Vehicle periphery visual recognition system, camera and vehicle periphery monitoring apparatus and vehicle periphery monitoring system

• US 20030095182A1
• Filed: 11/15/2002
• Published: 05/22/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Autonetworks Technologies, Ltd. (Sumitomo Corporation), Sumitomo Electric Industries Limited (Sumitomo Corporation), Sumitomo Wiring Systems Limited (Sumitomo Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Autonetworks Technologies, Ltd. (Sumitomo Corporation)
• Inventors: Imoto, Masayoshi
• Granted Patent: US 7,253,833 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/148
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 for receiving images from a single remote source

Abstract

A vehicle periphery visual recognition system 1 is made up of an image pickup unit 11 for picking up images of image pickup ranges in three directions of the lower area at the front of a vehicle and the left and right side areas at the same time, and a controller 10 for performing image processing of an image signal provided by the image pickup unit 11 and then outputting the signal to a display 15.

Claims

1. A vehicle periphery visual recognition system comprising:

an image pickup unit being disposed facing the outer periphery of a vehicle for picking up images of a plurality of image pickup ranges in the periphery of the vehicle, and

a controller for performing image processing of an image signal output from said image pickup unit and outputting the signal to a display, wherein

said image pickup unit comprises;

a wide-range lens system having a viewing angle of a horizontal view angle of 70 degrees or more;

an image pickup device for receiving light passing through said wide-range lens system, converting the light into an image signal, and outputting the image signal; and

light guide means for making incidence light from the image pickup range incident on said wide-range lens system, and

said controller comprises;

a resolution conversion section for enlarging the specified range of the image signal output from said image pickup unit.

2. The vehicle periphery visual recognition system as in claim 1, wherein

said light guide means once reflects incidence light from at least one of the plurality of image pickup ranges, emits the reflected light to said wide-range lens system, and allows incidence light from other image pickup ranges to be incident on said wide-range lens system without reflecting the incidence light from other image pickup ranges, and wherein

said controller further comprises:

an image inversion section for performing left and right inversion of the specified range of the image signal output from said image pickup unit; and

a switch control section for controlling an enlargement ratio of the specified range in the resolution conversion section and switch between the presence and absence of left and right inversion of the specified range in the image inversion section in response to the operation state of the vehicle.

3. The vehicle periphery visual recognition system as in claim 1, wherein

said controller further comprises:

an image pickup device drive section for controlling the pixel read direction of said image pickup device and the pixel read range.

4. The vehicle periphery visual recognition system as in claim 1, wherein

said image pickup device has a resolution with the effective number of pixels in a horizontal direction being 700 or more.

5. The vehicle periphery visual recognition system as in claim 1, wherein

said light guide means comprises:

a columnar prism shaped like a triangle in cross section having three sides of left and right sides on which light from the image pickup ranges of the left and right sides relative to the vehicle is incident and a rear side where the light incident on the left and right sides is internally reflected on the opposite side and is emitted, and wherein

incidence light from the front or rear lower image pickup range relative to the vehicle passes through under the bottom of said prism and is incident on said wide-range lens system.

6. The vehicle periphery visual recognition system as claimed in claim 5, wherein

a light shield member is placed on the bottom of said prism of said light guide means.

7. A camera comprising:

image pickup means including a single image pickup device and image pickup lenses placed at the front of said image pickup device; and

one or more prisms each shaped roughly like a triangle pole, placed at the front of said image pickup means with prism back faces directed to said image pickup lenses and prism sides directed to different side visual fields for twice internally reflecting light incident on the prism side on the visual field side between the prism side on the opposite visual field side and the prism side on the visual field side and emitting the light from the prism back face, wherein

said image pickup means forms images of the incident light twice internally reflected through said prisms from the side visual fields and incident light from the front visual field without the intervention of said prisms on said image pickup device through said image pickup lenses at the same time.

8. The camera as in claim 7, wherein

said prisms are placed symmetrically in a pair at the front of said image pickup means with the left prism side of the left prism directed to the left visual field and the right prism side of the right prism directed to the right visual field.

9. The camera as in claim 7, wherein

metal is evaporated on the prism side on the opposite visual field side of said prism.

10. The camera as in claim 7, wherein

said image pickup lens is a wide-range lens.

11. The camera as in claim 7, wherein

said image pickup means is placed with the image pickup direction directed to the front and inclined downward, and inputs the incident light from the front visual field from the lower half area of a vertical view angle of said image pickup means and the incident light through said prisms from the side visual fields from the upper half area of the vertical view angle.

12. The camera as claimed in claim 11, wherein

said prism is placed in an upright position at the front of said image pickup means, and

a portion projected to the lower half area of the vertical view angle of said image pickup means is cut.

13. The camera as claimed in claim 12, wherein

light shield treatment is applied to the cut face of said prism.

14. The camera as in claim 7, wherein

when the number of said prisms is two or more, said prisms are formed in one piece.

15. The camera as in claim 7, wherein

a prism holder is formed integrally with said prism.

16. The camera as in claim 7, wherein

at least one of the prism side on the visual field side, the prism side on the opposite visual field side and the prism back face of said prism is formed as a curved surface.

17. A vehicle periphery monitoring apparatus comprising:

a camera as claimed in any of claims 7 to 16 being installed in a vehicle for picking up images of a plurality of visual fields in the periphery of the vehicle;

a processing section for processing the images picked up by said camera; and

a display being installed in a cabin for displaying the images processed by said processing section.

18. The vehicle periphery monitoring apparatus as in claim 17, wherein

said camera is installed at the front or rear of the vehicle and picks up images of three-direction visual fields of the visual fields in the left and right directions of the vehicle and the visual field in the travel or back direction at the same time.

19. The vehicle periphery monitoring apparatus as claim 17, wherein

said processing section superposes a mask image on an unnecessary portion of the image picked up by said camera for display on said display.

20. The vehicle periphery monitoring apparatus as in claim 17, wherein

said processing section enlarges a necessary portion of the image picked up by said camera for display on said display.

21. A vehicle periphery monitoring system comprising:

image pickup means for picking up images of a plurality of different image pickup areas in the periphery of a vehicle and outputting the images;

display means being installed in a cabin; and

control means for providing a plurality of display areas corresponding to the plurality of image pickup areas on a display screen of said display means, displaying the images of the image pickup areas corresponding to the display areas, inputting a signal indicating the operation state of the vehicle, and stopping display of the image of at least any one image pickup area, of the images of the plurality of image pickup areas displayed in the plurality of display areas, if said control means determines that the operation state of the vehicle matches a predetermined condition based on the signal.

22. The vehicle periphery monitoring system as in claim 21, wherein

if said control means determines that the operation state of the vehicle matches the predetermined condition, said control means superposes a predetermined different image other than the images of the plurality of image pickup areas on the image of at least any one image pickup area, of the images of the plurality of image pickup areas displayed in the plurality of display areas, and makes it substantially impossible to visually recognize the image of at least any one image pickup area, to stop displaying the image of the image pickup area.

23. The vehicle periphery monitoring system as in claim 21, wherein

said image pickup means picks up images of three image pickup areas in the left direction at the front of the vehicle, the right direction at the front, and the slanting down direction at the front as the plurality of image pickup areas.

24. The vehicle periphery monitoring system as in claim 21, wherein

said image pickup means picks up images of three image pickup areas in the left direction at the rear of the vehicle, the right direction at the rear, and the slanting down direction at the rear as the plurality of image pickup areas.

25. The vehicle periphery monitoring system as in claim 22, wherein

the different image contains an image of a mark representing the shape of the vehicle.

26. The vehicle periphery monitoring system as in claim 22, wherein

the different image contains an image of a symbol mark given to a start switch of said vehicle periphery monitoring system.

27. The vehicle periphery monitoring system as in claim 22, wherein

the different image is an image given from a different vehicle-installed information apparatus.

28. The vehicle periphery monitoring system as in claim 27, wherein

the different vehicle-installed information apparatus is a navigation system, and

the predetermined different image is a navigation image.

29. The vehicle periphery monitoring system as in claim 21, wherein

the signal input to said control means includes an IG switch signal indicating the state of an ignition switch and a vehicle speed sensor signal indicating the vehicle speed, and

said control means displays the images of all the image pickup areas in the corresponding display areas of said display means in at least a part of the time period until said control means detects the vehicle speed reaching a predetermined value based on the vehicle speed sensor signal after detecting an engine starting based on the IG switch signal.

30. The vehicle periphery monitoring system as in claim 21, further comprising:

input acceptance means for accepting operation entry to give an instruction for switching the display mode of the display area of said display means, wherein

if said input acceptance means accepts operation entry to give an instruction for displaying the images of all the image pickup areas on said display means in a state in which display of the image of at least any one image pickup area, of the images of the plurality of image pickup areas on said display means is stopped, said control means displays the images of all the image pickup areas in the corresponding display areas of said display means.

31. The vehicle periphery monitoring system as in claim 21, further comprising:

a navigation system for showing a route from the detected current position of the vehicle to a preset destination, and outputting a destination approach signal if the distance from the current position to the destination becomes a predetermined distance or less, wherein

if said navigation system outputs the destination approach signal, said control means displays the images of all the image pickup areas in the corresponding display areas of said display means.