Vehicle periphery video providing apparatus and method

• US 20070070197A1
• Filed: 09/08/2006
• Published: 03/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Oizumi, Ken, Akatsuka, Takeshi
• Granted Patent: US 8,174,576 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/118
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/605 the adjustment being automatic
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/802 for monitoring and displaying vehicle exterior blind spot views
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/86 Combinations of lidar systems with systems other than lidar, radar or sonar, e.g. with direction finders

Abstract

A vehicle periphery video providing apparatus performs coordinate conversion for a video shot by a shooting device so that the same video as in a case where a vehicle outside is visible from an eye point position of a driver in such a manner that an installed area of a liquid crystal display becomes transparent can be displayed on the liquid crystal display.

Claims

1. A vehicle periphery video providing apparatus which provides, to a driver, a video obtained by shooting a periphery of a vehicle, comprising:

a shooting device adapted-to shoot the periphery of the vehicle, the periphery becoming a blind spot to the driver by a structure of the vehicle;

a video processing device adapted to process the peripheral video of the vehicle, the video being shot by the shooting device;

a display device adapted to display the video processed by the video processing device; and

a distance detection device adapted to detect a distance to an obstruction present on a shooting direction side of the shooting device,

wherein, based on information regarding an eye point position of the driver and information regarding an installed state of the display device, the video processing device performs coordinate conversion for the video shot by the shooting device so that a same video as in a case where a vehicle outside is visible from the eye point position of the driver in such a manner that an installed area of the display device becomes transparent can be displayed on the display device, sets a reference surface of the coordinate conversion at a position of the distance to the obstruction, the distance being detected by the distance detection device, and performs the coordinate conversion for the reference surface.

2. The vehicle periphery video providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, based on a plurality of the eye point positions of the driver, the video processing device performs the coordinate conversion for the video shot by the shooting device so that a video in a range including all of videos when the vehicle outside is visible from the plurality of eye point positions in such a manner that the installed area of the display device becomes transparent can be displayed on the display device, sets the reference surface of the coordinate conversion at the position of the distance to the obstruction, the distance being detected by the distance detection device, and performs the coordinate conversion for the reference surface.

3. The vehicle periphery video providing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an eye point position acquisition device adapted to acquire information regarding the eye point position of the driver,

wherein, based on the information regarding the eye point position, the information being acquired by the eye point position acquisition device, and on the information regarding the installed state of the display device, the video processing device performs the coordinate conversion for the video shot by the shooting device so that the same video as in the case where the vehicle outside is visible from the eye point position of the driver in such a manner that the installed area of the display device becomes transparent can be displayed on the display device, sets the reference surface of the coordinate conversion at the position of the distance to the obstruction, the distance being detected by the distance detection device, and performs the coordinate conversion for the reference surface.

4. The vehicle periphery video providing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein, when the distance to the obstruction, the distance being detected by the distance detection device, is a predetermined distance or more, the video processing device does not set the reference surface of the coordinate conversion at the position of the distance to the obstruction, but sets the reference surface of the coordinate conversion on a ground, and performs the coordinate conversion for the video.

5. The vehicle periphery video providing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein, when distances to a plurality of the obstructions are detected by the distance detection device, the video processing device sets the reference surface of the coordinate conversion at a position of a closest distance to the obstruction among the distances to the plurality of obstructions, and performs the coordinate conversion for the video.

6. The vehicle periphery video providing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a second shooting device provided separately from the shooting device and adapted to shoot the periphery of the vehicle, the periphery becoming the blind spot to the driver by the structure of the vehicle,

wherein the video processing device performs the coordinate conversion individually for the video shot by the shooting device and a video shot by the second shooting device, and performs video synthesis processing for comparing the respective videos subjected to the coordinate conversion with each other for each pixel, and, when pixel values of the compared pixels are same, taking values of the compared pixels as a pixel value thereof, and when the pixel values are different from each other, taking an average of values of peripheral pixels thereof as the pixel value of the compared pixels, and

the display device displays the video subjected to the video synthesis processing.

7. The vehicle periphery video providing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the video processing device performs blurring processing for blurring portions of the video subjected to the coordinate conversion, the portions excluding the obstruction, and

the display device displays the video subjected to the blurring processing.

8. The vehicle periphery video providing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the video processing device performs emphasis processing for emphasizing an edge of the obstruction in the video subjected to the coordinate conversion, and

the display device displays the video subjected to the emphasis processing.

9. The vehicle periphery video providing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the video processing device sets the reference surface of the coordinate conversion at the position of the distance to the obstruction, the distance being detected by the distance detection device, sets a second reference surface on a ground, performs the coordinate conversion for a front side of the distance to the obstruction based on the second reference surface, and performs the coordinate conversion for other portions based on the reference surface.

10. A vehicle periphery video providing method which provides a video obtained by shooting a periphery of a vehicle to a driver by a display device, the method comprising:

shooting the periphery of the vehicle, the periphery becoming a blind spot to the driver by a structure of the vehicle;

detecting a distance to an obstruction present on a shooting direction side;

based on information regarding an eye point position of the driver and information regarding an installed state of the display device, performing coordinate conversion for the shot video so that a same video as in a case where a vehicle outside is visible from the eye point position of the driver in such a manner that an installed area of the display device becomes transparent can be displayed on the display device, setting a reference surface of the coordinate conversion at a position of the detected distance to the obstruction, and performing the coordinate conversion for the reference surface; and

displaying the video subjected to the coordinate conversion.

11. A vehicle periphery video providing apparatus which provides, to a driver, a video obtained by shooting a periphery of a vehicle, comprising:

a shooting means for shooting the periphery of the vehicle, the periphery becoming a blind spot to the driver by a structure of the vehicle;

a video processing means for processing the peripheral video of the vehicle, the video being shot by the shooting means;

a display means for displaying the video processed by the video processing means; and

a distance detection means for detecting a distance to an obstruction present on a shooting direction side of the shooting means,

wherein, based on information regarding an eye point position of the driver and information regarding an installed state of the display means, the video processing means performs coordinate conversion for the video shot by the shooting means so that a same video as in a case where a vehicle outside is visible from the eye point position of the driver in such a manner that an installed area of the display means becomes transparent can be displayed on the display means, sets a reference surface of the coordinate conversion at a position of the distance to the obstruction, the distance being detected by the distance detection means, and performs the coordinate conversion for the reference surface.