JP2003002256A - Drive recorder for vehicles - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] To obtain desired peripheral information even in a low visibility condition such as at night in a vehicular drive recorder equipped with a camera that captures an environment around the vehicle. A road sign detection unit detects a contour of a road sign from a camera image captured by a camera. Information from a vehicle sensor, a camera image from the camera, and a road sign from the road sign detection unit. And the information held by the recording unit 19 over a predetermined time period before and after the reception of the external trigger signal by receiving the external trigger signal from the shock detection sensor 13. It has a record storage unit 20 for storing.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a drive recorder for a vehicle in which the cause of an accident is investigated by recording the running state of the vehicle, and more particularly to a device for clarifying the situation at the time of the accident by recording the environment around the vehicle. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional vehicle drive recorder is for investigating the cause of a vehicle accident, and records vehicle sensor signals such as vehicle speed, acceleration, brake pressure, steering wheel steering angle at the time of the accident. The running state of the vehicle is analyzed. Further, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-280821, a camera for imaging the environment around the vehicle is mounted,
There has been proposed a device that records a camera image together with vehicle sensor information to make the surrounding environment clearer when an accident occurs.

[0003]

However, the conventional vehicle drive recorder described above has a problem that sufficient ambient environment information cannot be obtained from a captured camera image under low visibility conditions such as during night driving. Was. Moreover, the conventional vehicle drive recorder has a problem that it is difficult to analyze the behavior of the vehicle at the time of an accident only by recording various vehicle sensor information.

[0004]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a vehicle drive recorder according to the present invention comprises an image pickup means for photographing the surrounding environment of the vehicle, a running state detecting means for detecting the running state of the vehicle, and A recording and holding unit that holds the image captured by the image capturing unit and the traveling state information as recording information. Further, when the trigger signal detecting means for detecting a trigger signal from the outside and the external trigger signal detected by the trigger signal detecting means are received, the recording information over a predetermined time zone before and after the external trigger signal reception time. And a power supply control means for receiving the external trigger signal and switching between a main power supply and an auxiliary power supply.

With this configuration, a camera image for picking up the environment around the vehicle and information about the running state of the vehicle can be obtained, so that it becomes easy to analyze the behavior of the vehicle when an accident occurs.

A vehicle drive recorder according to the present invention is
Imaging means for photographing the surrounding environment of the vehicle, traveling state detection means for detecting the traveling state of the vehicle, road marking detection means for detecting the contour portion of a predetermined road marking from the image captured by the imaging means, and the road marking. Superimposing display means for superimposing and displaying the contour information of the image on the road marking of the image picked up by the image pickup means, and a record holding means for holding the image, the traveling state information and the contour information of the road marking as record information. . Further, the vehicle drive recorder according to the present invention,
When the trigger signal detecting means for detecting a trigger signal from the outside and the external trigger signal detected by the trigger signal detecting means are received, the recorded information is stored over a predetermined time zone before and after the external trigger signal reception time. And a power supply control means for receiving the external trigger signal and switching between the main power supply and the auxiliary power supply.

With this configuration, the road marking drawn on the road is detected from the camera image for picking up the surrounding environment of the vehicle, and the road marking is superimposed on the camera image and recorded and stored.
It is possible to obtain information for analyzing the behavior of the vehicle when an accident occurs even under low visibility conditions such as when driving at night.

The vehicle drive recorder according to the present invention is
Imaging means for photographing the surrounding environment of the vehicle, traveling state detection means for detecting the traveling state of the vehicle, vehicle position calculation means for calculating the vehicle position on the road from the image captured by the imaging means, and imaging by the imaging means A record holding unit that holds the captured image information and the vehicle traveling information from the traveling state detecting unit as recording information. Further, the vehicle drive recorder according to the present invention, when receiving the trigger signal detection means for detecting a trigger signal from the outside, and the external trigger signal detected by the trigger signal detection means,
A recording storage unit that stores the recording information over a predetermined time period before and after the external trigger signal reception time, and a power supply control unit that receives the external trigger signal and switches between a main power supply and an auxiliary power supply are provided.

With this configuration, the behavior of the vehicle can be clearly reproduced by recording information in which the vehicle position in the lane is calculated from the captured image, and powerful information for investigating the cause of the accident can be obtained.

The vehicle drive recorder according to the present invention is
Image pickup means for photographing the surrounding environment of the vehicle, running state detection means for detecting the vehicle running state, lane detection means for detecting the contour of the lane from the image picked up by the image pickup means, and lane detection for the lane detected by the detection means. A vehicle position calculating means for calculating the vehicle position on the road from the contour, and a record holding means for holding the image pickup information picked up by the image pickup means and the vehicle running information from the running state detecting means as the record information. Further, the vehicle drive recorder according to the present invention, when receiving the trigger signal detection means for detecting a trigger signal from the outside and the external trigger signal detected by the trigger signal detection means, before and after the external trigger signal reception time. And a power supply control means for receiving the external trigger signal and switching between the main power supply and the auxiliary power supply.

With this configuration, by recording information in which the position of the vehicle in the lane is calculated from the detected lane contour, the behavior of the vehicle can be clearly reproduced even under low visibility conditions such as when driving at night, thereby preventing an accident. It is possible to obtain powerful information for investigating the cause of occurrence.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

(First Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a vehicle drive recorder according to the present invention.

A drive recorder for a vehicle according to the present invention comprises:
Vehicle sensor 11 constituting a traveling state detecting means for detecting a vehicle traveling state including vehicle speed, acceleration, steering angle, and brake pressure.
And a shock detection sensor 13 that constitutes a trigger signal detection unit that detects a shock that the vehicle receives from the outside, and a timer 14 that manages time information. Further, the vehicle drive recorder according to the present invention is a camera 10 which is an image pickup means for photographing a surrounding environment while the vehicle is traveling, a camera 10, a vehicle sensor 11, an impact detection sensor 13 and a timer 14.
It has a signal processing unit 12 that processes signals from the respective units, and a power supply unit 15 that includes a main power supply obtained from a vehicle battery or the like and a rechargeable auxiliary power supply.

The signal processor 12 has an image processor 17. Here, the image processing unit 17 includes a road marking detection unit 22 that constitutes a road marking detection unit that detects a contour portion of a predetermined road marking on the road surface from an image captured by the camera 10,
The road marking contour information detected by the road marking detection unit 22 is superimposed on the image captured by the camera 10, and the superimposed display unit 23 constitutes a superposition display unit. In addition, the signal processing unit 1
Reference numeral 2 denotes an image compression unit 18 that compresses the image processed by the image processing unit 17, an image processed by the image compression unit 18, running state information from the vehicle sensor 11, and a road marking from the road marking detection unit 22. A recording unit 19 that constitutes a recording and holding unit that constantly records and updates the contour information at least over a time period from the present to a predetermined time ago. Further, the signal processing unit 12 receives an external signal when receiving an external signal for detecting an abnormality of the vehicle, for example, when receiving a shock detection signal (hereinafter referred to as an external trigger signal) of a predetermined value or more from the shock detection sensor 13. A record saving unit 20 that constitutes a record saving unit that saves record information in a time zone corresponding to a predetermined time before and after the reception time, and the vehicle sensor 1.
1, a control unit 16 that receives signals from the impact detection sensor 13, the timer 14, and the like, and controls the image compression unit 18, the recording unit 19, and the record storage unit 20, and an external trigger signal of a predetermined magnitude by the control unit 16. When the control unit 1 receives
6. The power supply unit 15 has a power supply control unit 21 that switches between a main power supply and an auxiliary power supply based on power supply information to the recording unit 19 and the recording storage unit 20.

Next, the operation procedure of the drive recorder according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
Will be described with reference to.

First, the drive recorder is activated (step S1). Although the starting method is not shown in FIG. 1, a manual starting switch may be used, or the starting method may be automatically started after a predetermined time from the engine start. Next, the control unit 16 activates the drive recorder,
The timer 1 displays the image of the camera 10 and the information of the vehicle sensor 11.
Recording is started as information to be recorded in the recording unit 19 together with the time information of 4 (step S2). Where camera 1
The image captured by 0 is subjected to predetermined image processing by the image processing unit 17, and then compressed by the image compression unit 18. Further, the recording unit 19 records information from the image processing unit 17, the vehicle sensor 11 and the timer 14 in time series,
The oldest information is erased and updated with new information. Next, the control unit 16 determines the detection of the external trigger signal (step S3). Then, when it is determined that the external trigger signal is received, the recording unit 19 stops the normal recording after a predetermined time, and the recording image and the recorded vehicle in the recording unit 19 during the predetermined time period before and after the external trigger signal is received. The sensor information is transferred to the record storage unit 20. When the signal of the impact detection sensor 13 is used as the external trigger signal, the record storage unit 2 is provided only when the vehicle receives an impact of a predetermined value or more.
The record is stored at 0 (step S4). In the present invention, instead of the impact sensor 13,
A manual on / off switch may be provided.
In addition, the recording unit 19 and the recording storage unit 20 are combined so that when the external trigger signal is received, the data acquired without detecting the external trigger signal is rewritten while the recorded data is retained. It may be recorded in the recording area.

Further, the power source unit 15 of the drive recorder of the present invention is provided with an auxiliary power source in addition to the main power source, and in the power source control unit 21 constituting the power source control means, the vehicle receives an external impact and the power from the main power source is received. When the power cannot be received, the auxiliary power source that functions as a power source unique to the drive recorder is switched to, and the recording / storing operation by the recording / storing unit 20 is performed until a predetermined time after the external trigger signal is received.

Here, the processing contents of the image processing unit 17 will be described.

As shown in FIG. 1, the road marking detecting unit 22 of the image processing unit 17 detects a predetermined marking such as a road marking drawn on the road in the camera image. As a detection method, as shown in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 06-149359, an area in which a difference in brightness between a road surface and other portions is a predetermined value or more is detected, and an appropriate approximation is performed on the obtained area. This is realized by detecting the contour of the road marking (for example, speed limit, pedestrian crossing, stop line, etc.). Then, the superimposition display unit 23 of the image processing unit 17 is means for superimposing the contour of the road marking extracted by the road marking detecting unit 22 on the road marking in the original camera image so as to be superimposed.

Examples of image processing in the image processing unit 17 are shown in FIGS.

FIG. 3 shows a case where a lane is detected.
Then, the own lane is detected. By continuously recording the image in which the traveling lane is highlighted, the state of the own vehicle in the lane can be known, and the behavior of the vehicle can be analyzed together with the vehicle sensor information 11. Further, FIG. 3B is an example in which a wide-angle camera is used as the camera 10 to highlight the oncoming lane, and the behavior of the oncoming vehicle 30 can be analyzed.

Further, by detecting the road marking,
You can obtain useful information when an accident occurs. For example, FIG. 4 shows an example in which the maximum speed mark 40 is highlighted, and the difference between the traveling speed and the speed limit of the vehicle can be determined from this recorded image and the vehicle speed information of the vehicle sensor 11.

Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the road environment of the intersection is imaged by using a super wide-angle camera equipped with a fisheye lens as the camera 10, and the lane 50, the stop line 51,
By highlighting road markings such as pedestrian crossings 52,
Information on intersections can be obtained and can be used for situation analysis when an accident occurs. Particularly during nighttime driving when the visibility of the surrounding environment is low, highlighting the road markings detected by the ultra-wide-angle camera image can be an effective clue for investigating the cause when an accident occurs.

The method of recording the image processed by the image processing unit 17 may be a moving image, or a still image may be recorded at a predetermined sampling cycle.

Further, as shown in FIG. 6, by providing the image expanding section 60 and the display section 61 in addition to the configuration of FIG. 1, it is possible to diagnose the operating state of the drive recorder.

The image compression method in the image compression unit 18 and the image expansion method in the image expansion unit 60 may be known methods and will not be described in detail here.

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 7 shows the structure of a drive recorder according to the present invention.

The vehicle drive recorder according to the present invention comprises:
A vehicle sensor 11 which is a traveling state detecting means for detecting a vehicle traveling state including a vehicle speed, acceleration, a steering angle and a brake pressure;
Impact detection sensor 1 that detects the impact that the vehicle receives from the outside
3 and a timer 14 that manages time information. Further, the vehicle drive recorder according to the present invention is a camera 10 which is an image pickup means for photographing the surrounding environment while the vehicle is traveling.
And camera 10, vehicle sensor 11, impact detection sensor 1
3. A signal processing unit 12 that processes the signal from the timer 14.
And a power supply unit 15 including a main power supply obtained from a vehicle battery and the like and a rechargeable auxiliary power supply.

The signal processor 12 has an image processor 17. Here, the image processing unit 17 includes a lane detection unit 70 that constitutes a lane detection unit that detects a lane from an image captured by the camera 10, and a vehicle that detects a vehicle position on the road from the lane detected by the lane detection unit 70. It is composed of a vehicle position detector 71 which constitutes a position calculating means. The signal processing unit 12 is a recording unit that is a recording unit that records the image information processed by the image processing unit 17 and the traveling state information from the vehicle sensor 11 as recording information at least over a time period from the present time to a predetermined time period before. 19 and a record saving unit 20 which is a record saving unit that saves record information in a time zone corresponding to a predetermined time before and after the external trigger signal reception time when the external trigger signal is received. Further, the signal processing unit 12 receives the signals from the vehicle sensor 11, the impact detection sensor 13, the timer 14, and the like, and controls the image processing unit 17, the recording unit 19, and the recording storage unit 20, and the control unit 16. However, when an external trigger signal of a predetermined magnitude is received, from the power supply control unit 21 that switches the main power supply and the auxiliary power supply in the power supply unit 15 based on the received information of the external trigger signal from the recording storage unit 20. Become.

The lane detecting section 70 detects the lane contour by the same method as the road marking detecting section 22 of the first embodiment.
Then, the vehicle position detection unit 71 calculates the vehicle position in the left and right lanes. As disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2798349, the calculation by the vehicle position detection unit 71 is performed by calculating the midpoint between the detected contour points of the left lane and the contour points of the right lane for each scanning line. can get. Then, the lane contour point and the midpoint are combined with the information from the vehicle sensor 11 and the recording unit 19
To record. The following process is performed similarly to the first embodiment.

FIG. 8 shows an example of analysis of recorded and stored information by image processing in the image processing section 17.

In FIG. 8, which shows the road environment from above, 8
0 and 81 are lanes, and 82 is a center line of the lanes. The own vehicle position 83 detected by the own vehicle position detection unit 71 is indicated by dots in time series. With the above information, the traveling path of the vehicle becomes clear, and the cause of the accident can be investigated in association with various sensor information.

Although the camera image is not directly recorded in FIG. 7, the camera image is recorded and saved in the same configuration as in the first embodiment, so that more images for analyzing the cause of the accident can be obtained. You can get information.

[0035]

As described above, according to the present invention, a road marking drawn on a road is detected from a camera image capturing a vehicle surrounding environment, the road marking is superposed on the camera image, and is recorded and stored, thereby driving at night. It is possible to provide a vehicle drive recorder that can obtain information for analyzing the behavior of a vehicle when an accident occurs even under low visibility conditions such as time.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a vehicle drive recorder according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the vehicle drive recorder according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of image processing according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of image processing according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of image processing according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is another block diagram of the vehicle drive recorder according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a vehicle drive recorder according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a vehicle drive recorder analysis process according to the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 camera (imaging means) 11 Vehicle sensor (running state detection means) 13 Impact detection sensor (trigger signal detection means) 19 recording unit (record holding means) 20 Record storage unit (record storage means) 21 Power supply control unit (power supply control means) 22 Road marking detection unit (road marking detection means) 23 Superimposition display section (superimposition display means) 70 Lane detection unit (lane detection means) 71 own vehicle position detection unit (vehicle position calculation means)

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Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An image pickup means for photographing a surrounding environment of a vehicle, a traveling state detection means for detecting a traveling state of the vehicle, and a record holding means for holding the image photographed by the image pickup means and the traveling state information as record information. And a trigger signal detection unit that detects a trigger signal from the outside, and when the external trigger signal detected by the trigger signal detection unit is received, the recording information over a predetermined time zone before and after the external trigger signal reception time. A drive recorder for a vehicle, comprising: a record storage unit that stores the external trigger signal; and a power supply control unit that receives the external trigger signal and switches between a main power supply and an auxiliary power supply. 2. An image pickup means for photographing a surrounding environment of a vehicle, a traveling state detection means for detecting a traveling state of the vehicle, and a road marking detection means for detecting a contour portion of a predetermined road marking from an image picked up by the image pickup means. A superimposing display means for superimposing and displaying contour information of the road marking on the road marking of an image captured by the image capturing means; and a record for retaining the image, the traveling state information and the contour information of the road marking as recording information. Holding means, trigger signal detecting means for detecting a trigger signal from the outside, and when the external trigger signal detected by the trigger signal detecting means is received, the external trigger signal is received over a predetermined time zone before and after the external trigger signal reception time. A record storage means for storing record information and a power supply control means for receiving the external trigger signal and switching between a main power supply and an auxiliary power supply are provided. The vehicle drive recorder according to claim. 3. An image pickup means for photographing a surrounding environment of the vehicle, a traveling state detection means for detecting a vehicle traveling state, a vehicle position calculation means for calculating a vehicle position on a road from an image picked up by the image pickup means, Record holding means for holding the image pickup information picked up by the image pickup means and the vehicle running information from the running state detecting means as record information, a trigger signal detecting means for detecting a trigger signal from the outside, and the trigger signal detecting means. When receiving the external trigger signal detected in, the record storage means for storing the record information over a predetermined time zone before and after the external trigger signal reception time, of the main power supply and the auxiliary power supply by receiving the external trigger signal A drive recorder for a vehicle, comprising: a power supply control unit that performs switching. 4. An image pickup means for photographing a surrounding environment of a vehicle, a traveling state detection means for detecting a traveling state of the vehicle, a lane detection means for detecting a contour of a lane from an image picked up by the image pickup means, and the detection means. Vehicle position calculating means for calculating the vehicle position on the road from the contour of the lane detected by the recording means, and record holding means for holding the image pickup information picked up by the image pickup means and the vehicle running information from the running state detecting means as the record information. And a trigger signal detection unit that detects a trigger signal from the outside, and when the external trigger signal detected by the trigger signal detection unit is received, the recording information over a predetermined time zone before and after the external trigger signal reception time is displayed. A record storage means for storing and a power supply control means for receiving the external trigger signal and switching between a main power supply and an auxiliary power supply are provided. The vehicle drive recorder characterized and.