KR101091288B1 - Display apparatus and method for automobile - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a display device for a vehicle, comprising: a gaze recognition unit for recognizing a gaze of a driver and finding a gaze coordinate at a point where the gaze stays; And an information display unit for converting the gaze coordinates received from the gaze recognition unit into interior coordinates of a vehicle and displaying information necessary for a point corresponding to the interior coordinates as an image, wherein the information display unit is located inside the vehicle. Display means installed to display important information and additional information at a point corresponding to the interior coordinates as an image; Drive means for adjusting the direction and position of the display means; And a controller for controlling the driving means and selecting and providing information necessary for a point corresponding to the interior coordinates to the display means. By such a configuration, important information and additional information can be displayed at the point where the driver's eyes stay, thereby preventing the driver's eyes from being dispersed.

Display device, eye recognition unit, interior coordinates, information display unit

Description

Display apparatus and method for automobiles

The present invention relates to a display device and method for automobiles. More particularly, the present invention relates to a display apparatus and method for a vehicle for tracking information on a driver's eyes and adjusting display positions and times based on the driver's eyes, and transmitting information corresponding to a driver's situation to the driver.

Recently, various visual information that drivers must accept according to the development of automobiles such as navigation for guiding road conditions and auxiliary images for providing information at the back of parking is increasing. On the other hand, securing the driver's watch is very important for safe driving so that 50% of delays in finding an accident target are caused by car accidents. Therefore, development of a vehicle display apparatus capable of providing such various visual information without disturbing the driver's watch has been continued.

Specifically, the head-up display device displays information related to driving, such as vehicle speed, within the driver's main view of the windshield of the vehicle, thereby helping to secure the driver's forward field of vision by preventing the driver from bowing his head to view the information while driving. . In addition, the rear display room mirror displays blind spots that are difficult to secure when the vehicle is backed up, enabling more intuitive driving and reducing driver distraction.

However, conventional vehicle display devices such as head-up display devices and rear display room mirrors have numerical and spatial constraints for displaying a rapidly increasing variety of visual information because their positions are fixed in the vehicle. In addition, even when important information related to driving that is to be constantly or urgently notified to the driver is displayed using these conventional vehicle display devices, when the driver is focusing attention elsewhere, the information is not immediately known and such delay is delayed. There is a problem that the driver recognizes the information at an inappropriate time.

The present invention is to solve the above problems of the conventional display device for cars, by detecting the driver's gaze and providing the driver with important information and additional information on driving where the gaze is stopped to reduce the concentration due to distraction It is an object of the present invention to provide an automobile display apparatus and method capable of reducing accidents that may occur due to late discovery of information and minimizing the focus shift of the driver's eyes to reduce eye fatigue.

In order to achieve the above object, a display device for a vehicle according to the present invention comprises: a gaze recognition unit for recognizing a gaze of a driver and finding a gaze coordinate at a point where the gaze stays; And an information display unit for converting the gaze coordinates received from the gaze recognition unit into interior coordinates of a vehicle and displaying information necessary for a point corresponding to the interior coordinates as an image, wherein the information display unit is located inside the vehicle. Display means installed to display important information and additional information at a point corresponding to the interior coordinates as an image; Drive means for adjusting the direction and position of the display means; And a controller for controlling the driving means and selecting and providing information necessary for a point corresponding to the interior coordinates to the display means. By such a configuration, important information and additional information can be displayed at the point where the driver's eyes stay, thereby preventing the driver's eyes from being dispersed.

In addition, in the display device for a vehicle according to the present invention, the gaze recognition unit includes an infrared light emitting unit for irradiating infrared rays to a driver's face; A camera for photographing infrared rays emitted to the driver's face; And a gaze recognition processor configured to determine a gaze coordinate by deriving a driver's gaze direction through the captured image obtained from the camera. This configuration makes it possible to accurately detect the visual coordinate at the point where the driver's gaze stays.

In the vehicle display apparatus according to the present invention, the controller is characterized in that for correcting the image corresponding to the surface shape of the point corresponding to the interior coordinates. Such a configuration can prevent the image from being distorted due to the surface shape of the point where the driver's eyes stay, and as a result, the driver can easily recognize the displayed image.

In the display device for a vehicle according to the present invention, the important information is information related to driving of the vehicle, and the additional information is an image of the outside of the vehicle, and further includes photographing means for capturing the additional information. It features. This configuration allows the driver to view the external image of the vehicle that is not in the field of view, thereby enabling safer driving.

In the display device for a vehicle according to the present invention, the display means is a projector for projecting an image, and the driving means supports the projector and is fixed to the ceiling of the car to rotate the projector in a vertical or horizontal direction. It features. Or in the display device for a vehicle according to the present invention, the display means is a projector for projecting an image, the driving means supports the projector, and moves in the left and right direction of the vehicle along the rail installed on the top of the crush of the car At the same time it is characterized in that for rotating the projector in the vertical direction or left and right directions. By such a configuration, it is possible to easily adjust the position or direction of the display means so that the image can be projected to the point where the driver's eyes stay.

In addition, the display method for a vehicle according to the present invention comprises: a gaze coordinate determining step of determining a gaze coordinate of a point at which a gaze stays by tracking a head and a gaze of a driver; A coordinate conversion step of converting the gaze coordinates determined in the gaze coordinate determination step into interior coordinates; An information selecting step of selecting important information and additional information to be displayed at a point corresponding to the interior coordinates; And moving the display means for projecting the important information and the additional information selected in the information selection step, and then projecting the projection to a point corresponding to the interior coordinates.

In addition, the vehicle display method according to the present invention, after the information selection step, characterized in that it further comprises an image correction step of correcting the image to be displayed in consideration of the curvature of the point corresponding to the interior coordinates.

According to the present invention, since the driver's gaze can be minimized and important information related to the driving of the vehicle can be acquired, accidents due to dispersion of view can be minimized.

In addition, according to the present invention, since the driver can see additional information such as left and right mirror images on the windshield at the point where the gaze stays, the driver's head movement and gaze movement angle can be minimized, thereby reducing the driver's fatigue.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in more detail with respect to the vehicle display apparatus and method according to the present invention. 1 is a view schematically showing a vehicle display apparatus according to the present invention, Figure 2 is a view showing the interior coordinates in the windshield for explaining the vehicle display apparatus according to the present invention, Figure 3 (a) And (b) shows an embodiment of display means and driving means of a display device for automobiles according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the display device for an automobile according to the present invention displays information related to a vehicle at a point where a gaze recognition unit 100 that recognizes a driver's gaze and a gaze detected by the gaze recognition unit 100 stay. An information display unit 200 is provided.

The gaze recognition unit 100 is for recognizing a driver's gaze, and includes an infrared light emitting unit 110, a camera 120 for detecting infrared rays, and a gaze recognition processor 130. The infrared light emitting unit 110 is installed inside the vehicle to emit near infrared rays toward the driver. Near-infrared is not used by humans and is not harmful to the human body. The camera 120 is a device for photographing near infrared rays emitted by the infrared light emitting unit 110 and reflected after reaching the driver. The gaze recognition processor 130 detects a point where the driver's gaze stays by processing an image of the driver photographed in real time by the camera 120.

In detail, the gaze recognition processor 130 processes the image photographed by the camera 120 to extract the gaze coordinates at the point where the driver's gaze stays. The extraction of the driver's line of sight by radiating infrared rays and photographing them is already a publicly available technique, so it will be described here only briefly. The gaze recognition processor 130 tracks the angle of the driver's head or the up and down direction from the photographed image, and also tracks the angle of the driver's pupils, so that the gaze coordinate (gaze point) is a coordinate of the point where the driver's gaze stays. , gaze point). The extracted eye coordinates may be various places such as a windshield, a crush pad, and a passenger seat of an automobile.

In addition, the gaze coordinates extracted by the gaze recognition unit 100 are then sent to the information display unit 200. The information display unit 200 converts the above-mentioned coordinates into interior coordinates of the vehicle. The interior coordinates are coordinates of all parts of the vehicle around a reference point in the vehicle, and are coordinates determined during the design of the vehicle.

The gaze recognition unit 100 includes a control unit 210 for converting the gaze coordinates into the interior coordinates, a display means 250 for displaying information necessary for the interior coordinates, and a driving means 240 for driving the display means 250. . In addition, the gaze recognition unit 100 further includes a vehicle interface unit 220 to extract information related to the vehicle.

The controller 210 controls the driving of the driving means 240 so that the image necessary for the interior coordinates is projected by the display means 250. Meanwhile, the controller 210 selects an image required by the driver. The displayed image includes important information related to driving of the vehicle and additional information to assist the driving. Important information is obtained through the car interface unit 220 as information that the driver should always recognize when driving, such as the speed of the car, rpm, and the amount of oil. In addition, although the additional information is not shown as image information of the front, rear, left and right sides of the vehicle, the vehicle equipped with the vehicle display apparatus of the present invention is used for capturing images on the front, rear, left, and right sides to acquire the additional information. Recording means such as a camera is mounted.

For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the controller 210 divides the gaze coordinates extracted from the gaze recognition unit 100 based on the interior coordinates of the windshield 10 into the middle A to D areas. When the converted interior coordinates are in the area A, only the important information such as the speed of the vehicle, the rpm, the amount of oil and the like is projected through the display means 250. If the driver's line of sight is changed and the interior coordinates converted from the line of sight are in area B (that is, the driver changes lanes to the left), the camera is located on the left side of the car in addition to the above important information. Additional information, such as the left image, is displayed together through the display means 250. As a result, the driver can safely change lanes by obtaining information on the left side of the vehicle without changing the line of sight. The above example illustrates the case where the image is projected onto the windshield 10 by the display means 250, but the present invention can be applied to other parts in addition to the windshield 10 in the same manner.

On the other hand, the surface corresponding to the gaze coordinate where the driver's eyes stay is not uniform. For example, even in the same windshield 10 in FIG. 2, areas A to D have different curvatures. Therefore, the image projected through the display means 250 needs to be corrected according to the curvature of the projected area. To this end, the control unit 210 stores information about curvature in each interior coordinate, and based on this, correction of the image when the important information and the additional information are projected through the display means 250 in advance. Do it. In this way, the driver can accurately recognize the image projected by the display means 250 without distortion due to the curvature of the projected point.

As the display means 250, a projector capable of projecting an image as shown in FIG. 3 is used. The display means 250 adjusts the position and direction projected by the driving means 240. The display means 250 is supported by the driving means 240, and the driving means 240 is controlled by a control signal from the controller 210.

The driving means 240 will be described with reference to the embodiments of FIGS. 3A and 3B. 3 (a) and 3 (b) illustrate an image projected on the windshield 10, the present invention, as described above, projects the image at other points in addition to the windshield 10. The mounting position and shape of the driving means 240 may be changed accordingly.

In one embodiment shown in (a) of FIG. 3, a rail 241 is mounted in the left and right directions at the front end of the driver's seat, and the rail 241 is movably mounted in the upper rail 241 by a motor not shown. The display means 250 (projector) is mounted on the bracket 242. The display means 250 may be rotated vertically and horizontally by two actuators (not shown) mounted on the bracket 242. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the rail 241 and the motor (not shown) for moving the bracket 242 supporting the display means 250 to the left and right, and for rotating the display means 250 in the vertical and horizontal directions The actuator corresponds to the driving means 240.

In yet another embodiment shown in FIG. 3B, a bracket 243 for supporting the display means 250 (projector) is mounted on the ceiling of the vehicle, and the display means 250 is vertically mounted on the bracket 243. An actuator (not shown) for rotating in the direction and the left and right directions is mounted. Therefore, in this embodiment, the actuator for rotating the display means 250 in the up-down direction and the left-right direction corresponds to the driving means 240.

Next, a display method of a vehicle display apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 4, which shows a vehicle display method according to the present invention.

First, the rotation and line of sight of the driver's head are tracked through the infrared light emitting unit 110 and the camera 120 of the line of sight recognition unit 100, and the line of sight coordinates of the point at which the line of sight of the driver stays are determined by the line of sight recognition unit 120. (S100, eye coordinate determination step). Thereafter, the control unit 210 of the information display unit 200 converts the gaze coordinates determined in the gaze coordinate determination step S100 into interior coordinates (S110, coordinate conversion step). In addition, the control unit 210 selects important information based on the interior coordinates of the point where the driver's eyes stay and determines whether to display additional information (S120, S130, S140; information selection step), and generates necessary images. All.

Thereafter, the controller 210 corrects the image generated based on the curvature of the point where the driver's gaze stays (S150, image correction step), and then controls the driving means 240 to correct the image through the display means 250. Ensure that the driver's eyes are projected exactly where they stay.

As described above, the display device for a vehicle according to the present invention displays information necessary at a point where the driver's gaze stays as an image, thereby minimizing dispersion of the driver's gaze and learning important information related to driving of the car. Therefore, it is possible to minimize accidents caused by dispersion of view.

In addition, according to the display device for a vehicle according to the present invention, since the driver can see additional information such as left and right images on the windshield at the point where the gaze stays, the driver's head movement and gaze movement angle are minimized and thus the driver's fatigue Can be reduced.

As described above, although described with reference to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, those skilled in the art will be able to variously modify and change the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention described in the claims. I can understand that.

1 is a view schematically showing a vehicle display apparatus according to the present invention.

2 is a view showing the interior coordinates of the windshield for explaining the display device for automobiles according to the present invention.

3 (a) and 3 (b) show an embodiment of display means and driving means of a display device for automobiles according to the present invention.

4 is a view showing a display method for a vehicle according to the present invention.

<Description of Symbols for Main Parts of Drawings>

10: windshield 20: crush pad

100: eye recognition unit 110: infrared light emitting unit

120: camera 130: eye recognition processing unit

200: information display unit 210: control unit

220: car interface 240: drive means

250: display means

Claims (8)

A gaze recognition unit that recognizes the driver's gaze and finds the gaze coordinate where the gaze stays; And an information display unit for converting the gaze coordinates received from the gaze recognition unit into interior coordinates of a car and displaying information necessary for a point corresponding to the interior coordinates as an image. The information display unit, Installed on the inside of the vehicle and displaying important information and additional information at a point corresponding to the interior coordinates as an image; The important information is information related to driving of the vehicle, and the additional information is an image photographing the exterior of the vehicle, and display means including photographing means for capturing the additional information; Drive means for adjusting the direction and position of the display means; And a controller which controls the driving means and selects and provides information necessary for a point corresponding to the interior coordinates to the display means. The method of claim 1, The eye recognition unit, An infrared light emitting unit that irradiates infrared rays on the driver's face, A camera for photographing infrared rays emitted to the driver's face, And a gaze recognition processor configured to determine a gaze coordinate by deriving a driver's gaze direction from the photographed image obtained from the camera. The method of claim 1, And the controller is configured to correct an image corresponding to a surface shape of a point corresponding to the interior coordinates. delete The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, The display means is a projector for projecting an image, And the driving means supports the projector and is fixed to the ceiling of the vehicle to rotate the projector in a vertical direction or a horizontal direction. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, The display means is a projector for projecting an image, The driving means supports the projector, and moves in the left and right directions of the vehicle along the rail installed on the top of the vehicle, and at the same time rotates the projector in the vertical direction or the left and right directions. A gaze coordinate determining step of determining a gaze coordinate at a point where the gaze stays by tracking the driver's head and gaze; A coordinate conversion step of converting the gaze coordinates determined in the gaze coordinate determination step into interior coordinates; An information selection step of selecting important information related to driving of a vehicle to be displayed at a point corresponding to the interior coordinates and additional information related to an image photographing the outside of the vehicle; And a display step of moving the display means for projecting the important information and the additional information selected in the information selection step, and projecting the projection means to a point corresponding to the interior coordinates. The method of claim 7, wherein And after the information selecting step, correcting an image to be displayed in consideration of the curvature of the point corresponding to the interior coordinates.

Images