JPH09286279A - Method for controlling vehicular motion picture camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To favorably photograph an outside scene even at the time of rain and at the time of the snow fall by using in priority images which are photographed immediately wiping with a wiper when a wiper is operated by attaching a motion picture camera so as to photograph an outside of the automobile through a wiping area which is wiped with a wiper of a transparent member. SOLUTION: A control device 11 controls a motion picture camera 4 for photographing an outside of an automobile through a window shield 2 provided with a wiper 9. In other words, on a wiper motor 8 for driving the wiper 9, an encoder 10 which is attached co-axially with the wiper motor 8 is attached, a position of a wiper 9 corresponding to the photographing area of the motion picture camera 4 in advance is set in the encoder 10 so that image quality signals A through D are output to the control device 11 on the basis of the photographing area and the position of the wiper 9. The control device 11 receives the output by the wiper 9 to judge the influence of the image quality, respectively outputting appropriate control signals to the motion picture camera 4 and the image processing device 12.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a novel photographing device for an automobile, and more particularly to a novel photographing device for controlling a photographing device mounted inside a vehicle and photographing the outside of the vehicle through a transparent member such as a window shield wiped by a wiper. About the method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There are cases where a photographing device is mounted on an automobile for various purposes. Specifically, a TV camera for monitoring the rear and side areas of the body of a large vehicle,
An example is a distance measuring device for an inter-vehicle distance monitoring device as described in JP-B-56-42040.

A photographing device for utilizing such a photographed image is mounted, for example, by providing a housing with a window on the outside of the vehicle body, and is mounted on the outside via a transparent member such as a window of a passenger compartment. Take a picture. In addition, there is a case where an image capturing device is mounted in the vehicle compartment and an image of the outside is captured through a window. However, it has been known that in the case of photographing using this type of vehicle-mounted photographing device, the photographing quality is remarkably deteriorated due to water droplets or the like adhering to the window during rain or snow.

That is, the above-described vehicle-mounted image pickup device is not only used for simply looking outside the vehicle, but also, for example, in the above Japanese Patent Publication
It is used when the automatic focusing function of the photographing device is used in the inter-vehicle distance monitoring device as described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 56-42040. It can also be used when the inter-vehicle distance from the preceding vehicle is measured and used as information for controlling the cruise control device or the like. Furthermore, it is proposed that future auto cruise devices recognize the license plate of the preceding vehicle from the image signal and perform control so that the positional relationship with other vehicles is not interrupted even when the road conditions such as curves change. Has been done. Therefore, in this type of device, the deterioration of the image quality becomes a very serious problem. Also, when visibility is poor due to rainfall or snow, the demand for this type of device increases.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel control method capable of satisfactorily observing the situation outside the vehicle according to the application by using a photographing device mounted inside the vehicle.

[0006]

According to the present invention, there is provided a method of controlling a photographing device mounted on an automobile and photographing the outside of the automobile through a transparent member equipped with a wiper, the photographing device comprising: It is mounted so that the outside of the vehicle is photographed through the wiping area wiped by the wiper, and when the wiper is operating, the image taken immediately after wiping with the wiper is preferentially used. There is provided a control method characterized by comprising.

In the present specification, the wiper arm, the wiper blade, and the accompanying members that cross the photographing area are collectively referred to as "wiper". In addition, a case where a window shield is taken as an example of a typical transparent member and a case where an imaging device is mounted inside the window shield will be described.

According to the present invention, the photographing device is mounted so as to photograph the inside and outside of the vehicle through the wiping area of the wiper. Therefore, even when it is raining or snowing, it is possible to satisfactorily capture an external scene through the window wiped by the wiper.

However, the wiper wipes the window surface by reciprocating the wiper blade on the window shield by the wiper arm driven by the wiper motor.
Therefore, the wiper arm or the wiper blade crosses the photographing area at a predetermined interval. Therefore, the image of the wiper itself is also photographed by the photographing device. In addition, recent photographing apparatuses often include some automatic focusing means in their optical systems, and the automatic focusing apparatus may malfunction due to a wiper arm or wiper blade that crosses the photographing range.

On the other hand, in the control method according to the present invention, the operation of the wiper and the operation of the image pickup apparatus are associated with each other, thereby making it possible to take an image without substantially affecting the image of the wiper.

That is, when the wiper is operating, the window shield is clean immediately after the wiper wipes the photographing area, and the image quality gradually deteriorates until the wiper wipes the same area. To do. Next, during the period in which the wiper itself is crossing the photographing region, the image quality of the wiper itself is intruding into the photographed image, so the image quality is remarkably low, and immediately thereafter, a period of high image quality comes again. Therefore, by weighting the image information in synchronization with this cycle, it is possible to obtain image information close to that obtained from an image in fine weather. Basically, depending on the application, the shooting itself (processing of the image signal) is interrupted while the wiper arm or blade crosses the shooting range, or the functions of only the automatic focusing device are stopped. It is possible to perform shooting without the influence of the wiper.

In order to actually perform the above control,
There are a method of using a wiper control means and a method of using a signal output from a photographing device.

That is, since the wiper itself performs reciprocating operation or intermittent operation by some control circuit,
By extracting the timing signal from this control circuit, it is possible to know the period during which the wiper crosses the photographing area.

In the case of utilizing the output signal of the photographing device itself, several methods can be exemplified. That is, for example,
This is a method of using the automatic focusing device of the photographing device to detect that the focusing device focuses extremely close to the position when the wiper crosses the photographing region. In addition, there is a method of processing an image signal output from the image capturing device. That is, when the wiper passes through the photographing area, the photographed image becomes extremely dark. Since such a phenomenon occurs regularly in view of the operation principle of the wiper, it is possible to detect from the captured image signal that the wiper has crossed the capturing area. As still another method, when the image signal output from the image capturing apparatus is deteriorated due to image capturing through raindrops or the like attached to the window shield, the harmonic component of the image signal changes. The behavior of the wiper can also be known by detecting such a change in the harmonic component.

When the period in which the wiper crosses the photographing area is detected by the various methods as described above, the image information photographed during the period is ignored, or the image information is weighted to obtain a high quality image. It becomes possible to preferentially handle information. Further, it is possible to contribute to maintaining the image quality by simply disabling the automatic focusing device only while the wiper is crossing.

By using the control method according to the present invention as described above, since the photographing device mounted in the vehicle can photograph the outside through the wiping region by the wiper, the clean window wiped by the wiper. The outside of the vehicle can be photographed via, and at the same time, the deterioration of the image due to the operation of the wiper itself can be prevented.

Hereinafter, each method will be specifically described by way of examples, but the following disclosure is merely an example of the present invention and does not limit the technical scope of the present invention.

[0018]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a method of mounting a photographing device to be controlled by a control method according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the photographing device 4 is mounted near the front window so that the front of the vehicle can be photographed from inside the vehicle through the front window 2. Actually, as shown in Fig. 1 (a),
It may be fixed by suspending it from the front edge of the ceiling 7 or on the instrument panel 6 at the front side of the passenger compartment as shown in FIG. 1 (b). Depending on the type of vehicle, there is a vehicle equipped with a wiper on the rear window as well, and in this case, the rear side seat can be fixed with an image capturing device on the shelf to capture the rear image. In this embodiment, the photographing device 4 is used for the purpose of monitoring another preceding vehicle 5.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the positional relationship between the photographing range of the photographing device and the wiping area of the wiper.

As shown in the figure, in the present embodiment, a video camera is attached to the upper surface of the instrument panel at approximately the center so that the outside can be photographed through the area wiped by both the pair of left and right wipers. It is positioned. Therefore, the photographing area 1 is inside the wiper wiping area 3 in the front window 2. Further, this photographing area is an area wiped by both the left and right wipers.

FIG. 3 is a timing chart showing changes in the quality of image information obtained from the wiper and the photographing device having the configuration shown in FIG.

As shown along the a-axis in the figure, electric power reversing at a constant cycle is supplied to the wiper driving device 8 so that each wiper reciprocates on the vehicle window. In response to this, as shown along the b-axis in the figure, the right wiper periodically crosses the photographing area, and the image of the wiper itself is reflected in the image. In addition, as shown along the c-axis in the figure, the left wiper periodically crosses the photographing area, so that the image of the wiper itself appears in the image. Further, as described above, the car window is clean and the image quality is best immediately after the wiping with the wiper, but thereafter, the raindrops and the like adhere to the car window and the image quality gradually deteriorates. When these are combined, the quality of the image signal obtained from the photographing means changes periodically as shown along the d-axis.

On the other hand, in this embodiment, the axis e is shown in FIG.
The image quality is controlled by dividing the image quality from the highest quality A to the lowest quality D by a predetermined threshold value, as shown in FIG.

That is, the period in which the image is extremely dark because the wiper crosses the photographing range and the shadow of the wiper is included in the image itself is classified into the image quality D, and it is determined that the period is the minimum image quality. In the period of this image quality D, for example, when the image capturing device is used as the distance measuring means with respect to the preceding vehicle, the image capturing information is completely ignored. Further, during this period, it is preferable to disable the automatic focusing device of the photographing device.

On the other hand, during the period of quality A immediately after the wiper wipes off the photographing area, water droplets and the like do not adhere to the window surface, and an image of substantially the same quality as in fine weather can be obtained. Therefore,
During this period, not only the use of captured images for distance measurement,
You can take a complete picture. The image obtained during this period is preferentially used for all purposes.

In this embodiment, two levels of image quality B and C are set between the highest and lowest image quality.
The use of images of intermediate image quality is used according to the application in accordance with the image quality A and D, respectively.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a concrete configuration example of an apparatus for generating image quality information in synchronization with the operation of the wiper.

As shown in the figure, the control device 11 is configured to control the photographing device 4 for photographing the outside of the vehicle through the window shield 2 having the wiper 9. That is, the encoder 10 mounted coaxially with the wiper motor 8 is mounted on the wiper motor 8 for driving the wiper 9. The wiper motor 8 operates under the control of the wiper control device 13 and operates at the operation speed or operation interval selected by the wiper switch 14. On the other hand, the encoder 10 detects the position of the wiper 9. Also, the encoder 9
The position of the wiper corresponding to the photographing area of the photographing device 4 is set in advance, and the image quality signals A to D are output based on the relationship between the photographing area and the position of the wiper 9. In addition to the output of the encoder 9, the control device 11 also receives signals from the wiper switch 14 and the wiper control device 13.

The device configured as described above operates as follows. That is, the control device 11 shifts its operation mode to the wiper operation mode in response to the signal received from the wiper switch 14. The actual operation speed and operation interval of the wiper 9 are detected by a signal from the wiper control device 13. Further, the image quality signal output from the encoder 10 is received, and the influence of the wiper 9 on the image quality is determined. As a result of processing these pieces of information, appropriate control signals are output to the photographing device 4 and the image processing device 12, respectively.

In the device constructed as described above, turning on the wiper switch 14 activates the wiper control device 13 and the encoder 10 and switches the operation of the control device 11 to the operation mode during wiper operation. Encoder
Receiving the image quality signals A to D from 10 and the signal from the wiper control device 13, the control device 11 executes the following controls on the photographing device 4 and the image processing device 12, respectively.
That is, with respect to the photographing device 4, the automatic focusing device does not react to the wiper 9 that passes immediately in front of the photographing device 4,
The automatic focusing device is controlled to be disabled for a certain period. Further, for the image processing apparatus 12, the image immediately after the wiper 9 wipes the photographing area is given the highest priority, and the image signal during the period when the wiper 9 crosses the photographing area is ignored or only usable information is used. Control to use. In some cases, even a low-quality image signal can be used for auxiliary image processing.

[0032]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, effective image information can be utilized even in rainy weather by using the photographing device mounted in the vehicle. Therefore, it is possible to use various devices that are safe and reduce the burden on the driver by using not only a large and specially-equipped vehicle, but also a passenger car or a modified passenger car or a transportation vehicle.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an installation state of an image capturing apparatus which is a control target of a control method according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a positional relationship between an image capturing range of a vehicle-mounted image capturing device and a wiper wiping region.

FIG. 3 is a timing chart for explaining the relationship between wiper operation and captured image quality in the device shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a control device for carrying out a control method according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Shooting area, 2 ... Front car window, 3 ...
..Wipe-off area of wiper, 4 ... Imaging device, 5 ...
Leading vehicle, 6 ... instrument panel, 7 ... ceiling,
8 ... Wiper drive device 9 ... Wiper, 10 ... Encoder, 11 ... Control device, 12 ... Image processing device, 13 ... Wiper control device, 14 ... Wiper switch

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A method for controlling a photographing device for photographing the outside of the automobile through a transparent member mounted on a vehicle and equipped with a wiper, wherein the photographing device is wiped by the wiper of the transparent member. It is mounted so as to take an image of the outside of the vehicle through the wiping area, and when the wiper is operating, it is configured to preferentially use an image taken immediately after wiping with the wiper. Control method. 2. The control method according to claim 1,
The method, wherein the function of the automatic focusing device of the photographing device is stopped while the wiper is passing the photographing region of the photographing device.