Vehicle monitoring apparatus with broadly and reliably rearward viewing

• US 5,574,443 A
• Filed: 06/22/1994
• Issued: 11/12/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/1994
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Photic Electronics Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Chi-Sheng Hsieh
• Inventors: Hsieh, Chi-Sheng
• Primary Examiner(s): Swarthout, Brent A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lefkowitz, Edward
• Application Number:
  US08/263,715
• Time in Patent Office: 874 Days
• Field of Search: 340/435, 340/436, 340/437, 340/901, 340/902, 340/903, 340/904, 348/118, 348/148
• US Class Current: 340/901
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 1/00 Optical viewing arrangements; Real-time viewing arrangements for drivers or passengers using optical image capturing systems, e.g. cameras or video systems specially adapted for use in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 1/26 to the rear of the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 1/28 with an adjustable field of view
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 1/30 providing vision in the non-visible spectrum, e.g. night or infrared vision
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/105 using multiple cameras
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/106 using night vision cameras
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/30 characterised by the type of image processing
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/404 triggering from stand-by mode to operation mode
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/802 for monitoring and displaying vehicle exterior blind spot views
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0891 Video recorder in combination with video camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

A vehicle monitoring apparatus includes a rear video camera mounted on a rear portion of a vehicle, a right video camera mounted on a right sideview mirror, a left video camera mounted on a left-sideview mirror, a mirror-effect circuit connected across two poles of a pair of horizontal deflection coils of a horizontal deflection add oscillation circuit of a television receiver electrically connected to the video cameras for inverting an image or picture orientation to be the same as an orientation of the real subject positioned at a rear side of the vehicle, whereby upon a backing, a rightward turning or a leftward turning of the vehicle a corresponding video camera will be initiated to transmit a "picture" of the subject positioned at the rear side of the vehicle to display a picture on a television placed in the vehicle having a same orientation of the picture as that of the true subject for preventing an accidental collision due to falsely backing or turning of the vehicle for driving safety.

Claims

1. A vehicle monitoring apparatus comprising:

a car (1) having a rear video camera (CCD1) mounted on a rear portion (11) of the car (1), a right video camera (CCD2) mounted in a right-sideview mirror (13) of the car (1), and a left video camera (CCD3) mounted in a left-sideview mirror (14) of the car (1);

a television receiver (3) including an audio and video receiving circuit (30), a deflection circuit (31) and a sounding circuit (32) for receiving video signals from said video cameras (CCD1, CCD2, CCD3) and for receiving audio signals from a sound-signal sensor (5) mounted on the car (1);

a display means (7) having a cathode ray tube (CRT) therein and mounted in the car (1);

a mirror-effect circuit (4) connected to the deflection circuit (31) of the television receiver (3) for inverting two poles (H1, H2) of a pair of horizontal deflection coils (Hc) of the deflection circuit (31) for changing a left to right scanning direction to a right to left scanning direction for reproducing a picture on the cathode ray tube (CRT) of the display means (7) in response to a true subject positioned at a rear side of the car (1), thereby reversing a right-and-left picture orientation from the left-to-right scanning direction to have right-and-left orientation of the picture shown on the display means (7) to be same as that of the true subject at the rear side of the car (1) for safely driving the car (1) when backing or turning the car (1); and

a system control circuit (6) for controlling the actuation of the cameras (CCD1, CCD2, CCD3), the mirror-effect circuit (4) and the sound-signal sensor (5).

2. A vehicle monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said rear video camera (CCD1) is mounted on a wind deflector on a rear portion of the car (1).

3. A vehicle monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each said video camera includes:

a camera of charge coupled device (CCD) electrically connected to a power source (P.S.), a housing (21) encasing the camera of charge coupled device in the housing (21), a light-transmissive shield (22) made of dark color having a flat surface and covering an outer portion of the housing (21) allowing optical focusing of an external subject positioned at a rear side of the car (1) into the camera for transmitting video signals (Vo) towards the display means (7), and an illuminator (23) mounted in the housing (21) for a visible sensing of the external, subject at night.

4. A vehicle monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said mirror-effect circuit (4) includes:

a mirror-effect relay (RL4) including a first relay contactor (RL4/1) and a second relay contactor (RL4/2) reversely connected to a first and a second pole (H1, H2) of the horizontal deflection coils (Hc) connected to a horizontal deflection and oscillation circuit (HDO) of the television receiver (3) to operatively change a left-to-right scanning direction to a right-to-left scanning direction to thereby reverse the right-and-left picture orientation from the left-to-right scanning direction to have a right-and-left orientation of a picture shown on the display means (7) to be same as that of a true subject positioned at a rear side of the car (1) upon actuation of a third relay contactor (RL4/3) of the mirror-effect relay (RL4) when backing the car or turning the car rightwardly or leftwardly;

the first pole (H1) of the horizontal deflection coils (Hc) normally connected to the horizontal deflection and oscillation circuit (HDO) of the television receiver 131, and the second pole (H2) of the horizontal deflection coils (Hc) normally grounded;

said first relay contactor RL4/1) normally connected to the first pole (H1) of the horizontal deflection coils (Hc) and operatively grounded when the mirror-effect relay (RL4) is actuated to close the third relay contactor (RL4/3) of the mirror-effect relay (RL4) when backing the car or turning the car rightwardly or leftwardly; and

the second relay contactor (RL4//2) normally connected to the horizontal deflection and oscillation coil (HDO) and operatively connected to the second pole (H2) of the horizontal deflection coils (Hc) when the mirror-effect relay (RL4) is actuated.

5. A vehicle monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said sound-signal sensor (5) includes:

a microphone (51) mounted on an outer portion of the car (1) for picking up sound signals from a surrounding of the car (1) for inputting sound signals into the sounding circuit (32) of the television receiver (3) through a sounding-circuit contactor (RL4/4) of the mirror-effect relay (RL4), whereby upon actuation of the mirror-effect relay (RL4) to close the sounding circuit contactor (RL4/4), the sound signals from the television receiver (3) will be detected and amplified by the sounding circuit for sounding the sound signal through loudspeaker (SP).

6. A vehicle monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said system control circuit (6) includes:

a backing relay (RL1) electrically connected in series with a car-backing switch (SW1) which is actuated when backing the car and connected with a car key switch (SWo) which is connected in between two poles of a power source (P.S.) and will be closed when inserting the car key into a key hole in the car for powering the system control circuit (6);

a right-turn relay (RL2) electrically connected in series with a right-turn switch (SW2) which is actuated when turning the car rightwardly;

a left-turn relay (RL3) electrically connected in series with a left-turn switch (SW3) which is actuated when turning the car leftwardly; and

a mirror-effect relay (RL4) parallelly connected with each first contactor (RL1/1, RL2/1), and (RL3/1) of the backing relay (RL1), right-turn relay (RL2), and left-turn relay (RL3) respectively, whereby upon actuation of each of said relays, the mirror-effect relay (RL4) will be actuated to reverse the scanning direction of a picture reproduced on the display means (7) thereby reversing the right-and-left picture orientation from the left-to-right scanning direction to have a right-and-left orientation of the picture shown on the display means (7) to be same as that of the true subject at a rear side of the car and to synchronously drive the sound-signal sensor (5) for sounding the audio signals as picked up by a microphone (51) of the sensor (5).

7. A vehicle monitoring apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said system control circuit (6) includes:

a simultaneously backing and turning relay (RL5) connected in parallel with each second contactor (RL2/2, RL3/2) of the right-turn relay (RL2) and left-turn relay (RL3), and connected in series with a second contactor (RL1/2) of the backing relay (RL1);

the backing and turning relay (RL5) normally closed to electrically parallelly connect the rear, the right and the left video cameras (CCD1, CCD2, CCD3) respectively through each third contactor (RL1/3, RL2/3, RL3/3) of the backing relay (RL1), the right-turn relay (RL2) and the left-turn relay (RL3); and

the backing and turning relay (RL5) operatively actuated when the backing relay (RL1) and either the right-turn relay (RL2) or the left-turn relay (RL3) are simultaneously actuated to operate the rear video camera (CCD1) and then alternatively operate either the right video camera (CCD2) or left video camera (CCD3) upon the actuation of either the right-turn relay (RL2) or the left-turn relay (RL3) when a normally-open contactor (RB/2) of a timing controller (61) is operatively closed by the timing controller (61) in a pre-determined time interval.

8. A vehicle monitoring apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the timing controller (61) is a flip-flop and the contactor (RB/2) of the flip-flop is intermittently closed and opened to alternatively switch on or off the right camera (CCD2) or the left camera (CCD3) with respect to a switch-off or switch-on of the rear camera (CCD1).