automatically updated based on information such as the shooting position and the shooting direction.

  In addition, the control circuit 19 of the vehicle navigation device 5 executes the facility data update process based on an execution instruction or the like using the operation switch group 13 of the user, and the wireless communication unit 15 is turned on during the facility data update process. The facility data update request signal 520 is transmitted to the center 8.

  Each time the center 8 receives the facility data update request signal 520, the center 8 determines in step 330 that it has received the facility data update request, and subsequently includes the updated facility data in the storage medium in step 340. The signal 530 is transmitted to the vehicle navigation device 5.

  The control circuit 19 of the vehicle navigation apparatus 5 that has received the signal 530 via the wireless communication unit 15 performs the map display process on the content of the updated facility data in the signal 530 by the facility data update process described above. It is reflected in the updated facility data in the map data used in

  As described above, the center 8 updates the facility data based on the received photographed image data (that is, the comparison result), and transmits the updated facility data when receiving the facility data transmission request. In addition, the vehicle navigation device 5 receives the facility data updated in the center 8 based on the captured image transmitted from the vehicle 2 or another vehicle, and the facility data used by itself based on the received data. Can be updated.

In the above embodiment, the vehicle navigation device 5 corresponds to an example of a vehicle periphery photographing transmission device, and the program 100 and the program 200 correspond to an example of a vehicle periphery photographing transmission program. Further, the control circuit 19 functions as an example of a past image acquisition unit by executing step 140 of the program 100, functions as an example of a comparison unit by executing step 150, and transmits by executing step 160. , Function as an example of specifying means by executing step 110, function as an example of past photographing information acquisition means by executing step 105, and example of determining means by executing step 120 Function as.
(Other embodiments)
As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described, the scope of the present invention is not limited only to the said embodiment, The various form which can implement | achieve the function of each invention specific matter of this invention is included. It is.

  For example, the control circuit 19 may specify the travel lane of the vehicle in step 110 of the program 100. For this reason, the GPS receiver of the position detector 11 can specify the current position with an accuracy of 1 meter or less (for example, using the D-GPS method or the interference positioning GPS method). Furthermore, the road data of the map data only needs to include information on the number of lanes of each link and information on the position of each lane. Furthermore, the past shooting information of the map data may include information for specifying the lane at the shooting position when the stored image is shot. At this time, the control circuit 19 determines in step 120 of the program 100 that “the acquired shooting viewpoint position is the same as the specified current position, and the lane at the shooting viewpoint position is the same as the lane in the specified traveling direction. It may be determined whether or not there is. In step 120, “the acquired shooting viewpoint position and the specified current position are the same, the lane of the shooting viewpoint position is the same as the lane of the specified traveling direction, and the acquired shooting direction and It may be determined whether or not the specified traveling direction is the same. In this way, shooting is performed when the vehicle traveling on the lane with the shooting position approaches the shooting position of the acquired stored image, thereby reducing unnecessary shooting and transmission of information. Can do.

  Further, the control circuit 19 executes only one of the determinations of steps 230 and 240 of the program 200, and when the determination result is affirmative or negative, it executes steps 250 and 260, respectively. It may be.

  In the above embodiment, each function realized by the control circuit 18 executing the program is realized using hardware having those functions (for example, an FPGA capable of programming the circuit configuration). You may come to do.

  Further, the vehicle periphery photographing transmission device according to the present invention is not limited to the vehicle navigation device 5, and is mounted on the vehicle, acquires a past image taken in the past for the facility, and in the photographed image as a result of photographing with the camera. Any image can be used as long as the image of the location corresponding to the facility is compared with the image of the facility in the acquired past image and the comparison result information is transmitted to the center. Good.

It is a schematic diagram which shows the outline | summary of the action | operation of embodiment of this invention. It is a schematic diagram which shows the outline | summary of the communication of this embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware constitutions of the navigation apparatus 5 for vehicles. It is a figure which shows an example of the stored image 40 which the navigation apparatus for vehicles 5 acquires from a storage medium. FIG. 6 is a sequence diagram showing transmission timings of signals exchanged between the vehicle navigation device 5 and the center 8. It is a flowchart of the program 100 which the control circuit 19 of the vehicle navigation apparatus 5 performs. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a captured image 70. FIG. It is a flowchart of the program 200 which the control circuit 19 performs. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the center 8.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Road, 2 ... Vehicle, 3 ... Photographed image, 4 ... Stored image, 5 ... Vehicle navigation apparatus,
6 ... base station, 7 ... communication network, 8 ... center, 10 ... camera, 11 ... position detector,
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 12 ... Image display apparatus, 13 ... Operation switch group, 14 ... Speaker, 15 ... Wireless communication part,
16 ... RAM, 17 ... ROM, 18 ... Map data acquisition unit, 19 ... Control circuit,
40 ... Stored image, 41-44 ... Road, 45, 71 ... Intersection, 46, 72 ... Facility building,
47, 73 ... Facility signboard, 70 ... Photographed image, 100, 200 ... Program,
510-530 ... signal.

Claims (6)

A vehicle periphery photographing transmission device mounted on a vehicle,
A camera for photographing the front of the vehicle ;
A specifying means for specifying a current position and a traveling direction of the vehicle;
Past image acquisition means for acquiring past images taken in the past for the facility ;
Past photographing information obtaining means for obtaining a photographing viewpoint position and a photographing direction when the past image obtained by the obtaining means is photographed;
The shooting viewpoint position acquired by the past shooting information acquisition unit is the same as the current position specified by the specifying unit, and the shooting direction acquired by the past shooting information acquisition unit and the specifying unit specified Determining means for determining whether or not the traveling direction is the same;
The shooting viewpoint position acquired by the past shooting information acquisition unit is the same as the current position specified by the specifying unit, and the shooting direction acquired by the past shooting information acquisition unit and the specifying unit specified Means for causing the camera to photograph the periphery of the vehicle when the determination means determines that the traveling direction is the same;
Reading the position information of the intersection of the past in the image positional information and the facility from the map data, based on the read the intersection and the position information of the facility, prior Symbol the facility in the past in the image, of the past in the image identifying a relative position with respect to the intersection, also based on the position and identified the relative position of the intersection in the photographed image obtained when the camera is taken, the position of the image corresponding to the facility in the captured image (hereinafter Comparing means for determining whether the corresponding position image is the same as the image of the facility in the past image acquired by the acquiring means;
A vehicle periphery photographing transmission device comprising: a transmission means for transmitting the photographed image to the center when the determination result of the comparison means is negative. The vehicle periphery photographing transmission device according to claim 1, wherein the comparison unit specifies an intersection position in the photographed image and an intersection position in the past image by using an image recognition technique . 3. The vehicle periphery photographing transmission according to claim 2 , wherein the comparison unit specifies an image of the facility in the past image based on a position of an intersection in the past image and the specified relative position. apparatus. The specifying means further specifies a traveling lane of the vehicle,
The past shooting information acquisition unit further acquires a lane at a shooting viewpoint position when the past image was shot,
The determination unit has the same shooting viewpoint position acquired by the past shooting information acquisition unit as the current position specified by the specifying unit, and the shooting viewpoint position acquired by the past shooting information acquisition unit. The vehicle periphery photographing transmission device according to claim 2, wherein it is determined whether or not the lane and the lane in the traveling direction specified by the specifying unit are the same. The comparing means includes an image of a signboard of the facility among the images of the facility in the past image,
The image corresponding to the position of the signboard in the corresponding position image is compared, and according to the comparison result, whether or not the corresponding position image and the image of the facility in the past image are the same The vehicle periphery photographing transmission device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized by: A vehicle periphery photographing transmission program for a vehicle periphery photographing transmission device mounted on a vehicle,
,
A specifying means for specifying a current position and a traveling direction of the vehicle;
Past image acquisition means for acquiring past images taken in the past for the facility ;
Past shooting information acquisition means for acquiring a shooting viewpoint position and a shooting direction when the past image acquired by the acquisition means is shot;
The shooting viewpoint position acquired by the past shooting information acquisition unit is the same as the current position specified by the specifying unit, and the shooting direction acquired by the past shooting information acquisition unit and the specifying unit specified Determining means for determining whether or not the traveling direction is the same;
The shooting viewpoint position acquired by the past shooting information acquisition unit is the same as the current position specified by the specifying unit, and the shooting direction acquired by the past shooting information acquisition unit and the specifying unit specified Means for causing the camera to photograph the periphery of the vehicle when the determination means determines that the traveling direction is the same;
Reading the position information of the intersection of the past in the image positional information and the facility from the map data, based on the read the intersection and the position information of the facility, prior Symbol the facility in the past in the image, of the past in the image a relative position with respect to the intersection, identified, also on the basis of the said relative position camera for capturing the front is located and the specific intersection in the photographed image as a result of the photographing of the vehicle, in the facility in the captured image Comparison means for identifying an image of a corresponding position (hereinafter referred to as a corresponding position image) and determining whether the corresponding position image is the same as the image of the facility in the past image acquired by the acquisition means When the determination result of the comparison means is negative, vehicle periphery photographing transmission that causes a computer to function as transmission means for transmitting the photographed image to the center program.

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