JPH0818949A - On-vehicle image processing unit - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make an accurate momentary judgement by controlling an image compositing means based on an output from a rotary angle detection means so as to change at least either a size and a position of a composite image. CONSTITUTION:An image of an optical signal picked up by image pickup lenses 802, 812 is formed on image pickup elements 803, 813, and image pickup signal processing circuits 804, 814 process the images into video signals. An image composite processing circuit 820 composes the signals into one pattern image. In this case, a handle rotary angle detector 831 detects a rotary angle of a handle and gives an output value in response to the rotary angle to a control circuit section 830, from which a control signal corresponding to the voltage is fed to the processing circuit 820. The processing circuit 820 composes images while controlling a size and a segmented position of each reproduced video signal of the processing circuits 804, 814 and provides the result to a monitor drive circuit 821 as a video signal for one image pattern. The circuit 821 displays the video signal onto a monitor 822 as an image.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle-mounted image processing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Japanese Patent Publication No. 4-26275 discloses, as an example of an in-vehicle image processing apparatus, at least two or more monitoring cameras installed in the body of an automobile and images captured and stored by the monitoring cameras. An in-vehicle image processing device that includes a reproduction image processing circuit for reproduction and a switch that interlocks with a vehicle body driving direction indicator or an operation element equivalent thereto, and displays multiple images by continuously or blinking a gaze sign in a specific image segment Is disclosed.

The operation of such a conventional vehicle-mounted image processing apparatus will be described below. FIG. 6 shows the positional relationship between the camera and the car and the imaging range of each camera. 101 indicates the car, 102 a camera unit A, 103 a camera unit B,
Reference numeral 104 denotes an imaging range of the camera unit A (102), and 105 denotes an imaging range of the camera unit B (103).

FIG. 7 shows the camera units A (102) and B described above.
The display screen when the image taken by (103) is output to the monitor of the vehicle-mounted image processing apparatus is shown. In the figure, 201 indicates a reproduced image of the camera unit A (102), 202 indicates a reproduced image of the camera unit B (103), 2
Reference numeral 03 indicates a gaze sign.

In the above structure, when the driver of the vehicle 101 tries to turn right, for example, by using a turn signal or the like, the switch operation of the turn signal or the like of the car 101 causes the reproduced image 202 on the camera section B (103) to be displayed. Attention sign 20
By superimposing the display of 3, it is possible to emphasize the screen to be noticed by the helmsman.

[0006]

However, in the above-described vehicle-mounted image processing apparatus, in order to display the gaze sign 203 on the screen to be noticed so that the operator can easily understand, the gaze sign 203 is enlarged. There is a need to. Therefore, when the gaze sign 203 is overlapped with the object to be watched when it is superimposed on the screen to be watched, the operator cannot intuitively and smoothly recognize the screen to watch. was there.

A reproduced image 2 of the camera unit A (102)
01 and the reproduced image 202 of the camera unit B (103) where a noticeable object is on a screen other than the screen to which attention should be paid, only the display of the gaze sign 203 directs the driver's attention to the screen to which attention should be paid. Therefore, the helmsman could not intuitively and smoothly recognize only the screen to be noticed.

The on-vehicle image processing device of the present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and its purpose is to make the driver aware intuitively and smoothly the image to be noticed. An object of the present invention is to provide an in-vehicle image processing device that can accurately make the above determination.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, a vehicle-mounted image processing apparatus according to the first invention is provided with a plurality of image pickup means capable of picking up different areas and an image pickup from the plurality of image pickup means. Image synthesizing means for synthesizing images formed by signals on one screen, rotation angle detecting means for detecting the rotation angle of the handle, and image synthesizing means based on the output from the rotation angle detecting means for synthesizing. Control means for changing at least one of the size and position of the image to be displayed.

The vehicle-mounted image processing apparatus according to the second aspect of the present invention is the vehicle-mounted image processing apparatus according to the first aspect of the invention, in which the plurality of image pickup means are monitoring cameras, one on each side of the vehicle body. The above is installed.

[0011]

That is, the vehicle-mounted image processing apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention first images different areas by a plurality of image pickup means and synthesizes the obtained images on one screen. At this time, the rotation angle of the handle is detected, and at least one of the size and position of the combined image is changed based on the detected rotation angle of the handle.

A vehicle-mounted image processing device according to a second aspect of the present invention is the vehicle-mounted image processing device according to the first aspect of the present invention.
The plurality of image pickup means are surveillance cameras, and one or more are mounted on each of the left and right sides of the vehicle body.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of this embodiment. In the figure, a taking lens 802 and an image sensor 80
Camera section A (801) as a surveillance camera consisting of 3
Is connected to the first input terminal of the image synthesis processing circuit unit 820 via the imaging signal processing circuit unit 804. Further, the camera unit B (811) as a surveillance camera including the image pickup lens 812 and the image pickup device 813 is provided with the image pickup signal processing circuit unit 8
It is connected to the second input terminal of the image synthesis processing circuit section 820 via 14. The third input terminal of the image composition processing circuit unit 820 is connected to the steering wheel rotation angle detector 831 via the control circuit unit 830. Further, the first output terminal of the image composition processing circuit unit 820 is connected to the control circuit unit 830, and the second output terminal is connected to the monitor 822 via the monitor drive circuit 821. Here, the camera unit A
(801) and the camera unit B (811) are assumed to be attached to the vehicle.

In the above structure, the camera unit A (80
The optical signal imaged by the imaging lens 802 of 1) is imaged on the image sensor 803, and the image sensor 803 converts the imaged optical signal into an electric signal. The electric signal is processed by the imaging signal processing circuit unit 804 into an appropriate video signal. Similarly, the optical signal imaged by the imaging lens 812 of the camera unit B (811) is imaged on the imaging element 813,
The image pickup device 813 converts an optical signal into an electric signal, and an image pickup signal processing circuit 814 processes the signal into an appropriate video signal. The image combination processing circuit unit 820 performs image combination on the signals that have become video signals so as to become a video signal for one screen.

At this time, the handle rotation angle detector 831
Then, the rotation angle of the steering wheel is detected, and an output value corresponding to the rotation angle is input to the control circuit unit 830. Control circuit section 8
30 reads the rotation angle of the handle, and if the handle angle is expressed by a voltage value, for example, sends a control signal corresponding to the voltage value to the image synthesis processing circuit unit 820. The image composition processing circuit unit 820 performs image composition while controlling the size and cut-off position of the reproduced video signals of the imaging signal processing circuit unit 804 and the imaging signal processing circuit unit 814 in accordance with this control signal to perform image composition for one screen. The signal is output to the monitor drive circuit 821 as a signal. The monitor drive circuit 821 displays this video signal on the monitor 822 as an image.

The image synthesizing method of the image synthesizing processing circuit unit 820 described above will be described below with reference to FIG. Figure 2
901, a camera unit A (80
1) shows an image pickup signal from the camera unit B (811) during one scanning line period. Further, arrows indicate sampling timings, and the numbers 1 , 2 , 3 , ... N−1 , N attached to the arrows indicate the camera unit A (8
01) or the number of samplings and addresses when sampling the image pickup signal from the camera unit B (811). Further, 903 and 903 'indicate horizontal synchronizing signals, and t indicates the time synchronized with the falling of the horizontal synchronizing signals 903 and 903'.

First, the image composition processing circuit section 820 digitizes the image pickup signals of the respective camera sections at the sampling timing shown in FIG. 2, and converts a video signal obtained by performing a predetermined process described below into an analog signal. Consider the case of displaying on a monitor.

In this case, the image composition processing circuit unit 820
Sampling is started at the falling time t of the horizontal synchronizing signals 903 and 903 '. By this sampling, the image pickup signal from the camera unit A (801) and the camera unit B (81)
The image pickup signals from 1) are respectively quantized and once written in the memory unit (not shown) of the image synthesis processing circuit unit 820 as digital data.

On the other hand, for example, a voltage value indicating the steering wheel angle output from the steering wheel rotation angle detector 831 is quantized by an A / D converter (not shown) in the control circuit unit 830. Next, the control circuit unit 830 refers to an internal table or the like to obtain a control signal corresponding to the quantized signal and outputs the control signal to the image synthesis processing circuit unit 820. That is, the control circuit unit 830, for example, data Na indicating the sampling valid start address for the image pickup signal from the camera unit A (801).
And the data Nb indicating the sampling valid end address for the image pickup signal from the camera unit B (811) are output to the image synthesis processing circuit unit 820. Image synthesis processing circuit unit 820
Is the camera unit A (80
The digital data of 1) is read from Na address to the end to make it valid data, and N of the digital data of the camera unit B (811) once written in the above memory unit.
Valid data is from the address b to the final address. Then, each of the imaged data that has become valid data is converted from digital data into an analog signal by a D / A converter (not shown) inside the image synthesis processing circuit unit 820, and the monitor is driven as a video signal for one scanning line. Output to circuit 821 and monitor 8
22 is displayed.

At this time, when the steering wheel turns the steering wheel to the right, for example, the control signal received from the control circuit unit 830 by the image processing circuit unit 820 has a large value of the data Na and a value of the data Nb. Get smaller. The reproduction image pickup screen at this time will be described later.

Similarly, when the driver turns the steering wheel to the left, the control signal received by the image processing circuit unit 820 from the control circuit unit 830 has a small value of the data Na and a large value of the data Nb. . The reproduction image pickup screen at this time will be described later.

The internal processing of the control circuit unit 830 will be described in detail below with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, after starting the internal processing of the control circuit unit 830 in step S1, the handle rotation angle reading processing is performed (step S2). That is, the handle rotation angle detector 831 detects the handle rotation angle and converts it into a corresponding voltage value, which is read by an A / D converter (not shown) installed inside the control circuit unit 830 and quantized. The data will be Next, after doing other processing,
The handle rotation angle reading process as described above is performed (step S3). Next, in the steering wheel angle calculation process of step S4, the quantized data of the steering wheel rotation angle read in the steering wheel rotation angle reading process of step S2 is converted into an average value. Here, the handle rotation angle reading process is performed twice or more, but this is performed by the control circuit unit 83.
The accuracy of reading the quantized data of the handle rotation angle read by 0 is improved, and it is not always required to be 2 degrees or more.

Next, in the effective image pickup address calculation process of step S5, the camera unit A (801) and the camera unit B (8)
11. Calculate the effective address of each imaging signal from 11). That is, the control circuit unit 830 performs the table processing or the like on the basis of the averaged handle rotation angle data of the handle rotation angle detector 831 to perform processing for each camera unit A (80).
1), calculate the effective range of the captured image from B (811). Next, in the effective image pickup address control signal output processing of step S6, the above-mentioned data Na and data Nb are serially transmitted as 8-bit data through the serial port of the control circuit unit 830. Of course, data transmission may be performed in parallel.

Next, in step S7, it is determined whether or not the vertical synchronizing signal is input from the image synthesis processing circuit section 820 to the interrupt port. If the vertical synchronizing signal is not input here, this determination is repeated, and if it is determined that the vertical synchronizing signal is input, the process returns to step S2 to execute the processing of the control circuit unit 830 again. here,
A substantially vertical synchronization period is detected by a timer operation inside the control circuit unit 830, and a detection signal at this time is detected by the control circuit unit 830.
Of course, it may be used as the operation synchronization signal of.

The above embodiment will be further described with reference to FIGS. 4 (a), (b) and FIGS. 5 (a), (b), (c). 4A shows a captured image taken by the camera unit A (801), and FIG. 4B shows a camera unit B (81).
The captured image image | photographed by 1) is shown. As described above, these captured images are combined by the image combination processing circuit unit 820 and output as one monitor output image signal. At this time, the handle rotation angle detector 831 detects the handle rotation angle. The control circuit unit 830 outputs a predetermined control signal to the image synthesis processing circuit unit 820 based on the output value from the steering wheel rotation angle detector 831,
Controls the size or cropping position of each image during image composition.

That is, the handle rotation angle detector 831
When it is detected by the operator that the steering wheel 300 (FIG. 5) is in the horizontal position, the control circuit unit 830 sends a control signal corresponding to this position to the image synthesis processing circuit unit 820. The image composition processing circuit unit 820 performs image composition processing according to this control signal, and as a result, a composite image as shown in FIG. 5B is displayed on the monitor 822. As shown in the figure, the left half of the image captured by the camera unit A (801) in FIG. 4A and the right half of the image captured by the camera unit B (811) in FIG. The images are cut out and composited, and the image is not displayed on the monitor. So in this case,
An image in the traveling direction of the vehicle when the steering wheel is horizontal is displayed on the monitor as an image to be noticed by the driver.

Next, when the steering wheel rotation angle detector 831 detects that the driver has turned the steering wheel 300 to the right, the control circuit section 830 sends a corresponding control signal to the image synthesis processing circuit section 820. . The image composition processing circuit unit 820 performs image composition processing according to this control signal,
As a result, a composite image as shown in FIG.
It is displayed in 2. As shown in the figure, most of the left side of the captured image from the camera unit A (801) in FIG. 4A is not displayed on the monitor 822, and the image from the camera unit B (811) in FIG. An image obtained by cutting out a part of the right side of the captured image of is the monitor reproduction screen. Therefore, in this case, the image in the traveling direction of the vehicle when the steering wheel is rotated to the right is displayed on the monitor as an image to be noticed by the driver.

Next, when the steering wheel rotation angle detector 831 detects that the steering wheel has been rotated by the steering wheel to the left, the control circuit section 830 sends a corresponding control signal to the image synthesis processing circuit section 820. Image synthesis processing circuit unit 82
0 performs image composition processing according to this control signal, and as a result, a composite image as shown in FIG. 5A is displayed on the monitor 822. As shown in the figure, the camera unit A of FIG.
The image on the left side of the captured image of (801) is not displayed on the monitor 822, and the camera unit B of FIG.
An image in which most of the right side of the captured image of (811) is cut out is the monitor reproduction screen. Therefore, in this case, the image in the traveling direction of the vehicle when the steering wheel is rotated counterclockwise is displayed on the monitor as an image to be noticed by the driver.

According to the above-described embodiment, the caution screen is displayed as one screen by controlling the effective range of the image pickup signal from each surveillance camera according to the steering wheel rotation angle, so that the operator should pay attention to the object. Can be recognized intuitively and smoothly,
You can make accurate judgments.

Further, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to provide an image that calls the attention of the steering person without displaying a mark or the like on the caution screen, so that the caution image object is hidden by the display of the mark or the like. There is no possibility. Therefore, the helmsman can accurately make a quick judgment.

In the above embodiment, the case where the images are combined by two cameras has been described, but the invention can be applied to three or more cameras. Further, although the image synthesis is performed on the digitized signals in the present embodiment, it is needless to say that the image synthesis may be performed on the basis of the analog signal. Further, in the above-described embodiment, the size of the combined image or the cut position is changed, but both the size of the combined image and the cut position may be changed.

As described above, the vehicle-mounted image processing apparatus according to the first configuration of this embodiment has a plurality of image pickup means (camera section A and camera section B) capable of photographing different areas and a plurality of image pickup means. Image synthesizing means (image synthesizing processing circuit section 820) for synthesizing images formed respectively by the image pickup signals from the image pickup device, and rotation angle detecting means (handle rotation angle detector 831) for detecting the rotation angle of the handle. And a control unit (control circuit unit 830) for controlling the image synthesizing unit based on the output from the rotation angle detecting unit and changing at least one of the size and position (cutting position) of the image to be synthesized. are doing.

The vehicle-mounted image processing apparatus according to the second configuration of the present embodiment is the vehicle-mounted image processing apparatus according to the first configuration, in which the image pickup means (camera unit A and camera unit B) is a surveillance camera. Yes, one or more (two in this embodiment) are mounted on each of the left and right sides of the vehicle body.

Further, the technical idea of the following constitution is derived from the above-mentioned specific embodiment, and the following effects are exhibited. (1) A plurality of image capturing means capable of capturing different areas, an image synthesizing means for synthesizing images formed by the image capturing signals from the plurality of image capturing means into one screen, and a rotation angle for detecting a rotation angle of the handle. Controlling the image synthesizing means based on the output from the detecting means and the rotation angle detecting means,
An in-vehicle image processing device, comprising: a control unit that changes at least one of the size and position of a combined image.

(2) A structure in which the image pickup means is a surveillance camera, and one or more units are mounted on each of the left and right sides of the vehicle body (1)
The in-vehicle image processing device according to item 1. According to the above configurations (1) and (2), the steering person can intuitively and smoothly recognize an object to be noted, and thus can accurately make a quick judgment.

[0036]

According to the present invention, the operator can intuitively and smoothly recognize an image to be noted, and thus can accurately make a quick judgment.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an in-vehicle image processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an image composition processing method.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an internal process of a control circuit unit.

4A is a diagram showing a captured image of a camera unit A, and FIG. 4B is a diagram showing a captured image of a camera unit B. FIG.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a relationship between a rotation position of a handle and a captured image.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a positional relationship between a vehicle and a surveillance camera and a shooting range of the surveillance camera.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining a problem of a conventional vehicle-mounted image processing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

801 ... Camera section A, 802, 812 ... Imaging lens, 8
03, 813 ... Imaging element, 804, 814 ... Imaging signal processing circuit section, 811 ... Camera section B, 820 ... Image synthesis processing circuit section, 821 ... Monitor driving circuit, 822 ... Monitor, 8
30 ... Control circuit unit, 831 ... Handle rotation angle detector.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of image pickup means capable of shooting different areas, an image synthesizing means for synthesizing images formed by the image pickup signals from the plurality of image pickup means into one screen, and detecting a rotation angle of a handle. A rotation angle detecting means, and a control means for controlling the image synthesizing means based on the output from the rotation angle detecting means and changing at least one of the size and position of the images to be synthesized. In-vehicle image processing device. 2. The vehicle-mounted image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image pickup means is a surveillance camera, and one or more units are mounted on each of the left and right sides of the vehicle body.