JPH08129700A - Dead-angle image transmission and reception device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To photograph an image of a part such as an intersection and a curve that the driver should not overlook, to send the photographed image information to the driver by a millimeter wave communication, and to provide the driver with the information as visual information. CONSTITUTION: This device is equipped with photographing means 11 to 14 which photograph images of roads at plural places and are as many as roads at the positions, transmitting means 209 and 30 which sequentially transmit the images photographed by the photographing means 11 to 14, receiving means 409 and 60 which receives the images sent by the transmitting means 20 and 30, an image selecting means 50 which selects only a necessary image out of the images received by the receiving means 40 and 50, and a display means 70 which displays the image selected by the image selecting means 50; and the image selecting means 50 selects an image of a road at a dead angle and displays it at the display means 70.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a blind spot image transmitter / receiver, and more particularly to a blind spot image transmitter / receiver capable of transmitting and receiving images of blind spots in front, left and right of intersections, curves and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, at intersections, curves, etc., before the vehicle enters these intersections, curves, etc., the road conditions of these places are grasped in advance, and encounters are made at places where these road conditions cannot be grasped. It has been earnestly desired to realize a system for preventing the collision accidents of the above. Conventionally, as a method of grasping this kind of road condition in advance, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 58-44228, a transmitting / receiving antenna and a transmission line are buried in a curved road ground to extend the radar detection range to a blind spot. A method of expanding is proposed. Further, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-256271, there is proposed a method of mounting a radar oriented in the left-right direction on the front part of a vehicle and confirming the left-right condition when entering an intersection.

[0003]

However, in all of these methods, information other than the line-of-sight that is the blind spot of the driver is
Since it is indirect information such as distance information and speed information obtained from radar, and there is a limit to the range that can be detected,
Problems such as false detection and non-detection occurred. Moreover, the obtained information is also indirect information, so that the driver's view is not expanded.

On the other hand, recently, communication technology utilizing millimeter waves has been put into practical use. This millimeter wave has a wavelength of 1 to 1.
It is a radio wave of 0 mm (frequency 30 to 300 GHz) which is close to the nature of light and has a characteristic that a channel having a frequency 10 to 100 times that of a microwave circuit can be obtained because a wide frequency band can be obtained. On the other hand, it has been used only for special fields such as satellite communication, because the amount of attenuation by water vapor, oxygen, rain, and fog in the atmosphere is large. However, recent technological developments have enabled widespread practical use of millimeter waves at short distances up to a radius of about 100 m.

Therefore, the present invention is intended to solve the above problems by utilizing this millimeter wave, and takes an image of a portion such as an intersection or a curve that cannot be seen by the driver, and takes this image. The image information is transmitted to the driver by millimeter wave communication and provided to the driver as visual information.

[0006]

A first feature of the configuration of the present invention is to take images of roads at a plurality of locations and to provide a number of photography means corresponding to the roads at the plurality of locations. A transmitting means for sequentially transmitting a plurality of images photographed by a number of photographing means corresponding to a road at a location, a receiving means for receiving the plurality of images transmitted by the transmitting means, and a plurality of receiving means for receiving the plurality of images. Image selecting means for selecting only a necessary image from the images, and display means for displaying the image selected by the image selecting means,
Select the image of the road that becomes the blind spot by the image selection means,
The selection image is displayed by the display means.

A second feature of the present invention is that it converts a plurality of images photographed by a number of photographing means corresponding to the above-mentioned plurality of roads into serial image data, This is because the transmitted serial image data is received and only necessary image data is selected from the serial image data. A third feature of the configuration of the present invention is that a millimeter wave transmitter is installed in the transmitting means and a millimeter wave receiver is installed in the receiving means.

Further, the fourth structural feature of the present invention is as follows.
A voice recognition device is used as an input device of the above-mentioned image selection means, and a fifth feature of the configuration of the present invention is that the above-mentioned photographing means is provided on a traffic signal arranged at a plurality of locations on a road. I decided to install it.

[0009]

According to the present invention configured as described above, the image selecting means can select an image of a road which is a blind spot and the displaying means can display the selected image. The blind spot image, that is, the image of the portion that the driver cannot see through can be visually seen. When it becomes possible to visually see an image of a portion that the driver cannot see through, a special effect of enlarging the driver's visual field occurs.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of a transmitting / receiving apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 shows a receiving apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention at an intersection where the transmitting apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention is installed. It is a figure which shows the condition which the installed vehicle is approaching. 1 and 2, road A, road B, road C,
At an intersection O formed by the road D, four traffic lights including a first traffic light 1, a second traffic light 2, a third traffic light 3, and a fourth traffic light 4 are installed. Each of these traffic lights 1, 2, 3
And 4 are television cameras 11, 12, 13 and 14 for photographing the roads facing each of these traffic lights.
Is arranged.

For example, the first traffic light 1 installed on the road A
Is provided with a first television camera 11 for photographing the road condition of the road C facing the first traffic light 1, and the second traffic light 2 installed on the road B is connected to the second traffic light 2. The second television camera 12 for photographing the road condition of the road D which is on the opposite side is arranged, and the third traffic signal 3 installed on the road C, the road condition of the road A on which the third traffic signal 3 is opposed. Third TV camera 13 for shooting
The fourth traffic signal 4 installed on the road D is provided with the fourth television camera 14 for photographing the road condition of the road B on which the fourth traffic signal 4 faces.

Each of these television cameras 11, 12, 13
And 14 are each of these TV cameras 11, 12, 1
3 and 14 are connected to a transmission controller 20 which produces a signal suitable for transmitting the image signal captured. The transmission controller 20 is connected to a millimeter wave transmitter 30 that modulates a captured image signal with transmission data and transmits a millimeter wave, and the millimeter wave is transmitted from an antenna 34 of the millimeter wave transmitter 30. Become.

On the other hand, for example, as shown in FIG. 2, an automobile 100 that is about to enter an intersection O from a road C is
The millimeter wave transmitted from the millimeter wave transmitter 30 is transmitted to the antenna 4
There is provided a millimeter wave receiver 40 which receives via 4 The millimeter wave receiver 40 is connected to a reception controller 60 that converts a received millimeter wave into an image signal, reproduces the image signal, and outputs only an image in the direction selected by the direction selection device 50. Here, the direction selection device 50 transmits to the reception controller 60 a signal for selecting an image that the driver wants to select from among the images captured by the television cameras 11, 12, 13 and 14. The image output from the reception controller 60 is displayed on the display 70.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the details of the block diagram of FIG. 1. The present embodiment will be described in more detail based on FIG. The transmission controller 20 includes analog image data captured by the television cameras 11, 12, 13 and 14 and the television cameras 11, 12, 13 and 1 respectively.
4 direction data is converted into each digital data A
/ D converters 21, 22, 23 and 24 are provided. Further, the transmission controller 20 is provided with a parallel / serial converter 25 for converting the parallel digital data converted by the A / D converters 21, 22, 23 and 24 into serial data.

The parallel / serial converter 25 includes direction data and image data for the first television camera 11, direction data and image data for the second television camera 12, direction data and image data for the third television camera 13, and fourth. As shown in FIG. 4, the parallel data including the direction data and the image data of the television camera 14 is converted into the direction data and the image data of the first television camera 11 and the second television camera 12 as shown in FIG.
Direction data and image data, direction data and image data for the third television camera 13, direction data and image data for the fourth television camera 14, and so on.

The millimeter wave transmitter 30 includes a digital modulator 31 for modulating a subcarrier (for example, 20 MHz) of serial data in which the above-mentioned direction data and image data are sequentially arranged in serial, and an oscillation signal (for example, 30 GHz). Local oscillator 33 for transmitting a signal of
The up-converter 32 that mixes the signal modulated by 1 and the output signal from the local oscillator 33, and the signal mixed in the up-converter 32 (for example, 30.02).
And a transmission antenna 34 for transmitting GHZ).

On the other hand, on the receiving side that receives the signal transmitted from the transmitting antenna 34, for example, the automobile 100, a millimeter wave receiver 40 that receives the transmitting signal via the receiving antenna 44 installed in this automobile 100 is provided. Has been. The millimeter wave receiver 40 includes a receiving antenna 44 and a local oscillator 4 for transmitting an oscillation signal (for example, a signal of 30 GHz).
3, a down converter 42 that differentially mixes a received signal (for example, 30.02 GHz) and an output signal from the local oscillator 43 (for example, 30 GHz), and a signal whose frequency is changed by the down converter 42 (for example, , 20MH
Digital demodulator 4 for demodulating Z) into digital data
1 and 1.

Further, the automobile 100 is provided with a reception controller 60, a direction selection device 50 and a display 70. The direction selection device 50 includes a traveling direction detector 51 such as a GPS (Global Positioning System) and a voice recognition device 52 that serves as an input device for selecting an image in a direction desired by the driver. Output signals from the detector 51 and the voice recognition device 52 are connected so as to be input to the reception controller 60. The image data output from the reception controller 60 is input to the display 70, and the image of the selected television camera is displayed on the display 70.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 2, 3 and 4. Each TV camera 1
The analog image data captured by 1, 12, 13 and 14 and the direction data of each TV camera are input to the respective A / D converters 21, 22, 23 and 24 of the transmission controller 20 and converted into digital data. To be done. Then, each of these digital data is input to the parallel / serial converter 25. In the parallel / serial converter 25, the direction data and image data of the TV camera 11, the direction data and image data of the TV camera 12, the direction data and image data of the TV camera 13, and the direction data and image data of the TV camera 14 are converted. It is converted into serial data arranged serially as shown in FIG.

Then, the serial data in which the direction data and the image data are sequentially arranged serially are input to the digital modulator 31 of the millimeter wave transmitter 30, and in the digital modulator 31, a subcarrier (for example, 20M) is input.
HZ) is modulated. Then, the modulated signal is input to the up converter 32. In the up converter 32, a signal (for example, 2
0 MHz) and the output signal from the local oscillator 33 (for example, 30 GHz) are mixed. Signals mixed in the up converter 32 (for example, 30.02 GH
Z) is transmitted from the transmission antenna 34.

Here, the automobile 100 (see FIG. 2) trying to enter the intersection O from the road C is the millimeter wave transmitter 30.
When the above-mentioned mixed signal (for example, 30.02 GHz) transmitted from the transmitting antenna 34 of the vehicle is received by the receiving antenna 44 installed in the automobile 100, the received signal is a millimeter wave receiver installed in the automobile 100. 40. Then, this received signal (for example, 30.02)
GHZ) is input to the down converter 42 of the millimeter wave receiver 40. The output signal (for example, 30 GHz) from the local oscillator 43 is input to the down converter 42, and the frequency is changed to a low frequency (for example, 20 MHz) in the down converter 42 and input to the digital demodulator 41. It

The signal input to the digital demodulator 41 is demodulated into digital data by the digital demodulator 41 and then input to the reception controller 60.
A traveling direction detector 51 and a voice recognition device 52 of the direction selection device 50 are connected to the reception controller 60. For example, at the intersection O as shown in FIG.
If the driver utters "right" before entering the intersection O while 00 is traveling from road C toward road A, the voice recognition device 52 recognizes the voice "right". , And outputs a signal corresponding to the “right” direction to the reception controller 60. Then, the reception controller 60 monitors the road condition of the road D, which is the desired direction, based on the direction signal from the traveling direction detector 51.
Only the image data of is output. Then, the image data output from the reception controller 60 is displayed on the display 7.
The image of the selected TV camera input to 0 is displayed on the display 70.

As described above, in the present embodiment, when the driver inputs a desired direction (for example, rightward direction) to the voice recognition device 52 by voice (pronounced "right", for example), the reception controller 60. Outputs only the image data of the desired direction (for example, the image of the TV camera 12 monitoring the road D) to the display 70 based on the direction signal from the traveling direction detector 51, and the display 70 displays this image. indicate. Therefore, the driver can see the blind spot image,
That is, it becomes possible to visually see an image of a portion that the driver cannot see through, which brings about a special effect of enlarging the driver's visual field.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of a transmission / reception device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a situation in which an automobile equipped with the receiver of the present invention is about to enter an intersection where the transceiver of the embodiment of the present invention is installed.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing details of the block diagram of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example in which parallel image data is serially converted.

[Explanation of symbols]

11, 12, 13, 14 ... TV camera (imaging means),
20 ... Transmission controller (transmission means), 30 ... Millimeter wave transmitter (transmission means), 40 ... Millimeter wave receiver (reception means),
50 ... Direction selecting device (image selecting means), 60 ... Reception controller (receiving means), 70 ... Display (display means), 100 ... Car

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Naoyoshi Matsushima 1-1-1, Showa-cho, Kariya city, Aichi prefecture Nihon Denso Co., Ltd.

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An image of each of a plurality of roads is captured, and a plurality of image capturing means corresponding to the plurality of roads, and a plurality of image capturing means captured by the plurality of image capturing means. Transmitting means for sequentially transmitting images, receiving means for receiving a plurality of images transmitted by the transmitting means, image selecting means for selecting only a necessary image from the plurality of images received by the receiving means, and Display means for displaying the image selected by the image selecting means, wherein the image of the road which is a blind spot is selected by the image selecting means, and the selected image is displayed by the displaying means. Blind spot image transceiver. 2. An image of each of a plurality of roads is captured, and a plurality of image capturing means corresponding to the plurality of roads and a plurality of image capturing means corresponding to the plurality of roads are captured. Transmitting means for converting the image into serial image data and transmitting the converted signal, receiving means for receiving the serial image data transmitted by the transmitting means, and serial image received by the receiving means An image selecting unit that selects only necessary image data from the data, and a display unit that displays the image selected by the image selecting unit, and select an image of a road that becomes a blind spot by the image selecting unit, A blind spot image transmitting / receiving apparatus, wherein the selected image is displayed by the display means. 3. The blind spot image transmission / reception according to claim 1, wherein the transmitting means is provided with a millimeter wave transmitter, and the receiving means is provided with a millimeter wave receiver. apparatus. 4. The blind spot image transmitting / receiving device according to claim 1, wherein a voice recognition device is used as an input device of the image selecting means. 5. The blind spot image transmitting / receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the photographing means is installed on a traffic light arranged at a plurality of locations on a road. 6. The blind spot image transmitting / receiving apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the traffic light is provided at each corner of the intersection.