DRIVING-OPERATION ASSIST AND RECORDING MEDIUM

• US 20070299572A1
• Filed: 08/28/2007
• Published: 12/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: NOBORI, Kunio, MORIMURA, Atsushi, ISHII, Hirofumi, OKAMOTO, Shusaku, NAKAGAWA, Masamichi
• Granted Patent: US 8,077,202 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/28
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 1/28 with an adjustable field of view
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/102 using 360 degree surveillance camera system
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/105 using multiple cameras
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/302 combining image information with GPS information or vehicle data, e.g. vehicle speed, gyro, steering angle data
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/303 using joined images, e.g. multiple camera images
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/305 merging camera image with lines or icons
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/307 virtually distinguishing relevant parts of a scene from the background of the scene
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/607 from a bird's eye viewpoint
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/806 for aiding parking
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/8086 for vehicle path indication
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 15/02 Steering position indicators ; Steering position determination; Steering aids
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 15/027 Parking aids, e.g. instruction means
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 15/028 Guided parking by providing commands to the driver, e.g. acoustically or optically
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/05 Geographic models
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

A vehicle-operation assist includes a circumferential-state imager for imaging a circumferential state of a vehicle with a camera and generating a circumferential-state image; a synthetic-image generator for generating a synthetic image by superimposing on the circumferential-state image, an assumed-movement pattern of the vehicle performing a predetermined series of driving operations; and a display for displaying the synthetic image. The circumferential-state imager has at least one camera and a camera parameter table for storing characteristics of the camera and generating the circumferential-state image on the basis of the camera characteristics.

Claims

1. A vehicle operation assist for a vehicle mounted with a camera, comprising:

an operation-start detecting unit operable to detect that an actual driving operation corresponding to a predetermined driving operation are started automatically or through an input from a driver;

a circumferential-state imaging unit operable to generate a circumferential state image using an output image from the camera;

a synthetic-image generating unit operable to generate a synthetic image by using the circumferential-state image, said synthetic image including an assumed-movement pattern showing movement of the vehicle in case of performing the predetermined driving operation, said assumed-movement pattern including (i) a trace between a start position of the vehicle and an end position of the vehicle, and (ii) a synthetic image of the vehicle at the end position in case of performing the driving operations, wherein the synthetic-image generating unit changes a way of generating the synthetic image in accordance with the actual driving operations; and

a display unit operable to display the synthetic image.

2. The vehicle operation assist according to claim 1, wherein

when an actual driving operation corresponding to a predetermined driving operation is started, the synthetic-image generating unit thereafter fixes a positional relation between the assumed-movement pattern and the circumferential-state image at the point of time when the actual driving operation is started and generates the synthetic image.

3. The vehicle-operation assist according to claim 2, further comprising

a positional-information sorting unit stores the positional information of the whole or a part of the assumed-movement pattern with regard to the basis of the whole or a part of the circumferential-state image on the synthetic image when the actual driving operations are started,

the synthetic-image generating unit fixes the positional relation in accordance with the positional information.

4. The vehicle-operation assist according to claim 2, further comprising

a movement-position computing unit operable to compute movement positions of the vehicle since an actual driving operation was started, in accordance with signals relating to the actual driving operations, and

the synthetic image generating unit fixes the positional relation in accordance with the movement positions.

5. The vehicle operation assist according to claim 1, further comprising

a driving control unit operable to control the vehicle automatically in accordance with an assumed-movement data when an actual driving operation corresponding to the predetermined driving operation is started,

said assumed-movement data includes time-series data showing a relation between a movement distance and a steering angle of the steering wheel of the vehicle, and the assumed-movement pattern included in the synthetic image.

6. A vehicle operation assist for a vehicle mounted with a camera, comprising:

an operation-start detecting unit operable to detects that an actual driving operation corresponding to a predetermined driving operation is started, automatically or through as input from a driver;

a circumferential-state imaging unit operable to generate a circumferential state image using an output image from the camera, wherein circumferential-state imaging unit changes a way of generating circumferential state image when the actual driving operations are started;

a synthetic-image generating unit operable to generate a synthetic image by using the circumferential state image, said synthetic image including an assumed-movement pattern showing movement of the vehicle in case of performing a predetermined driving operations, said assumed-movement pattern including (i) a trace between a start position of the vehicle and an end position of the vehicle, and (ii) a synthetic image of the vehicle at the end position in case of performing the driving operations; and

a display unit operable to display the synthetic image.

7. The vehicle-operation assist according to claim 6, wherein the circumferential-state imaging unit generates a

virtual viewpoint image in which the vehicle and its surroundings are viewed from a virtual viewpoint, fixes the predetermined viewpoint to the vehicle before the actual driving operation corresponding to the predetermined driving operation is started, and changes the predetermined viewpoint to a point fixed to the three-dimensional space after the actual driving operation corresponding to the predetermined driving operation is started.

8. The vehicle-operation assist according to claim 7, wherein

the point fixed to the three-dimensional space is a point just above the end position of the predetermined driving operation when the actual driving operation is started.