JP6365872B2 - Blind spot assist device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a blind spot assisting device that projects an image of a blind spot area obstructed by an obstacle such as a front pillar in a vehicle.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, a device disclosed in Patent Document 1 is known as a visual recognition device that displays a blind spot caused by an obstacle such as a front pillar in a vehicle. The visual recognition device includes a first mirror that reflects a blind spot area generated by the front pillar as viewed from the driver, and a second mirror that reflects the blind spot area reflected by the first mirror toward the driver. The blind spot area is visually recognized by the driver.

  When the blind spot area is visually recognized by the driver using the first mirror and the second mirror in this way, the position of the first mirror is adjusted according to the position of the driver's viewpoint so that the blind spot area is reflected on the second mirror. There is a problem that the angle needs to be adjusted and the adjustment work is complicated. In addition, when the blind spot is reflected on the second mirror, there is a problem that outside light is reflected by the second mirror in addition to the light indicating the image of the blind spot area and enters the driver's eyes, thereby impairing visibility.

  In order to solve such a problem, the present applicant has proposed a blind spot assisting device in Japanese Patent Application No. 2013-266402. This blind spot assisting device is provided on the driver side, reflects a part of the light, and is disposed so as to face the transflective flat mirror that transmits a part of the light and reflects the light to the transflective flat mirror. A plane mirror that receives light representing a blind spot region from the driver by the reflection surface of the semi-transmission plane mirror, and repeatedly reflects between the semi-transmission plane mirror and the plane mirror, and transmits through the semi-transmission plane mirror. By transmitting light representing the blind spot area from the surface, the driver can visually recognize the blind spot area.

JP 2006-231998 A

  However, in the blind spot assisting device described in Japanese Patent Application No. 2013-266402, the image visually recognized by the viewer through the blind spot assisting device is the number of reflections of light between the semi-transmissive planar mirror and the planar mirror depending on the image area. Therefore, the brightness was different for each region. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 7, the luminance of the image viewed along the traveling direction of the light traveling between the transflective flat mirror and the flat mirror (the viewer's line-of-sight left-right direction) is clearly stepwise. There was a problem that the visibility decreased.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and provides a blind spot assisting device that can more easily project an image of a blind spot area and can improve visibility. Objective.

In order to achieve the above object, a blind spot assisting device according to the present invention is a blind spot assisting device that projects an image of a blind spot area obstructed by an obstacle, is incident on the light representing the image, and is provided on the viewer side. A pair of mirrors arranged so that a semi-transparent mirror that reflects a part of the light and transmits a part thereof and a mirror that reflects the light to the semi-transmissive mirror face each other, and reflects the light to the semi-transmissive mirror The mirror is characterized by having a transmission / reflection part that reflects part of the light and transmits part of the light at the incident side end.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to more easily display the image of the blind spot area continuously with the image directly viewed by the viewer, and to improve the visibility.

It is a figure which shows the general view of the driver's seat vicinity of the vehicle by which the blind spot auxiliary device which concerns on embodiment of this invention is arrange | positioned. It is a top view which shows the general view of a blind spot auxiliary device same as the above. It is a perspective view which shows a blind spot auxiliary device same as the above. It is a figure for demonstrating the advancing direction of the light in a blind spot auxiliary | assistance apparatus same as the above. It is a figure for demonstrating the advancing direction of the light in the conventional blind spot auxiliary | assistance apparatus. It is a figure for demonstrating the reflectance of the transmission reflection part of this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the image visually recognized with the conventional blind spot auxiliary | assistance apparatus.

  A blind spot assisting apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a view showing an overview of the vicinity of a driver's seat of a vehicle 1 in which a blind spot assisting device 100 according to the present embodiment is arranged. As shown in FIG. 1, the vehicle 1 includes a steering 10, a windshield glass 20, side glasses 30 and 40, and front pillars 50 and 60. Reference numerals 21 and 22 denote light-shielding black ceramic (black ceramic) portions that are printed on the periphery of the windshield glass 20.

  In the vehicle 1, a viewer (mainly a driver) directly sees the scenery in the area where the windshield glass 20 (excluding the black ceramic portion 21) and the side glasses 30 and 40 are arranged, while the front pillar 50, In the region where 60 and the black sera portions 21 and 22 are arranged, the front pillars 50 and 60 and the black sera portions 21 and 22 block the visual field of the viewer, resulting in a blind spot region D in which the landscape cannot be directly seen. That is, the front pillars 50 and 60 and the black ceramic portions 21 and 22 correspond to obstacles in the present invention.

  Next, the configuration of the blind spot assisting device 100 according to the present embodiment will be described based on FIGS. 2 is a plan view showing an overview of the blind spot assisting device 100, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the blind spot assisting device 100. As shown in FIG. The horizontal direction when the viewer views the surfaces of the pair of mirrors 110 in front is described as the horizontal direction, and the axis along the horizontal direction is described as the X-axis direction in FIGS. 2 and 3, the overlapping direction of the pair of mirrors 110 is referred to as a Y-axis, and the axis along the vertical direction of the viewer is referred to as a Z-axis direction.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the blind spot assisting device 100 is disposed via a holder member (not shown) on the front pillar 50 on the right side (driver side) when viewed from the viewer side. The image of the blind spot area | region D obstruct | occluded by 21 is projected. The blind spot assisting device 100 is disposed so as to face the front pillar 50 and the black ceramic portion 21 when viewed from the viewer.

The blind spot assisting device 100 includes a pair of mirrors 110.
The pair of mirrors 110 are arranged such that a semi-transmissive flat mirror (semi-transmissive mirror) 111 that reflects a part of incident light and transmits a part thereof, and a flat mirror (mirror) 112 face each other in parallel. Consists of. The transflective flat mirror 111 and the flat mirror 112 are fixed in a parallel positional relationship by being arranged on a holder member (not shown). It should be noted that the pair of mirrors 110 of the present invention need not be arranged completely in parallel as long as they are arranged to face each other, and may be curved mirrors instead of plane mirrors.

The transflective flat mirror 111 is arranged on the viewer side, and for example, by depositing a metal such as aluminum on the surface of a plate-like base material made of a translucent resin material such as polyethylene terephthalate, polycarbonate, polyethylene, and acrylic. A reflection layer having a desired reflectance is formed.
The transflective flat mirror 111 can adjust the reflectance R (transmittance) by adjusting the thickness and density of the reflective layer or selecting the material to be used. The transflective flat mirror 111 may be formed by coating the surface of a base material with a dielectric multilayer film. The transflective flat mirror 111 has a base 111a facing a flat mirror 112, which will be described later, and an extending part 111b extending from the base 111a. The transflective flat mirror 111 and the flat mirror 112 are arranged in the horizontal direction. Arranged so as to be stepped.

  The flat mirror 112 is formed by forming a reflective layer on the surface of a plate-like base material made of a light-transmitting resin material in the same manner as the semi-transmissive flat mirror 111, and the surface (reflective surface) of the flat mirror 112 is a semi-transmissive plane. It arrange | positions so that it may become parallel to the surface (semi-transmissive reflective surface) of the mirror 111. FIG. The flat mirror 112 is provided with a transmission / reflection part 112a at the end where light L that reflects an object M present in a blind spot area D, which will be described later, enters. The transmission / reflection part 112a will be described in detail later.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the semi-transmissive flat mirror 111 and the flat mirror 112 have a vertical width of each surface (semi-transmissive reflective surface and reflective surface) toward the traveling direction of the light L in the pair of mirrors 110. It is formed in a substantially wedge shape that gradually decreases. This is to reduce the size and weight by removing unnecessary portions that are out of the visual field range of the viewer. Further, the transflective flat mirror 111 and the flat mirror 112 are similar in plane shape to each other (including the case where they are substantially similar), and the traveling direction (X-axis direction) of the light L in the pair of mirrors 110 of the flat mirror 112. The width in the vertical direction (Z-axis direction) with respect to is formed to be larger than the width in the vertical direction (Z-axis direction) with respect to the traveling direction (X-axis direction) of the light L in the pair of mirrors 110 of the semi-transmissive flat mirror 111. Has been. When the blind spot assisting device 100 is viewed from obliquely below or obliquely above, a light shielding wall (not shown) (for example, comprising a part of the holder member) that shields light between the semi-transmissive planar mirror 111 and the planar mirror 112 in the vertical direction. This is to suppress the reflection. Further, the incident side end (incident side side) E11 of the transflective flat mirror 111 and the incident side end (incident side side) E12 of the flat mirror 112 are along the glass surface of the windshield glass 20. Is inclined. This is because the glass is disposed close to the glass surface of the windshield glass 20. A transmission / reflection portion 112a, which will be described later, is provided with a constant width substantially parallel to the inclination of the incident-side end E12.

Next, main actions of the pair of mirrors 110 will be described with reference to FIG.
In FIG. 2, a blind spot area D that is blocked by a front pillar 50 (not shown, but also including the black ceramic portion 21) is generated in the front view of the viewer (viewpoint 2). Accordingly, the object M present in the blind spot area D cannot be directly viewed from the viewpoint 2.
On the other hand, the light L from the object M is incident on the pair of mirrors 110 and is repeatedly reflected between the pair of mirrors 110, while a part of the light L is emitted from the pair of mirrors 110 (transflective flat mirror 111 is used). To Penetrate). Note that light incident on the pair of mirrors 110 and repeatedly reflected between the pair of mirrors 110 is light having an inclination with respect to a parallel plane of the pair of mirrors 110. A part of the light L emitted from the pair of mirrors 110 reaches the viewpoint 2. Therefore, the image of the object M reflected on the plane mirror 112 can be viewed through the transflective plane mirror 111 continuously with the scenery that can be directly viewed from the viewpoint 2. In addition, in a small area (a portion indicated by hatching) on the back side of the front pillar 50 in the blind spot area D, light from this area cannot enter the pair of mirrors 110 and the image is projected by the pair of mirrors 110. However, the image of the blind spot area D can be projected by the pair of mirrors 110 in almost all other areas.
When the image of the blind spot area D is projected by the pair of mirrors 110, the viewer places the blind spot assisting device 100 at an arbitrary height of the front pillar 50 (a height suitable for the viewpoint 2) and blind spots on the pair of mirrors 110. The angles of the pair of mirrors 110 are adjusted so that the image of the region D is reflected, that is, the light L from the blind spot region D reaches the viewpoint 2. Since the positional relationship between the transflective flat mirror 111 and the flat mirror 112 is fixed in parallel, the pair of mirrors 110 can be disposed at the same time by a single placement operation, and the pair of mirrors can be disposed by a single adjustment operation. 110 angles can be adjusted simultaneously.

  Next, the operation of the transmission / reflection part 112a unique to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 is a diagram for explaining the traveling direction of the light L in the pair of mirrors 110 when the transmission / reflection part 112a is provided, and FIG. 5 is a diagram of the pair of mirrors 110 when the transmission / reflection part 112a is not provided. It is a figure for demonstrating the advancing direction of the light L. FIG. 4 and 5, the regions of the object M existing in the blind spot region D viewed from the viewer's viewpoint 2 are illustrated as objects Ma, Mb, and Mc from the left side of the viewer. Although there are an infinite number of light emitted from the object, only a few characteristic light rays are shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, and the light emitted from each of the objects Ma, Mb, and Mc. L is illustrated as light Lap, Lbp, Lcp going to the semi-transmissive flat mirror 111 side, and light Laq, Lbq, Lcq going to the flat mirror 112 side. 4 and 5, the light caused by Lap and Laq that travels between the pair of mirrors 110 and reaches the viewpoint 2 is illustrated as La1 to La5, and the light caused by Lbp and Lbq is denoted as Lb1 It is illustrated as Lb5, and light caused by Lcp and Lcq is illustrated as Lc1 to Lc5.

  In FIG. 4, the transmission / reflection part 112a of the plane mirror 112 sets the reflectance Ra of the region where the light La is transmitted and reflected to 0 (0%), and sets the reflectance Rb of the region where the light Lb is transmitted and reflected to 0.5 (50). %), And the reflectance Rc of the region where the light Lc is reflected is 1.0 (100%). That is, the reflectance of the transmission / reflection part 112a is adjusted to increase stepwise along the X-axis direction. The transmitting / reflecting portion 112a reflects and transmits, and a region having a low reflectance R has a high transmittance, and a region having a high reflectance R has a low transmittance. Specifically, for example, when the reflectance is 20%, 20% of the light is reflected and 80% is transmitted. Note that the reflectance R and the transmittance may be adjusted separately.

With reference to FIG. 4, the traveling directions of the light Lap and Laq from the object Ma, the light Lbp and Lbq from the object Mb, and the light Lcp and Lcq from the object Mc will be described in detail.
The light Lap is incident on the transflective flat mirror 111 and part of it is reflected toward the transflective portion 112a. However, since the reflectance Ra is 0, the light Lap is not reflected again to the transflective flat mirror 111, and the viewpoint 2 4 is not shown in FIG. On the other hand, the light Laq passes through the flat mirror 112 and travels to the semi-transmissive flat mirror 111 as light La2. Thereafter, a part of the light La2 is reflected by the transflective flat mirror 111 as light La3 toward the flat mirror 112, and this light La3 is reflected by the flat mirror 112 and reflected toward the transflective flat mirror 111 as light La4. Is done. A part of the light La4 incident on the semi-transmissive flat mirror 111 is transmitted and incident on the viewpoint 2, and the viewer visually recognizes a part Ma of the object M.

The light Lbp and Lbq differ in that the reflectance Rb in the transmission / reflection part 112a is 0.5 (50%).
The light Lbp is incident on the semi-transmissive flat mirror 111, a part of which is transmitted, and a part of the light Lbp is reflected to the flat mirror 112 as light Lb1. The light Lb1 enters the transmission / reflection part 112a, a part (50% of the light Lb1) is transmitted, and a part (50% of the light Lb1) is reflected again by the semi-transmissive flat mirror 111. A part of the light Lb1 reflected by the transmission / reflection part 112a and a part of the light Lbq transmitted through the plane mirror 112 (50% of the light Lbq) are combined to go to the transflective plane mirror 111 as the light Lb2. Thereafter, part of the light Lb2 is reflected by the transflective flat mirror 111 as light Lb3 toward the flat mirror 112, and this light Lb3 is reflected by the flat mirror 112, and is reflected by the transflective flat mirror 111 as light Lb4. Is done. A part of the light Lb4 incident on the semi-transmissive flat mirror 111 is transmitted and incident on the viewpoint 2, and the viewer visually recognizes a part Mb of the object M.

The light Lcp and Lcq differ in that the reflectance Rc in the transmission / reflection part 112a is 1.0 (100%).
Although the light Lcq is incident on the semi-transmissive flat mirror 111, since the reflectance Ra of the transmissive reflecting portion 112a is 0 (transmittance is 0), the light Lcq does not pass through the transmissive reflecting portion 112a and does not go to the viewpoint 2. Not shown in FIG. On the other hand, the light Lcp enters the transflective flat mirror 111, a part of which is transmitted, and a part of the light Lcp is reflected as the light Lc1 to the flat mirror 112. The light Lc1 enters the transmission / reflection part 112a, and all of the light Lc1 (100% of the light Lc1) is reflected again to the semi-transmissive flat mirror 111. The light Lc1 reflected by the transmission / reflection section 112a travels toward the semi-transmissive flat mirror 111 as light Lc2. The light Lcq is not transmitted into the pair of mirrors 110 because the transmittance of the transmission / reflection part 112a is 0%. A part of the light Lc2 is reflected by the transflective flat mirror 111 as light Lc3 toward the flat mirror 112, the light Lc3 is reflected by the flat mirror 112, and is reflected by the transflective flat mirror 111 as light Lc4. . A part of the light Lc4 incident on the semi-transmissive flat mirror 111 is transmitted and incident on the viewpoint 2, and the viewer visually recognizes a part Mc of the object M.

  The light intensity I of each of the lights Lap, Laq, Lbp, Lbq, and Lcp incident on the pair of mirrors 110 is 100, the reflectance of the semi-transmissive flat mirror 111 is 70% (transmittance is 30%), and the reflectance of the flat mirror 112 100%, reflectance La of light La is 0% (transmittance is 100%), reflectance Rb of light Lb is 50% (transmittance is 50%), and reflectance Rc of light Lc is 100% (transmittance) Is 0%), the light intensity calculation results of La1 to La5, Lb1 to Lb5, and Lc1 to Lc5 are as shown in Table 1 below.

  Referring to FIG. 5, in the pair of mirrors 110 that do not include the transmission / reflection section 112a, the light Lcp is incident on the plane mirror 112 as the light Lc1 and travels again to the transflective plane mirror 111 as the light Lc2. However, a part of the light Lap (Lbp) is reflected by the transflective flat mirror 111 and travels toward the flat mirror 112, but the flat mirror 112 does not extend in the traveling direction. It is not reflected in the direction of 111 and is not shown in FIG. A part of the light L (light La, Lb in FIG. 5) on the left side (Ma, Mb in FIG. 5) of the object M is a part of the light L (light in FIG. 5) on the right side (Mc in FIG. 5) of the object M. The number of reflections performed by the pair of mirrors 110 before reaching the viewpoint 2 is smaller than Lc). The light intensity Ia of the light La having a small number of reflections, and the light intensity Ic of the light Lc having a large number of reflections, Rf is the reflectance of the semi-transmissive flat mirror 111, N is the number of reflections by the semi-transmissive flat mirror 111, and I is a pair. Assuming that the light intensity of L incident on the mirror 110 is expressed by the following equations (1) and (2).

The calculation results of the light intensities of La1 to La5, Lb1 to Lb5, and Lc1 to Lc5 in the pair of mirrors 110 that do not include the transmission / reflection part 112a are as shown in Table 2 below.

  The light intensity of the light La5, Lb5, Lc5 reaching the viewpoint 2 when the transmissive reflection part 112a is provided (see Table 1), and the light La5, Lb5, Lc5 reaching the viewpoint 2 when the transmissive reflection part 112a is not provided The light intensity difference between the lights (La and Lb or Lb and Lc) adjacent to each other in the left-right direction of the viewer is smaller when the transmission / reflection part 112a is provided. I understand. Therefore, the image visually recognized by the viewer has a small luminance difference in the left-right direction, and can improve visibility.

  The light intensity Ib of the light Lb in the case of including the transmissive reflection portion 112a is such that Rf is the reflectance of the semi-transmissive flat mirror 111, Rb is the reflectance of the transmissive reflective portion 112a, and N is the reflection by the semi-transmissive flat mirror 111. The number of times I is the light intensity of the light L incident on the pair of mirrors 110, the light intensity Ia of the light La indicating an image visually recognized on the left side of the light Lb, and the light of the light Lc indicating an image visually recognized on the right side of the light Lb. When the intensity is Ic, it is expressed by the following formula (3).

  Here, since the reflectance Rb of the transmissive reflecting portion 112a is 0 ≦ Rb ≦ 1, the light intensity Ib of the light Lb that is transmitted and reflected through the transmissive reflecting portion 112a is the light intensity Ia of the light La and the light intensity Ic of the light Lb. Takes a value between. When the reflectance R of the transmission / reflection part 112a changes stepwise as shown in FIG. 4, the luminance of the image also changes stepwise.

  In addition, the reflectance R of the transmissive reflection part 112a is not limited to what is changed in steps as mentioned above. The transmission / reflection section 112a continuously increases the reflectance R according to the distance (X) from the incident side end E12 of the transmission / reflection section 112a as shown in FIGS. 6 (a) and 6 (b). Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 6C, the reflectance R may be constant at a value less than 1 (100%). Further, the reflectance R may be changed according to a function of the distance (X) approximated by a broken line.

  In addition, this invention is not limited by the said embodiment and drawing. It goes without saying that changes (including deletion of components) can be added to the embodiment and the drawings. In this embodiment, the space between the pair of mirrors 110 is hollow, but a solid structure may be formed by filling a transparent resin material (translucent member) between the pair of mirrors 110. Thereby, dust and dirt can be prevented from adhering to the inner surfaces of the pair of mirrors 110.

  The blind spot assisting device 100 of the present embodiment is disposed on the right front pillar 50 as viewed from the driver's seat side of the vehicle 1, but a similar blind spot assisting device is also disposed on the left front pillar 60. Also good. Further, as an obstacle in the vehicle, it may be a blind spot assisting device that is arranged on a center pillar, a rear pillar, or the like in addition to the front pillar and displays an image of a blind spot area blocked by these.

Further, the present invention can be widely applied as a blind spot assisting device that projects an image of a blind spot area blocked by an obstacle in fields other than vehicles. For example, when the blind spot assisting device of the present invention is used in a house, a large area blind spot assisting device is attached to the ceiling and only the incident part is exposed to the outside from the wall or the like. Can also see the sunlight from the ceiling indoors. It is particularly suitable for densely populated houses and houses with circumstances where ordinary windows cannot be attached.
Also, for example, in a high-rise building such as a tourist facility, a blind spot auxiliary device with a large area is embedded under the floor of a high floor, and only the light incident part is exposed outdoors, so that the blind spot auxiliary device under the floor directly puts the scenery under the eyes You can feel and emphasize the height of the building. In order to obtain the same effect, conventionally, it was necessary to provide a space under the floor. However, the blind spot assisting device of the present invention is suitable because it can be easily arranged in an existing building.
In addition, as an example to be used for the wall surface, the blind spot assisting device of the present invention is arranged at the corner of the fence at an intersection where the fence is standing near the road and the line of sight is bad. Can quickly recognize the existence of, and contribute to the prevention of encounter accidents.
As described above, the blind spot assisting device of the present invention secures a space for a light incident portion in a blind spot area that is obstructed by an obstacle that has not been visible until now without requiring energy such as electric power. It can be seen as if the obstacles are seen through a wide range, and its use can be widely applied both indoors and outdoors, and it can obtain various effects such as health, safety or impression. .

  The present invention is suitable for a blind spot assisting device that projects an image of a blind spot area obstructed by an obstacle.

1 Vehicle 2 Viewpoint 100 Blind Spot Auxiliary Device 110 Pair of Parallel Plane Mirrors
111 Transflective flat mirror (semi-transmissive mirror)
111a base 111b extension 112 flat mirror (mirror)

Claims (3)

A blind spot assisting device that projects an image of a blind spot area obstructed by an obstacle,
Arranged so that a semi-transmission mirror that receives light representing the image, is provided on the viewer side, reflects a part of the light, and transmits a part of the light, and a mirror that reflects the light to the semi-transmission mirror face each other. A pair of mirrors,
The mirror that reflects light to the semi-transmissive mirror has a transmissive reflecting portion that reflects part of the light and transmits part of the light at an incident side end.
A blind spot assisting device characterized by that. The transmission reflection portion is formed so that the reflectance of light becomes higher in the light traveling direction in the pair of mirrors, or becomes substantially constant.
The blind spot assisting device according to claim 1. The transmission reflection portion is formed such that the light transmittance becomes lower or substantially constant in the light traveling direction in the pair of mirrors.
The blind spot assisting device according to claim 1, wherein the blind spot assisting device is provided.

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