VEHICLE SURROUNDING-AREA MONITORING APPARATUS

• US 20140118551A1
• Filed: 05/18/2012
• Published: 05/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd. (Aisin Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Keigo Ikeda
• Inventors: Ikeda, Keigo, Kato, Takashi, Watanabe, Hiroyuki, Katagiri, Masaki
• Granted Patent: US 9,013,579 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/148
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 1/26 to the rear of the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 1/27 providing all-round vision, e.g. using omnidirectional cameras
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/307 virtually distinguishing relevant parts of a scene from the background of the scene
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/047 Fisheye or wide-angle transformations
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/255 Detecting or recognising potential candidate objects based on visual cues, e.g. shapes
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/58 Recognition of moving objects or obstacles, e.g. vehicles or pedestrians; Recognition of traffic objects, e.g. traffic signs, traffic lights or roads
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/168 Driving aids for parking, e.g. acoustic or visual feedback on parking space

Abstract

A vehicle surrounding-area monitoring apparatus that, when recognizing an obstacle, allows for easy determination of the positional relationship between the obstacle and scenery included in a video image of the area surrounding the vehicle, generates a narrow view-field region that is a part of the video image as a notable video image, and if an obstacle region that is a region of the recognized obstacle in the video image is located outside of the narrow view-field region and if the obstacle region is contained in an image region that is partially overlapping with the narrow view-field region and is a part of the video image, generates the image region as a notable obstacle image so as to generate a surrounding-area monitoring display image comprised of the notable video image and the notable obstacle image.

Claims

1. A vehicle surrounding-area monitoring apparatus comprising:

a notable video image generation unit generating a narrow view-field region as a notable video image, the narrow view-field region being part of a video image of an area surrounding a vehicle obtained by an imaging unit;

an obstacle recognition unit recognizing an obstacle in the area surrounding the vehicle;

an obstacle region calculation unit calculating an obstacle region, the obstacle region being a region, in the video image, of the obstacle recognized by the obstacle recognition unit;

a notable obstacle image generation unit generating the video region as a notable obstacle image if the obstacle region is contained in an image region that is partially overlapping with the narrow view-field region and is a part of the video image; and

an image merge unit generating a surrounding-area monitoring display image comprising the notable video image and the notable obstacle image.

2. A vehicle surrounding-area monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a right and left pair of placement regions for placing the notable obstacle images are set in the surrounding-area monitoring display image so as to be symmetrical with respect to the notable video image such that the notable obstacle images are generated as notable obstacle images placed in the placement regions.

3. A vehicle surrounding-area monitoring apparatus according to claim 2, wherein an indicator is placed in an upper middle portion of the notable video image, the indicator indicating the direction in which the obstacle is located with respect to the vehicle.

4. A vehicle surrounding-area monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when no obstacle is recognized, the notable video image is displayed as the surrounding-area monitoring display image, and when an obstacle is recognized, the notable obstacle image is displayed as a pop-up on the surrounding-area monitoring display image.

5. A vehicle surrounding-area monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a transition region that connects the obstacle region and the narrow view-field region is compressed along the direction of the transition according to the distance between the obstacle region and the narrow view-field region.

6. A vehicle surrounding-area monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the notable obstacle image generation unit generates a notable obstacle image containing at least the obstacle region from the video image if the obstacle region is located outside of the narrow view-field image, and

wherein the image merge unit merges the notable video image, the notable obstacle image, and an indicator image that indicates the relative position of the notable obstacle image with respect to the vehicle so as to display the notable obstacle image as a pop-up on a monitor screen.

7. A vehicle surrounding-area monitoring apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the indicator image is displayed in an upper middle portion of the notable video image and the notable obstacle image is displayed to one side of the indicator image.

8. A vehicle surrounding-area monitoring apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the area surrounding the vehicle is an area rearward of the vehicle and the notable video image is laterally inverted from an image captured by the imaging unit.

9. A vehicle surrounding-area monitoring apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the notable obstacle image and the indicator image are displayed as pop-ups within the notable video image.

10. A vehicle surrounding-area monitoring apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the notable obstacle image comprises an image in the obstacle region, an image in a transition region transitioning from the obstacle region to the narrow view-field region, and an image in an overlapping region extending into the narrow view-field region from the transition region.

11. A vehicle surrounding-area monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the notable obstacle image is enlarged or reduced according to the distance between the obstacle region and the narrow view-field region.

12. A vehicle surrounding-area monitoring apparatus comprising:

a notable video image generation unit generating a narrow view-field region as a notable video image, the narrow view-field region being part of a video image of an area surrounding a vehicle obtained by an imaging unit;

an obstacle recognition unit recognizing an obstacle in the area surrounding the vehicle;

an obstacle region calculation unit calculating an obstacle region, the obstacle region being a region, in the video image, of the obstacle recognized by the obstacle recognition unit;

a notable obstacle image generation unit generating a notable obstacle image containing at least the obstacle region from the video image if the obstacle region is located outside of the narrow view-field image;

an indicator image generation unit generating an indicator image that indicates the relative position of the notable obstacle image with respect to the vehicle; and

an image merge unit merging the notable obstacle image, the indicator image, and the notable video image so as to display the notable obstacle image as a pop-up on a monitor screen.