Image synthesis device

• US 8,896,699 B2
• Filed: 07/14/2010
• Issued: 11/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Inventors: Kasuga, Takafumi, Kato, Yoshiyuki, Kato, Kiyotaka, Torii, Akira, Hamada, Masaki, Yonezawa, Eisuke
• Primary Examiner(s): Perungavoor, Sath V
• Assistant Examiner(s): WILLIAMS, JEFFERY A
• Application Number:
  US13/808,985
• Publication Number:
  US 20130107055A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,595 Days
• Field of Search: 348/118, 348/148
• US Class Current: 348/148
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

Disclosed is an image synthesis device including an area determining unit 3 for selecting a vehicle-mounted camera 1 used for generation of a bird'"'"'s-eye view image viewed from an arbitrary point of view from vehicle-mounted cameras 1a to 1d mounted at different positions, and for determining an area corresponding to the bird'"'"'s-eye view image in an image captured by the vehicle-mounted camera 1, and an input video signal control unit 4 for receiving image data about the area determined by the area determining unit 3, the image data being included in image data showing the image captured by the vehicle-mounted camera 1, to store the image data in an input frame buffer 5, in which an image processing device 6 generates a bird'"'"'s-eye view image from the image data stored in the input frame buffer 5.

Claims

1. An image synthesis device comprising:

an area determining circuit to select a camera used for generation of a bird'"'"'s-eye view image viewed from a designated point of view, the camera being selected from a plurality of cameras mounted at different positions, and to determine an area corresponding to said bird'"'"'s-eye view image in an image captured by the selected camera;

an image data circuit to store, in a frame buffer, fine area image data corresponding to the area determined by said area determining circuit, said fine area image data being included in and a portion of captured image data showing the image captured by the selected camera; and

a bird'"'"'s-eye view image generating circuit to generate the bird'"'"'s-eye view image from the fine area image data stored in said frame buffer.

2. The image synthesis device according to claim 1, further comprising:

an image display circuit to display the bird'"'"'s-eye view image generated by the bird'"'"'s-eye view image generating circuit.

3. The image synthesis device according to claim 1, wherein:

the plurality of cameras are mounted to a vehicle, and

the bird'"'"'s-eye view image generating circuit generates the bird'"'"'s-eye view image with respect to the vehicle.

4. The image synthesis device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a table storing circuit to store rearrangement tables in each of which camera information showing a camera corresponding to a point of view of a bird'"'"'s-eye view image, area information showing an area in an image captured by said camera, said area corresponding to said bird'"'"'s-eye view image, and a coordinate transformation matrix used for converting an image captured by said camera into a bird'"'"'s-eye view image are recorded is disposed,

wherein the area determining circuit refers to the rearrangement table stored in said table storing circuit when selecting the camera corresponding to the designated point of view and when determining the area corresponding to the bird'"'"'s-eye view image to be generated.

5. The image synthesis device according to claim 4, wherein the bird'"'"'s-eye view image generating circuit carries out a coordinate transform on the image shown by the area image data stored in the frame buffer by using a coordinate transformation matrix recorded in a rearrangement table to generate the bird'"'"'s-eye view image.

6. The image synthesis device according to claim 1, wherein the area determining circuit carries out the process of determining the area corresponding to the bird'"'"'s-eye view image every time when the designated point of view is changed, and provides a result of said area determining process for the image data input circuit.

7. The image synthesis device according to claim 1, wherein the area determining circuit receives, from outside of the image synthesis device, information indicating the point of view of the bird'"'"'s-eye view image to be generated, and recognizes the designated point of view on a basis of the received information.