JPH0256876B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a vehicle visibility monitoring system for monitoring the surrounding conditions of a vehicle such as an automobile.

In general, when driving a car, if the driver remains facing forward, it is difficult to see the surroundings behind him, on both sides, and at each corner of the vehicle. Currently, people do this by looking in the mirror or by turning their faces directly towards it.

The present invention has been made with these points in mind.The present invention detects the surroundings of a moving object such as a car that is difficult for the driver to check and displays them all at once on the screen, allowing the driver to see the surroundings. To provide a visibility monitoring system for a traveling object that allows the user to grasp the vehicle's visibility at a glance.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below.

The visibility monitoring system for a traveling object according to the present invention includes:
In addition to being equipped with a video camera that shows the rear of the vehicle, side sensors such as infrared sensors or ultrasonic sensors detect the presence or absence of obstacles (including other vehicles running parallel to each other) behind the vehicle on both sides; Corner sensors consisting of contact sensors or proximity sensors that detect the presence or absence of obstacles at the front, rear, left and right corners of the vehicle are attached to the vehicle, and under the control of the CPU, depending on the output status of each sensor, For example, a display device built into the driver's seat instrument panel displays a model of the presence or absence of obstacles around the vehicle in one corner of the screen, while the rest of the screen displays a video camera showing the rear view of the vehicle. It is possible to display the captured image.

Figure 1 shows a specific example of the configuration of such a visibility monitoring system for a traveling object.
SS1, right side sensor SS2, left corner sensor CS
1. Right front corner sensor CS2, left rear corner sensor
A CPU 2 reads each sensor output signal sent from the CS3 and the right rear corner sensor CS4 through the input interface 1 and determines the presence or absence of surrounding obstacles. Obstacle-related data and pattern data read out from the main memory 3 are read through the video interface 4 and updated and stored in the image memory 5, and based on the accumulated data in the image memory 5, one corner of the screen of the color CRT 7 is displayed. In addition to modeling and displaying the situation of surrounding obstacles centered on the own vehicle, it also displays the remaining obstacles based on the video signal sent from the video camera 8.
It is composed of a CRT controller 6 that projects a rear image on a CRT screen portion.

For devices configured in this way, the CPU
Based on the pattern data sent from 2.
In one corner of the screen of the CRT7, for example, as shown in Fig. 2, the own vehicle O and zones Z1 behind it on both sides,
Z2, the pattern of each corner zone Z3, Z4, Z5, Z6 is displayed, and each of the sensors SS1, SS
The warning display in each zone Z1-Z6 is controlled according to the obstacle detection state by CS2 and CS1-CS4. That is, when the left side sensor SS1 detects that an obstacle has entered the sensor area at the rear of the left side of the vehicle,
Zone Z pattern displayed on the CRT7 screen
1 is displayed in red, for example, and the driver is notified of this. In addition, the right corner sensor CS
2, if it is detected that there is an obstacle in the right front corner of the vehicle, zone Z4 will also be displayed in red. Note that the CRT controller 6 can easily be configured to flash red on the warning display to alert the driver. Note that the portion W in FIG. 2 indicates the area where the rear image taken by the video camera 8 is projected.

In addition, instead of the left and right side sensors SS1 and SS2 that simply detect whether or not there is an obstacle within the warning area, it is possible to detect the distance to the obstacle behind each side of the vehicle on the left and right. A radar capable of measuring obstacles is attached to a traveling object, and a stepwise warning display as shown in FIG. 3 is displayed under the control of a CPU 2 according to the measured distance to an obstacle. You can also do it. In other words, the degree of approach of obstacles within the detection range of the radar (for example, within 50 m) is divided into three stages, and the zone Z1 or Z2 displayed as a pattern on the screen of the CRT7 is divided into C→B→A and its warning display stage. Try to change it accordingly. Therefore, by looking at the stepwise warning display, the driver can not only know that there is an obstacle behind the side of the vehicle, but also intuitively grasp the degree of approach.

The radar may be, for example, a Doppler radar that measures the distance and relative speed of an object based on the Doppler frequency shift that occurs due to the relative speed of the reflected waves of radio waves emitted towards the object, or a Doppler radar that measures the distance and relative speed of the object. Pulse radar measures the round trip time of radio waves emitted towards the target until it is reflected and received, and calculates the distance and relative speed to the target.
FM-CW radar, which calculates distance from the beat frequency caused by the phase shift between transmitted and received waves, is widely used. Figure 4 shows FM-CW as an example.
This shows the configuration of a left side warning radar 9 and a right side warning radar 10 when using radar, in which a signal of a transmission frequency emitted from an oscillator 11 is modulated at a constant frequency by a modulator 12, and then
The modulated signal is emitted as a radio wave from the antenna 15 through the directional coupler 13 and the circuit radar 14, and the reflected wave from the object is sent via the antenna 15 and the circuit radar 14 to the mixer 16, where it is transmitted from the directional coupler 13. A beat frequency is generated with the incoming transmission wave, and the beat frequency signal is amplified to a certain level by a video amplifier 17 and is used as a radar detection output. In this case, since the beat frequency detected by each radar is proportional to the distance to the object, the CPU 2 directly calculates the inter-vehicle distance by reading the radar detection output via the input interface 1. You will be able to ask for it.

As described above, in the visibility monitoring system for a traveling object according to the present invention, the warning display for obstacles at the corner portion and the rear of both sides of the traveling object is modeled and displayed in one corner of the display screen, and is displayed in the remaining screen portion. Since the image of the rear is projected, by looking at the display screen, the driver can instantly grasp the surrounding situation that is difficult to check by himself, reducing the burden of attention on the driver when driving. It has the excellent advantage of being able to be effectively reduced.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the visibility monitoring system for a traveling object according to the present invention, Fig. 2 is a diagram showing an example of display contents of a display device in the same embodiment, and Fig. 3 is a modeled display. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a side warning radar. 1...Input interface, 2...CPU, 3
...Main memory, 4...Video interface, 5
...Image memory, 6...CRT controller, 7
...CRT, 8...Video camera, 9,10...
Side warning radar, SS1, SS2...side sensor,
CS1~CS4...Corner sensor.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A video camera that photographs the rear of the vehicle and sensors that detect obstacles around the vehicle are provided on the vehicle, and images from the video camera are projected on the screen of a display device under the control of a CPU.
A visibility monitoring system for a traveling object, which takes means for displaying the situation of obstacles around the own vehicle in one corner of the screen according to the detection state of each of the sensors.