KR20180095251A - System for monitoring camera and method for correcting image - Google Patents

Abstract

A camera monitoring system according to the present invention includes a camera installed in a vehicle to capture a surrounding image in real time, a memory for storing the image and a program for correcting the image, and a processor for executing the program stored in the memory. When executing the program, the processor determines whether a gray value greater than a predetermined first gray value exists by analyzing the brightness and the area of the image and reduces the brightness level of the image by applying a correction value to the gray value of the image if the gray value greater than the predetermined first gray value exists as a determination result. Accordingly, the present invention can secure a visual field through image correction.

Description

Technical Field [0001] The present invention relates to a camera monitoring system and an image correction method thereof,

The present invention relates to a camera monitoring system and an image correction method thereof.

In recent years, the development of technologies for replacing existing glass type side mirrors using a wide-angle camera has been under way for the purpose of ensuring safety during driving through elimination of a rectangular area in the recent vehicles and improving fuel efficiency by removing outer projections.

Since accurate confirmation of side and rear images during driving is directly related to the safety of the vehicle user, research and development and commercialization of a camera monitoring system for securing such safety are actively underway.

On the other hand, the camera monitoring system according to the related art has a problem in that it is difficult to confirm surrounding objects other than sunlight in the sunset or sunrise environment.

Also, in the case of night driving, there is a problem in that it is not easy to check surrounding objects other than the headlights of the rear vehicle unless light such as a street light is present around the vehicle.

In this regard, Korean Patent Laid-Open No. 10-2014-0104857 (entitled " Image Correction Method of Vehicle Camera and Image Processing Apparatus Using the Same ") discloses a technique in which a driving assistance system mounted on a vehicle is mounted on a monocular camera Discloses a technique for preventing the reliability of lane recognition and distance accuracy from deteriorating due to vehicle vibration when estimating the distance from the preceding vehicle or the like based on the acquired night image.

A camera monitoring system capable of increasing the image recognition degree by adjusting the brightness of a portion having a too high brightness value or a dark portion of the surrounding portion by correcting the image before displaying the image taken by the camera, Thereby providing an image correction method.

It should be understood, however, that the technical scope of the present invention is not limited to the above-described technical problems, and other technical problems may exist.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a camera monitoring system installed in a vehicle for capturing a surrounding image in real time, a program for storing the image and correcting the image, And a processor for executing a program stored in the memory and the memory. At this time, as the program is executed, the processor determines whether or not a gray value exceeding a first gray value exists by analyzing the brightness and the area of the image, and if the gray value exists, The degree of brightness of the image is reduced.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image correction method in a camera monitoring system, comprising: receiving an image photographed through a camera installed in a vehicle; Analyzing the brightness and the area of the image; Determining whether a gray value of a gray value greater than a predetermined first gray value exists, and if the gray value is present as a result of the determination, applying a correction value to the gray value of the image to reduce the brightness of the image do.

According to any one of the above-mentioned objects of the present invention, it is possible to secure the watch by correcting the image even in a state in which it is difficult to secure the rear side and the side side by the headlight of the rear vehicle.

In particular, it is possible to secure the watch by image correction even in situations where the direct sunlight is illuminated or the view of the driver's side or rear is difficult to obtain, such as sunset or sunrise.

1 is a block diagram of a camera monitoring system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a diagram for explaining gray values.
3 is a view for explaining the function of the camera monitoring system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a flowchart of an image correction method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, which will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. In order to clearly explain the present invention in the drawings, parts not related to the description are omitted.

Whenever a component is referred to as "including" an element throughout the specification, it is to be understood that the element may include other elements, not the exclusion of any other element, unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

The present invention relates to a camera monitoring system (100) and an image correction method thereof.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, before the image photographed by the camera 110 is displayed, the brightness of a portion having an excessive brightness value or a dark portion of the surrounding portion is adjusted through correction for the image, have.

Hereinafter, a camera monitoring system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1 to FIG.

1 is a block diagram of a camera monitoring system 100 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 2 is a diagram for explaining gray values.

A camera monitoring system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a camera 110, a memory 120, a display unit 130, and a processor 140.

The camera 110 is installed in a vehicle and photographs surrounding images in real time. At this time, at least one camera 110 may be installed on both sides and rear of the vehicle.

In the memory 120, an image photographed in real time by the camera 110 is stored, and a program for correcting the stored image is stored. The memory 120 may be implemented with the same or larger capacity as the resolution of the display unit 130, but is not limited thereto.

At this time, the memory 120 is collectively referred to as a non-volatile storage device and a volatile storage device which keep the stored information even when power is not supplied.

For example, the memory 120 may be a compact flash (CF) card, a secure digital (SD) card, a memory stick, a solid-state drive (SSD) A magnetic computer storage device such as a NAND flash memory, a hard disk drive (HDD) and the like, and an optical disc drive such as a CD-ROM, a DVD-ROM, etc. .

The display unit 130 may be provided in the infotainment system of the vehicle, for outputting the corrected image.

The processor 140 executes a program stored in the memory 120 to determine whether a gray value of a gray value greater than a predetermined first gray value exists through the brightness and area analysis on the image stored in the memory 120. [ That is, it is determined through image analysis whether a portion having a high gray value exists in the image.

As a result of the determination, if there is a portion having a gray value greater than a predetermined first gray value, the brightness value of the image is reduced by applying a correction value to the gray value of the image.

In addition, the processor 140 calculates an average peak luminance value of the photographed image, and when the calculated average peak luminance value is equal to or less than the threshold value, the processor 140 calculates the average peak luminance value of the area having the gray value less than the predetermined second gray value The luminance value can be increased by adjusting the gamma value.

At this time, the processor 140 can determine whether it is daytime or nighttime by judging the time at which the image was photographed based on the calculated average peak luminance value. If the determined time is a time corresponding to sunrise or sunset during the daytime or nighttime , It is possible to raise the luminance value by adjusting the gamma value of the region having the gray value less than the predetermined second gray value.

Meanwhile, the gray value in the embodiment of the present invention means that the colors between white and black are represented by 255 ~ 0 as shown in FIG. 2, and in the embodiment of the present invention, the first gray value May have a gray value greater than the second gray value.

Accordingly, in an embodiment of the present invention, in the case of a portion having a gray value equal to or greater than the first gray value, since the image is too brightly displayed on the screen, it is difficult to identify the gray value, So that the brightness of the image can be reduced.

The area having a gray value less than the second gray value is difficult to identify because the image is too dark on the screen. If there is a low gray area in the nighttime, the brightness of the low gray area can be increased by adjusting the gamma value have.

Meanwhile, in order to more accurately grasp the time information, the camera monitoring system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention may further include a GPS module 150 for measuring the current position and the current time. The processor 140 receiving the time information measured by the GPS module 150 can more accurately determine the shooting time of the image stored in the memory 120 based on the time information.

As described above, the camera monitoring system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention detects the time information of the current image using the average peak luminance value and the time information confirmed by the GPS module 150, The visibility can be increased by adjusting the gamma value of the low gray area when the average peak luminance value is equal to or less than the threshold value.

In order to further enhance the accuracy of the image analysis, the processor 140 performs histogram analysis based on x-axis and y-axis, which are two-dimensional directional analyzes of the image, and calculates a gray value and an average peak luminance value Can be calculated.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining functions of the camera monitoring system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The camera 110 photographs the image V1 on the side or rear of the vehicle in real time and stores it in the memory 120. [

The processor 140 analyzes the image V1 stored in the memory 120 based on the x-axis and the y-axis and performs the histogram analysis on the y-axis and the gray value S1 and the average peak luminance value S2 .

Next, the processor 140 determines whether a gray value having a predetermined first gray value (for example, 240) exists or not, and applies a correction value (0.x) to the gray value, if any, Adjust the brightness (S3).

When the average peak luminance value of the image is equal to or less than the threshold value, the processor 140 adjusts the gamma value of the region having the gray value less than the predetermined second gray value to increase the luminance value (S4).

At this time, the processor 140 may acquire the current time information through the GPS module 150, and may perform the correction process only for a specific time period when the visibility is poor, such as sunrise or sunset. Accordingly, one embodiment of the present invention performs image correction only when a specific condition is satisfied at a specific time zone, so that excessive operation of the processor 140 can be prohibited.

When the image correction is completed, the processor 140 can output the corrected image V2 through the display unit 130. [

1 and 3 according to an embodiment of the present invention may be implemented in hardware such as software or an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) or ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), and a predetermined Roles can be performed.

However, 'components' are not meant to be limited to software or hardware, and each component may be configured to reside on an addressable storage medium and configured to play one or more processors.

Thus, by way of example, an element may comprise components such as software components, object-oriented software components, class components and task components, processes, functions, attributes, procedures, Routines, segments of program code, drivers, firmware, microcode, circuitry, data, databases, data structures, tables, arrays, and variables.

The components and functions provided within those components may be combined into a smaller number of components or further separated into additional components.

Hereinafter, an image correction method in the camera monitoring system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

4 is a flowchart of an image correction method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

An image correction method according to an embodiment of the present invention first receives an image captured in real time via a camera 110 installed in a vehicle (S110). Such an image may be stored in the memory 120 and delivered to the processor 140 or the processor 140 may directly receive the image taken by the camera 110. [

Next, the brightness and the area of the image are analyzed (S120), and it is determined whether there is a gray value greater than a predetermined first gray value as a result of the analysis (S130).

As a result of the determination, if there is a gray value greater than a predetermined first gray value, a brightness value of the image may be reduced by applying a correction value to the gray value of the image (S140).

In one embodiment of the present invention, the average peak luminance value of the photographed image is calculated simultaneously or sequentially with the above steps (S150), and the calculated average peak luminance value is compared with a preset threshold value (S160).

If the comparison result is equal to or less than the threshold value, the gamma value of the region having the gray value less than the predetermined second gray value is adjusted to raise the luminance value (S170).

At this time, the embodiment of the present invention determines whether the time at which the current image is photographed is the time corresponding to sunset or sunrise (S165) based on the time information received through the GPS module 150, The gamma value can be adjusted.

Meanwhile, in the above description, steps S110 to S170 may be further divided into additional steps or combined into fewer steps, according to an embodiment of the present invention. Also, some of the steps may be omitted as necessary, and the order between the steps may be changed. In addition, even if other contents are omitted, the contents already described in Figs. 1 to 3 can also be applied to the image correction method of Fig.

According to any one of the embodiments of the present invention as described above, it is possible to secure the watch by correcting the image even in a state where it is difficult to secure the rear side and the side side by the headlight of the rear vehicle.

In particular, it is possible to secure the watch by image correction even in situations where the direct sunlight is illuminated or the view of the driver's side or rear is difficult to obtain, such as sunset or sunrise.

On the other hand, an embodiment of the present invention may also be embodied in the form of a computer program stored in a medium executed by a computer or a recording medium including instructions executable by the computer. Computer readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by a computer and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media. In addition, the computer-readable medium may include both computer storage media and communication media. Computer storage media includes both volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Communication media typically includes any information delivery media, including computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave, or other transport mechanism.

While the methods and systems of the present invention have been described in connection with specific embodiments, some or all of those elements or operations may be implemented using a computer system having a general purpose hardware architecture.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing description of the present invention is for illustrative purposes only and that those of ordinary skill in the art can readily understand that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics of the present invention. will be. It is therefore to be understood that the above-described embodiments are illustrative in all aspects and not restrictive. For example, each component described as a single entity may be distributed and implemented, and components described as being distributed may also be implemented in a combined form.

The scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims rather than the detailed description and all changes or modifications derived from the meaning and scope of the claims and their equivalents are to be construed as being included within the scope of the present invention do.

100: camera monitoring system
110: camera
120: Memory
130:
140: Processor
150: GPS module

Claims (10)

A camera installed in the vehicle for shooting the surrounding video in real time,
A memory storing a program for storing the image and correcting the image in real time,
A display unit for outputting the corrected image;
And a processor for executing a program stored in the memory,
Wherein the processor is configured to determine whether a region having a gray value greater than or equal to a predetermined first gray value exists through analysis of brightness and area of the image as the program is executed, Wherein the degree of brightness of the image is reduced by applying a correction value to the value. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the processor calculates an average peak luminance value of the photographed image and adjusts a gamma value of an area having a gray value less than the predetermined second gray value to raise a luminance value when the average peak luminance value is equal to or less than a threshold value A camera monitoring system. 3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the first gray value has a gray value greater than the second gray value. 3. The method of claim 2,
The processor determines whether the image is photographed based on the calculated average peak luminance value to determine whether it is a day or night, and if the determined time is a time corresponding to sunrise or sunset during the daytime or nighttime And adjusts a gamma value of an area having a gray value less than the predetermined second gray value. 5. The method of claim 4,
A GPS module for measuring the current position and the current time,
Wherein the processor determines the time taken for the image based on the time information received through the GPS module. 3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the processor performs histogram analysis of the image on the x-axis and y-axis basis, and calculates the gray value and the average peak luminance value based on the analysis result. An image correction method in a camera monitoring system,
Receiving an image photographed through a camera installed in a vehicle;
Analyzing the brightness and the area of the image;
Determining whether an area having a gray value greater than or equal to a predetermined first gray value exists;
And applying a correction value to the gray value of the image if the determination result is present, thereby reducing the brightness level of the image. 8. The method of claim 7,
Calculating an average peak luminance value of the photographed image;
Comparing the average peak luminance value with a predetermined threshold value, and
And adjusting the gamma value of the region having the gray value less than the predetermined second gray value to raise the brightness value when the gamma value is less than the threshold value. 9. The method of claim 8,
Wherein the first gray value has a gray value greater than the second gray value. 9. The method of claim 8,
The step of adjusting the gamma value to raise the luminance value comprises:
Determining whether the image is photographed based on the calculated average peak luminance value to determine whether it is a day or night; and
And adjusting a gamma value of an area having a gray value less than the predetermined second gray value when the determined time is a time corresponding to sunrise or sunset during the daytime or nighttime.

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