SURROUNDING IMAGE GENERATING APPARATUS AND METHOD OF ADJUSTING METERING FOR IMAGE PICKUP DEVICE
First Claim
1. A surrounding image generating apparatus that changes a viewpoint of images taken by a plurality of image pickup devices mounted at different positions along a vehicle to generate a surrounding image showing areas around the vehicle as viewed from a virtual viewpoint located above the vehicle, the surrounding image generating apparatus comprising:
- a metering area determining unit operable to determine at least one overlapping area in which a shooting area of at least two of the plurality of image pickup devices are overlapped with each other to be a metering area for the at least two of the plurality of image pickup devices;
an exposure calculating unit operable to focus metering on the metering area to calculate an appropriate exposure for the at least two of the plurality of image pickup devices; and
a surrounding image generating unit operable to generate the surrounding image by using image signals generated in accordance with each exposure calculated.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A surrounding image generating apparatus changes a viewpoint of images around a vehicle, taken by multiple image pickup devices mounted at different positions along the vehicle, to generate a surrounding image of the areas around the vehicle viewed from a virtual viewpoint located above the vehicle. The surrounding image generating apparatus includes a metering area determining unit determining at least one overlapping area in which the shooting areas of the image pickup devices are overlapped with each other to be a metering area for at least part of the image pickup devices; an exposure calculating unit focusing metering on the metering area for the at least part of the image pickup devices to calculate an appropriate exposure of each of the image pickup devices; and a surrounding image generating unit generating the surrounding image by using image signals generated in accordance with the calculated exposures.
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Citations
17 Claims
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1. A surrounding image generating apparatus that changes a viewpoint of images taken by a plurality of image pickup devices mounted at different positions along a vehicle to generate a surrounding image showing areas around the vehicle as viewed from a virtual viewpoint located above the vehicle, the surrounding image generating apparatus comprising:
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a metering area determining unit operable to determine at least one overlapping area in which a shooting area of at least two of the plurality of image pickup devices are overlapped with each other to be a metering area for the at least two of the plurality of image pickup devices; an exposure calculating unit operable to focus metering on the metering area to calculate an appropriate exposure for the at least two of the plurality of image pickup devices; and a surrounding image generating unit operable to generate the surrounding image by using image signals generated in accordance with each exposure calculated. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method of adjusting metering for a plurality of image pickup devices mounted at different positions in and/or on a vehicle in order to generate a surrounding image showing areas around the vehicle as viewed from a virtual viewpoint located above the vehicle, the method comprising:
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estimating a traveling direction of the vehicle; and determining at least one overlapping area to be a metering area for each of the plurality of image pickup devices associated with the at least one overlapping area, the at least one overlapping area comprising an overlapping shooting area in the estimated traveling direction. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method of adjusting metering for a plurality of image pickup devices mounted at different positions along a vehicle in order to generate a surrounding image of the vehicle as viewed from a virtual viewpoint located above the vehicle, the method comprising:
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detecting an obstacle in the vicinity of the vehicle; and determining at least one overlapping area to be a metering area for each of the plurality of image pickup devices associated with the at least one overlapping area, the at least one overlapping area comprising an overlapping shooting area in the direction toward where the obstacle is detected. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification