Vehicle-mounted camera system

• US 10,356,376 B2
• Filed: 09/24/2015
• Issued: 07/16/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Clarion Co., Ltd. (Faurecia SA)
• Original Assignee: Clarion Co., Ltd. (Faurecia SA)
• Inventors: Usui, Tsutomu, Nakano, Norihiko, Kojima, Takahide
• Primary Examiner(s): Rahman, Mohammad J
• Application Number:
  US15/525,406
• Publication Number:
  US 20170339385A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,391 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 15/00 Special procedures for taking photographs; Apparatus therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 7/093 for control of exposure time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/10 for generating image signals from different wavelengths
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/71 Circuitry for evaluating the brightness variation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/741 by increasing the dynamic range of the image compared to the dynamic range of the electronic image sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/88 for colour balance, e.g. white-balance circuits or colour temperature control
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/583 with different integration times
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/01 Circuitry for demodulating colour component signals modulated spatially by colour striped filters by phase separation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/73 Colour balance circuits, e.g. white balance circuits or colour temperature control camera processing pipelines for colour balance H04N23/88

Abstract

In a vehicle-mounted camera system, an appropriate white balance correction processing according to a situation is executed to a long exposure time image and a short exposure time image shot in variously changing illumination environments. A vehicle-mounted camera system includes a vehicle-mounted camera that performs relatively long exposure time shooting and short exposure time shooting, a signal processing device (signal processing device) that executes a white balance correction processing for each of a long exposure time image and a short exposure time image, composes these images after the white balance correction processing, and generates a high dynamic range image, and a system control part (processing switch device) that obtains an illumination environment in which the vehicle is placed, and switches the white balance correction processing for the long exposure time image and the white balance correction processing for the short exposure time image according to the illumination environment.

Claims

1. A vehicle-mounted camera system, comprising:

a vehicle-mounted camera that is provided in a vehicle and shoots in at least two different exposure times; and

a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a program, which when executed by a processor causes the vehicle-mounted camera system to operates as;

a signal processing device that is configured to execute a white balance correction processing to two or more types of exposure images shot in the at least two different exposure times and generate a high dynamic range image based on the two or more types of the exposure images to which the white balance correction processing is executed; and

a processing switch device that is configured to obtain an illumination environment in which the vehicle is placed and switch the white balance correction processing for the two or more types of the exposure images by the signal processing device according to the obtained illumination environment,

wherein the signal processing device includes, as the white balance correction processing,

(A) a white balance correction processing for a relatively short exposure time image of the two or more types of the exposure images and a white balance correction processing for a relatively long exposure time image of the two or more types of the exposure images being set to an automatic white balance correction processing;

(B) the white balance correction processing for the relatively short exposure time image of the two or more types of the exposure images being set to a fixed white balance correction processing having a previously set parameter, and the white balance correction processing for the relatively long exposure time image of the two or more types of the exposure images being set to the automatic white balance correction processing; and

(C) the white balance correction processing for the relatively short exposure time image of the two or more types of the exposure images and the white balance correction processing for the relatively long exposure time images of the two or more types of the exposure images being set to the fixed white balance correction processing having the predetermined set parameter, and

the processing switch device is configured to specify any one of (1) an illumination environment of an outside in a daytime, (2) an illumination environment of an outside in a nighttime, and (3) an illumination environment of a single light source, and switch the white balance correction processing to (A) the white balance correction processing when (1) is specified, the white balance correction processing to (B) the white balance correction processing when (2) is specified, and the white balance correction processing to (C) the white balance correction processing when (3) is specified.

2. The vehicle-mounted camera system according to claim 1, wherein when the two or more types of the exposure images are three or more types of the exposure images each having a different exposure time, as a white balance correction processing for another exposure image except the short exposure time image and the long exposure time image, the automatic white balance correction processing is set to (A) the white balance correction processing, the fixed white balance correction processing having the previously set parameter or the automatic white balance (AWB) correction processing is set to (B) the white balance correction processing, and the fixed white balance correction processing having the previously set parameter is set to (C) the white balance correction processing.

3. The vehicle-mounted camera system according to claim 1, wherein the processing switch device is configured to obtain the illumination environment based on location information and time information on which the vehicle is placed.

4. The vehicle-mounted camera system according to claim 3, wherein the processing switch device is configured to obtain the location information based on positional information and map information output from a navigation system in the vehicle.