JPH11339192A - Display device for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a display device for vehicle capable of more effectively calling driver's attention when a risk is increased by changing the display format of a vehicle existing around a driver's own vehicle in accordance with the risk. SOLUTION: The display device for vehicle provided with a vehicle position detection part 101 for detecting the position of a vehicle around a driver's own vehicle and a display processing part 104 for generating a vehicle mark indicating the vehicle around the driver's own vehicle in accordance with the detected vehicle position and displaying the vehicle mark on a display part 105 is also provided with a self-vehicle speed detection part 102 and a relative speed detection part 103. The display processing part 104 judges the risk of each vehicle to the driver's own vehicle from a traveling state expressed by a distance or the like from a preceding vehicle and changes the display format of a vehicle mark judged as a high risk discontinuously differently from that of a vehicle mark judged as a low risk.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a display device for a vehicle for displaying position information of vehicles around the own vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A display device for notifying a driver of a distance between a preceding vehicle and a host vehicle is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 8-192666. This display device fixes the positions of the preceding vehicle mark and the own vehicle mark, and displays the current inter-vehicle distance between one preceding vehicle and the own vehicle by a numeral therebetween.

[0003]

However, according to the above-mentioned conventional method, when a plurality of vehicles are present in front, it is not possible to instantaneously know which vehicle the distance between vehicles is displayed.

[0004] Further, when reducing the inter-vehicle distance with a preceding vehicle while looking at the inter-vehicle distance displayed by the driver, the driver may be relieved as long as the numerical value indicating the inter-vehicle distance is finite. As a result, fear of a rear-end collision is weakened, and the vehicle runs while keeping the inter-vehicle distance unnecessarily short, thereby increasing the risk of an accident.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to increase the degree of danger by changing the display mode of a vehicle existing around the host vehicle according to the degree of danger. In some cases, it is an object of the present invention to provide a display device for a vehicle that can draw a driver's attention more effectively.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a vehicle position detecting section for detecting the position of a vehicle around a host vehicle and a vehicle position detecting section for detecting the position of the vehicle. A display processing unit that generates and displays a vehicle mark indicating a vehicle around the own vehicle,
As an index that indicates the running status of the vehicle and the surrounding vehicles,
A driving condition obtaining unit that obtains at least one physical quantity including at least an inter-vehicle distance with a preceding vehicle; and a risk determining unit that determines a risk of each vehicle with respect to the own vehicle based on the result obtained by the driving condition obtaining unit. The display processing unit discontinuously changes the display mode of the vehicle mark corresponding to the vehicle determined to have a high risk by the risk determining unit to the display mode when the risk is determined to be low. It is characterized by being changed differently.

Here, the risk determining means is, for example,
If the obtained inter-vehicle distance is equal to or less than a predetermined value, it is determined that the risk is high, and the display processing unit includes:
One of the change rate when changing the size of the vehicle mark according to the size of the vehicle mark and the inter-vehicle distance is changed according to the determination result of the risk degree.

The vehicle display device according to the present invention may further comprise a relative speed detecting means for detecting a relative speed of a vehicle around the own vehicle with respect to the own vehicle, wherein the display processing unit displays the relative speed on the vehicle mark. A variable region in which the size of the display region periodically changes is provided, and the change period of the variable region may be changed according to the relative speed value with respect to the own vehicle detected by the relative speed detecting means. .

Further, in the vehicle display device according to the present invention, the display processing unit displays an image indicating a road in addition to the vehicle mark, and the display range of the displayed vehicle mark and the road image is changed from the own vehicle. The distance may be within a range from a position separated by a predetermined first distance to a predetermined second distance.

Here, the vehicle speed detecting means for detecting the vehicle speed may be further provided, and the display range may be changed according to the detected vehicle speed. Further, the predetermined second distance that is the upper limit of the display range and the predetermined first distance that is the lower limit may be displayed together with the vehicle mark and the road image.

Further, in the vehicle display device according to the present invention, there is further provided a danger range setting means for setting a danger range for the own vehicle in accordance with the driving situation obtained by the driving condition obtaining means, and the display processing section. The risk range may be displayed in a different display form from the other range so that the risk range set by the risk range setting means can be distinguished from the other range.

Here, the risk range may be displayed only when there is a vehicle whose risk is determined to be high by the risk determining means. Further, when displaying the dangerous area, at least a part of the vehicle mark corresponding to a vehicle existing in the dangerous area may not be displayed.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG.
This will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

FIG. 1 shows a configuration example of the vehicle display device according to the present embodiment. The device according to the present embodiment includes a vehicle position detection unit 1
01, the own vehicle speed detecting unit 102, and the relative speed detecting unit 10
3, a display processing unit 104, and a display unit 105.

The vehicle position detecting section 101 detects the vehicle position of the preceding vehicle by obtaining the inter-vehicle distance and the relative direction from the preceding vehicle. The own vehicle speed detection unit 102 detects the speed of the own vehicle. The relative speed detection unit 103 detects a relative speed with respect to the preceding vehicle. The vehicle position detecting unit 101 and the relative speed detecting unit 103 are realized by, for example, a millimeter wave radar, and the own vehicle speed detecting unit 102 is realized by, for example, a vehicle speed sensor.

The display processing unit 104 is constituted by, for example, a computer having a CPU and a memory, and generates and outputs an image for indicating a vehicle mark representing a road and a vehicle. Upon receiving this image output, the display unit 105 including an LCD or the like displays a situation around the host vehicle.

FIG. 2 shows a display example according to the present embodiment as a bird's-eye view.

In this example, the width between the broken lines 209 and 210 indicates the width of the vehicle mark when the preset magnification of the vehicle mark model is set to 1. However, the broken lines 209 and 210 are not actually displayed. When the inter-vehicle distance is longer than the predetermined distance D, the sizes of the vehicle mark 201 and the vehicle mark 202 are the sizes when the magnification of the model is 1.

On the other hand, when the distance is shorter than the predetermined distance D, the display mode is greatly changed from that in the above case. That is, the size of the vehicle mark 203 is made larger than the size when the magnification of the model is set to 1, and is changed to a more conspicuous color and displayed.

If the inter-vehicle distance is a dangerous inter-vehicle distance at this time, a word 211 indicating danger is displayed at the bottom of the screen, and a danger area 212 indicating a range near the own vehicle and considered to be dangerous. Are displayed in different colors, luminances, patterns, and the like so that can be distinguished from other areas. When the dangerous area 212 is displayed, all or a part of the vehicle mark of the vehicle existing in the dangerous area is not displayed.

In this example, the area closer than the predetermined distance D is defined as the dangerous area. However, another threshold value smaller than the predetermined distance D is provided, and the dangerous inter-vehicle distance is determined using the threshold value. It is good also as a structure which determines whether it is.

Further, the size of the variable areas 204, 205, 206 provided in the vehicle mark is displayed while being periodically changed, and the cycle of changing the size is determined according to the relative speed between the preceding vehicle and the own vehicle. To change. Further, the configuration may be such that the colors of the variable regions 204, 205, and 206 are changed based on the relative speed.

The display range (distance range from the own vehicle to be displayed) is set based on the own vehicle speed.
07 and the lower limit 208 are displayed.

FIG. 10 shows another display example when the viewpoint height Eh is different from that in FIG. FIG. 2 and FIG. 10 are display examples of the same situation around the own vehicle, with the viewpoint height Eh and the viewing angle φ changed. When the viewpoint height Eh is set to the point at infinity and the viewing angle φ is set near 0, a two-dimensional plane display is obtained as in the display example of FIG. When the viewpoint height Eh is lowered and the viewing angle φ is widened, a three-dimensional bird's-eye view display as shown in the display example of FIG. 2 is obtained.

According to the display example as described above, the display mode is changed while changing the display mode according to the degree of danger that can be determined based on the running conditions such as the following distance, the relative speed of the preceding vehicle, and the own vehicle speed. The driving situation around the vehicle can be displayed. As a result, the display mode in the driving situation with a high risk is clearly different from the display mode in the driving situation with a low risk, and the driver can easily recognize that the change has been discontinuously changed before and after. It becomes possible.

Next, a processing example of the display processing unit 104 will be described with reference to FIG.

In the present processing example, in the display range setting process of step 301, the display range of the situation around the host vehicle to be displayed on the display unit 105 is set. Next, the process proceeds to a road generation process in step 302, where a road to be displayed on the display unit 105 is generated. Next, the routine proceeds to step 303, where a vehicle mark to be displayed on the display unit 105 is generated. In the following, each process of FIG. 3 will be described by taking, as an example, a case where a situation around the host vehicle is displayed in a bird's eye view.

First, an example of the display range setting process in step 301 will be described with reference to FIG.

In this display range setting process, as shown in FIG. 4A), initial values of the viewpoint height Eh, the viewpoint distance Ed, the viewing angle φ, and the depression angle θ are set in advance with the vehicle position as the origin.
Here, since the relationship between the viewpoint height Eh and the display range changes as shown in FIG. 4B), as the viewpoint height Eh decreases, the vicinity of the host vehicle becomes more detailed. In the present embodiment, by changing the viewpoint height Eh based on the own vehicle speed,
Upper limit distance Dmax and lower limit distance Dm of the display range according to the vehicle speed
It is configured to change in.

Further, in this embodiment, if the inter-vehicle distance from the preceding vehicle is shorter than the lower limit distance Dmin, the vehicle mark is not displayed. For this reason, the driver may display
Even if the own vehicle speed is changed while looking at the vehicle mark to adjust the inter-vehicle distance, the vehicle mark is not displayed if the inter-vehicle distance is shorter than the lower limit distance Dmin, so that it is possible to prevent the vehicle from approaching too close to the preceding vehicle.

According to such a configuration, the lower limit distance Dmin increases as the own vehicle speed increases, so that the driver can travel while maintaining an inter-vehicle distance suitable for the own vehicle speed.

Referring to FIG. 5, a description will be given of an example of processing for generating a road in step 302 of FIG.

In this processing example, the coordinates of the road prepared in advance are converted into coordinates for displaying a bird's-eye view by the coordinate conversion calculation of step 501. The coordinate transformation method uses perspective transformation, which is a general coordinate transformation method for displaying a bird's-eye view. Further, the process proceeds to a road drawing process in step 502, and a road is drawn using the coordinates converted in step 501.

Next, proceed to the danger determination of step 503,
It is determined whether or not a preceding vehicle exists in a dangerous range that is a predetermined dangerous position range defined by the above-described predetermined distance D or the like. Step 5 if the preceding vehicle is in the danger area
04, if not, the road generation means 302 ends.

Here, the danger range is determined not only by the distance from the own vehicle, but also by the overall running conditions (the total weight of the own vehicle, the inter-vehicle distance, the relative speed, the own vehicle speed, etc.). It is good also as a structure which sets the range considered as. here,
The gross weight of the vehicle may be obtained by using information on torque obtained from the transmission control device of the vehicle.

In the setting of the danger area in step 504, display forms such as coordinates, colors, brightness, and patterns for graphically displaying an area (danger area) corresponding to the danger area are set. The display form of the danger area may be variable according to the running condition of the vehicle (the total weight of the own vehicle, the distance between the vehicles, the relative speed, the own vehicle speed, etc.).

Next, the process proceeds to the coordinate conversion calculation of step 505, and the coordinates of the set dangerous area are converted by the same processing as the coordinate conversion calculation of step 501. Finally, the process proceeds to the dangerous area drawing processing in step 506, and the dangerous area is drawn.

According to the road generation processing, it is possible to display a dangerous area such as 212 in FIG. 2 only when another vehicle exists in a dangerous area near the own vehicle. . According to such a configuration, it is possible to more effectively alert the driver than to display the danger area from the beginning, and it is possible to more clearly recognize the danger.

FIG. 6 shows a display example of a road. FIG. 6A is a display example when the dangerous area is not displayed. Figure 6b)
Is a display example when a dangerous area is displayed.

In the display example of FIG. 6A), the display range is set to the upper limit distance Dmax = 150 m, the lower limit distance Dmin = 30 m, and 3
A lane road 601 is displayed. An upper limit value 602 and a lower limit distance Dm indicating the upper limit distance Dmax of the display range beside the road.
A lower limit value 603 indicating in is displayed to make it easier for the driver to grasp the sense of distance. Further, in order to give a sense of depth of the road, the display of the area above the upper limit distance Dmax is changed to display a pseudo background such as the sky 609 and the horizon 608.

In the display example of FIG. 6B), the display range is set to the upper limit distance Dmax = 100 m, the lower limit distance Dmin = 20 m, and 3
A lane road 604 is displayed. In this display example, further, in the same manner as the display example of FIG.
05 is displayed. The danger area 605 is displayed in a different color from the other areas in order to impress the danger to the driver.

The process of generating a vehicle mark in step 303 of FIG. 3 will be described with reference to FIG.

In the vehicle position calculation in step 701, the vehicle position detected by the vehicle position detection unit 101 using the inter-vehicle distance and direction, that is, the polar coordinate position centered on the own vehicle is calculated in the vertical direction in normal two-dimensional plane coordinates. And the distance in the horizontal direction.

Proceeding to the vehicle mark setting in the next step 702, the size and color of the vehicle mark are set based on the inter-vehicle distance, and the size and color of the variable area in the vehicle mark are set based on the relative speed. Then, the coordinates of each vertex of the vehicle mark are set at the position set in step 701.

Next, the process proceeds to the coordinate conversion calculation in step 703, and the coordinates of each vertex of the vehicle mark set in step 702 are converted by the same processing as the coordinate conversion calculation in steps 501 and 505 in FIG. Further, the process proceeds to the drawing process of step 704, and a vehicle mark is drawn.

Next, the process proceeds to the risk determination of step 705, in which the risk of the driving situation in which the own vehicle is placed is determined. The risk is determined by, for example, determining whether or not the inter-vehicle distance is equal to or less than a predetermined value. If the inter-vehicle distance is equal to or less than the predetermined value, the risk is determined to be high (Yes in step 705), and the process proceeds to step 706. It is determined that the risk is low, and the vehicle mark generation in step 303 ends. In this example, the risk is determined using the inter-vehicle distance, but the specific method of determining the risk is not limited in the present invention.
For example, it is also possible to adopt a configuration in which the degree of danger is determined in combination with the relative speed and the own vehicle speed, which are factors indicating the driving situation other than the inter-vehicle distance.

In the word setting in step 706, a word corresponding to the determined degree of risk is drawn at a predetermined position. The content of the word indicating the danger is based on the running conditions of the vehicle (total vehicle weight,
It may be configured to be variable such as “danger” or “caution” according to the following distance, relative speed, own vehicle speed, or the like.

A method for setting the size of the vehicle mark in the setting of the vehicle mark in step 702 will be described with reference to FIG.

In the present embodiment, a model of a vehicle mark is prepared in advance in order to draw the driver's attention and make it easier to recognize the danger when the inter-vehicle distance becomes short or the danger level increases. The model of the vehicle mark is enlarged or reduced according to the detected inter-vehicle distance.

For example, when determining the degree of danger based on the distance between vehicles, when setting the size of the display of the vehicle mark, a predetermined distance D (see FIG. 2) at which the driver starts to pay attention as indicated by a solid line 801 and a broken line 802. ) To the display magnification of the model, or
The rate of change of the display magnification of the model with respect to the inter-vehicle distance is changed discontinuously.

By changing the size of the displayed vehicle mark discontinuously in this manner, the driver can easily recognize the difference between the normal driving and the high-risk driving that requires attention. The predetermined distance D may be variable depending on the running conditions of the vehicle (the total weight of the vehicle, the distance between the vehicles, the relative speed, the speed of the vehicle, etc.).

A method for setting the size and color of the variable area in the vehicle mark based on the relative speed will be described with reference to FIG.

In this example, vehicle mark models a, b, c
Are prepared in advance, and the sizes of partial regions (variable regions 901, 902, 903) in the plurality of models are respectively changed. Next, each time the vehicle mark setting process (step 702) of FIG. 7 is executed, models to be displayed are sequentially selected in the order of, for example, a, b, and c. By repeating such a selection operation, the display of the vehicle mark can be performed while periodically changing the size of the variable area.

Further, in this example, the cycle of changing the size of the variable area is changed according to the relative speed of the preceding vehicle, and the color of the variable area is changed. For example, as the relative speed increases in a direction approaching the host vehicle, the color of the variable region is changed to a color that gives an impression of danger, and the change period of the variable region is increased.

Further, when it is determined that the risk is high using the result of the risk determination processing in step 705 in FIG. 7, the variable is determined so that the difference from the normal driving can be easily recognized. A configuration in which the change cycle of the region or the display color is changed discontinuously may be adopted.

According to the display method of this example, in addition to the inter-vehicle distance, which is a factor relating to the degree of danger, the relative speed of
The display form of the preceding vehicle can be changed.

The display example of FIG. 2 described above can be realized by the method of the present embodiment described with reference to FIGS. According to the display method of the present embodiment, utilizing the factors related to the danger of the driving situation such as the following distance and the relative speed of the preceding vehicle,
By changing the display mode discontinuously, the driver's attention can be more effectively alerted when the risk of the driving situation increases.

[0058]

According to the present invention, the position information of the vehicle around the own vehicle can be displayed while being changed according to the degree of danger, and the driver can be alerted when the degree of danger increases.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a vehicle display device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure in a display processing unit.

FIG. 4A is an explanatory diagram showing an initial set value in a display range setting method. FIG. 4B): a graph showing the relationship between the viewpoint height and the upper and lower limits of the display range.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a road generation processing procedure;

FIG. 6A is an explanatory diagram showing a road display example when a dangerous area is not displayed. FIG. 6B): an explanatory diagram showing an example of road display when a dangerous area is displayed.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a vehicle mark generation processing procedure.

FIG. 8 is a graph showing the relationship between the inter-vehicle distance and the magnification of the vehicle model in the method of setting the size of the vehicle mark.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of a vehicle mark based on the relative speed.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example when the viewpoint height is set to a point at infinity.

[Explanation of symbols]

101: vehicle position detecting unit, 102: own vehicle speed detecting unit, 1
03: relative speed detection unit, 104: display processing unit, 105:
Display section.

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing from the front page (72) Inventor Toshimichi Minowa 7-1-1, Omika-cho, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture Inside Hitachi Research Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd. (72) Inventor Satoshi Kuragaki 7-1-1, Omika-cho, Hitachi City, Ibaraki No. 1 Hitachi, Ltd. Hitachi Research Laboratories (72) Inventor Hiroto Morinami 1-1-1, Omika-cho, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Pref. Hitachi, Ltd. Hitachi Research Laboratory

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A vehicle position detecting unit for detecting a position of a vehicle around the own vehicle, and a vehicle mark indicating a vehicle around the own vehicle is generated and displayed according to the vehicle position detected by the vehicle position detecting unit. A display device for a vehicle, comprising: a display processing unit;
A driving condition obtaining unit that obtains at least one physical quantity including at least an inter-vehicle distance with a preceding vehicle; and a risk determining unit that determines a risk of each vehicle with respect to the own vehicle based on a result obtained by the driving condition obtaining unit. The display processing unit discontinuously changes the display mode of the vehicle mark corresponding to the vehicle determined to have a high risk by the risk determining unit to the display mode when the risk is determined to be low. A vehicular display device characterized by being changed differently. 2. The danger determining means determines that the danger is high when the acquired inter-vehicle distance is equal to or less than a predetermined value. The display processing unit determines a size of the vehicle mark. 2. The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein one of a rate of change when changing the size of the vehicle mark according to the inter-vehicle distance is changed according to a result of the determination of the degree of danger. Display device. 3. The vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising a relative speed detecting unit configured to detect a relative speed of a vehicle around the own vehicle with respect to the own vehicle.
Provide a variable area where the size of the display area changes periodically,
2. The vehicle display device according to claim 1, wherein the change period of the variable region is changed according to a relative speed value with respect to the own vehicle detected by the relative speed detection means. 4. The display processing section displays an image indicating a road in addition to the vehicle mark, and the display range of the displayed vehicle mark and the road image is a first predetermined range from the own vehicle. The vehicle display device according to claim 1, wherein the distance is within a range from a position separated by a distance of a predetermined distance to a second predetermined distance. 5. The vehicle according to claim 4, further comprising an own vehicle speed detecting means for detecting an own vehicle speed, wherein said display processing section changes said display range in accordance with said detected own vehicle speed. The display device for a vehicle as described in the above. 6. The display processing unit displays the predetermined second distance as an upper limit of the display range and the predetermined first distance as a lower limit together with the vehicle mark and the road image. The vehicle display device according to claim 4, wherein 7. A danger range setting means for setting a danger area for the vehicle in accordance with the driving condition obtained by the driving condition obtaining means, wherein the display processing section sets the danger range by the danger range setting means. The display device for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the dangerous range is displayed in a display form different from the other range so that the set dangerous range can be distinguished from the other range. 8. The danger range is displayed only when there is a vehicle whose danger is determined to be high by the danger determination means.
4. The display device for a vehicle according to claim 1. 9. The display processing unit according to claim 8, wherein when displaying the dangerous area, the display processing unit does not display at least a part of the vehicle mark corresponding to a vehicle existing in the dangerous area. Vehicle display device.