Vehicle surroundings display unit and a method of displaying vehicle surroundings

• US 7,652,559 B2
• Filed: 06/18/2007
• Issued: 01/26/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Chinomi, Satoshi, Yanai, Tatsumi, Funakawa, Masami
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehmood; Jennifer
• Application Number:
  US11/812,297
• Publication Number:
  US 20070296566A1
• Time in Patent Office: 953 Days
• Field of Search: 340/435, 340/436, 340/937, 701/300, 382/106, 382/107, 382/233
• US Class Current: 340/435
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30252 Vehicle exterior; Vicinity of vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/215 Motion-based segmentation

Abstract

A vehicle surroundings display unit, including: 1) a pick-up unit for picking up a video of vehicle surroundings; 2) an approaching vehicle sensor for sensing, based on the video picked up by the pick-up unit, an approaching vehicle which is approaching a subject vehicle; 3) a display processor for displaying the approaching vehicle sensed by the approaching vehicle sensor while distinguishing the approaching vehicle from an obstacle which is not approaching the subject vehicle; 4) a display unit for displaying the video which has undergone the displaying operation by the display processor; and 5) a frequency decomposing unit to make the following operations: decomposing a time-varying component of a pixel of the picked-up video for each frequency, extracting the pixel having a frequency of the time-varying component higher than a certain frequency, and of the thus extracted pixels of the picked up video, displaying the pixels in a vehicle area.

Claims

1. A vehicle surroundings display unit, comprising:

a pick-up unit configured to pick up a video of vehicle surroundings;

an approaching vehicle sensor configured to sense, based on the video picked up by the pick-up unit, an approaching vehicle which is approaching a subject vehicle;

a display processor configured to perform an operation to display the approaching vehicle sensed by the approaching vehicle sensor while distinguishing the approaching vehicle from an obstacle which is not approaching the subject vehicle;

a display unit configured to display the video which has undergone the displaying operation by the display processor; and

a frequency decomposing unit configured to make the following operations detecting one or more frequencies;

decomposing a time-varying component of one or more pixels of the picked-up video for each of the one or more frequencies,

extracting one or more pixels having a frequency of the time-varying component higher than a certain frequency, and

of the thus extracted one or more pixels of the picked up video, displaying the extracted one or more pixels in a vehicle area.

2. The vehicle surroundings display unit according to claim 1, further comprising:

a relative speed identifier configured to identify a speed of the approaching vehicle relative to the subject vehicle based on the time-varying component decomposed for each frequency by the of the one or more frequencies decomposing unit,

wherein the display processor changes how to display the approaching vehicle based on the relative speed identified by the relative speed identifier.

3. The vehicle surroundings display unit according to claim 1,

wherein the display processor emphasizes an edge of the approaching vehicle sensed by the approaching vehicle sensor.

4. The vehicle surroundings display unit according to claim 1,

wherein the display processor changes a display color of the approaching vehicle sensed by the approaching vehicle sensor.

5. The vehicle surroundings display unit according to claim 1, further comprising:

a road type sensor configured to sense a type of a road where the subject vehicle is traveling,

wherein the approaching vehicle sensor changes how to sense the approaching vehicle based on the type of the road sensed by the road type sensor.

6. The vehicle surroundings display unit according to claim 1, further comprising:

a speed sensor configured to sense a speed of the subject vehicle,

wherein the display processor changes how to display the approaching vehicle based on the speed sensed by the speed sensor.

7. The vehicle surroundings display unit according to claim 1, wherein the display processor blinks the approaching vehicle sensed by the approaching vehicle sensor.

8. The vehicle surroundings display unit according to claim 4, wherein

whether the detected approaching vehicle is present in a first lane area or in a second lane area is determined, such that the display color of the approaching vehicle can be changed in accordance with the first lane area or the second lane area wherever the detected approaching vehicle is present.

9. The vehicle surroundings display unit according to claim 1, wherein

a parting line for separating a background area from the vehicle area is so set as to be varied in accordance with a traveling state of the subject vehicle.

10. The vehicle surroundings display unit according to claim 4, wherein

approaching vehicles are displayed with different display colors in accordance with a speed of the approaching vehicle relative to the subject vehicle.

11. A method of displaying vehicle surroundings, comprising:

picking up a video of the vehicle surroundings;

sensing, based on the video thus picked up, an approaching vehicle which is approaching a subject vehicle;

performing a displaying operation to display the approaching vehicle thus sensed while distinguishing the approaching vehicle from an obstacle which is not approaching the subject vehicle;

displaying the video which has undergone the displaying operation of the approaching vehicle; and

decomposing a frequency, the decomposing including the following sub-operations detecting one or more frequencies;

decomposing a time-varying component of one or more pixels of the picked-up video for each of the one or more frequencies,

extracting one or more pixels having a frequency of the time-varying component higher than a certain frequency, and

of the thus extracted one or more pixels of the picked up video, displaying the extracted one or more pixels in a vehicle area.

12. A vehicle surroundings display unit, comprising:

picking-up means for picking up a video of vehicle surroundings;

approaching vehicle sensing means for sensing, based on the video picked up by the picking-up means, an approaching vehicle which is approaching a subject vehicle;

display processing means for performing an operation for displaying the approaching vehicle sensed by the approaching vehicle sensing means while distinguishing the approaching vehicle from an obstacle which is not approaching the subject vehicle;

displaying means for display processing the video which has undergone the displaying operation by the displaying means; and

frequency decomposing means configured to make the following operations detecting one or more frequencies;

decomposing a time-varying component of one or more pixels of the picked-up video for each of the one or more frequencies,

extracting one or more pixels having a frequency of the time-varying component higher than a certain frequency, and

of the thus extracted one or more pixels of the picked up video, displaying the extracted one or more pixels in a vehicle area.