KR101911926B1 - Apparatus and method for supporting parking of vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a parking assist apparatus and method. According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a parking assisting apparatus for a vehicle, comprising: a storage unit for storing a camera image acquired through a camera; A bird's-eye view image generating unit for generating a bird's-eye view image for a camera image by performing a viewpoint conversion of a camera image; An object detecting unit for detecting objects having a height in the bird's-eye image; An allowance width calculating unit for calculating a distance between objects having a height; Judging whether or not the driver's vehicle can be parked in the area included in the bird's-eye image by comparing the distance between the objects and the width of the vehicle, judging whether or not the driver can park the driver's vehicle in the bird's- part; And a virtual parking line generation unit for adding a first virtual parking line to the bird's-eye image according to the searched parking availability position.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a parking assisting apparatus,

The present invention relates to a parking assist apparatus and method, and more particularly, to a parking assist apparatus capable of displaying a virtual parking line at a parking position when a driver parks the vehicle in a space without a separate parking line, And methods.

Generally, a vehicle driver uses a side mirror and a room mirror, which are mounted on the vehicle, to park the vehicle when the vehicle is parked backward. However, since the side mirror has a reflection angle shape, there may be blind spots that the driver can not recognize, and it is difficult to accurately identify obstacles existing behind the room mirror.

In order to solve this problem, a technique has been developed in which a camera is mounted on the rear or front of a vehicle to provide a rearward or frontal image of the vehicle, thereby assisting in parking the vehicle. This rear or forward image allows the driver to recognize obstacles existing behind or in front of the vehicle at the time of parking. In addition, in the case of such a parking assistance system, a technique of displaying the trajectory of the vehicle on the display unit in accordance with the steering direction is provided. Accordingly, the driver can smoothly park the vehicle at a place where the parking line is displayed, such as a parking lot, using the rear or forward image displayed through the display unit mounted on the vehicle.

However, there are a number of situations in which the number of the parking lots capable of accommodating the vehicle is limited, and the driver's vehicle is parked in a place other than the parking lot. Further, there is a situation where the driver parks the vehicle in a space without a parking line when the driver resides in a house without a parking lot, or when the vehicle is parked in a restaurant or the like.

In such a situation, when the driver parks the driver's vehicle on an alley or a specific place, the above-described parking assistance system does not provide a function to grasp whether or not it interferes with the passage of other vehicles or people. In addition, in the case of the conventional parking assist system, only the virtual movement route according to the steering angle is notified to the driver, but the vehicle can not be parked, as well as whether or not the other vehicle or people pass through. Accordingly, there is a need for a system for parking assistance that is more intuitive and more user friendly than the prior art.

Korean Registered Patent No. 2016-0061068 (name: parking line display device and display method thereof)

An object of the present invention is to provide a parking assisting device and a method for assisting parking of a vehicle when parking is performed in a space without a separate parking line, such as an alleyway other than a parking lot.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a parking assisting apparatus for a vehicle including a camera and a display unit, the apparatus comprising: a storage unit for storing a camera image acquired through a camera; A bird's-eye view image generating unit for generating a bird's-eye view image for a camera image by performing a viewpoint conversion of a camera image; An object detecting unit for detecting objects having a height in the bird's-eye image; An allowance width calculating unit for calculating a distance between objects having a height; Determining whether or not the driver's vehicle can be parked within an area included in the bird's-eye image by comparing the distance between the objects and the width of the vehicle, and searching the parking availability position in the bird's- ; And a virtual parking line generation unit for adding a first virtual parking line to the bird's-eye image according to the searched parking availability position.

In addition, the allowable width calculating unit may calculate the margin width, which is the distance between the vehicle and one of the objects, when the driver's vehicle is parked at the available parking position by subtracting the width of the vehicle on which the driver boarded from the distance between the objects.

The parking availability determination unit may further compare the margin width and the margin determination width and determine a position where the margin width is equal to or greater than the margin determination width as the parking availability position.

In addition, when the parking vehicle is detected through the object detection unit, the parking availability determination unit may preferentially search for a position having an allowance width greater than or equal to the allowance passage width in the forward or backward direction based on the parking vehicle.

In addition, the parking assisting device according to an embodiment of the present invention may further include a screen generating unit for generating an output screen including a bird's-eye image area and outputting an output screen through a display unit.

Also, the output screen may include a bird's-eye image area including a bird's-eye image.

Further, the output screen further includes a real-time image area in which the camera image is interchanged with the passage of time, and the virtual parking line generator converts the viewpoint of the first virtual parking line added to the bird's- And add a second virtual parking line to the real-time image area.

Further, the parking prohibition zone information is further stored in the storage unit, and the parking availability determination unit receives the position information of the vehicle sensed by the position sensing unit and the parking prohibition zone information stored in the storage unit, By comparing the information, it is possible to further determine whether or not the driver can park the vehicle.

Further, the allowance width calculating unit may receive the vehicle specification information from the storage unit, and may extract the width of the vehicle from the vehicle specification information.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a parking assisting method for a vehicle including a camera and a display unit, the method comprising: generating a bird's-eye image of a camera image by performing a viewpoint conversion of a camera image captured and stored through a camera, ; Detecting objects having a height in the bird's-eye image by the object detection unit; Calculating a distance between the objects having the height by the allowance width calculating unit; Determining whether the driver's vehicle can be parked in an area included in the bird's-eye image by comparing the distance between the objects with the width of the vehicle by the parking availability determination unit; If the parking availability determination unit determines that parking is possible, searching for a parking availability position within the bird's-eye image; And adding the first virtual parking line to the bird's-eye image in accordance with the parkable position searched by the virtual parking line generating unit.

In addition, the parking assisting method according to an embodiment of the present invention is characterized in that, when the driver's vehicle is parked at the parkable position by subtracting the width of the vehicle aboard the driver from the distance between the objects by the allowance width calculating unit, Which is a distance between any one of the first and second lines.

The step of determining whether or not parking of the driver's vehicle includes a step of comparing an allowance width and an allowance passage determination width, and the step of searching for a parking allowable position in the bird's-eye image may include a step of determining a position where the allowance width is equal to or greater than the allowance passage width And determining the parking availability position.

The step of searching for the available parking position in the bird's-eye image may include a step of, when the parking vehicle is detected in the step of detecting the objects having the height, the position having the spare width greater than or equal to the spare- . ≪ / RTI >

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a parking assisting method comprising: generating an output screen including a bird's-eye view image area by a screen generating unit; And outputting an output screen through the display unit by the screen generating unit.

Also, the output screen may include a bird's-eye image area including a bird's-eye image.

In addition, the output screen further includes a real-time image area in which the camera image is replaced in accordance with the passage of time, and the parking assist method according to an embodiment of the present invention includes the steps of adding, Generating a second virtual parking line by performing a viewpoint conversion of the first virtual parking line; And adding the second virtual parking line to the real-time image area by the screen generating unit.

The parking assisting method according to an embodiment of the present invention is characterized in that the parking availability determination unit determines whether or not the position information of the vehicle detected through the position sensing unit and the parking information Receiving prohibited zone information; And comparing the vehicle position information with the parking prohibited zone information to determine whether the driver can park the vehicle.

The step of determining whether or not parking of the driver's vehicle is possible includes the steps of: receiving vehicle specification information from a storage unit; And extracting a width of the vehicle from the vehicle specification information.

According to the parking assist device and method according to an embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to assist the parking of the driver by searching for a parking position even in a place where there is no parking line and generating a virtual parking line at the corresponding position through the display unit.

According to the parking assisting device and method according to the embodiment of the present invention, when the driver's vehicle is parked, the allowance width is calculated on the basis of the distance between the vehicle and the object of the driver, There is an advantage that another vehicle can be passed in the lateral direction of the driver even if the driver's vehicle is parked.

In addition, according to the parking assist device and method according to the embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to determine in advance whether a parking spot is a place through interlocking with the GPS.

1 is a conceptual diagram of a parking assisting device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a block diagram of a parking assist device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 and 4 are conceptual diagrams for explaining a bird's-eye view image generating method according to an embodiment of the present invention.
5 to 10 are conceptual diagrams illustrating a method of generating a virtual parking line through a parking assist device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
11 is a view showing an example of an output screen generated by a parking assist device according to an embodiment of the present invention and displayed to a user.
12 is a flowchart of a parking assisting method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Hereinafter, a repeated description, a known function that may obscure the gist of the present invention, and a detailed description of the configuration will be omitted. Embodiments of the present invention are provided to more fully describe the present invention to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the shapes and sizes of the elements in the drawings and the like can be exaggerated for clarity.

Hereinafter, the parking assisting device 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described.

1 is a conceptual diagram of a parking assisting apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1, the parking assist system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention generates a virtual parking line in a space without a parking line, and transmits a virtual parking line through the display unit to the display unit 12 . To this end, it is preferable that the parking assist device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied to the vehicle 10 equipped with the camera 11 and the display unit 12.

Specifically, the parking assistant apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention can display an image photographed through the camera 11 through the display unit 12. [ Thereafter, when the user intends to park the car, the parking assist device 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention performs a process of searching for a parking available position in the image photographed through the camera 11 mounted on the vehicle .

Here, the process of searching for a parking available position in the parking assist device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention is performed by analyzing images captured through the camera 11, Vehicle, building, etc.), and comparing the distance between the objects and the width of the vehicle. Although it is assumed that the objects 21 and 22 are walls in FIG. 1, this is only an example, and as described above, it is also possible to detect a vehicle or a building and perform distance calculation based on the detected object.

 In addition, the process of searching the parking assistant position in the parking assist device 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention may be performed after determining whether the parking prohibited area is determined by considering the GPS information when searching for the available parking position. In addition, the parking assist device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention can consider the distance between the vehicle and the object, that is, the margin width, when the parking of the vehicle is completed.

In this way, the parking assist device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention calculates the distance between the objects, that is, the distance between the objects, the distance between the walls, the vehicle or the building, the margin width upon completion of parking, . ≪ / RTI > In addition, the parking assist device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention may add a virtual parking line to the searched parkable position, and provide the virtual parking line to the user through an output screen. Here, the output screen may include a real-time output area in which a camera image photographed through a camera mounted on the vehicle 10 is outputted in real time, and a bird's-eye image area in which a bird's-eye image generated by a viewpoint conversion of a camera image is output . That is, the parking assist device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention may add a virtual parking line to both the bird's-eye view image area and the real-time image area, and provide an output screen to the driver through the display unit 12.

Accordingly, the driver can conveniently carry out parking using the virtual parking line outputted through the display unit 12 even in a parking situation in which there is no parking line (for example, forward parking, backward parking, and parallel parking) . That is, as shown in FIG. 1, the driver can easily perform parking using the virtual parking line output through the display unit 12, although the parking line does not actually exist. As described above, since the virtual parking line is generated considering the distance between objects, the margin width, and whether or not the parking area is prohibited, the driver can safely park the vehicle without damaging the vehicle. Also, due to the feature that the virtual parking line is generated in consideration of the margin width, it is possible to secure a space through which other vehicles or pedestrians can pass through in the lateral direction of the driver's vehicle at the time of parking.

2 is a block diagram of a parking assisting device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As described above, in the parking assist device 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention, when parking in a space without a parking line, the parking available position is searched by analyzing the image photographed through the camera 12, A virtual parking line is added to a parking available position and the virtual parking line is provided to the user. The parking assisting device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a storage unit 110, a bird's-eye view image generating unit 120, a screen generating unit 130, a parking intention determining unit 140, 150, a margin width calculation unit 160, a parking availability determination unit 170, and a virtual parking line generation unit 180. Here, the bird's-eye view image generating unit 120, the screen generating unit 130, the parking intention determining unit 140, the object detecting unit 150, the margin width calculating unit 160, the parking availability determining unit 170, The line generating unit 180 is a unit for distinguishing the respective components according to functions for the description of the parking assist device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention, and the configurations are actually one unit such as a CPU, MPU, GPU, or ECU It is also possible to implement it through a processing device. 2, a description will be given of the parking assist device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The storage unit 110 may store camera images photographed at respective viewpoints from the camera 11. In addition, the storage unit 110 may store camera images and generation time information, which is a shooting time of camera images. Here, a plurality of cameras 11 may be included, and their installation positions are not limited to specific positions. That is, the parking assisting device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention can be applied regardless of the type, location and number of cameras. In addition, the storage unit 110 may further include a lookup table for converting a camera image described below into a bird's-eye view image.

Further, the storage unit 110 may further store vehicle specification information required for calculation of the margin width described below. Here, the vehicle specification information may include information about the driver's vehicle information, that is, information about the vehicle width and the vehicle length. Further, the storage unit 110 may further store the parking prohibited area information used for judging the parking prohibited area described below.

The bird's-eye view image generating unit 120 converts the camera image stored in the storage unit 110 into a bird's-eye view image. Specifically, the bird's-eye view image generating unit 120 sequentially acquires camera images stored in the storage unit 110, and generates a bird's-eye view image by performing a viewpoint conversion of the camera images. For example, the bird's-eye image may be generated using perspective transformation based on a look-up table stored in storage 110. Specifically, the bird's-eye image generating section 120 can perform the perspective transformation in such a manner that the position data of the image on the ground is projected from the position R of the camera onto the screen plane T having the focal length f.

)로 지면(x-y 좌표 평면)상에 이미지를 모니터링한다고 가정한다. 여기서, 아래의 수학식 1에 나타난 바와 같이, 스크린 평면(T)상에 2-차원 좌표(α,β)가 지면 평면상의 좌표(조감도 좌표)로 변환(역투시 변환)될 수 있다.More specifically, the camera 11 is located at the point R (0, 0, H) on the Z-axis,

) To monitor the image on the ground (xy coordinate plane). Here, the two-dimensional coordinates (?,?) On the screen plane (T) can be transformed into coordinates (bird's-eye degree coordinate) on the ground plane (inverse transformation) as shown in the following equation (1).

That is, by using Equation (1), the bird's-eye image can be generated based on the projected image (showing the bird's-eye view image). However, the method of generating the bird's-eye image may be implemented by various methods other than the above method, and the bird's-eye image generating method through the bird's-eye image generating unit 120 according to the embodiment of the present invention is not limited to this method .

Also, the bird's-eye image generated through the bird's-eye image generating unit 120 may be transmitted to the storage unit 110 and stored in the storage unit 110.

The screen generating unit 130 generates an output screen including the bird's-eye view image area and the real-time image area, and outputs the generated output screen through the display unit 12. Here, the bird's-eye view image region may include a bird's-eye view image generated through the bird's-eye view image generating unit 120, and the real-time image region may include a camera image captured through the camera 11 and stored in the storage unit 110 . For example, in the case of a real-time image area, a real-time image of the front of the vehicle may be included when the front camera is mounted on the vehicle, and a real-time image of the rear of the vehicle may be included when the vehicle is mounted. Accordingly, the display unit 12 can simultaneously output the bird's-eye view image and the camera image of the vehicle through the two areas. In addition, the output screen generated through the screen generator 130 may further include an allowable width information area as will be described below.

The parking intention determining unit 140 determines whether or not the driver is parked, that is, the driver's intention to park. For example, the parking intention determining unit 140 collects the sensing information generated by the sensor unit 13 connected to the shift lever (not shown) and determines the position of the shift lever based on the sensing information, Can be determined. For example, the parking intention determining unit 140 can determine that the driver has the parking intention when the shift lever is present in the parking position. Of course, the parking intention determining unit 140 may determine the parking intention of the driver by receiving the virtual parking line creation request information input by the driver through the input unit 14, in addition to the above method.

The object detecting unit 150 detects an object in an image photographed through the camera 11 when a parking intention is determined by a driver. Specifically, the object detecting unit 150 can detect a height object and a heightless object in the bird's-eye image generated through the bird's-eye view image generating unit 120. Here, an object having a height may be defined as an object such as a person, a vehicle, a wall, a building, and the like. An object without a height may include an object such as a lane and a parking line.

Here, object detection through the object detection unit 150 can be performed through an image analysis technique. However, in the case of an object having a height, there may be a situation where the bird's-eye image of the object is not normally transformed due to the height of the bird's-eye image. Accordingly, the object detecting unit 150 may receive not only the image analysis but also the position of the obstacle from the user through the input unit 14, and may detect an obstacle based on the position information of the inputted obstacle. Here, the type of the input unit may not be limited to a specific device because various configurations may exist. In addition, the object detecting unit 150 can further detect the coordinates of the detected obstacle.

The margin width calculating unit 160 calculates the distance between the object having the height detected by the object detecting unit 150 (e.g., a vehicle, a wall, a building, or the like). Specifically, the margin width calculating section 160 can calculate the distance between two objects in the bird's-eye image to retrieve the parking availability position described below.

Further, the margin width calculating unit 160 can further calculate the margin width, which is the distance between the vehicle and the object, when the vehicle is parked. That is, when the driver's vehicle is parked in the area in the bird's-eye image, the allowable width calculating unit 160 can calculate the allowable width, which is the distance between the vehicle and the object of the driver, , And can be used for judging whether the passage of another vehicle or a person is easy when the vehicle is parked.

The parking availability determination unit 170 compares the distance between the objects calculated through the margin width calculation unit 160 with the width of the vehicle to determine whether the driver's vehicle can be parked in the area included in the bird's-eye image do. Here, the width of the vehicle may be information of the driver's vehicle stored in the storage unit 110 as described above. In addition, as described above, the parking availability determination unit 170 can determine whether or not parking is possible by further considering the margin width so as not to interfere with the passage of another vehicle or a person.

That is, the parking availability determination unit 170 can determine whether or not parking is possible by simply comparing the distance between the objects and the width of the vehicle. In addition, It is possible to judge whether or not the parking is possible by comparing the allowance passage judgment width. Specifically, the parking availability determination unit 170 may perform the above-described comparison process in the longitudinal direction on the basis of the vehicle, and may determine the positions where the margin width is equal to or greater than the predetermined margin of the margin of passage, as a parking available position.

The parking availability determination unit 170 determines whether the corresponding position is a parking prohibited position or not by using the position information (for example, GPS information) sensed by the position sensing unit 15 before performing the above- . Specifically, the parking availability determination unit 170 receives the parking prohibited area information stored in the storage unit 110, and compares the detected location information with the parking prohibited area information, It can be further judged whether or not the parking zone is prohibited. If it is determined that the detected location information does not correspond to the parking prohibited area, the parking availability determination unit 170 may perform the above-described search process for the available parking position.

If it is determined that there is no available parking space in the area as a result of the determination, the parking availability determination unit 170 generates and transmits a parking disabled message to the screen generation unit 130, You may be able to print a no parking message stating that there is no parking area in the area, or that the area is not parking.

The virtual parking line generation unit 180 determines that the parking zone is available in the corresponding area through the parking availability determination unit 170. If the parking availability position is found, And adds the first virtual parking line to the bird's-eye image according to the position. Here, since there may be a plurality of possible parking positions, a plurality of first virtual parking lines may be added to the bird's-eye view image by the virtual parking line generating unit 180.

As described above, according to the parking assist device 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention, even if parking is performed in a place where there is no separate parking line, such as an alley, And the parking of the driver can be assisted by displaying the first virtual parking line at the corresponding position. In addition, in the above description, an example in which the first virtual parking line is included in the bird's-eye view image and is output to the bird's-eye view image area of the output screen has been described. However, this is only an example, and a virtual parking line (hereinafter referred to as a second virtual parking line) may be added to the real-time image area as well as the bird's-eye image area on the output screen.

That is, it has been described that the bird's-eye image can be generated using the perspective transformation based on the look-up table stored in the storage unit 110. Conversely, when the bird's-eye view image is inversely transformed using the lookup table stored in the storage unit 110, it can be converted into a camera image. That is, the virtual parking line generator 180 extracts the coordinates of the first virtual parking line added to the bird's-eye view image, and inversely transforms the first virtual parking line of the bird's-eye view image using the lookup table used for generating the bird's- It is possible to generate a second virtual parking line that can be applied to the camera image. Thereafter, the virtual parking line generator 180 may apply the virtual parking line to the real-time image area by adding the generated second virtual parking line to the camera image.

3 and 4 are conceptual diagrams for explaining a bird's-eye view image generating method according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the following description, it is explained that the vehicle is parked in one parking slot without a nearby vehicle. However, even if there are adjacent parking slots of the corresponding parking slot and other vehicles are parked in each parking slot The same technical idea can be applied. 3 and 4, a method of generating a bird's-eye image using the bird's-eye image generating unit according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described.

The parking assisting device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention may first acquire camera images stored in the storage unit 110 and convert the camera images into a bird's-eye view image. The upper part of FIG. 3 shows an example of a camera image taken at each viewpoint through a camera, and the lower part of FIG. 3 shows an example of a bird's-eye image converted at each viewpoint.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 3, the bird's-eye image generating unit 120 performs a process of converting the camera image ci ₁₁ captured at time t ₁ into a bird's-eye view image bi ₁₁ . Here, the bird's-eye view image bi ₁₁ at the time point t ₁ can be divided into a region ca ₁₁ represented by the camera in the bird's-eye view image bi ₁₁ according to the wide angle performance of the camera mounted on the vehicle 10, (Nsa < ₁₁ >). This is because the bird's-eye image bi ₁₁ is an image generated by the viewpoint conversion of the camera image ci ₁₁ .

Also, the bird's-eye view image generating unit 120 may convert the camera image (ci ₁₂ ) captured at time t ₂ into a bird's-eye view image bi ₁₂ . In this case, as in the case of the bird's-eye view image bi ₁₁ at the time t ₁ , the bird's eye view bi ₁₂ can represent the portion corresponding to the region ca ₁₂ , Accordingly, an unrepresented area (nsa ₁₂ ) exists. In addition, in the bird's-eye image bi ₁₂ , only some of the entire parking lines pl ₁₁ may be displayed due to the performance of the camera 10 and the position of the vehicle 10 in progress have.

Also, the bird's-eye view image generating unit 120 may convert the camera image (ci ₁₃ ) captured at time t ₃ into a bird's-eye view image bi ₁₃ . In this case, similar to the bird's-eye view images bi ₁₁ and bi ₁₂ at the time t ₁ and t ₂ , the bird's-eye view image bi ₁₃ can represent a portion corresponding to the region ca ₁₃ , Depending on the wide angle capability of the mounted camera, there is an area nsa ₁₃ that is not represented. In addition, in the bird's-eye image bi ₁₃ , only some of the entire parking lines pl ₁₁ may be displayed due to the performance of the camera 10 and the position of the vehicle 10 in progress have.

Accordingly, the bird's-eye-view image generating unit 120 according to the embodiment of the present invention can use a method of generating the bird's-eye view image by combining the bird's-eye view image of the past viewpoint with the bird's-eye view image of the future viewpoint.

That is, as shown in FIG. 4, the bird's-eye image generating unit 120 according to an embodiment of the present invention generates a bird's-eye view image by combining the bird's-eye images generated at the past time points, Can be adopted.

For example, as shown in FIG. 4, the bird's-eye image generating unit 120 may convert the camera image ci ₁₁ captured at time t ₁ into a bird's-eye view image bi ₁₁ .

Thereafter, the bird's-eye image generating unit 120 converts the camera image (ci ₂₂ ) captured at time t ₂ into a bird's-eye view image, and combines the bird's-eye image generated at time t ₁ with the bird's-eye image generated at time t ₂ A bird's-eye image (bi ₂₂ ) can be generated. In this case, the bird's-eye image bi ₂₂ is obtained by using the bird's-eye image bi ₂₁ at time t ₁ , unlike in the bird's-eye image bi ₁₂ shown with reference to FIG. 3, The entire parking line can be expressed.

Thereafter, the bird's-eye image generating unit 120 may convert the camera image (ci ₂₃ ) captured at time t ₃ into a bird's-eye view image bi ₂₃ . In this case, just as described for the time t ₁ and t _2, the time before, t ₁ may be generated by additionally synthesizing the time t, and a bird's eye view image of a _second viewpoint ₍₂₁ bi and bi _22). Accordingly, the bird's-eye view image generating unit 120 generates a bird's-eye image of the area nsa ₁₁ and the area nsa ₁₂ that can not be expressed only by the original camera image ci ₁₃ , that is, the parking line ppl ₁₁ , ppl ₁₂ It becomes possible to express it.

In addition, the bird's-eye image generating unit 120 according to an embodiment of the present invention transmits the bird's-eye view image generated in the past to the screen generating unit, instead of using the synthesis of the past image, It is also possible to adopt a method of reducing the sense of heterogeneity by conveying a bird's-eye view image of another past viewpoint to the screen generating section.

However, the above-described method of generating the bird's-eye image and the bird's-eye image selection method transmitted to the screen generating unit are merely examples, and various methods may be used in the methods.

The driver assistance device 100 of the vehicle according to the embodiment of the present invention can display the bird's-eye view image and the camera image together on the output screen. Specifically, the driving assist system 100 of the vehicle according to the embodiment of the present invention outputs an output screen including the bird's-eye view image area da ₁ and the real-time image area da ₂ through the display unit 12 , It is possible to provide the driver with the bird's-eye image and the camera image together.

5 to 10 are conceptual diagrams illustrating a method of generating a virtual parking line through the parking assist device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As described above, the parking assist device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention searches for a parking available position, and creates a bird's-eye view image area and a real-time image area in which a bird's-eye view image and a camera image are output based on the searched parking- A virtual parking line is displayed on the display unit. Of course, the parking assisting device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention can determine whether the parking zone is prohibited in the corresponding area based on the location information of the vehicle, and perform the following operations when the parking zone is available.

In the following description, it is assumed that the vehicle includes a camera for photographing the rear of the vehicle, and as shown in FIG. 5, assuming that the camera image captured through the camera includes objects 21 and 22 having two heights do. In FIG. 5, it is assumed that the objects 21 and 22 having a height are walls, but it is also possible that the object corresponds to a vehicle or a building as described above. In addition, the parking assistant device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention can generate a bird's-eye view image by performing a perspective transformation of a camera image, as described with reference to FIGS. Here, an example of a bird's-eye view image obtained by point-in-view conversion of the camera image shown in Fig. 5 is shown in Fig.

Thereafter, the parking assist device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention can detect the objects 21 and 22 having a height through the bird's-eye image. Specifically, the parking assisting device 100 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention can detect the objects 21 and 22 having a height in the bird's-eye image through an image analysis technique. However, this is merely an example, and a method of receiving the positions of the objects 21 and 22 having a height in the camera image through the input unit before generating the bird's-eye image as shown in FIG. 6 may be adopted. Of course, a method of receiving the positions of the objects 21 and 22 having a height through the input unit in the bird's-eye view image shown in FIG. 7 may be adopted.

That is, various methods can be used for extracting the objects 21 and 22 having the height from the bird's-eye image or the camera image. Therefore, the parking assist apparatus 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention can extract the objects 21, .

When the detection of the objects 21 and 22 having such a height is completed, the parking assisting device 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention detects the distance tw between the detected objects 21 and 22 . As described above, the detection of the objects 21 and 22 may be performed on both the camera image and the bird's-eye image, but it is preferable that the distance tw between the objects 21 and 22 is calculated on the bird's-eye image. This is because the method of calculating the distance through the bird's-eye image is simpler and the computation amount is smaller than the camera image. Also, the parking assisting device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention can receive the vehicle specification information stored in the storage unit (not shown) and extract the width c_w of the vehicle included in the vehicle specification information.

Thereafter, the parking assisting device 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention calculates the distance (tw) between the objects 21 and 22 and the width (c_w) of the vehicle included in the vehicle specification information It is possible to judge whether parking is possible in the area. Of course, the parking assisting device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention may determine the availability of parking by calculating the margin width and further comparing the margin width and the preset margin determination width. In addition, the parking assist device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention can search for the parking available position based on the above-described comparison result, and can generate the first virtual parking line at the searched parking enabled position.

Figure 8 illustrates an additional example, the virtual parking line (ips _1, ips ₂₎ a bird's eye view image. 8, the parking assisting device 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention can add the first virtual parking lines ips ₁ and ips ₂ to the parkable positions detected through the above-described method have. In this example, the first imaginary parking lines ips ₁ and ips ₂ are shown only on the left rear side with respect to the vehicle. However, the first imaginary parking lines ips ₁ and ips ₂ are shown only on the left rear side with respect to the vehicle. It is also possible that a virtual parking line is displayed.

9, when the parking vehicle 30 is present in an area (for example, an alley) where the driver's vehicle is to perform parking, the first virtual parking line ips ₁ ) Can be generated. 9, the parking assisting device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention may be installed in front of or behind the vehicle 30 with respect to the vehicle 30, The first virtual parking line can be generated and informed to the user. This is because, when parked on both sides of the area, it may cause inconvenience to other vehicles or persons traveling through the area.

In other words, the parking assisting device 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention can preferentially park the vehicle 30 in the front and rear directions with respect to the parking vehicle 30 when the parking vehicle 30 is present in the area to be parked You can explore the location. Of course, when searching for a possible parking position in consideration of the parking vehicle 30, the parking assisting device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention is configured such that, for the area spaced apart from the parked vehicle 30 by more than a predetermined distance It is possible to search for the parkable position at the same priority as that for searching the forward and backward directions based on the parking vehicle 30. [ However, this method is optional, and various methods can be adopted as a method of setting the priority in searching for the parking available position.

In this way, when the first virtual parking line is added to the bird's-eye image, the parking assist device 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention performs reverse inverse transformation on the first virtual parking line added to the bird's-eye image, It is possible to generate a second virtual parking line that can be applied. That is, as shown in FIG. 10, the parking assisting device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention may use a lookup table used for creating a bird's-eye image, A parking line can be generated, and the generated second virtual parking line can be added to the real-time image area, that is, the camera image.

11 shows an example of an output screen generated through the parking assistant apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention and output to the user through the display unit 12. FIG. As described above, the bird's-eye view image area da ₁ and the real-time image area da ₂ may be included in the output screen generated through the parking assist device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Here, the bird's eye view image areas (da ₁₎ has the camera image, the camera image point can be included in the transformed bird's-eye view image, real-time image area, and real-time video region (da ₂₎ photographing is repeatedly replaced according to the time through the camera . Accordingly, the driver can perform the operation using the output screen output through the display unit 12. [

In addition, the parking assisting device 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention may be configured such that when the driver's intention of parking is determined (for example, the shift lever is at the P position or through the input through the input) Searches for a parkable position as described with reference to Fig. 10, and adds a virtual parking line to the searched parking enabled position. Here, since the virtual parking line can be included in at least one of the bird's-eye image area da ₁ and the real-time image area da ₂ as shown in FIG. 11, the driver can easily park .

12 is a flowchart of a parking assisting method according to an embodiment of the present invention. As described above, the parking assist method according to an embodiment of the present invention searches for a parking position in an area where there is no parking line, adds a virtual parking line to an output screen provided to the driver Thereby assisting the driver in parking. Now, referring to FIG. 12, a description will be given of a parking assist method according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the following description, the same items as those described above are omitted and explained.

Step S101 is a step of acquiring a camera image captured by a bird's-eye image generating unit through a camera mounted on a vehicle and stored in a storage unit. As mentioned above, the storage section may store camera images photographed by the camera, and a lookup table used for generation of the bird's-eye image mentioned below may be stored. Further, the storage unit may further store vehicle specification information required for calculating the margin width described below. Here, the vehicle specification information may include information about the driver's vehicle information, that is, information about the vehicle width and the vehicle length. Further, the storage unit may further store the parking prohibited area information used for judging the parking prohibited area.

Step S102 is a step of generating a bird's-eye view image by the bird's-eye view image generating unit. Specifically, step S102 is a step of generating a bird's-eye image by changing the viewpoint of the camera image obtained through step S101 using the above-described lookup table. For example, a bird's-eye image can be generated using perspective transformation. In addition, since various methods can be applied to the bird's-eye image conversion process performed in step S102, a further description thereof will be omitted.

In step S103, the screen generating unit generates an output screen and outputs the generated output screen through the display unit. Here, the output screen may include a bird's-eye view image area and a real-time image area. Here, the camera image obtained in step S101 is included in the real-time image area, and the bird's-eye image generated in step S102 may be included in the bird's-eye image area and included in the output image. That is, the driver or the user boarding the vehicle can grasp the surrounding situation of the vehicle through the output screen output through the display unit.

Step S104 is a step of determining whether or not there is a parking intention from the driver by the parking intention determining unit. The determination in step S104 may be performed by, for example, collecting the sensing information generated by the sensor unit connected to the shift lever, determining the position of the shift lever based on the sensing information, Based on whether or not the request information is received. If it is determined in step S104 that there is a parking intention to the driver, the control is transferred to step S105. Otherwise, control passes to step S101 and the above-described process can be performed again.

Step S105 is a step of receiving, by the parking availability determination unit, the position information of the vehicle sensed by the position sensing unit and the parking prohibition zone information stored in the storage unit.

Step S106 is a step of determining whether or not the driver can park the vehicle by comparing the position information of the vehicle received through step S105 with the parking prohibition zone information stored in the storage unit by the parking availability determination unit. As a result of the determination, if it is determined to be a parking enabled area, control is transferred to step S108. Otherwise, control passes to step S107, and a process of displaying a parking prohibited area on the screen through the display unit may be performed.

Step S108 is a step of detecting objects in the bird's-eye image by the object detection unit. Specifically, step S108 is a step of detecting an object having a height such as a vehicle, a wall, a building, and the like, and an object having no height such as a lane, a parking line, etc., in the bird's-eye view image. Here, the step S108 may be performed based on the location information specified by the user through the image analysis or through the input unit, as described above.

Step S109 is a step of calculating the distance between the objects having the height by the allowance width calculating unit. Further, after step S109, the step of collecting the specification information of the vehicle in the storage unit may be further performed.

In step S110, the allowance width calculating unit calculates an allowance width, which is a distance between one of the vehicle and the object, when the driver's vehicle is parked at the parking allowable position by subtracting the width of the vehicle aboard the driver from the distance between the objects to be.

In step S111, it is determined whether the area where the driver ' s vehicle is located is a parking area. Specifically, the step S111 receives the parking prohibited zone information stored in the storage unit and the current position information of the vehicle, compares the parking prohibited area information with the current position information of the vehicle, and determines whether or not the driver can park the vehicle in the corresponding area . As a result of the determination in step S111, when it is determined that the parking zone is available, control is transferred to step S112. Otherwise, control passes to step S114 to output a parking disabled message to the user.

The step S111 may include a step of determining whether or not the driver's vehicle can be parked in the area included in the bird's-eye image by comparing the distance between the objects with the width of the vehicle by the parking availability determination unit. That is, if the vehicle width of the driver is wider than the distance between the objects, the driver can not enter the vehicle by himself or herself. Therefore, if the driver's vehicle width is wider than the distance between the objects, control is passed to step S114 A process of outputting a parking disabled message to the user and informing the driver of the parking prohibited area through step S115 may be performed.

The step S111 may further include a step of comparing the margin width and the allowance margin of the margin by the parking availability determination unit. As described above, the parking assisting method according to the embodiment of the present invention is characterized in that a virtual parking line is added so as not to interfere with the passage of another vehicle or a person even if the driver's vehicle is parked in an alley or the like. As a result of the judgment in the step of comparing the margin width and the margin judgment width, if the margin width is less than the preset margin judgment width in the entire area existing in the bird's-eye image, that is, If there is no area larger than the width, the user can be notified. At this time, the user can determine whether or not a virtual parking line is created in consideration of the alley situation or the like, and can request the creation of the virtual parking line if the area is not obstructed by the passage of the vehicle.

Step S112 is a step of searching for a parking availability position in the bird's-eye view image when it is determined by the parking availability determination unit that parking is possible. Specifically, in step S112, it is possible to search for a parking availability position that satisfies the above-described conditions. In step S112, for example, a position having an allowance width equal to or greater than the allowance passage width may be determined as the parking availability position.

The step S112 may be performed by preferentially searching for a position having an allowance width greater than or equal to the allowance passage width in at least one of the forward and rearward directions on the basis of the parking vehicle when the parking vehicle is detected in step S108. Of course, when searching for a parking available position in consideration of the parking vehicle, the step S112 is a step of searching for an area that is distant from the parking vehicle 30 by a predetermined distance, It is also possible to search for a parking available position.

In step S113, the virtual parking line generation unit adds the first virtual parking line to the bird's-eye image in accordance with the searched parking position.

Accordingly, the user can perform parking based on the first virtual parking line output to the bird's-eye view image area. Further, the first virtual parking line is advantageous in that the driver does not have to consider whether or not the other vehicle will pass when parking due to consideration of the margin width and the like.

In addition, as described above, the output screen may further include a real-time image area as well as a bird's-eye view image area. Accordingly, the step S113 may further include generating a second virtual parking line to be inserted into the real-time image area. Here, the second virtual parking line can be generated by performing a viewpoint conversion of the first virtual parking line using the lookup table used for generating the bird's-eye image, and the description thereof has been described in detail above, and thus redundant description will be omitted.

As described above, an optimal embodiment has been disclosed in the drawings and specification. Although specific terms have been employed herein, they are used for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention as defined in the claims or the claims. Therefore, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications and equivalent embodiments are possible without departing from the scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the true scope of the present invention should be determined by the technical idea of the appended claims.

100: parking assist device 110: storage part
120: bird's-eye view image generating unit 130:
140: Parking intention determining unit 150: Object detecting unit
160: allowance width calculating unit 170: parking allowance judging unit
180: a virtual parking line generation unit

Claims (18)

A parking assisting apparatus for a vehicle including a camera and a display unit,
A storage unit for storing a camera image acquired through the camera;
A bird's-eye view image generating unit for generating a bird's-eye view image of the camera image by performing a viewpoint conversion of the camera image;
An object detecting unit for detecting objects having a height in the bird's-eye image;
An allowance width calculating unit for calculating a distance between the objects having the height;
The distance between the objects is compared with the width of the vehicle so as to determine whether the driver's vehicle can be parked in the area included in the bird's-eye image, and if it is determined that parking is possible, parking is possible in the bird's- A determination unit; And
And a virtual parking line generator for adding a first virtual parking line to the bird's-eye image according to the searched parking position,
The margin width calculating unit calculates a margin width, which is a distance between one of the vehicle and the object when the driver's vehicle is parked at the parking allowable position by subtracting the width of the vehicle aboard the driver from the distance between the objects,
Wherein the parking availability determination unit further compares the margin width and the margin determination width and determines a position where the margin width is equal to or larger than the margin determination width as the parking availability position. delete delete The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the parking allowance determination unit is configured to preferentially search for a position where the allowance width is equal to or greater than the allowance determination width in at least one of forward and backward based on the parking vehicle when the parking vehicle is detected through the object detection unit Auxiliary device. The method according to claim 1,
Further comprising a screen generating unit for generating an output screen including the bird's-eye image area and outputting the output screen through the display unit. The method of claim 5,
Wherein the output screen includes a bird's-eye image area including the bird's-eye image. The method according to claim 6,
Wherein the output screen further includes a real-time image area in which the camera image is interchanged with time,
Wherein the virtual parking line generation unit generates a second virtual parking line by performing a viewpoint conversion of a first virtual parking line added to the bird's-eye view image, and adds the second virtual parking line to the real- Device. The method according to claim 1,
The storage unit further stores parking prohibited zone information,
The parking availability determination unit receives the position information of the vehicle sensed by the position sensing unit and the parking prohibition zone information stored in the storage unit and compares the position information of the vehicle with the parking prohibition zone information, Wherein the parking assist device further determines whether or not parking is possible for the vehicle. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the allowance width calculating unit receives the vehicle specification information from the storage unit and extracts the width of the vehicle from the vehicle specification information. A parking assisting method for a vehicle including a camera and a display unit,
Generating a bird's-eye image for the camera image by performing a viewpoint conversion of a camera image captured and stored through a camera by the bird's-eye view image generating unit;
Detecting objects having a height in the bird's-eye image by the object detection unit;
Calculating a distance between the objects having the height by the allowance width calculating unit;
Determining whether the driver's vehicle can be parked in an area included in the bird's-eye image by comparing the distance between the objects and the width of the vehicle by the parking availability determination unit;
If the parking availability determination unit determines that parking is possible, searching for a parking available position within the bird's-eye image; And
And adding a first virtual parking line to the bird's-eye image in accordance with the parkable position searched by the virtual parking line generator,
The margin width calculating unit calculates an allowance width that is a distance between one of the vehicle and the object when the driver's vehicle is parked at the parking allowable position by subtracting the width of the vehicle aboard the driver from the distance between the objects Further comprising:
Wherein the step of determining whether or not parking of the driver's vehicle includes the step of comparing the margin width and the allowance margin width,
Wherein the step of searching for a parkable position in the bird's-eye image includes determining a position where the allowable width is equal to or greater than the allowable passage determination width as a possible parking position. delete delete 11. The method of claim 10,
Wherein the step of searching for the available parking position in the bird's-eye image comprises: when the parking vehicle is detected in the step of detecting the objects having the height, the at least one of the forward and rearward directions based on the parking vehicle, And searching for a position that is equal to or greater than the judgment width with priority. 11. The method of claim 10,
Generating an output screen including the bird's-eye view image area by the screen generating unit; And
And outputting the output screen through the display unit by the screen generating unit. 15. The method of claim 14,
Wherein the output screen includes a bird's-eye view image area including the bird's-eye view image. 16. The method of claim 15,
Wherein the output screen further includes a real-time image area in which the camera image is interchanged with time,
Generating a second virtual parking line by the viewpoint conversion of the first virtual parking line added to the bird's-eye view image by the virtual parking line generating unit; And
And adding the second virtual parking line to the real-time image area by the screen generating unit. 11. The method of claim 10,
The storage unit further stores parking prohibited zone information,
Receiving the position information of the vehicle sensed by the position sensing unit and the parking prohibition zone information stored in the storage unit by the parking availability determination unit; And
Further comprising the step of determining whether the driver can park the vehicle by comparing the position information of the vehicle with the parking prohibited area information. 11. The method of claim 10,
The step of determining whether or not parking of the driver's vehicle is possible
Receiving vehicle specification information from a storage unit; And
And extracting a width of the vehicle from the vehicle specification information.

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