KR101512809B1 - Black box apparatus for vehicle and controlling method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a black box apparatus for a vehicle and a control method thereof. The apparatus synthesizes images captured from a wide-angle camera and a telescopic camera to be displayed on one screen and to be stored in a storage unit in order to enable a user to generally comprehend the surrounding situation of a vehicle and to correctly recognize important information such as a vehicle number and to improve efficiency of memory management.

Description

[0001] DESCRIPTION [0002] BLACK BOX APPARATUS FOR VEHICLE AND CONTROLLING METHOD THEREOF [

The present invention relates to a vehicle black box device and a control method thereof, and more particularly, to a vehicle black box device and a control method thereof that combine images photographed from a wide angle camera and a telephoto camera, respectively, display the same on a single screen, The present invention relates to a vehicle black box device and a control method thereof that can accurately recognize important information such as a vehicle number, and can increase the efficiency of memory operation.

At present, traffic accidents caused by insufficient driving or negligence of the driver are generally inadequate as evidence for objectively proving the occurrence of an accident. Therefore, in identifying the responsibility of the aggrieved person and the victim, There is a possibility that an abuser is a victim and a victim is a perpetrator.

In addition, it is often difficult to identify witnesses when there are no witnesses because of unnecessary disputes between the perpetrator and the victim in the event of a car crash, and it is often difficult to identify witnesses so that witnesses are secured by attaching a banner to the accident spot.

A commonly known black box is mounted on an airplane and is used to identify the cause of a crash in the event of a crash by storing flight records. Recently, the technology has been applied to automobiles.

In recent years, in order to prevent the occurrence of such cases in advance, a vehicle black box device for photographing the external environment of the vehicle in real time through a camera module to generate a recorded image, and storing the recorded image in a storage unit, It is possible to precisely determine whether or not an accident has occurred through the recorded images stored in the black box device of the vehicle in the event of an accident.

However, in the conventional vehicle black box device, there is a problem that it is difficult to grasp the surrounding situation of the vehicle in general when the photographing angle of the camera is small, and it is difficult to accurately recognize important information such as the vehicle number when the photographing angle of the camera is too wide There is a problem.

Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-2013-0111789

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been conceived in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an image display apparatus and a display apparatus which combine images photographed from a wide angle camera and a telephoto camera, display the same on a single screen, The present invention provides a vehicle black box device and a control method thereof that can accurately recognize important information such as the number of a vehicle as well as can grasp the surrounding situation of the vehicle as a whole and increase the efficiency of memory operation.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an image processing apparatus and method which recognize a number of a vehicle using image data photographed from a telephoto camera, store the recognized number of the vehicle as text, The present invention also provides a vehicle black box device and method of controlling the same, which can recognize a license plate of a car ahead of the city and can easily search license plates from stored images.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a camera comprising: a wide-angle camera having a wide-angle lens for capturing an image of a surroundings of a vehicle; A telephoto camera provided with a telephoto lens to photograph an enlarged image of the surroundings of the vehicle; An image synthesizer for receiving image data photographed from the wide angle camera and the telephoto camera and performing image processing to display the image data on a single screen; A storage unit for storing image-processed data from the image combining unit; And a control unit for controlling the image data processed by the image synthesizing unit to be stored in the storage unit.

Preferably, the control unit receives the image data photographed from the telephoto camera, recognizes the vehicle number, and texts the recognized vehicle number to be stored in the storage unit.

Preferably, the control unit may list the vehicle numbers in the image data by time and store the images in the image data so that the recognized vehicle numbers can be retrieved from the image data stored in the storage unit.

The control unit may control the display unit to display data processed by the image synthesizing unit via the wireless communication.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of controlling a black box device for a vehicle including a wide angle camera, a telephoto camera, an image synthesizing unit, a storage unit and a control unit, the method comprising the steps of: (a) ; (b) photographing an enlarged image of the surroundings of the vehicle through the telephoto camera; (c) receiving image data photographed in steps (a) and (b) through the image synthesizer and performing image processing to display the image data on a single screen; And (d) storing the image data processed in the step (c) through the control unit in the storage unit.

Here, after the step (d), the step of receiving the image data photographed from the telephoto camera through the control unit, recognizing the number of the vehicle, and storing the recognized number of the vehicle in the storage unit It is preferable to further include.

Preferably, the control unit may list the vehicle numbers in the image data by time and store the images in the image data so that the recognized vehicle numbers can be retrieved from the image data stored in the storage unit.

Preferably, after the step (d), the control unit may further include a step of controlling data displayed on the screen of the user communication terminal to display image data processed by the image synthesizing unit via wireless communication.

According to the vehicle black box apparatus and the control method thereof as described above, images photographed from a wide angle camera and a telephoto camera are synthesized and displayed on a single screen and stored in a storage unit, It is possible not only to grasp the surrounding situation of the vehicle as a whole, but also to recognize important information such as the vehicle number accurately, and to increase the efficiency of memory operation.

According to the present invention, the number of the vehicle is recognized using the image data photographed from the telephoto camera, the number of the recognized vehicle is textized and stored in the storage unit, If necessary, the license plate can be recognized from the license plate of the vehicle ahead, and the license plate can be easily retrieved from the stored image.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a black box device for a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG.
2 is a view illustrating an image obtained through a black box device for a vehicle according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention displayed on a screen of a display device.
3 is a general flowchart for explaining a control method of a black box device for a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, advantages and features of the present invention and methods of achieving them will be made clear with reference to the embodiments described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Is provided to fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art, and the invention is only defined by the scope of the claims. Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout the specification. "And / or" include each and every combination of one or more of the mentioned items.

Although the first, second, etc. are used to describe various elements, components and / or sections, it is needless to say that these elements, components and / or sections are not limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element, element or section from another element, element or section. Therefore, it goes without saying that the first element, the first element or the first section mentioned below may be the second element, the second element or the second section within the technical spirit of the present invention.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of illustrating embodiments and is not intended to be limiting of the present invention. In the present specification, the singular form includes plural forms unless otherwise specified in the specification. It is noted that the terms "comprises" and / or "comprising" used in the specification are intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the components, steps, operations, and / Or additions.

Unless defined otherwise, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein may be used in a sense commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. Also, commonly used predefined terms are not ideally or excessively interpreted unless explicitly defined otherwise.

In the following description of the present invention, detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present invention rather unclear. The following terms are defined in consideration of the functions in the embodiments of the present invention, which may vary depending on the intention of the user, the intention or the custom of the operator. Therefore, the definition should be based on the contents throughout this specification.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a black box device for a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a black box device for a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention. Fig.

1 and 2, a vehicle black box device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a wide angle camera 100, a telephoto camera 200, an image synthesizer 300, a storage unit 400, A sensing unit 500, an image output unit 600, a communication unit 700, a key input unit 800, a power supply unit 900, and a control unit 1000.

Here, the wide-angle camera 100 includes at least one wide-angle lens having a wider angle of view than that of the standard lens, so that the image around the vehicle can be displayed at a wide angle of view (for example, about 60 degrees or more , About 120 degrees).

The telephoto camera 200 includes at least one telephoto lens having a long focal length so as to enlarge or photograph an object at a long distance, and enlarges the surroundings of the vehicle at a predetermined photographing angle (for example, about 40 degrees ) (Preferably, about 18 degrees).

The wide angle camera 100 and the telephoto camera 200 are preferably mounted on the main body of the vehicle black box device on the same optical axis, but not limited thereto, Rear, left, right, etc.) of the vehicle body, or at least one inside or outside the vehicle.

The wide angle camera 100 and the telephoto camera 200 may include at least one of an image sensor such as a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) and a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor), an image sensor, an image signal processor .

The wide-angle camera 100 and the telephoto camera 200 may be mounted so as to photograph the front of the vehicle, but it is preferable to further mount the camera at the rear for photographing the rear side. For lateral photographing, four corners Or more.

The image synthesizer 300 receives the image data photographed from the wide angle camera 100 and the telephoto camera 200 and performs a function of image processing to display the image data on one screen as shown in FIG. do.

The image synthesizer 300 may receive the image data from the wide-angle camera 100 and the telephoto camera 200, and may change the image quality or compress the image.

That is, the image synthesizer 300 converts an analog image signal to a digital image signal to transmit the image photographed by the wide-angle camera 100 and the telephoto camera 200 to the controller 1000, And input the compressed image to the control unit 1000 and / or the storage unit 400.

In addition, the image combining unit 300 can change the image quality of an image photographed by the wide-angle camera 100 and the telephoto camera 200. For example, it is possible to increase the image quality of the image before and after occurrence of an accident, The image quality of the image can be lowered to minimize the required storage space and to store the core image. Meanwhile, the image synthesis unit 300 may be included in the control unit 1000. FIG.

The storage unit 400 stores image data processed by the image synthesis unit 300 and stores the number of the vehicle recognized in the image data photographed by the telephoto camera 200 under the control of the control unit 1000 To be stored in a text format.

It is preferable that the storage unit 400 list the vehicle numbers in the corresponding image data by time and store them in the image data so that the recognized vehicle numbers can be retrieved from the image data stored by the control unit 1000 Do.

The storage unit 400 may store video and audio images taken from the wide angle camera 100 and the telephoto camera 200. The storage unit 400 may store video data transmitted from the video synthesis unit 300 under the control of the control unit 1000 For example, it is stored in a memory such as an SD memory, a USB memory, a flash memory, an HDD, and an ODD.

The removable storage medium such as SD, Micro SD, and USB is preferably housed in a case (or a housing) made of a material having heat resistance and flame resistance. The removable storage medium is housed in the case, thereby protecting the removable storage medium from heat, pressure, impact, etc., which may be generated or generated during vehicle operation or in the event of a vehicle accident.

In addition, the storage unit 400 may include a main memory and an accident storage memory, and the main memory is a normal storage space for storing and deleting the stored information by a predetermined period due to the limitation of the storage capacity. On the other hand, the accident storage memory is a special storage space for continuously storing the vehicle accident related information without deleting to prevent a subsequent dispute.

In this case, when an accident occurs in the vehicle in operation, the accident storage memory stores a captured image, an input voice, a vehicle speed, a vehicle position, a photographing time, and a photographing time of a certain period before and after an accident collected by the image synthesizing unit 300 and the sensing unit 500 And the like can be stored.

The sensing unit 500 senses the vehicle information data regarding the position, motion, shock, and the like of the vehicle, and transmits the sensed vehicle information data to the control unit 1000. The sensing unit 500 may include at least one of a position sensing sensor for sensing the position information of the vehicle, an inertial sensor for sensing the movement of the vehicle, and an impact sensing sensor for sensing an impact applied to the vehicle from the outside .

The position sensor may include a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver. The GPS receiver receives satellite data, and calculates a position, a latitude, a longitude, a sea level, a time, Date, and the like. Using this information, the control unit 1000 can calculate the moving speed, the azimuth angle, and the like by using the information on the position change, and can calculate the traveling distance of the vehicle, record the moving route, The location of the accident point can be stored.

In addition, the inertial sensor may include a sensor such as an acceleration sensor, an angular velocity sensor, or the like, and may be used for accurate calculation of information on movement of the vehicle and movement distance of the vehicle in a shadow area of the GPS. Using this information, the control unit 1000 can also be used as data for determining whether the vehicle is an accident situation or for determining a situation before and after an accident in an accident analysis.

For example, when the output value of the inertial sensor exceeds a predetermined threshold value for monitoring the occurrence of an accident or monitors the transition of the output value for a predetermined period of time, And to record it in the storage unit 400. [0053] FIG.

In addition, the impact detection sensor performs a function for detecting an external impact of the vehicle. The shock detection sensor may include a gyro sensor or a vibration sensor, and may detect an impact at the time of an accident of the vehicle to capture an image at the time of an accident .

That is, the impact sensor senses an impact applied from the outside during driving or parking of the vehicle, and transmits the impact to the controller 1000. The impact sensor detects the gravity acceleration received by the vertical, horizontal, and left and right sensors to detect the impact direction and the impact direction of the vehicle when the vehicle is running or when the vehicle is parked. Using this information, the control unit 1000 can determine that an accident has occurred when the output value of the impact detection sensor, which senses an impact applied from the outside even after the driver does not park on the vehicle, exceeds a preset threshold value.

The video output unit 600 is configured to display data processed by the video synthesis unit 300 on the screen of the display device under the control of the control unit 1000. [ The display device can be configured as an image display device such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), a light emitting diode (LED), a plasma display panel (PDP), a touch screen, a head up display (HUD), a PMP, When the display device is constituted by the HUD, the image data processed by the image synthesizing unit 300 can be displayed on the front window of the vehicle.

The communication unit 700 may be a wireless communication unit such as Wi-Fi, Wireless Broadband Internet, WiBro, WiMAX, HSPA, RFID, , A tablet PC, a notebook PC, a personal computer, etc.) under control of the control unit 1000 by using various types of wireless communication such as CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), 3G LET network, 4G, A portable terminal capable of being carried and moved, and the like).

The key input unit 800 functions to enable the user to directly operate the operation of the vehicle black box device. The key input unit 800 is configured to operate the operation of the system by being mounted on the surface of the vehicle black box device body in a button manner, Or reproducing the data stored in the storage unit 400, or for instructing the operation of the system such as recording, manual operation, and the like.

The power supply unit 900 receives power from the battery of the vehicle and supplies power to each part of the vehicle black box apparatus. If necessary, it may use its own power source. That is, the power supply unit 900 can use the battery power of the vehicle. The power supply unit 900 may include a condenser in the internal circuit, and may operate when the power of the vehicle is cut off for about 3 seconds to 10 seconds, .

The power supply unit 900 may include a power management unit that protects the components from an external power shock and outputs a constant voltage. The power management unit may include an ESD (Electro Static Damage) protector, a power detector, a rectifier, and a power breaker.

Here, the ESD protector is configured to protect electrical components from static electricity or abrupt power shock. The power detector sends a shutoff signal to the power breaker when a voltage outside the allowable voltage range is input, and transmits a step-up or step-down signal to the rectifier in accordance with the voltage change within the allowable voltage range. The rectifier is configured to perform the step-up or step-down rectification operation according to the signal of the power detector so that a constant voltage is supplied with a minimum variation of the input voltage. The power breaker is configured to shut off the power supplied from the battery of the vehicle according to a shutoff signal transmitted from the power detector.

The control unit 1000 controls the image synthesized by the image synthesis unit 300 to be stored in the storage unit 400 and the data processed by the image synthesis unit 300 is output to the image output unit 600 And controls the display device to display it on the screen.

The control unit 1000 receives the image data from the telephoto camera 200, recognizes the number of the vehicle, and controls the storage unit 400 to store the recognized vehicle number in text form .

In addition, the control unit 1000 may control the vehicle number to be stored in the image data in a list by time so that the recognized vehicle number can be retrieved from the image data stored in the storage unit 400 .

On the other hand, the recognition technique of the car number may be a character recognition method by various existing methods as a method of recognizing characters from each frame included in the image. A detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The control unit 1000 compares the sensed result such as the amount of impact or the amount of shaking received from the sensing unit 500 with a predetermined threshold value to determine whether the abnormality is a general situation occurring during operation or a situation due to a collision Can be performed.

At this time, the sensing unit 500 converts the sensed result into a digital value and transmits the digital value to the control unit 1000. When the sensing unit 500 senses an anomalous signal received from the sensing unit 500, Is compared with a predefined threshold value to determine whether the abnormal symptom is a general situation occurring during operation or a situation caused by a collision.

That is, if the detected result value is greater than a predetermined threshold value, the controller 1000 determines that a collision has occurred, and transmits a message including GPS information of the collision area, position information, .

In addition, the control unit 1000 may control the storage unit 400 to store an image continuously captured from the wide angle camera 100 and the telephoto camera 200 during operation. If there is no space to store in the storage unit 400, images stored in a quick time are automatically deleted in chronological order.

If it is determined that the sensed result is a collision state, the controller 1000 determines that the collision has occurred at the predetermined time It is possible to separately record and record the recorded images between the time when the collision occurred and the time when the collision occurred. It is preferable that the separately stored image includes map data including position information such as time, place, latitude and longitude at which the collision occurred.

The control unit 1000 receives the impact information sensed by the sensing unit 500 and the speed information of the vehicle and determines whether or not a vehicle accident has occurred and whether the vehicle is overspeed. desirable.

At this time, black box information such as impact information and speed information can be periodically recorded in the storage unit 400 by a timer (not shown). If it is determined that a vehicle accident has occurred, an accident time can be recorded have.

The control unit 1000 controls the communication unit 700 to perform wireless communication with the communication terminal of the user so that the data processed by the image combining unit 300 is displayed on the screen of the user terminal Can be controlled.

At this time, if the user terminal is a smart phone, data processed by the image synthesizing unit 300 may be displayed on the screen of the corresponding smart phone through a black box dedicated application service for a vehicle. For example, The data processed by the image synthesizing unit 300 through the wireless communication with the communication unit 700 may be displayed on the screen of the corresponding communication terminal.

Hereinafter, a control method of a vehicle black box device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.

FIG. 3 is a general flowchart for explaining a control method of a black box device for a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention, and it is revealed that the control unit 1000 performs as a main body unless otherwise described.

1 to 3, a method for controlling a black box device for a vehicle according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes first capturing an image of the surroundings of the vehicle through the wide angle camera 100 (S100) (Step S200).

Thereafter, in step S300, the image synthesizing unit 300 receives the image data photographed in steps S100 and S200 and displays the image data on a single screen.

Next, the control unit 1000 stores the image data processed in step S300 in the storage unit 400 (S400).

In addition, after step S400, the control unit 1000 receives the image data photographed by the telephoto camera 200, recognizes the vehicle number, textizes the recognized vehicle number, 400). ≪ / RTI >

In addition, the control unit 1000 may list the vehicle numbers in the corresponding image data in a list in order to search the recognized vehicle numbers from the image data stored in the storage unit 400.

Further, after step S400, the control unit 1000 may further include a step of controlling the image processing unit 300 to display data processed by the image synthesizing unit 300 on the screen of the user communication terminal through wireless communication.

Although the preferred embodiments of the black box apparatus and the control method thereof according to the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, but may be variously embodied in the claims, the detailed description of the invention, It is possible to carry out the modification and belong to the present invention.

100: wide angle camera, 200: telephoto camera,
300: image synthesis unit, 400: storage unit,
500: sensing unit, 600: video output unit,
700: communication unit, 800: key input unit,
900: Power supply unit, 1000: Control unit

Claims (8)

A wide-angle camera that has a wide-angle lens and captures an image of the surroundings of the vehicle;
A telephoto camera provided with a telephoto lens to photograph an enlarged image of the surroundings of the vehicle;
An image synthesizer for receiving image data photographed from the wide angle camera and the telephoto camera and performing image processing to display the image data on a single screen;
A storage unit for storing image-processed data from the image combining unit; And
And a control unit for controlling the image data processed by the image synthesizing unit to be stored in the storage unit,
The control unit receives the image data photographed from the telephoto camera, recognizes the vehicle number, and controls the recognized number of the vehicle to be stored in the storage unit. And stores the number of the vehicle in the image data in a time-based manner so as to search for the recognized vehicle number.
delete delete The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the control unit controls the display unit to display data processed by the image synthesizing unit via wireless communication on a screen of the user communication terminal.
A control method of a black box device for a vehicle including a wide angle camera, a telephoto camera, an image synthesizing section, a storage section, and a control section,
(a) photographing an image of the surroundings of the vehicle through the wide angle camera;
(b) photographing an enlarged image of the surroundings of the vehicle through the telephoto camera;
(c) receiving image data photographed in steps (a) and (b) through the image synthesizer and performing image processing to display the image data on a single screen; And
(d) storing the image data processed in the step (c) through the control unit in the storage unit,
Further comprising the step of recognizing the number of the vehicle from the image data photographed by the telephoto camera through the control unit after the step (d), and storing the recognized number of the vehicle in the storage unit, Wherein the control unit lists the vehicle numbers in the image data by time in order to retrieve the recognized vehicle number from the image data stored in the storage unit.
delete delete 6. The method of claim 5,
Wherein the control unit controls the display unit to display the image data processed by the image synthesizing unit via the wireless communication on the screen of the user terminal after step (d) Way.

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