APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DISPLAYING BIRD'S EYE VIEW IMAGE OF AROUND VEHICLE

• US 20100220190A1
• Filed: 09/30/2009
• Published: 09/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hyundai Motor Company (Hyundai Motor Group), Hyundai Motor Japan R&D Center Incorporated (Hyundai Motor Group), Kia Motors Corporation (Kia Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Hyundai Motor Company (Hyundai Motor Group), Hyundai Motor Japan R&D Center Incorporated (Hyundai Motor Group), Kia Motors Corporation (Kia Corp.)
• Inventors: HIROSHI, Nakamura
• Granted Patent: US 8,384,782 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/148
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 1/27 providing all-round vision, e.g. using omnidirectional cameras
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/607 from a bird's eye viewpoint
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30252 Vehicle exterior; Vicinity of vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/4038 Image mosaicing, e.g. composing plane images from plane sub-images
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/80 Geometric correction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/698 for achieving an enlarged field of view, e.g. panoramic image capture
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/61 the noise originating only from the lens unit, e.g. flare, shading, vignetting or "cos4"

Abstract

The present invention features an apparatus and method for displaying a bird'"'"'s eye view image of around a vehicle in a relatively simple manner without causing a large amount of processing load, in which a driver can easily perceive a three-dimensional obstacle placed adjacent to a seam.

Claims

1. An apparatus for displaying a bird'"'"'s eye view image, comprising:

a plurality of on-vehicle cameras photographing surrounding objects of a vehicle;

an image-converting means for processing images obtained by the on-vehicle cameras, the image-converting means including means for correcting lens distortion in each of images photographed by the on-vehicle cameras, means for converting a view point, means for trimming display areas, and means for synthesizing a bird'"'"'s eye view image around the vehicle by connecting the trimmed display areas; and

an on-vehicle display unit displaying the synthesized bird'"'"'s eye view image to a driver or an occupant,

wherein the image-converting means further includes a reference height-converting means, which is required to produce first through n+1^TH bird'"'"'s eye view images by sequentially drawing the second through n+1^TH bird'"'"'s eye view images for second through n+1^TH reference heights, which are sequentially higher than ground level indicated by a first reference height, where n is an integer greater than 0, in addition to drawing the bird'"'"'s eye view image for the ground level.

2. The apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein, in the image-converting means,

the lens distortion-correcting means corrects a distortion due to a wide angle lens by referring to a lens distortion-correcting look-up table,

the view point-converting means converts the distortion-corrected image into an image seen from above the vehicle with reference to a view point-correcting look-up table,

the display area-trimming means trims first through n+1^TH display areas from the view point-converted image with reference to first through n+1^TH display area-trimming look-up tables corresponding to the first through n+1^TH reference heights, and

the synthesizing means synthesizes the first through n+1^TH bird'"'"'s eye view images by connecting the first through n+1^TH display areas.

3. The apparatus in accordance with claim 1, further comprising means for detecting a three-dimensional obstacle around the vehicle,

wherein the first bird'"'"'s eye view image is configured to be displayed while not detecting a three-dimensional obstacle that is placed on at least one seam (boundary where the display areas are connected with each other) of the bird'"'"'s eye view image by the detecting means, and the reference height-converting means is activated when the detecting means detects a three-dimensional obstacle placed on at least one seam of the bird'"'"'s eye view image.

4. The apparatus in accordance with claim 1, further comprising a control switch changing a display mode of the bird'"'"'s eye view image in response to an operation of the driver,

wherein the first bird'"'"'s eye view image is configured to be displayed while not perceiving a three-dimensional obstacle that is placed on at least one seam of the bird'"'"'s eye view image by the driver, and the reference height-converting means is activated when the presence of the three-dimensional obstacle is perceived by the driver and the driver operates the control switch.

5. The apparatus in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

means for detecting a three-dimensional obstacle around the vehicle; and

a control switch changing a display mode of the bird'"'"'s eye view image in response to an operation of the driver,

wherein the first bird'"'"'s eye view image is displayed when a presence of the three-dimensional obstacle on at least one seam of the bird'"'"'s eye view image is detected neither by the detecting means nor by the driver, and the reference height-converting means is started when the presence of the three-dimensional obstacle is detected by the detecting means or when the presence of the three-dimensional obstacle is detected by the driver and the control switch is operated by the driver.

12. A motor vehicle comprising an apparatus for displaying a bird'"'"'s eye view image of claim 1.

6. A method for displaying a bird'"'"'s eye view image, comprising:

photographing surrounding objects of a vehicle using a plurality of on-vehicle cameras;

converting an image, wherein the image conversion includes correcting lens distortion in each of the images photographed by the on-vehicle cameras, converting a view point, trimming display areas, and synthesizing and drawing a bird'"'"'s eye view image around the vehicle by connecting the trimmed display areas;

displaying the bird'"'"'s eye view image to a driver or an occupant using an on-vehicle display unit,

wherein the image conversion includes converting reference heights to produce first through n+1^TH bird'"'"'s eye view images by sequentially drawing the second through n+1^TH bird'"'"'s eye view images for second through n+1^TH reference heights, which are sequentially higher than ground level indicated by a first reference height, where n is an integer greater than 0, in addition to drawing the bird'"'"'s eye view image for the ground level.

7. An apparatus for displaying a bird'"'"'s eye view image, comprising:

a plurality of on-vehicle cameras photographing surrounding objects of a vehicle;

an image-converting means for processing images obtained by the on-vehicle cameras; and

an on-vehicle display unit.

8. The apparatus for displaying a bird'"'"'s eye view image of claim 7, wherein the image-converting means is selected from the group consisting of:

means for correcting lens distortion in each of images photographed by the on-vehicle cameras, means for converting a view point, means for trimming display areas, and means for synthesizing a bird'"'"'s eye view image around the vehicle by connecting the trimmed display areas.

9. The apparatus for displaying a bird'"'"'s eye view image of claim 7, wherein the on-vehicle display unit displays the synthesized bird'"'"'s eye view image to a driver or an occupant.

10. The apparatus for displaying a bird'"'"'s eye view image of claim 7, wherein the image-converting means further includes a reference height-converting means.

11. The apparatus for displaying a bird'"'"'s eye view image of claim 10, wherein the reference height-converting means is required to produce first through n+1TH bird'"'"'s eye view images by sequentially drawing the second through n+1TH bird'"'"'s eye view images for second through n+1TH reference heights, which are sequentially higher than ground level indicated by a first reference height, where n is an integer greater than 0, in addition to drawing the bird'"'"'s eye view image for the ground level.

13. A motor vehicle comprising an apparatus for displaying a bird'"'"'s eye view image of claim 7.

14. A method for displaying a bird'"'"'s eye view image, comprising:

photographing surrounding objects of a vehicle using a plurality of on-vehicle cameras;

converting an image; and

displaying the bird'"'"'s eye view image to a driver or an occupant.

15. The method for displaying a bird'"'"'s eye view image of claim 14, wherein the image conversion is selected from the group consisting of:

correcting lens distortion in each of the images photographed by the on-vehicle cameras, converting a view point, trimming display areas, and synthesizing and drawing a bird'"'"'s eye view image around the vehicle by connecting the trimmed display areas.

16. The method for displaying a bird'"'"'s eye view image of claim 14, wherein the bird'"'"'s eye view image is displayed to a driver or an occupant using an on-vehicle display unit.

17. The method for displaying a bird'"'"'s eye view image of claim 14, wherein the image conversion includes converting reference heights to produce first through n+1TH bird'"'"'s eye view images by sequentially drawing the second through n+1TH bird'"'"'s eye view images for second through n+1TH reference heights, which are sequentially higher than ground level indicated by a first reference height, where n is an integer greater than 0, in addition to drawing the bird'"'"'s eye view image for the ground level.