JP6501696B2 - Video display system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a technology for eliminating a driver's blind spot due to a structure that constitutes an automobile.

  As a technique for eliminating the blind spot of the driver due to the structure constituting the car, an image of a portion hidden from the driver by the structure such as a pillar of the car is photographed with a camera, and the image of the portion photographed is There is known a technique for displaying an image of a portion as if it is not hidden by the structure on a display device such as a liquid crystal display or a holographic optical element arranged in front of the structure (for example, patent documents 1, 2).

JP 2007-96638 A JP, 2011-213184, A

A wiper that removes raindrops on the windshield of the vehicle, when in operation, overlaps a portion of the windshield, thus creating a blind spot for the driver of the vehicle.
However, eliminating the blind spot caused by such an operating wiper by arranging the display device in front of the structure that produces the blind spot by applying the above-described technology means that the wiper, which is the structure that produces the blind spot, moves. It is difficult to do.

  Therefore, the present invention has an object to eliminate the driver's blind spot produced by the wiper of a car.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is directed to a projection device for projecting an image toward the shield glass on an image display system mounted on an automobile equipped with a shield glass and a wiper that wipes the outer surface of the shield glass during operation. A camera installed outside the car for capturing an image of a range observed through the shield glass by the driver when the wiper is not present, and the wiper of the car is operating A projection image generation means for generating a projection image which is an image representing a scene observed through a shield glass from the viewpoint of the driver when there is no front wiper from an image photographed by a camera; Of the projection image generated by the projection image generation unit to the projection device when the wiper is in operation. A projection control means for projecting toward the shield glass so that the portion hidden from the driver by the wiper is imaged on the surface of the wiper facing the driver is there.

  Further, in order to achieve the above object, the present invention is installed in an image display system mounted on an automobile provided with a shield glass and a wiper, a projection device for projecting an image toward the shield glass, and installed outside the automobile. A camera for capturing an image of a range observed through a shield glass by a driver when the wiper is not present, and the position of the wiper when the wiper of the automobile is in operation When the wiper detection means and the wiper of the car are in operation, the wiper does not exist from the image taken by the camera according to the position of the wiper detected by the wiper detection means Part of the scene observed through the shield glass from the driver's point of view that is hidden by the wiper from the driver Projection image generating means for generating a projection image which is an image to be represented, and the projection image generated by the projection image generating means when the wiper of the automobile is in operation, And a projection control unit configured to project an image on a surface of the wiper facing the driver.

  Further, in order to achieve the above object, the present invention projects a video toward the shield glass on a video display system mounted on an automobile equipped with a shield glass and a wiper that wipes the outer surface of the shield glass at the time of operation. A projection device, a camera installed in a car of the car for capturing an image of a range observed by a driver through a shield glass, and an image captured by the camera when the wiper of the car is in operation Is a delayed image that is delayed by a time longer than the time required for the wiper to move to a position that does not overlap with the position before movement, and when the wiper is not present Projection image generation means for generating a projection image which is an image representing a scene to be observed, and the wiper of the vehicle is in operation The projection image generated by the projection image generation means is displayed on the surface facing the driver of the wiper by the projection device at a portion of the driver that is hidden by the wiper at the current time included in the projection image. And a projection control means for projecting the light toward the shield glass so as to form an image.

  Further, in order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an image display system mounted on an automobile provided with a shield glass and a wiper, a projection device for projecting an image toward the shield glass, and installed in a car of the automobile. A camera for capturing an image of a range observed through a shield glass by a driver, a wiper detection unit for detecting the position of the wiper when the wiper of the automobile is in operation, and The time required for the wiper to move to a position where it does not overlap the position before the movement according to the position of the wiper detected by the wiper detection means while the wiper is in operation. From the delay image which is the image delayed for the above time, when the wiper is not present, it is observed through the shield glass from the driver's viewpoint Projection image generating means for generating a projection image which is an image representing a part of the scene to which the wiper is hidden by the wiper at the current time, and the wiper of the automobile is in operation; A projection control means is provided which causes the projection device to project the projection image generated by the projection image generation means so as to form an image on the surface of the wiper facing the driver.

  Here, in the above video display system, the projection light of the projector may be P-polarized light, and an incident angle at which the P-polarized light is incident on the shield glass may be set within a predetermined range including Brewster's angle. It is preferable in order to suppress reflection of the projection image by the shield glass.

In the above video display system, the shield glass may be, for example, a windshield of the car.
According to the image display apparatus as described above, when the wiper is in operation, the wiper is concealed by the wiper at the current time in the scene observed through the shield glass by the driver when the wiper is not present. The image of the portion being displayed is displayed on the surface facing the driver of the wiper.

  Therefore, even when the wiper is in operation, the driver can observe all the scenes observed through the shield glass by the driver as an integral scene through the shield glass even when the wiper is not present. Become. Therefore, according to the image display device of the present invention, it is possible to eliminate the blind spot of the driver produced by the wiper of the car.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to eliminate the driver's blind spot produced by the wiper of a car.

It is a figure showing composition of a picture display system concerning an embodiment of the present invention. 5 shows an arrangement of each part of the video display system according to the embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the operation example of the video display system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the other operation example of the video display system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the other example of arrangement | positioning of the projection apparatus of the video display system which concerns on embodiment of this invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a video display system according to the present embodiment.
The image display system is a system mounted on a four-wheeled vehicle, and as shown in the figure, the raindrop removal device 1, the front camera 2, the projection device 3, the in-vehicle camera 4, the operation of the wiper of the vehicle and the swing angle A wiper sensor 5 for detecting, an image processing unit 6, a viewpoint detection unit 7, and a control unit 8 for controlling the above-described units are provided.

As shown in FIG. 2a, the in-vehicle camera 4 is disposed in front of and in front of the driver's seat of the vehicle and captures an area where the driver's head of the vehicle is located. Then, the viewpoint detection unit 7 detects the viewpoint of the driver from the position of the eyeball of the user obtained by analyzing the image of the driver captured by the in-vehicle camera 4 and the like.
Further, the projection device 3 is a device for projecting an image toward a windshield of a car, and, for example, as shown in FIG.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 2b, the front camera 2 is placed outside the car and captures the front of the car. The raindrop removal device 1 is disposed in front of the front camera 2 and removes raindrops in the field of view of the front camera 2.

  Here, as the raindrop removing device 1, for example, a turning window device disposed in front of the front camera 2 as shown in FIG. 2 c 1 can be used. In addition, as shown in FIG. 2 c 2, for example, the turning window device rotates the glass plate 11 at a high speed with the transparent glass plate 11 covering the field of view of the front camera 2 and raindrops and snow on the glass plate 11. It can comprise from the rotation mechanism 12 which removes from the glass plate 11 top with a centrifugal force.

  Now, in such a configuration, when the wiper sensor 5 detects the operation start of the wiper, the control unit 8 causes the video processing unit 6 to start the image projection processing, and the wiper sensor 5 detects the operation stop of the wiper Then, the video processing unit 6 ends the video projection processing.

When the video processing unit 6 starts the video projection processing under the control of the control unit 8, the video processing unit 6 performs the following processing until the video projection processing ends according to the control of the control unit 8.
That is, a viewpoint conversion process is performed on the image in front of the vehicle taken by the front camera 2 to generate a viewpoint conversion image which is an image representing a state in which the front of the vehicle is observed from the viewpoint of the driver detected by the viewpoint detection unit 7.

  Then, in the viewpoint conversion image 300 generated as shown in FIG. 3A, the partial image 301 which is a portion observed through the windshield from the driver's viewpoint is directed to the projection device 3 toward the windshield. The entire image portion 301 is projected to the entire windshield, and is projected at a focal distance that is roughly imaged on the windshield.

  Here, as shown in FIG. 3b, the scene in front of the car and the wiper 400 moving outside the windshield overlap the windshield, but when observed by the driver, a part from the projection device 3 When the image 301 is projected toward the windshield as described above, it is observed by the driver as shown in FIG. 3c.

  That is, among the partial images 301 projected from the projection device 3 onto the windshield, the partial image 301 projected to a range not overlapping the wiper 400 has its approximate components transmitted through the windshield as it is to the outside of the automobile Not visible by the driver.

  On the other hand, in the partial image 301 projected from the projection device 3 onto the windshield, the image portion projected in the range overlapping with the wiper 400 is reflected on the inner surface of the wiper 400 and is imaged on the wiper 400. , Visually recognized by the driver. The color of the rear surface (surface facing the windshield) of the automobile wiper 400 is set to be white, light gray, or the like so that the rear surface of the automobile wiper 400 functions as a projection screen.

  Therefore, by projecting the partial image 301 onto the windshield as described above, the driver can be made to visually recognize the state in front of the vehicle through the transparent wiper 400, and as a result, the vehicle The driver's blind spot created by the wiper is eliminated.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described above.
By the way, in the above embodiment, of the viewpoint conversion video 300 generated as shown in FIG. 3A, the entire partial video 301, which is a part observed through the windshield from the driver's viewpoint, is fronted by the projection device 3 Although projected toward the glass, as shown in FIG. 4 a, the viewpoint conversion image 300 is obtained based on the position of the wiper 400 on the windshield determined based on the swing angle of the wiper 400 detected by the wiper sensor 5. From the above, even if the wiper shielding partial image 302 which is the image of the portion hidden by the wiper 400 with respect to the driver's viewpoint is extracted and only the extracted wiper shielding partial image 302 is projected toward the windshield Good. That is, more specifically, a part of the partial video 301 other than the wiper shielding partial video 302 may be masked (set to black), and the partial video 301 may be projected toward the windshield.

  By doing this, the driver projects an image on the outside of the front of the vehicle, or a part of the image component projected by the windshield or raindrop at the portion where the windshield wiper 400 does not overlap. It is possible to solve the problem of reflection toward the like.

Further, although the front camera 2 is set outside the vehicle in the above embodiment, the front camera 2 may be installed inside the vehicle.
However, when the front camera 2 is installed in the car, the outside area hidden from the driver by the wiper 400 is also hidden from the front camera 2. In this case, In the image processing apparatus, the partial image 301 or the wiper shielding partial image 302 is delayed and projected.

  That is, as shown in FIG. 4 b 1, at each point in time, a portion of the viewpoint conversion image 300 which is not hidden by the wiper 400 at that point in time and will be hidden by the wiper 400 in the near future. It matches with the said part and preserve | saves as a read-ahead wiper shielding partial image 303. FIG. Then, as shown in FIG. 4 b 2, at each time point, only the preread wiper shielded partial image 303 stored corresponding to the portion hidden by the wiper 400 at that time is projected as the wiper shielded partial image 302. Do.

  As a result, an image appearing in the past for a certain period of time is formed on the wiper 400 in a portion currently hidden by the wiper, but when the moving speed of the wiper 400 is high, the time is sufficient. It can be expected that no practical problems will occur.

Therefore, by doing this, it is possible to virtually eliminate the driver's blind spot produced by the automobile wiper by using the front camera 2 installed in the car.
Alternatively, more simply, the same effect can be obtained by projecting the partial image 301 described above with a predetermined time delay. However, the delay time in this case is the time required for the wiper 400 to move to a position not overlapping the position before movement during that time.

  By the way, when the partial image 301 is projected toward the windshield as described above, it is preferable to suppress the reflection of the projected image at the non-overlapping portion of the windshield 400 as much as possible.

  Therefore, in the above embodiment, the projection device 3 is the projection device 3 that projects P-polarized light, and the Brewster angle (the incident angle θ of the light axis of the projection light of the projection device 3 shown in FIG. It is also preferable to set Brewster's angle) θB.

Brewster's angle θB, where n1 is the absolute refractive index of air and n2 is the absolute refractive index of the windshield
θB = Arctan (n2 / n1)
The reflectance of P-polarized light incident at the incident angle θB is zero, and all transmit through the windshield.

  Therefore, by setting the incident angle θ of the optical axis of the projection light of the projection device 3 to the windshield as the Brewster's angle θB, the reflection of the projected portion of the projected image on the non-overlapping portion of the windshield 400 is effectively made. It will be possible to suppress.

  Note that, as the projector 3 that projects P-polarized light, a liquid crystal projector that emits P-polarized light as projection light can be used. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 5b, the polarizing plate 500 may be disposed in front of the projector 3 to constitute the projector 3 for projecting P-polarized light.

  In the above embodiment, the image in front of the car taken by the front camera 2 is subjected to viewpoint conversion processing, and the image showing the front of the vehicle observed from the viewpoint of the driver detected by the viewpoint detection unit 7 Although the viewpoint conversion video 300 is generated, the viewpoint conversion video 300 may be generated using the position of the standard viewpoint of the driver obtained in advance as the viewpoint of the driver. In this case, it is not necessary to provide the in-vehicle camera 4 and the viewpoint detection unit 7 in the image display system.

  Further, although the above embodiment shows the case where the blind spot of the observation of the scene through the windshield caused by the wiper 400 is eliminated, the present embodiment relates to the rear glass and the door glass other than the windshield generated by the wiper 400. It is equally applicable to applications that eliminate blind spots in the observation of scenes through any shielded glass.

  That is, for example, when eliminating the blind spot in the observation of the scene through the rear glass, the windshield of the above embodiment is replaced with the rear glass, the wiper 400 is replaced with the rear glass wiper, and the front camera 2 is replaced with a camera for photographing the rear of the vehicle. The above embodiment may be applied.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Raindrop removal apparatus, 2 ... front camera, 3 ... projection apparatus, 4 ... camera in a car, 5 ... wiper sensor, 6 ... image processing part, 7 ... viewpoint detection part, 8 ... control part, 11 ... glass plate, 12 ... Rotating mechanism, 400 ... wiper, 500 ... polarizing plate.

Claims (6)

An image display system mounted on an automobile comprising a shield glass and a wiper that wipes the outer surface of the shield glass in operation,
A projector for projecting an image toward the shield glass;
A camera, which is installed outside the car, for capturing an image of a range observed through a shield glass by a driver when the wiper is not present;
From the video taken by the camera when the wiper of the car is in operation, a projected video which is a video representing a scene observed through the shield glass from the driver's viewpoint when the wiper is not present Projection video generation means for generating;
When the wiper of the automobile is in operation, there is a portion of the projection device generated by the projection image generation means in the projection device that is hidden from the driver by the wiper included in the projection image. And a projection control unit configured to project the light toward the shield glass so as to form an image on a surface of the wiper facing the driver. An image display system mounted on an automobile comprising a shield glass and a wiper,
A projector for projecting an image toward the shield glass;
A camera, which is installed outside the car, for capturing an image of a range observed through a shield glass by a driver when the wiper is not present;
Wiper detection means for detecting the position of the wiper when the wiper of the automobile is in operation;
According to the position of the wiper detected by the wiper detection unit when the wiper of the automobile is in operation, from the image taken by the camera, when the wiper does not exist, from the driver's viewpoint Projection image generating means for generating a projection image which is an image representing a portion hidden from the driver by the wiper in a scene observed through a shield glass;
The projection image generated by the projection image generating means is projected on the projection device so that the projection image is formed on the surface of the wiper facing the driver when the wiper of the automobile is in operation. An image display system characterized by comprising: An image display system mounted on an automobile comprising a shield glass and a wiper that wipes the outer surface of the shield glass in operation,
A projector for projecting an image toward the shield glass;
A camera installed in a car of the car for capturing an image of an area observed by a driver through a shield glass;
From the delay image which is an image delayed by a time longer than the time required to move the image taken by the camera to a position not overlapping the position before movement when the wiper of the automobile is in operation, Projection image generation means for generating a projection image which is an image representing a scene observed through a shield glass from the viewpoint of the driver when the wiper is not present;
When the wiper of the car is in operation, the projection image generated by the projection image generation means is hidden by the projector by the wiper at the current time point included in the projection image in the projection device And a projection control unit configured to project the light toward the shield glass so as to form an image on a surface of the wiper facing the driver. An image display system mounted on an automobile comprising a shield glass and a wiper,
A projector for projecting an image toward the shield glass;
A camera installed in a car of the car for capturing an image of an area observed by a driver through a shield glass;
Wiper detection means for detecting the position of the wiper when the wiper of the automobile is in operation;
When the wiper of the automobile is in operation, according to the position of the wiper detected by the wiper detection means, an image photographed by a camera is moved to a position where the wiper does not overlap with the position before movement. Of the delay image which is delayed for a time longer than the time required for the driver, by the wiper at the present time, of the scene observed through the shield glass from the driver's point of view when the wiper is not present Projection video generation means for generating a projection video which is a video representing a portion hidden with respect to the image;
The projection image generated by the projection image generating means is projected on the projection device so that the projection image is formed on the surface of the wiper facing the driver when the wiper of the automobile is in operation. An image display system characterized by comprising: A video display system according to claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, wherein
The projection light of the said projection apparatus is P polarization | polarized-light, The incident angle which the said P polarization | polarized-light injects into the said shield glass is set in the predetermined range containing Brewster's angle, The image display system characterized by the above-mentioned. A video display system according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5, wherein
The image display system, wherein the shield glass is a windshield of the car.