KR100535406B1 - Night vision system of vehicle and method for controlling display of head-up display thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

Acquire image data about the front image of the vehicle from a night vision camera to determine whether there is a front obstacle, and brightness and image data of the display screen of the head-up display device according to the presence or absence of a front obstacle in the obstacle determination step. Adjust the image quality parameter of the obstacle area.

Description

NIGHT VISION SYSTEM OF VEHICLE AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING DISPLAY OF HEAD-UP DISPLAY THEREOF}

The present invention relates to a night vision system of a vehicle and a head-up display display screen control method thereof, and more particularly, to a night vision system of a vehicle and a head-up display display screen control method thereof, which performs different display according to the presence or absence of a forward obstacle It is about.

Night vision system for vehicles that can contribute to the prevention of traffic accidents by taking pictures of the camera farther than the headlight range during night driving and displaying them to the driver through a head-up display. (night vision system) is being studied.

In such a vehicle night vision system, a function of analyzing image data photographed by the camera, detecting an obstacle such as a person or an animal from the image data, and alerting the driver has been developed.

In order to alert the obstacle, a method of alerting the driver by sounding a warning message or the like or marking an obstacle or the like on the head-up display may be considered. However, such colorful screen display may be a factor that obstructs the driver's view.

However, when there are no obstacles in front of the vehicle, there is little need to show the front image to the driver. In this case, the night vision system clearly shows the front image to the driver. This causes inconvenience to the driver.

In addition, if the disturbance to the driver's forward field is minimized when the driver is alerted at the time of detecting the obstacle, this is helpful for safe driving.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a night vision system for a vehicle and a method for controlling the head-up display screen thereof, which can be efficiently performed while the influence of the display screen by the head-up display and the obstacle warning display thereof on the driver's front view is reduced. To provide.

Night vision system of a vehicle according to the present invention to achieve the above object,

A night vision camera for acquiring a front image of the vehicle;

A screen adjustment switch for inputting whether to perform screen adjustment;

A head-up display device; And

And an electronic control unit for receiving image data related to a front image from the night vision camera, modulating the image data, and displaying the image data on the head-up display device.

The electronic control unit executes a series of instructions for carrying out the method of the present invention described below.

Screen control method of the vehicle head-up display device according to the present invention,

Acquiring image data about a front image of the vehicle from a night vision camera;

An obstacle determination step of determining whether a front obstacle exists; And

And a brightness adjusting step of adjusting the brightness of the display screen of the head-up display device in accordance with the presence or absence of a front obstacle in the obstacle determining step.

The brightness adjustment step,

If it is determined that there is no front obstacle, it is preferable to include adjusting the luminance of the display screen to a first set luminance lower than the set basic luminance.

The brightness adjustment step,

If it is determined that there is an obstacle ahead, it is preferable to include the step of adjusting the brightness of the display screen to a second set luminance higher than the first set luminance.

Preferably, the second set luminance is the basic luminance.

If it is determined that there is a front obstacle in the obstacle determining step, the image quality parameter adjusting step of adjusting the image quality parameter with respect to the obstacle area calculated as part of the display image of the display device;

Preferably, the image quality parameter includes contrast.

Preferably, the image quality parameter includes brightness.

The image quality parameter preferably includes a gamma-characteristic.

The image quality parameter may preferably include a plurality of contrast, brightness, and gamma-characteristics.

The screen control method of the head-up display device of the vehicle according to the present invention, the step of receiving an input whether or not to adjust the screen; preferably further comprises,

Preferably, at least one of the luminance adjustment step and the image quality parameter adjustment step is performed only when a screen input is inputted.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram of a night vision system of a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, a night vision system of a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a night vision camera 130 for acquiring a front image of the vehicle; A mode switching switch 120 for inputting whether or not to perform screen adjustment; A head-up display device 160; And an electronic control unit 150 (ECU).

The ECU 150 receives image data related to the front image from the night vision camera 130, modulates it, and displays the image data on the head-up display device 160.

The night vision camera 130 may be mounted at any position in front of the vehicle.

For example, the head-up display device 160 may be mounted on a dashboard of a vehicle to display and display an image on a windshield.

The ECU 150 may be implemented as one or more microprocessors operated by a set program, and the set program may include a series of instructions for performing the method of the present invention described below.

In order to control the function of the ECU 150, the ECU 150 is a mode switch for inputting whether the image data received from the light detector 110 and the night vision camera 130 for detecting the brightness of the driving environment is modulated. 120 (mode conversion switch) is connected.

As an example, the determination of whether the image data is modulated by the mode changeover switch 120 is an example. The ECU 150 modulates the image data when the mode changeover switch 120 is turned on. It can be determined that the image data is not modulated.

It is apparent that the mode switch 120 may be implemented as a physical switch. However, the protection scope of the present invention should not be construed as limited thereto. This is because there may be various modifications that can perform the same function as the physical switch. For example, the ECU 150 may display an input icon on a separate touch screen, and the driver may select whether to modulate the image data through the input icon displayed on the touch screen.

Accordingly, the term "switch" as used with respect to the mode changeover switch 120 used in this specification and the appended claims is understood to mean any input means that can be processed in software as well as physical switches. Should be.

Hereinafter, a display screen control method of the head-up display device 160 in a vehicle night vision system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a display screen control method of a head-up display device in a vehicle night vision system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 2, the ECU 150 determines whether the current driving environment is a night driving state (S210). Whether the vehicle is in the night driving state may be determined as, for example, whether the vehicle exterior brightness detected by the light detector 110 is less than or equal to the set brightness.

If the current driving environment is not the night driving environment, it ends.

When the current driving environment is a night driving environment, the ECU 150 receives image data regarding a front image of the vehicle from a night vision camera (S220).

The ECU 150, which has received the image data about the front image of the vehicle, receives an input from the driver through the mode change switch 120 whether to adjust the screen (S230).

The input through the mode changeover switch 120 may be performed by a driver immediately operating the switch when the mode changeover switch 120 is implemented as a physical switch, and the mode changeover switch 120 may be implemented in software. In this case, the driver may select a switch icon displayed on a separate display device.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the mode input step S230 is performed after the image image reception S220. However, the timing of the execution is not a problem. The display screen control method of the head-up display device according to the embodiment of the present invention described below is repeatedly performed while the vehicle is running. The mode input step S230 is already input during the previous repetition. can do.

Accordingly, the ECU 150 determines whether the mode changeover switch 120 is currently in an ON state (S240). By this determination (S240), it is possible to determine the driver's intention as to whether to adjust the screen.

When the mode changeover switch 120 is not in an ON state, the ECU 150 controls the luminance of the display screen of the head-up display device to the set basic luminance value (S245) and heads up the received image data. In operation S290, the display apparatus 160 displays the result. Therefore, the brightness adjustment step (S260) and the image quality parameter adjustment step (S280), which will be described later, are performed only when the screen adjustment is input (S230-Yes).

When the mode switching switch 120 is in an ON state, the ECU 150 determines whether there is a forward obstacle from the received image data (S250). Determination of the presence of the forward obstacle is apparent to those skilled in the art. For example, the brightness of the pixels included in the image data may be determined as the presence or absence of a bright area.

The ECU 150 adjusts the brightness of the display screen of the head-up display display device according to the presence or absence of a forward obstacle in the obstacle determination step S250 (S260).

If it is determined that there is no front obstacle (S250-No), the ECU 150 adjusts the brightness of the display screen with the first set luminance lower than the set basic luminance (S264). If there is no front obstacle, the ECU 150 having lowered and lowered the brightness (S264) displays the image data on the head-up display device 160 without adjusting the quality (S290).

On the contrary, when it is determined that there is an obstacle ahead (S250-Yes), the ECU 150 adjusts the brightness of the display screen with a second set luminance higher than the first set luminance (S262). The second set luminance is assumed to be the basic luminance.

When it is determined that there is an obstacle ahead in the obstacle determination step (S250), the ECU 150, in which the display screen brightness is set as the basic brightness (S262), sets an obstacle area from the received image data (S270). The obstacle area may be set to a specific area where the brightness of pixels of the image data is outstanding.

The ECU 150 which has set the obstacle area modulates the image data by adjusting the image quality parameter with respect to the obstacle area (S280).

The image quality parameter may be any one of contrast, brightness, and gamma-characteristic, and in the embodiment of the present invention, all of them are used.

More specifically, in the image data modulation process S280, the ECU 150 may increase the contrast of the obstacle area, increase the brightness, and increase the gamma characteristic value.

However, the protection scope of the present invention should not be construed as being limited thereto. Contrary to this, the image quality parameter may be adjusted, but the image quality parameter may be adjusted in any manner in which the obstacle area is distinguished from the outside.

The ECU 150 which modulates the image data by adjusting the image quality parameter (S280) displays the modulated image data on the head-up display device 160 (S290).

As such, the ECU 150 displaying the image data on the head-up display device 160 in accordance with various cases proceeds to the determination process S210 again, whereby the screen of the head-up display device of the vehicle according to the embodiment of the present invention. The control method is repeatedly performed while the vehicle is running.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and easily changed and equalized by those skilled in the art from the embodiments of the present invention. It includes all changes to the extent deemed acceptable.

According to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, when the obstacle is not detected, the head-up display device is driven at a low luminance, thereby minimizing the influence on the driver's field of view.

In addition, when the obstacle is detected, since the brightness of the head-up display device is increased, it is possible to immediately determine the presence of the obstacle.

In addition, since the image quality parameter is adjusted only in the obstacle area, the obstacle can be identified more clearly.

In addition, since the image data is corrected by adjusting the image quality parameter of the obstacle area, confusion may be prevented from occurring in the driver's field of view by a separate mark.

In addition, since the contrast, brightness, gamma characteristics, and the like are used as image quality parameters, only the visibility can be made outstanding while maintaining the shape of the obstacle.

1 is a block diagram of a head-up display system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a display screen control method of a head-up display device in a vehicle night vision system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (11)

Acquiring image data about a front image of the vehicle from a night vision camera; An obstacle determination step of determining whether a front obstacle exists; And And a brightness adjusting step of adjusting the brightness of the display screen of the head-up display device in accordance with the presence or absence of a front obstacle in the obstacle determining step. In claim 1, The brightness adjustment step, If it is determined that there is no front obstacle, adjusting the brightness of the display screen to a first set luminance lower than the set basic luminance. In claim 2, The brightness adjustment step, If it is determined that there is an obstacle ahead, adjusting the brightness of the display screen to a second set luminance higher than the first set luminance. In claim 3, And the second set luminance is the basic luminance. In claim 1, And an image quality parameter adjusting step of adjusting an image quality parameter with respect to an obstacle area calculated as a part of the display image of the display device when it is determined that there is an obstacle ahead in the obstacle determining step. Control method. In claim 5, The image quality parameter comprises a contrast (contrast), the screen control method of the head-up display device of a vehicle. In claim 5, The image quality parameter includes a brightness (brightness) screen control method of a head-up display device of a vehicle. In claim 5, And said image quality parameter comprises gamma-characteristics. In claim 5, The image quality variable may include a plurality of contrast, brightness, and gamma-characteristic. In claim 5, Receiving an input whether or not to adjust the screen; further comprising, And at least one of the brightness adjustment step and the image quality parameter adjustment step is performed only when an input is made to perform a screen adjustment. A night vision camera for acquiring a front image of the vehicle; A screen adjustment switch for inputting whether to perform screen adjustment; A head-up display device; And And an electronic control unit for receiving image data related to a front image from the night vision camera, modulating the image data, and displaying the image data on the head-up display device. The electronic control unit, the night vision system of a vehicle, characterized in that for performing a series of instructions for performing the method of any one of claims 1 to 10.