Image-processing system and image-processing method

• US 8,155,385 B2
• Filed: 10/02/2008
• Issued: 04/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alpine Electronics Incorporated (Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Alpine Electronics Incorporated (Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Mizuta, Masaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Bella, Matthew
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rosario, Dennis
• Application Number:
  US12/244,344
• Publication Number:
  US 20090097708A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,286 Days
• Field of Search: 382/104, 700/62
• US Class Current: 382/104
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 11/04 Mounting of cameras operative during drive; Arrangement of controls thereof relative to the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/60 characterised by monitoring and displaying vehicle exterior scenes from a transformed perspective
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/607 from a bird's eye viewpoint
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/00 2D [Two Dimensional] image generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/4038 Image mosaicing, e.g. composing plane images from plane sub-images

Abstract

A vehicle-periphery-image-providing system may include an image-capturing unit, a viewpoint-change unit, an image-composition unit, an object-decttion unit, a line-width-setting unit, and a line-selection unit. The image-capturing units, such as cameras, capture images outside a vehicle periphery and generate image-data items. The viewpoint-change unit generates a bird'"'"'s-eye-view image for each image-data item based on the image-data item so that end portions of the real spaces corresponding to two adjacent bird'"'"'s-eye-view images overlap each other. The image-composition unit generates a bird'"'"'s-eye-view-composite image by combining the bird'"'"'s-eye-view images according to a predetermined layout. The object-detection unit detects an object existing in the real space corresponding to a portion where the bird'"'"'s-eye-view images of the bird'"'"'s-eye-composite image are joined to each other. The line-width-setting unit sets the width of the line image corresponding to the joining portion. The line-selection unit adds a line image having the set width to an overlap portion of one of the bird'"'"'s-eye-view images.

Claims

1. An image-processing system processing image data obtained by capturing images outside a periphery of a vehicle, the image-processing system comprising:

a plurality of image-capturing units that is affixed to the vehicle and that generates image-data items by capturing images outside the periphery of the vehicle;

a bird'"'"'s-eye-view-image-drawing unit configured to generate a bird'"'"'s-eye-view image by determining a viewpoint above the vehicle for each of the image-data items generated by the image-capturing units based on the image-data item so that end portions of real spaces corresponding to two adjacent bird'"'"'s-eye-view images overlap each other;

an image-composition unit configured to generate a bird'"'"'s-eye-view-composite image by combining the bird'"'"'s-eye-view images with one another according to a predetermined layout;

a posture-change-detection unit configured to detect an amount of change in a posture of the vehicle;

a border-width-setting unit configured to determine a border image based on the overlap portions included in a portion where the bird'"'"'s-eye-view images included in the bird'"'"'s-eye-view-composite image are joined to each other and to change a width of the border image based on the detected vehicle-posture-change amount; and

an image-addition unit configured to draw a border-and-bird'"'"'s-eye-view-composite image in the joining portion by superimposing a border image having a width set by the border-width-setting unit on the overlap portion of one of the bird'"'"'s-eye-view images.

2. The image-processing system of claim 1, wherein, when drawing the overlap portions of the bird'"'"'s-eye-view images, the image-composition unit determines a bird'"'"'s-eye-view image corresponding to the image-data item generated by the image-capturing unit having a narrow view angle of the image-capturing units generating the image-data items corresponding to the bird'"'"'s-eye-view images to be the other bird'"'"'s-eye-view image, and generates the overlap portion of the other bird'"'"'s-eye-view image with priority.

3. The image-processing system of claim 1, further comprising:

a frame memory configured to store image data corresponding to an image for display,

wherein the image-composition unit stores image data corresponding to each of the bird'"'"'s-eye-view images generated by the image-drawing unit in a predetermined storage area determined for each of the bird'"'"'s-eye-view images, the predetermined storage area being provided in the frame memory, and

wherein the image-addition unit stores image data corresponding to the border image in a predetermined storage area determined for each of the border images, the predetermined storage area being provided in the frame memory.

4. The image-processing system of claim 3, further comprising:

a mapping memory configured to store data on a mapping table showing an association between a position of each of pixels of the bird'"'"'s-eye-view image generated by the image-drawing unit and a storage area provided in the frame memory,

wherein the image-composition unit stores image data corresponding to each of the pixels corresponding to the bird'"'"'s-eye-view image generated by the image-drawing unit in a predetermined storage area provided in the frame memory based on the mapping table.

5. The image-processing system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of image-capturing units includes:

a first image-capturing unit capturing an image of an area ahead of the vehicle;

a second image-capturing unit capturing an image of an area on the right of the vehicle;

a third image-capturing unit capturing an image of an area in the rear of the vehicle; and

a fourth image-capturing unit capturing an image of an area on the left of the vehicle.

6. An image-processing method provided to process image data obtained by capturing images outside a periphery of a vehicle, the image-processing method comprising the steps of:

capturing images outside the periphery of the vehicle using a plurality of image-capturing units affixed to the vehicle and generating image-data items;

generating a bird'"'"'s-eye-view image by determining a viewpoint above the vehicle for each of the image-data items generated at the image-capturing step based on the image-data item so that end portions of real spaces corresponding to two adjacent bird'"'"'s-eye-view images overlap each other;

generating a bird'"'"'s-eye-view-composite image by combining the bird'"'"'s-eye-view images with one another according to a predetermined layout;

detecting an amount of change in a posture of the vehicle;

generating a border image based on the overlap portions included in a portion where the bird'"'"'s-eye-view images included in the bird'"'"'s-eye-view-composite image are joined to each other and changing a width of the border image based on the detected vehicle-posture-change amount; and

generating a border-and-bird'"'"'s-eye-view-composite image in the joining portion by superimposing a border image having a width set at the border-width-setting step on the overlap portion of one of the bird'"'"'s-eye-view images.