VEHICLE SURROUNDING CONFIRMATION APPARATUS

• US 20100134264A1
• Filed: 12/01/2009
• Published: 06/03/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd. (Aisin Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd. (Aisin Corp.)
• Inventors: NAITO, Takeshi, ASANO, Tadashi, WATANABE, Kazuya, NAGAMINE, Noboru
• Granted Patent: US 8,305,204 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/435
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 9/005 using a video camera

Abstract

According to an aspect of this disclosure, a vehicle surrounding confirmation apparatus includes a narrow-field-of-view image generating portion generating a narrow-field-of-view image, showing a portion of a vehicle surrounding, from a captured image of the vehicle surrounding obtained by an image capturing portion, an obstacle recognizing portion recognizing an obstacle existing at the vehicle surrounding, a determining portion determining whether or not the obstacle, recognized by the obstacle recognizing portion, is included within the narrow-field-of-view image, an obstacle image extracting portion extracting an area, in which an image of the obstacle is shown, from the captured image as an obstacle image, when the obstacle, recognized by the obstacle recognizing portion, is not determined to be included within the narrow-field-of-view image, and a display image generating portion generating a display image from the narrow-field-of-view image and the obstacle image, thereby outputting the generated display image to a monitor.

Claims

1. A vehicle surrounding confirmation apparatus comprising:

a narrow-field-of-view image generating portion generating a narrow-field-of-view image, showing a portion of a vehicle surrounding, from a captured image of the vehicle surrounding obtained by an image capturing portion;

an obstacle recognizing portion recognizing an obstacle existing at the vehicle surrounding;

a determining portion determining whether or not the obstacle, recognized by the obstacle recognizing portion, is included within the narrow-field-of-view image;

an obstacle image extracting portion extracting an area, in which an image of the obstacle is shown, from the captured image as an obstacle image, when the obstacle, recognized by the obstacle recognizing portion, is not determined to be included within the narrow-field-of-view image, based on a determination result of the determining portion; and

a display image generating portion generating a display image from the narrow-field-of-view image and the obstacle image, thereby outputting the generated display image to a monitor.

2. The vehicle surrounding confirmation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the obstacle image is superimposed on the narrow-field-of-view image in the display image.

3. The vehicle surrounding confirmation apparatus according to claim 2, wherein an orientation of the obstacle relative to a position of the narrow-field-of-view image is calculated, and the obstacle image is arranged at a position of the narrow-field-of-view image corresponding to the calculated orientation, in the display image.

4. The vehicle surrounding confirmation apparatus according to claim 3, wherein a sign showing an approaching direction of the obstacle is displayed together with the obstacle image in the display image.

5. The vehicle surrounding confirmation apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the sign is an arrow.

6. The vehicle surrounding confirmation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the obstacle recognizing portion executes an image processing relative to the captured image, thereby recognizing the obstacle.

7. The vehicle surrounding confirmation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the obstacle image and the narrow-field-of-view image are arranged next to each other in the display image.

8. The vehicle surrounding confirmation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display image generating portion generates an image by translucent-blending the obstacle image and the narrow-field-of-view image, thereby outputting the generated image as the display image to the monitor.

9. The vehicle surrounding confirmation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image capturing portion is a camera capturing an image of a rear of the vehicle.

10. A vehicle surrounding confirmation apparatus comprising:

a narrow-field-of-view image generating portion generating a narrow-field-of-view image, showing a portion of a vehicle surrounding, from a captured image of the vehicle surrounding obtained by an image capturing portion;

an obstacle recognizing portion recognizing an obstacle existing at the vehicle surrounding;

a determining portion determining whether or not the obstacle, recognized by the obstacle recognizing portion, is included within the narrow-field-of-view image;

an obstacle image extracting portion extracting an area, in which an image of the obstacle is shown, from the captured image as an obstacle image, when the obstacle, recognized by the obstacle recognizing portion, is not determined to be included within the narrow-field-of-view image, based on a determination result of the determining portion; and

a display image generating portion generating a display image, thereby outputting the generated display image, to a monitor, wherein

the display image generating portion generates the display image from the obstacle image, thereby outputting the generated display image to the monitor, when the obstacle, recognized by the obstacle recognizing portion, is not determined to be included within the narrow-field-of-view image, based on a determination result of the determining portion.

11. The vehicle surrounding confirmation apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the display image generating portion outputs the display image to the monitor so that the obstacle image and the narrow-field-of-view image are displayed alternately.

12. The vehicle surrounding confirmation apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the display image generating portion outputs the display image to the monitor so that the display image is switched from the narrow-field-of-view image to the obstacle image when the obstacle, recognized by the obstacle recognizing portion, is not determined to be included within the narrow-field-of-view image, based on the determination result of the determining portion.

13. A vehicle surrounding confirmation apparatus comprising:

a narrow-field-of-view image generating portion generating a narrow-field-of-view image, showing a portion of a vehicle surrounding, from a captured image of the vehicle surrounding obtained by an image capturing portion;

an obstacle recognizing portion recognizing an obstacle existing at a portion of the vehicle surrounding and at an outside of an area of the narrow-field-of-view image;

an obstacle image extracting portion extracting an area, in which an image of the obstacle is shown, from the captured image as an obstacle image, when the obstacle is recognized by the obstacle recognizing portion; and

a display image generating portion generating a display image from the narrow-field-of-view image and the obstacle image, thereby outputting the generated display image to a monitor.