JPH04274941A - External monitor of vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To indicate the changeover between farness and nearness by processing the image data picked up an image pickup means without using an additional lens. CONSTITUTION:The image taken in by a ultrawide lens unit 1 is input into a frame memory 7, and is preserved by the amount of one picture. Usually, the image memorized in this frame memory 7 is visually checked with a display 11. By the way, when the signal from outside is input into a memory control circuit 8, the memory control circuit 8 decides the region to be magnified and displayed from among the image data being preserved by the amount of one picture in the frame memory 7, and magnifies this region. The magnified image can be visually checked in the display 11.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an exterior monitoring device for a vehicle, and more particularly to an exterior monitoring device for a vehicle that is installed in a vehicle and monitors both distant and nearby areas of the vehicle.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Conventional vehicle exterior monitoring devices use wide-angle lenses because they require a wide viewing angle, and as a result, there is a problem in that images of distant objects become small and very difficult to see. Furthermore, the sense of distance is greatly exaggerated, so even if a distant object is close, it appears to be farther away than it actually is, potentially misleading the driver. In order to solve this problem, as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 1-172784, an additional lens is provided in addition to the wide-angle lens of the vehicle surveillance camera, and the wide-angle lens and two additional lenses are combined to enable distant magnification. Devices for displaying information have been devised.

0003

However, since the above-mentioned conventional device was a mechanical mechanism that combined two lenses, a wide-angle lens and an additional lens,
In order to switch the neighborhood display, there is a problem in that the additional lens must be moved one by one.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and is an object for use in a vehicle that can perform switching display between far and near by processing image data captured by an imaging means without using an additional lens. The purpose is to provide an external monitoring device.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is provided with an imaging means for taking an image of a predetermined area outside the vehicle, and after storing image data taken by the imaging means in a memory circuit. In a vehicle exterior monitoring device that displays a captured image on a display device, a part of the captured image data is extracted in response to an external signal, and the extracted image is further enlarged to a size to be displayed. The gist of the present invention is a vehicle exterior monitoring device characterized in that an enlargement means is provided and an image extracted and enlarged by the extraction and enlargement means is displayed on a display device.

[0006]

[Operation] With the above configuration, the vehicle exterior monitoring device of the present invention images a predetermined area outside the vehicle, stores the captured image in a memory circuit, and then displays the stored image on a display device. The extracting and enlarging means extracts a part of the captured image data in response to an external signal, and further enlarges the extracted image to a size to be displayed. Thereafter, the extracted and enlarged image is displayed on the display. For this reason, the occupant can extract a portion of the image data captured by the vehicle exterior monitoring device and view the image data in an enlarged manner.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be explained in detail below based on embodiments shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a first embodiment of the present invention.

The ultra-wide-angle lens unit 1 is installed at the rear of a vehicle to check the rear of the vehicle. This ultra-wide-angle lens unit 1 is an optical system lens unit for a 1/2-inch CCD, and uses a wide-angle lens with a focal length f of about 2.5 mm. With this focal length, the angle of view is 101° in the vertical (vertical) direction and 128° in the horizontal (horizontal) direction.
It can simultaneously photograph the rear of the vehicle directly below and in the horizontal direction, providing an extremely wide field of view. moreover,
This lens is a wide-angle lens, so it is 0.5m from infinity.
A fixed focus method is used because it can focus within a certain range. In addition, the light intensity adjustment of this ultra-wide-angle lens unit 1 is performed by C.
This is an electronic iris method using the variable speed electronic shutter function of the CD drive circuit section 3.

[0009] The CCD image sensor 2 has an effective number of pixels of 5.
It has approximately 250,000 pixels (12 (H) x 492 (V)). Usually, a display device such as a CRT for a vehicle has a size of 6 inches or less, so even when performing enlarged display, this number of pixels is sufficient. However, when the magnification of enlarged display is large, a higher resolution image can be obtained by using a high resolution CCD such as 350,000 pixels. The CCD image sensor 2 also has a mirror image reversal output function. With this function, when checking the rear of the vehicle, the display visible to the occupant, such as a CRT, can be reversed horizontally to match the rear view mirror display.

The CCD drive circuit 3 includes a timing generation circuit for video signals of standards such as NTSC and PAL, and a CCD drive circuit.
It consists of a signal generating circuit necessary for operating the CCD, such as horizontal driving pulses and vertical driving pulses, and a synchronizing pulse signal generating circuit necessary for operating the memory control circuit 8.
These signals are output to the CD image sensor 2.

The CDS and AGC circuit 4 includes a sample hold circuit for detecting only image information from the output signal of the CCD image sensor 2, and a sample hold circuit for detecting only image information from the output signal of the CCD image sensor 2, and a sample hold circuit for detecting only image information from the output signal of the CCD image sensor 2. It consists of an automatic gain control circuit that amplifies the

The A/D converter 5 has a resolution of 9 bits and converts the output of the CDS and AGC circuit 4 into 9-bit digital data. The luminance (Y) and color (C) signal processing circuit 6 has line memory for two scanning lines.

The frame memory 7 stores the luminance (Y) signal and color (C) signal from the luminance (Y) signal and color (C) signal processing circuit 6.
This is a memory for holding one screen worth of signals. The memory control circuit 8 performs image enlargement processing according to the switching signal. This memory control circuit 8 is composed of a gate array, etc., and performs the arithmetic processing shown in FIG. 6, which will be described later.

The encoder circuit 9 is a circuit that performs signal processing to make the signal in the frame memory 7 compliant with standards such as NTSC and PAL. The D/A converter 10 is composed of two D/A converters having 8-bit resolution. The display device 11 is a display device such as a CRT installed in the driver's seat of the vehicle.

The switching control signal 12 is a request signal for switching the display of a reverse gear switch on a shift lever, a changeover switch provided on a display device at the driver's seat, or the like. The operation of the vehicle surveillance camera configured as above will be explained.

The ultra-wide-angle lens unit 1 receives light from the rear of the vehicle through the wide-angle lens described above. and,
This light reaches the CCD image sensor 2. In the CCD image sensor 2, the CCD drive circuit 3
When a signal necessary for operation is input, electrons are excited by the incident light from the ultra-wide-angle lens unit 1, become photoelectrons, are accumulated as signal charges, and are then sent one after another to the neighboring pixels, and finally to the CDS and It is output to the AGC circuit 4.

The output signal of the CCD image sensor 2 is C
When input to the DS and AGC circuit 4, only image information is detected by the built-in sample and hold circuit. Here, if the output signal of the CCD image sensor 2 is small at low illuminance, this output signal is amplified by the built-in automatic gain control circuit.

Thereafter, the output of the CDS and AGC circuit 4 is input to the A/D converter 5, and the conventional analog signal is converted into a 9-bit digital signal. The digital signal converted by the A/D converter 5 has luminance (Y), color (C)
The signal is input to the signal processing circuit 6 and separated into an 8-bit luminance (Y) signal and a color (C) signal by a line memory for two scanning lines. Separated 8-bit luminance (Y) signal, color (C)
The signal is then input to the frame memory 7 and held for one screen. In this state, the vicinity display behind the vehicle is CR.
It is visually recognized on a display such as T.

The synchronization signal outputted from the CCD drive circuit 3 to the memory control circuit 8 and the switching control signal 12 are also transmitted to the memory control circuit 8.
When a request signal for display switching is input from the frame memory 7, the area to be actually displayed is determined from among the data stored in the frame memory 7 for one screen as shown in FIG. 3(a), and then, Under the control of the memory control circuit 8, as shown in FIG.
This area is expanded as shown in . That is, the output address of the frame memory 7 is calculated in the memory control circuit 8, output data is determined, and this output data is enlarged. On this frame memory 7, under the control of the memory control circuit 8, as shown in FIG. 3, image extraction and enlargement processing according to the switching signal, which is a feature of the present invention, is performed. Here, a flowchart showing control of switching timing for display switching in the memory control circuit 8 is shown in FIG.

The process starts by turning on the power of the entire apparatus shown in FIG. 1 in step 10, and in step 20 it is determined whether or not a synchronizing signal is input from the CCD drive circuit 3 to the memory control circuit 8. If it has been input, it is assumed that one screen worth of image data has been stored in the CCD image sensor 2, and the process proceeds to step 30; if it has not been input, the control is temporarily terminated without performing any further control. Step 30
In step 40, it is determined whether the reverse gear is engaged and whether the vehicle is stopped. This step 30
If the determination is YES in either step 40, the process proceeds to step 70, and the data held in the frame memory 7 for one screen is displayed as it is on the display device 11 via the circuits below the encoder circuit 9. This allows the vicinity of the vehicle to be displayed. If the determination is NO in both cases, the process proceeds to step 50, where an area to be actually displayed is determined from among the data held in the frame memory 7 for one screen, and this area is enlarged. Then step 60
Then, the expanded area is displayed on the display device 11 via the encoder circuit 9 and the subsequent circuits, thereby displaying the enlarged area far from the vehicle.

As described above, as shown in this flowchart, under the control of the memory control circuit 8, when the CCD drive circuit 3 is in the driving state, when the reverse gear is engaged or when the vehicle is stopped, the nearby At other times, a part of the nearby display image is enlarged to display a distant image.

Thereafter, the 8-bit luminance (Y) signal and color (C) signal output from the frame memory 7 are input to the encoder circuit 9, and after being adjusted to standards such as NTSC and PAL, they are sent to the D/A converter. 10, the digital signal is D/A converted into an analog signal and output as a luminance (Y) signal and a color (C) signal, respectively. Note that if a composite signal is required, a luminance (Y) signal and a color (C) signal may be combined.

The output signal is input to a display device 11 such as a CRT installed in the driver's seat of the vehicle, and is visually recognized by the passenger. As explained above, this embodiment has a configuration in which image enlargement processing is performed according to the switching signal, so if the distant display is set during normal driving, the display on a CRT etc. can be used with the same feeling as a normal rearview mirror. You can see it. Then, when the vehicle is in reverse gear or the vehicle is stopped, the distant display can be switched to allow the nearby display to be viewed. Moreover, the switching can be done electrically and instantaneously.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. This second embodiment assumes that the vehicle surveillance camera of the present invention is installed at the rear of a large truck as shown in FIG. In this case, the camera is installed high above the ground, so objects on the ground appear very small. Therefore, in this embodiment, separated 8-bit luminance (Y) signals and color (C) signals held for one screen in the frame memory 7 are used.
Image enlargement processing is performed in accordance with the switching signal not only when the signal is displayed far away as shown in FIG. 4(b), but also when displayed nearby as shown in FIG. 4(c). By performing this processing, it is possible to further enlarge the neighborhood display and display objects on the ground in a larger size.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and can be modified in various ways as shown below without departing from the spirit thereof. ■． When checking the rear of the vehicle, in order to reverse the CRT display to match the rear view mirror display,
In the frame memory 7, the image data on the memory may be inverted by a control signal from the memory control circuit 8.

[0026]■. In this embodiment, a luminance (Y) signal,
It is also possible to directly enlarge the data after A/D conversion by changing the order of the color (C) signal processing circuit 6, frame memory 7, and memory control circuit 8.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, the CCD signal processing is performed by digital processing, but the signal processing is performed by analog processing, and the video signal after signal processing is A/D converted.
Enlarged display is also possible using the frame memory 7 and memory control circuit 8. That is, the A/D converter 5, brightness (
The order of the Y) signal and color (C) signal processing circuit 6 may be changed.

[0028]■. In addition, in this embodiment, the frame memory 7
The enlargement operation is performed by outputting a partial area of the data above, but it is also possible to perform this in front of the frame memory. That is, the CCD image sensor 2
Of the output, the portion to be the enlarged display area may be determined at the time of writing to the frame memory 7, and the enlarged image may be written.

[0029]■. The area to be enlarged and displayed is not fixed, and the display can be changed by operating a switch on a display or the like. As shown in FIG. 5, specify the center coordinates A (X, Y) of the part you want to enlarge (the part indicated by diagonal lines) by pressing the touch switch 13, and send the coordinates serially to the control circuit 14 of the camera. Send via communication etc. to camera control circuit 1
Step 4 creates an enlarged image centered on the specified coordinates, and enlarges and displays the part specified by the driver. Then, press the return switch to return to the image before it was enlarged.

[0030]Also, arrows (↑, ↓, ←, →) are displayed during enlarged display.
By operating the switch, the screen scrolls in the opposite direction to the arrow, and the image can be moved up, down, left, and right. This makes it possible to swing the camera without mechanically moving the camera.

[0031]■. In this embodiment, it is possible not only to monitor the rear, but also to check the front left and right directions by attaching it to the front bumper of the vehicle, inside the headlights, etc., and it is also useful in applications such as when exiting from a narrow alley to a wide road. becomes effective.

[0032]

[Effects of the Invention] According to the vehicle exterior monitoring device of the present invention,
Since part of the image data is extracted and enlarged according to external signals, there is no need to use an additional lens.
There is an excellent effect that the display can be switched between near and far from the vehicle by only processing the image data taken by the imaging means.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the installation of the second embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram for explaining display switching in the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the display of the second embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram for explaining means for switching the display.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing switching timing for display switching.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Ultra wide-angle lens unit 2 CCD image sensor 3 CCD drive circuit 4 CDS and AGC circuit 5 A/D converter 6 Brightness (Y), color (X) signal processing circuit 7 Frame memory 8 Memory control circuit 9 Encoder circuit 10 D/ A converter 11 Display device 12 Switching control signal

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A vehicle exterior monitoring device comprising an imaging means for imaging a predetermined area outside the vehicle, storing image data taken by the imaging means in a memory circuit, and then displaying the stored image on a display device. , an extracting and enlarging means is provided for extracting a part of the captured image data in response to an external signal and further enlarging the extracted image to a size to be displayed, and the image extracted and enlarged by the extracting and enlarging means is A vehicle exterior monitoring device characterized by displaying information on a display device.