KR101623774B1 - Monitoring Apparatus for Driving Dead Space of Vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for monitoring the driving of a vehicle having a monitor on the inside of a front pillar of a vehicle and displaying an image outside the vehicle and a method thereof. 1 photographing unit and a second photographing unit; A monitor unit provided on the inner surface of the front pillar and corresponding to the inner surface of the front pillar; And a blind spot image hidden by the front pillar is input through the first and second photographing units to form a composite image. Then, a portion corresponding to the inner side of the front pillar is extracted from the composite image, And a control unit for displaying the image on the monitor unit.
According to the driving square monitoring apparatus and method of the present invention, the flexible monitor is provided so as to correspond to the inner surface of the front pillar, and the image of the outside of the vehicle is captured and displayed on the flexible monitor, It is possible to maintain safety at the time of overturning, and to solve the blind spot caused by the front filler, thereby enabling safe operation.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a driving-

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for monitoring a driving angle of a vehicle and, more particularly, to a driving angle monitoring apparatus and method for a vehicle, .

BACKGROUND ART [0002] Generally, a vehicle such as a passenger car is largely constituted by a body constituting an appearance, an engine mounted on a vehicle body to generate power, and a chassis for transmitting or operating power generated by the engine to various power devices or drive devices.

Of these, the vehicle body is composed of a floor panel forming the floor of the vehicle, a frame for maintaining the strength of the vehicle body, a filler constituting the side of the vehicle body, a roof panel constituting the upper portion of the vehicle body,

On the other hand, the driver secures the driving clock mainly through the front window of the vehicle during the driving, but secures the rearward or rearward driving clock through the rearview mirror or the side mirror, as well as the side driving clock through the window of the vehicle door .

However, the driver may be disturbed by the front pillars of the vehicle during operation and the front and side front operating timepieces.

For example, the forward driving clock of the vehicle is disturbed by a front pillar called a " A-filler " located between the front window of the vehicle and the door window of the front door.

The front pillars restrict the diagonal line of sight of the driver. In particular, when the vehicle is turning left or right, a dead zone is generated by the filler even though the vehicle is in the traveling direction.

As a result, the driver not only feels frustration but also has difficulty in securing visibility, which hinders safe driving.

Korean Registered Patent Publication No. 10-1075015

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 a vehicle occupant protection system comprising a flexible monitor so as to correspond to an inner surface of a front pillar, The present invention provides a driving square monitoring apparatus and method for a vehicle that can maintain safety during rollover and can eliminate a blind spot caused by a front pillar to perform safe driving.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a driving square monitoring apparatus for a vehicle, comprising: a first photographing unit and a second photographing unit disposed outside a front pillar of a vehicle for photographing a close range and a far range, respectively; A monitor unit provided on the inner surface of the front pillar and corresponding to the inner surface of the front pillar; And a blind spot image of a driver obscured by the front pillar is inputted through the first photographing unit and the second photographing unit to form a composite image so that a portion corresponding to the inner side of the front pillar is extracted in the composite image And a control unit for displaying the image on the monitor unit.

In order to accomplish the above object, the present invention provides a driving square monitoring apparatus for a vehicle, comprising: a photographing unit provided outside a front pillar of a vehicle for photographing; A monitor unit provided on the inner surface of the front pillar and corresponding to the inner surface of the front pillar; And an image of a driver's blind spot obscured by the front pillar is input through the photographing unit so that only a portion corresponding to the inner shape of the front pillar is extracted to be displayed on the monitor unit having the same shape as the shape of the front pillar The control unit is configured to control a blind spot image displayed on the monitor unit and an actual blind spot image obscured by the front pillar to coincide with each other.

Wherein each of the photographing units includes a lens module unit that is provided to face the subject and condenses the incident light and an image sensor unit that receives the light condensed through the lens module unit and converts the light into an electric signal; The image sensor unit may be provided in the shape of the front pillars.

The ratio of the vertical length to the horizontal length of the image sensor unit may be large.

The monitor unit may be a flexible material display having the same size as the inner surface of the front pillar.

The control unit may form an image obtained through the first and second photographing units as a composite image using a SIFT algorithm.

The control unit may extract the pixels corresponding to the inner surface of the front pillar from the composite image or the captured image of the blind zone and display the extracted pixels on the monitor unit.

Wherein the control unit is connected to a fine adjustment unit capable of moving an image displayed on the monitor unit up, down, left, and right; If the image of the blind spot displayed on the monitor unit is inconsistent with the actual blind spot hidden by the front pillar, the image of the blind spot displayed on the monitor unit and the actual blind spot may be aligned by adjusting the fine adjustment unit.

The fine adjustment unit may be automatically adjusted to a preset position so that the blind spot image displayed on the monitor unit matches the actual blind spot.

The control unit may be connected to a sensor unit for sensing atmospheric temperature, atmospheric humidity, or a nearby object outside the vehicle, and a storage unit for storing image data.

The control unit is connected to a speaker unit for outputting a sound signal. When a nearby object is detected in the vicinity of the vehicle, a warning signal may be output to the monitor unit and the speaker unit.

Each of the photographing units may be equipped with an infrared ray irradiating device.

The photographing unit may be provided with a filter so that only the portion corresponding to the inner shape of the front pillar is input.

In order to accomplish the above object, the present invention provides a driving method of a vehicle, comprising: an image acquiring step of acquiring a near-distance image and a long-distance image through a first photographing unit and a second photographing unit, respectively; An image synthesizing step of synthesizing an image obtained through the image acquiring step through an image synthesizing unit; A filler region extracting step of extracting pixels in a position corresponding to an inner surface of a front pillar in an image synthesized through the image synthesizing step; And a display step in which the image extracted through the filler area extracting step is displayed through the monitor unit.

In the image synthesis step, an image obtained through the first and second image capturing units may be formed into a composite image using a SIFT algorithm.

In the displaying step, if the image of the blind spot displayed on the monitor unit does not match the actual blind spot hidden by the front pillar, adjusting the fine adjustment unit so that the image of the blind spot displayed on the monitor unit matches the actual blind spot . ≪ / RTI >

The fine adjustment unit may include a step of automatically adjusting the blind spot image displayed on the monitor unit to a predetermined position so that the blind spot corresponds to the actual blind spot.

According to the driving square monitoring apparatus and method of the present invention as described above, the flexible monitor is provided so as to correspond to the inner surface of the front pillar, and images of the outside of the vehicle are captured and displayed on the flexible monitor, So that safety can be maintained when the vehicle is rollovered, and the blind spot caused by the front pillar can be eliminated, thereby enabling safe operation.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a driving square monitoring apparatus for a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 2 is an exemplary view showing a photographing unit constituting an apparatus for monitoring a driving square of a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention,
3 is a block diagram of an apparatus for monitoring a driving angle of a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention,
4 is a flowchart illustrating a driving square monitoring method of a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention,
5 is an exemplary view illustrating an input image through a photographing unit according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention,
6 and 7 are views illustrating an example of synthesizing an input image according to an embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of extracting a filler partial image from a composite image according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings in order to facilitate a person skilled in the art to easily carry out the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a driving square monitoring apparatus for a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is an exemplary view showing a photographing unit constituting an apparatus for monitoring a driving square of a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention And FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an apparatus for monitoring a driving square of a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention.

1 to 3, the apparatus for monitoring a driving angle of a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a first photographing unit 131 and a second photographing unit 135 provided outside the vehicle 100, A monitor 140 provided inside the vehicle 100, a control unit 140 for processing the image obtained through the first and second photographing units 131 and 135 and displaying the image on the monitor unit 140, (200).

The first photographing unit 131 and the second photographing unit 135 are provided outside the front pillar 120 of the vehicle 100. The first photographing unit 131 photographs by focusing on a close range , The second photographing unit 135 photographs with a focus on a long distance.

As shown in FIG. 2, the first and second photographing units 131 and 135 include a lens module unit R, which is provided to face the subject and condenses the incident light, And an image sensor S for receiving the light condensed through the image sensor R and converting the light into an electric signal.

The lens module R may be composed of a plurality of lenses to image the condensed light onto the image sensor S. [

The image sensor unit S may be a linear CCD (Charge Coupled Device) sensor or a linear CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) sensor. The image sensor unit S may extend in the longitudinal direction of the front pillar 120 Respectively.

The image sensor unit S has a widthwise to heightwise ratio of 3: 4 or 9:

The first photographing unit 131 may be located at the lower portion and the second photographing unit 135 may be located at the upper portion when the outside of the front pillar 120 of the vehicle 100 is bisected .

That is, the first photographing unit 131 and the second photographing unit 135 are arranged to have the same photographing direction at different heights.

The first photographing unit 131 and the second photographing unit 135 may be installed anywhere that a blind spot hidden by the front pillar 120 such as a side mirror can be photographed.

The first photographing unit 131 and the second photographing unit 135 may further include an infrared ray irradiating device such as an infrared LED, so that the photographing can be performed at night.

The first photographing unit 131 and the second photographing unit 135 may be provided with a switch (not shown) for controlling the operation of the infrared ray irradiating device. In the daytime, the operation of the infrared ray irradiating device The first photographing unit 131 and the second photographing unit 135 can be operated for visible light photographing.

In addition, the photographing units 131 and 135 may be provided with a filter (not shown) for inputting only the image corresponding to the inner shape of the front pillar.

The image input through the filter is directly output to the monitor unit 140 provided inside the front pillar so that the image of the part hidden by the front pillar can be displayed without any additional image processing.

The monitor 140 is attached to the inner surface of the front pillar 120 in a shape corresponding to the inner surface of the front pillar 120 of the vehicle 100.

Since the inner surface of the front pillar 120 is curved, the monitor 140 may be a flexible liquid crystal display (LCD), a light emitting diode (LED), or an organic light emitting diode (OLED) have.

The monitor 140 may have the same size as the inner surface of the front pillar 120.

The image obtained through the first photographing unit 131 and the second photographing unit 135 is displayed on the monitor unit 140.

The vehicle 100 is provided with a sensor unit 210 for sensing atmospheric temperature, atmospheric humidity and a nearby object outside the vehicle. The speaker unit 250 includes an operation unit 230 as a user interface, And a communication unit 270 for transmitting various data to the outside.

The operation unit 230 and the monitor unit 140 may be integrally formed with a touch screen.

The control unit 200 displays the atmospheric temperature and the atmospheric humidity outside the vehicle measured by the sensor unit 210 on the monitor unit 140. When a nearby object is detected around the vehicle, The speaker unit 250 can also output a warning signal for a nearby object.

Therefore, a warning signal for a nearby object is output during traveling of the vehicle 100, so that a collision accident or the like can be prevented.

On the other hand, a warning signal for a nearby object may be transmitted to another device such as a driver's mobile terminal through a communication-by-absence communication unit 270 by a driver in a vehicle or the like.

The vehicle 100 further includes a storage unit 290 in which data is stored and the control unit 200 stores an image acquired through the first shooting unit 131 and the second shooting unit 135 in a storage unit 290, and a synthesized image of the first photographing unit 131 and the second photographing unit 135, which will be described later, is also stored in the storage unit 200.

The photographed image is stored in the storage unit 200, and can act as a black box for a vehicle when an accident occurs.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a driving square monitoring method of a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 5 is an exemplary view illustrating an input image through a photographing unit according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 7 illustrates an example of compositing an input image according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8 illustrates an example of extracting a filler partial image from a composite image according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

5, a first image 131a obtained by photographing a short distance is acquired through the first photographing unit 131, and the second photographing unit 135 (Step S101). In step S101, the second image 135a is photographed.

Subsequently, the images obtained through the first and second photographing units 131 and 135 are synthesized into a final image focused through the image synthesizing unit 139 (S102).

In the present invention, as shown in FIG. 6, similarities between images obtained through the feature point (P) matching are measured in the images obtained through the first and second photographing units 131 and 135 to synthesize images SIFT (Scale Invariant Feature Transform) algorithm.

Since the SIFT algorithm is a technique known in the art, a detailed description is omitted, and any algorithm can be used as long as the feature points or feature vectors are extracted from the image such as a corner or a contour detector in addition to the SIFT algorithm to grasp the characteristics of the object.

As shown in FIG. 7, the composite image 139a of the first image 131a and the second image 135a is formed as a panorama image in which two images are combined into one image.

8, the composite image 139a includes a front window image 111a viewed through the front window 111 of the vehicle, a side window image 113a viewed through the side window 113, And the front pillar image 120a obscured by the filler 120 are combined into one image.

Accordingly, in the composite image 139a, pixels included in a range corresponding to the front pillar 120, for example, a, b, c, and d in FIG. 8 are extracted (S103).

Then, image data corresponding to the extracted pixels is displayed on the monitor unit 140, so that the obscured image of the obscured area by the front pillar 120 is displayed on the monitor unit 140 (S104).

The image sensor unit S has the same shape as the front pillar 120 so that the image input to the photographing units 131 and 135 can be output to the monitor unit 140 only through basic image processing have.

If the shape of the image sensor unit is not the same as the shape of the front pillar 120, if the image is photographed through a general camera, the image processed after the basic image processing of the photographed image, A process of reprocessing for display in a shape may be required.

Accordingly, in the present invention, since the process for performing the above-described reprocessing is unnecessary, the external image can be displayed on the front pillar 120 in a short time.

The control unit 200 may be connected to a fine adjustment unit (not shown) for moving the image displayed on the monitor unit 140 up, down, left, and right.

If the image of the blind spot displayed on the monitor 140 does not match the actual blind spot hidden by the front pillar 120, the image of the blind spot displayed on the monitor 140 by adjusting the fine adjuster, The zones can be matched.

The fine adjustment unit may be automatically adjusted to a predetermined position to match the eye level of the user.

For example, when the user A is seated in the driver's seat and the monitor 140 is aligned at the eye level of the user A, when the user B is seated in the driver's seat, the fine adjustment unit The position of the monitor unit 140 is automatically adjusted to the eye level of the user B through the adjustment unit.

Thus, the front window image 111a, the front pillar image 120a, and the side window image 113a are displayed in the form of a panorama image composed of one window at the time of the driver of the vehicle.

In addition, the frame rate of the front pillar image 120a varies according to the speed of the vehicle 100, so that the image is displayed without being broken or distorted.

As described above, a blind spot hidden by the front pillar 120 is displayed as an image through the inside of the front pillar 120, thereby ensuring a continuous view of the driver, thereby preventing a safety accident when turning left or turning right, So that it is possible to provide comfortable driving.

Meanwhile, the method of monitoring the driving square of the vehicle according to the steps S101 to S104 according to the present invention may be programmed and stored in a recording medium such as a CD-ROM, a memory, a ROM, and an EEPROM so as to be read by a computer.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is clearly understood that the same is by way of illustration and example only and is not to be taken by way of illustration, It will be readily apparent that various substitutions, modifications, and alterations can be made herein.

100: vehicle 120: front pillar
131: first photographing unit 135; The second shooting section
140: Monitor section 200:

Claims (18)

A first photographing unit and a second photographing unit provided outside the front pillar of the vehicle for photographing a close range and a long range, respectively;
A monitor part of a flexible material attached to the inner surface of the front pillar so as to correspond to the inner surface of the front pillar; And
A blind spot image of a driver obscured by the front pillar is inputted through the first photographing unit and the second photographing unit to form a composite image and then a portion corresponding to the inner side of the front pillar is extracted in the composite image And a control unit for extracting and displaying only a portion corresponding to an inner surface shape of the front pillar on a monitor unit having the same shape as the shape of the front pillar;
Wherein the control unit controls the blind zone image displayed on the monitor unit and the actual blind zone image obscured by the front pillar to coincide with each other;
Wherein the first photographing unit and the second photographing unit are arranged to have the same photographing direction at different heights. delete The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of the photographing units includes a lens module unit that is provided to face the subject and condenses the incident light, and an image sensor unit that receives the light condensed through the lens module unit and converts the light into an electric signal ; Wherein the image sensor unit is provided in the shape of the front pillars. 4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the image sensor unit has a larger vertical length ratio than a horizontal length. delete The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control unit forms an image obtained through the first and second photographing units as a composite image using a SIFT algorithm. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the controller extracts pixels in a position corresponding to an inner surface of the front pillar in a composite image or a captured image of a dead zone, and displays the extracted pixels on a monitor. [7] The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the control unit is connected to a fine adjustment unit capable of moving an image displayed on the monitor unit in up, down, left, and right directions;
When the image of the blind spot displayed on the monitor unit is inconsistent with the actual blind spot hidden by the front pillar, the image of the blind spot displayed on the monitor unit is adjusted to the actual blind spot by adjusting the fine adjustment unit Driving square monitoring device for vehicles. 9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the fine adjustment unit is automatically adjusted to a preset position so that a blind spot image displayed on the monitor unit matches an actual blind spot. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control unit is connected to a sensor unit for sensing atmospheric temperature, atmospheric humidity, and a nearby object outside the vehicle, and a storage unit for storing image data. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control unit is connected to a speaker unit for outputting a sound signal, and outputs a warning signal to the monitor unit and the speaker unit when a nearby object is detected around the vehicle. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of the photographing units is provided with an infrared ray irradiating device. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first photographing unit and the second photographing unit are provided with a filter so that only the portion corresponding to the inner shape of the front pillar is input. An image acquiring step of acquiring near and far distant images through a first photographing unit and a second photographing unit, respectively, which are provided so as to have the same photographing direction at different heights on the outside of the vehicle front pillar;
An image synthesizing step of synthesizing a blind spot image of a driver obscured by a front filler obtained through the image acquiring step through an image synthesizing unit;
A filler region extracting step of extracting pixels in a position corresponding to an inner surface of a front pillar in an image synthesized through the image synthesizing step; And
And a display step of displaying the image extracted through the filler area extracting step with a flexible material monitor attached to the inner surface of the front pillar with the corresponding shape of the same size as the inner surface of the front pillar;
And controlling the driving of the vehicle so that a blind spot image displayed on the monitor unit and an actual blind spot image hidden on the front pillar coincide with each other in the display step. [14] The method of claim 14, wherein the image synthesis step comprises forming the image obtained through the first and second image capturing units into a composite image using a SIFT algorithm. [14] The method of claim 14, wherein, in the displaying step, if the image of the blind spot displayed on the monitor unit is inconsistent with the actual blind spot hidden by the front pillar, the image of the blind spot displayed on the monitor unit, So as to be matched to each other. 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the fine adjustment unit includes a step of automatically adjusting the blind spot image displayed on the monitor unit to a predetermined position so that the blind spot is actually aligned with the blind spot. A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for executing the driving square-law monitoring method for a vehicle according to any one of claims 14 to 17.

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