JPH06262981A - Rear checking device of car - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent contamination and damage and accomplish a rear checking device for a car having a wide view angle backward by installing an upright positioned TV camera at the rear of a car body, opening and shutting a door whose front is capable of being opened and shut and rear surface constitutes a reflecting face, and displaying the image at the driver's seat upon conversion. CONSTITUTION:The opening/closing angle of a door, which is installed on the lens side of TV camera at the rear of a car body and whose rear surface constitutes a reflecting face, is adjusted so that a wide view angle is obtained, and the door is shut at the time out of service. The door 1 is driven by a motor 2 capable of angular displacement round a horizontal axis and another motor 3 angular displaceable round a plumb axis. A TV camera is installed inside of the car cabin as facing a doorway formed at the rear end wall and near the ceiling of the car body. The door 1 is mounted on a framing 18, and the door initial position round the horizontal axis is sensed by a switch S1 while the initial position round the plumn axis by a switch S2, and further a switch S3 senses the condition that the door reflecting face is incapable of photographing, and the result therefrom is subjected to a computational processing and converted into an image with the left and right inverted.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for checking the rear of a vehicle such as a truck and a bus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a typical prior art, a television camera for picking up an image of the rear of a truck and a bus is fixed to a rear portion of the truck and the bus via a bracket.

[0003]

In these prior arts, the lens surface of the television camera is contaminated by rain, wind, dust, etc., and it becomes impossible to clearly image the rear side.

Such a television camera needs to have a structure satisfying the conditions such as waterproof and dustproof, which makes the structure complicated and increases the cost. Also, the TV camera is fixed to the rear of the car with brackets, and therefore the visible range cannot be changed. Although it is conceivable that a wiper blade is provided in order to wipe off dirt on the lens surface of the television camera, doing so causes a problem such as scratches on the lens surface.

An object of the present invention is to provide a rear confirmation device for an automobile which can prevent the lens surface of a television camera from being contaminated and damaged and can widen the rear visible range.

[0006]

According to the present invention, there is provided a television camera provided on a rear portion of a vehicle body of an automobile, and a front portion of a lens of the television camera can be opened / closed, and a surface of the lens side is a reflecting surface. Is a door, a drive means for driving the door to open and close, and a display means provided near the driver's seat for displaying an image by a television camera.

Further, the driving means of the present invention is characterized in that the door is angularly displaced about a horizontal axis.

Furthermore, the driving means of the present invention is characterized in that the door is angularly displaced about the vertical axis.

Further, the television camera of the present invention is equipped with an image processing means which is mounted upright on the vehicle body and which converts an output image of the television camera into an image displaced by 180 degrees and displays it on the display means. Characterize.

Furthermore, the present invention is configured such that the door can be opened wide so that the reflection surface of the door is not imaged by the television camera, and further, the detection means for detecting that the door is opened wide, and the detection means. Image processing means for converting the output image of the television camera into a left-right inverted image and displaying the image on the display means in response to the output of the means.

Further, the television camera of the present invention is characterized in that it is provided in the vehicle body, the lens faces an opening formed in the vehicle body, and the door can open and close the opening.

[0012]

According to the present invention, a television camera is provided at the rear of the body of an automobile such as a truck and a bus, and a door having a reflecting surface on the lens side of the television camera is provided at the rear of the body. By arranging the front of the lens of the TV camera so as to be openable and closable and driving the door to open and close, the rear of the automobile is reflected by the reflecting surface and an image can be taken by the TV camera. By adjusting the opening / closing angle of this door, the visible range behind the vehicle body of the automobile is changed, and therefore, the rear view can be confirmed over a wide range. When not in use, the door provided in front of the lens of the television camera is closed, which prevents the lens of the television camera from becoming dirty or damaged.

The door can be angularly displaced about a horizontal axis and / or about a vertical axis.

When the television camera is mounted upright on the vehicle body, the display means, such as a cathode ray tube or a liquid crystal display element, which can be seen from the driver's seat, is provided behind the vehicle body, that is, upstream from the vehicle body in the forward traveling direction. In order to display the image when the side is viewed, the image processing means converts the output image of the television camera into an image that is angularly displaced by 180 degrees.

Further, according to the present invention, the door can be opened wide and the rear can be directly imaged by the television camera,
When the reflection surface of the door is prevented from being picked up by the TV camera, this is detected by the detecting means, and the output image of the TV camera is converted into an image which is reversed left and right, and is provided, for example, in front of the driver's seat. It is displayed by the display means.

In order to make the waterproofness and dustproofing of the TV camera even more reliable, the TV camera is provided in the vehicle body, the lens thereof is exposed to the opening formed in the vehicle body, and the opening can be opened and closed by the door.

[0017]

1 is a perspective view of a part of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view thereof. The door 1 is driven by a motor 2 that can be angularly displaced about a horizontal axis and a motor 3 that can be angularly displaced about a vertical axis. Such a door 1
Is near the ceiling 6 of the vehicle body 5 on which the luggage of the truck 4 is placed,
An opening 8 formed in the rear end wall 7 is attached to be openable and closable. A TV camera 9 is provided in the vehicle interior 10 so as to face the opening 8. The television camera 9 includes an image pickup device 11 such as a charge coupled device (abbreviated as CCD) and an image pickup device 1 thereof.
1 and a lens 12 such as a convex lens. The image signal from the image sensor 11 is arithmetically processed by the image processing means 13.

FIG. 3 is a simplified perspective view of the door 1 viewed from the vehicle body 5 side. This door 1 is a lens 1 of the TV camera 9
The surface on the second side is a reflection surface 14 as shown by hatching, and the reflection surface 14 is a convex mirror. The horizontal axis of the door 1 is indicated by reference numeral 15 and the vertical axis is indicated by reference numeral 16.

The door 1 has a horizontal axis 1 as shown in FIG.
It is attached to a frame 18 which can be angularly displaced by a shaft 17 having 5 and its rotating shaft 17 is driven by a motor 2. The housing of the motor 2 has a U-shaped support 1
It is fixed at 9. The housing of the motor 3 is fixed to the frame body 18. The motor 3 angularly displaces a rotary shaft 20 having a vertical axis 16, and the rotary shaft 20 is fixed to the door 1.

The initial position of the door 1 around the horizontal axis 15 is
It is detected by the detection switch S1. In this initial position, the vertical axis 16 of the door 1 is substantially parallel to the rear end wall 7 of the vehicle body 5. The initial position of the door 1 around the vertical axis 16 is detected by the detection switch S2. In this initial position, the horizontal axis 15 of the door 1 is substantially parallel to the rear end wall 7.
The attachment piece 22 of the support 19 is fixed near the ceiling 6 of the vehicle body 5.

When the frame body 18 is angularly displaced by the motor 2 so that the vertical axis 16 of the door 1 becomes substantially horizontal,
The rear side of the vehicle body 5 can be directly imaged by the TV camera 9. In this way, the state in which the door 1 is wide open so that the reflection surface 14 of the door is not imaged by the television camera 9 is detected by the detection switch S3 that can contact the frame body 18.

FIG. 4 is a side view of the track 4, and FIG. 5 is a plan view of the track 4. The door 1 is shown in FIGS.
In the tilted open state, as clearly shown in
A shaded area 21 is a visible range that can be imaged and viewed by the television camera 9. Motor 2,
By angularly displacing the door 1 by 3, the visible range 21 that can be imaged by the television camera 9 can be changed.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the electrical construction of an embodiment of the present invention. The outputs of the detection switches S1, S2, S3 are given to a processing circuit 23 realized by a microcomputer or the like, and the processing circuit 23 further responds to the outputs of the operation switch 24 and the back gear detection switch 25, and the motor 2, Control 3 The output image signal of the image pickup element 11 of the television camera 9 is given to the image processing means 13 realized by a microcomputer or the like to be image-processed and displayed by the display means 27 such as a cathode ray tube or a liquid crystal display element. The image processing operation of the image processing means 13 is performed in response to the output of the operation switch 24 and the output of the back gear detection switch 25.

FIG. 7 (1) is a simplified perspective view of the truck 4 viewed from the front when the truck 4 is traveling in the forward traveling direction 28. When the truck 4 is traveling on the road 29 and the television camera 9 is installed upright on the vehicle body 5 of the truck 4, the image captured by the television camera 9 is indicated by the reference numeral in FIG. As indicated by 30. Assuming that a tree 31 and a utility pole 32 are present on the road 29, their images are indicated by reference numerals 31a and 32a, respectively.

FIG. 7 (3) is a simplified front view of the vicinity of the driver's seat 33 of the truck 4. The driver sits in the driver's seat 33 and operates the steering wheel 34 to steer. The driver
By operating the shift lever 35, the power from the internal combustion engine can be transmitted to the wheels via the transmission to change the gear ratio. When the shift lever 35 is operated to move the truck 4 backward, the back gear detection switch 25
Detects that. Further, an operation switch 24 that is manually operated by the driver is provided.

A display means 27 is provided in front of the driver's seat 33, and the driver can visually check the display means 27. The image reflected by the reflecting surface 14 of the door 1 captured by the television camera 9 is as shown in FIG.
As in (2), this image is processed by 180 ° angular displacement around its centroid 36, that is, the image shown in FIG. 7 (2) is upside down and left-right reversed. Is carried out by the image processing means 13 described above, and the resulting image is displayed on the display means 27. As a result, the driver seated in the driver's seat 33 can accurately know the existence of the vehicle body 5 of the truck 4 and the trees 31 and the electric poles 32 provided on the left and right of the road 29. The images of the road 29, the tree 31, and the utility pole 32 on the display unit 27 are indicated by reference numerals 29b, 31b, and 32b, respectively.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the processing circuit 23 for controlling the driving of the motors 2, 3.
From step a1 to step a2, it is determined whether or not the operation switch 24 has been manually operated. If not, the operation proceeds to step a3, and the back gear detection switch 25 switches the gear of the transmission to the reverse gear. Is detected. When the operation switch 24 is not operated and the reverse gear is not detected by the back gear detection switch 25, steps a3 to a
Moving to 10, it is determined whether or not the position of the door 1 by the motors 2 and 3 is the initial position indicated by the detection switches S1 and S2. When it is not in the initial position, the process proceeds to step a11, the motors 2 and 3 are driven, and the door 1 moves to the detection switch S.
1 and S2 are driven so as to reach the initial position detected.

When it is desired to image the rear of the truck 4 by operating the operation switch 24, or when the gear position of the transmission is changed to the reverse gear, the routine proceeds to step a4, where the motor 2 moves the door 1 around the horizontal axis 15 in advance. Determining angle θ1
In step a5, the motor 3 angularly displaces the door 1 around the vertical axis 16 by a predetermined angle θ2, and thus, the standard visible range 21 shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 is imaged. Be ready to do so.

At step a6, the operation switch 24 is further operated to determine whether or not the angular displacement of the door 1 by the motors 2 and 3 should be changed. In steps a7 and a8, the door 1 is angularly displaced about the axes 15 and 16 by Δθ1 and Δθ2, respectively, so that the visible range on the left or right of the vehicle body 5 of the truck 4 and further rearward can be changed.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the image processing means 13. From step b1 to step b2, it is determined in response to the output of the detection switch S3 whether or not the door 1 is in a state in which it is wide enough to capture the reflection image of the reflection surface 14.
When the image is not wide open, that is, when the image captured by the reflecting surface 14 is captured by the television camera 9, the image 30 shown in FIG. 7 (2) is displayed on the display unit 27 shown in FIG. 7 (3). Then, in step b3, the output image of the television camera 9 is angularly displaced by 180 degrees and image processing is performed, and in step b4, the display means 27 displays the image. Since the door 1 is wide open, the television camera 9 does not capture the reflection image by the reflection surface 14 but directly captures the rear side, in step b6, the left and right of the output image of the television camera 9 is reversed. Image processing is performed, and the image is displayed on the display means 27 in step b4.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of still another embodiment of the present invention. A rectifying member 38 is fixed to an upper portion of the rear portion of the vehicle body 5 of the truck 4, and the rectifying member 38 is formed with a storage recess 39 that can be opened and closed by the door 1 as shown in FIG. The television camera 9 is provided in the storage recess 39. Other configurations are similar to those described above.

The rectifying member 38 is fixed to the vehicle body 5 as described above by the combination of the bolt 40 and the nut. The rectifying member 38 has a smooth surface 41 inclined forward (leftward in FIGS. 10 and 11) in the forward traveling direction 28 as it goes downward, thereby reducing air resistance and reducing traveling performance and fuel consumption. It is possible to improve. Exhaust gas can be reduced as fuel consumption improves, and the environment can be improved.

As another embodiment of the present invention, the image pickup device 11 of the television camera 9 may be installed upside down and upside down instead of being fixed upright and fixed to the vehicle body 5. By doing so, the output image of the image pickup device 11 of the television camera 9 may be given to the display means 27 as it is and displayed. As another embodiment of the present invention, the display means 27 may be attached not only to the front but to other places as long as it is near the driver's seat 33. The invention can be implemented in connection with buses and other automobiles as well as trucks.

[0034]

As described above, according to the present invention, the television camera provided on the rear portion of the vehicle body of the automobile captures the image reflected by the reflecting surface of the door which is driven to open and close by the driving means, and the driver's seat. Since the display is provided on the nearby display, the lens is prevented from being damaged by rain, wind and dust when the door is closed, and it is not necessary to wipe the lens to prevent damage to the lens. be able to.

Further, according to the present invention, the rear visible range can be changed and adjusted by changing the angle of the door, and the desired position can be seen on the display means.

When the television camera is mounted upright on the vehicle body, an output image of the television camera is 180 ° angularly displaced, that is, an image signal obtained by inverting the image vertically and inverting the image horizontally is obtained, and the display means is displayed. In this case, the image viewed from the vehicle body toward the rear, that is, when viewed from the upstream side in the forward traveling direction can be displayed by, for example, the display means provided in front of the driver's seat.

When the door is wide open so that the reflection surface of the door is not imaged by the TV camera and thus the rear of the automobile can be directly imaged by the TV camera, the output image of the TV camera is By displaying the images on the display means with the left and right reversed, the image when the vehicle is viewed rearward can be viewed in the driver's seat.

Further, according to the present invention, the television camera is provided in the vehicle body, the lens of the television camera is exposed through the opening formed in the vehicle body, and the opening is opened and closed by the door, whereby the waterproof and dustproof of the television camera is provided. Can be achieved more reliably and at a low cost.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partial perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a simplified vertical sectional view showing a state in which a door 1 and a television camera 9 are attached to a vehicle body 5 of a truck 4.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a door 1.

FIG. 4 is a side view of a truck 4.

FIG. 5 is a plan view of the track 4.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining a state in which an image captured by the television camera 9 is displayed by the display means 27.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the processing circuit 23.

9 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the image processing means 13 in FIG.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of another embodiment of the present invention.

11 is an enlarged perspective view showing a flow regulating member 38 of the embodiment shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 door 2,3 motor 4 truck 5 vehicle body 9 TV camera 11 imaging element 12 lens 13 image processing means 14 reflecting surface 15 horizontal axis 16 vertical axis 18 frame 19 support 23 processing circuit 27 display means 33 driver's seat

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A television camera provided at the rear of a vehicle body of an automobile, and a door provided at the rear of the vehicle body to allow the front of the lens of the television camera to be opened and closed, the lens side surface being a reflecting surface, and the door being opened and closed. A rear confirmation device for a vehicle, comprising: a driving unit for driving and a display unit provided near a driver's seat for displaying an image by a television camera. 2. The rear confirmation device for an automobile according to claim 1, wherein the drive means drives the door to be angularly displaced about a horizontal axis. 3. The rear confirmation device for an automobile according to claim 1, wherein the driving means drives the door to perform angular displacement about a vertical axis. 4. The television camera is provided upright on a vehicle body, and is provided with image processing means for converting an output image of the television camera into an image displaced by 180 degrees and displaying the image on a display means. The vehicle rear confirmation device according to claim 1. 5. The door is constructed so that the door can be widely opened so that the reflection surface of the door is not picked up by the television camera, and further, the detection means for detecting that the door is wide open, and the output of the detection means. Respond to the output image of the TV camera,
The vehicle rear confirmation device according to claim 1, further comprising image processing means for converting the image into left and right images and displaying the image on a display means. 6. The television camera is provided in a vehicle body, the lens faces an opening formed in the vehicle body, and the door can open and close the opening.
The vehicle rear confirmation device described.