JP2016101771A - Head-up display device for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

A head-up display device for a vehicle that can improve the visibility of a virtual image by setting a display color according to a display region of the virtual image. A color analysis unit configured to determine a background color for each display region in which a virtual image is displayed based on an image acquired by an image acquisition unit and to set a display color of the virtual image according to the background color; A drawing unit 35 that creates a predetermined drawing image corresponding to the display color, and a display control unit 36 that performs display control of the display device 12 based on the drawing image created by the drawing unit 35 are provided. [Selection] Figure 4

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle head-up display device mounted on a vehicle.

  As background art of this technical field, there is JP-A-2005-138801 (Patent Document 1). In this publication, “a combiner that allows the driver to see a little change in line of sight is provided, and an LED 15 and an LCD 14 that project an image onto the combiner by projecting light from the light source to the display unit are provided, and the LED 15 and the LCD 14 are controlled. In the head-up display device provided with the display control unit 12 and the display output unit 11, the external light sensor 2 for detecting the background color of the display image is provided, and the display control for controlling the display color of the image projected according to the background color And a display output unit 11 are provided. "

JP 2005-138801 A

In the invention described in Patent Document 1, the background color and the display color are compared. If the background color and the display color are not similar, the display color is displayed as it is. If the two colors are similar, the display color is displayed. The background color is changed.
However, in Patent Document 1, the background color is obtained based on the entire image by the external light sensor, but the background color differs depending on the display location of the display image due to the presence of the vehicle in front of the vehicle and the scenery. There are many. Therefore, even if the display color of the entire display image is changed, there is a problem that a portion where the display image is difficult to see is generated depending on the display portion.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and provides a vehicle head-up display device capable of enhancing the visibility of a virtual image by setting a display color in accordance with the display region of the virtual image. With the goal.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is based on an image acquired by an image acquisition unit in a vehicle head-up display device that projects image light from a display device onto a combiner and displays a virtual image based on the image light. A color analysis unit that determines a background color for each display area in which the virtual image is displayed and sets a display color of the virtual image according to the background color; and a drawing that creates a predetermined drawing image according to the display color And a display control unit that performs display control of the display device based on a drawing image created by the drawing unit.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the visibility of a virtual image can be improved by setting a display color according to each display area of a virtual image.

It is a schematic structure figure of the head up display device for vehicles concerning this embodiment. It is the schematic which shows the example of a display of a virtual image. It is the schematic which shows the example of a display of the virtual image in the state mounted in the vehicle. It is a block diagram which shows a control structure. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of a color pattern. It is explanatory drawing which shows the range of each gradation of red, green, and blue of each divided | segmented color pattern. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of this embodiment.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing an embodiment of a head-up display device for a vehicle according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the vehicle head-up display device 1 includes a device body 10. A projection portion 11 that protrudes upward is integrally provided at one end portion of the apparatus main body 10. The inner surface of the projection unit 11 in the apparatus main body 10 has a shape in which the central portion is slightly depressed, and the display device 12 is installed in the central portion of the inner surface of the projection unit 11. In the present embodiment, a liquid crystal display device is used as the display device 12.
The display device 12 is not limited to this. For example, the display device 12 using a fluorescent display tube, a light transmission type liquid crystal display panel is irradiated with light, or a laser beam or the like is used. A so-called projector type display device 12 that forms an image by scanning light two-dimensionally with a scanning means using a MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) mirror, a galvano mirror, a polygon mirror, or a combination of these scanning means. May be used.

A combiner 13 on which image light is projected from the display device 12 is erected on the other end portion of the apparatus body 10. In this embodiment, the combiner 13 is comprised by the half mirror which consists of resin, glass, etc., for example, and is formed in the curved surface form with the predetermined curvature.
Then, the vehicle head-up display device 1 projects the image light projected from the display device 12 onto the combiner 13 to display the virtual image 15 in front of the combiner 13 and visually recognizes it from the user's eye point E. It is configured to be able to.

  In the present embodiment, the camera 16 is integrally attached to one side surface of the apparatus main body 10. The camera 16 captures the front of the vehicle 2, and the camera 16 captures at least the display range of the virtual image 15 displayed by the display device 12 in front of the vehicle 2.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a display example of the virtual image 15 displayed on the combiner 13. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a display example of the virtual image 15 in a state where the vehicle head-up display device 1 is mounted on the vehicle 2.
In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, nine display areas 20 from the display area (1) to the display area (9) are displayed on the virtual image 15 as the display area 20. . 2 and 3, each display area 20 is indicated by a broken line frame.
For example, in the example of FIG. 2, the display area (1) 20 is an area that displays the maximum speed of the road that is currently running, and the display area (2) 20 is an area that displays the current speed of the vehicle 2. The area (3) is an area for displaying the name of the nearest intersection (guide intersection) that performs direction guidance, and the display area (4) 20 and the display area (9) 20 are when the vehicle deviates from the lane or tries to deviate. The display area (5) 20 displays the direction guidance at the nearest destination, and the display area (6) 20 displays the distance to the guidance intersection. The area / display area (7) 20 is an area for displaying an icon such as SNS (Social Networking Service), and the display area (8) 20 is an area for displaying a notification such as SNS.
Note that the display position of each display area 20 is not limited to the example of FIG. 2 and can be set to an arbitrary position as necessary. The display image displayed in each display area 20 is not limited to this, and can be set to an arbitrary image as necessary.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the display device 12 displays a virtual image 15 in the vicinity of the lower portion of the front windshield 3 of the vehicle 2, and each display area 20 displayed as the virtual image 15 has, for example, a front There are various colors depending on the vehicle traveling on the road, the vehicle traveling on the adjacent lane, the road surface, the scenery, and the like. In the present embodiment, the front scene is photographed by the camera 16 and the background color is determined for each display area 20 of the virtual image 15 based on the photographed image. Details will be described later.

Next, the control configuration in the present embodiment will be described.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a control configuration in the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 4, the vehicle head-up display device 1 includes a control unit 30 that comprehensively controls each device. The vehicle head-up display device 1 includes a storage device 31 formed of a storage medium such as a memory or an HDD (hard disk drive). The storage device 31 stores an operation program for the control unit 30. In addition, the storage device 31 includes an image information database 32 that stores predetermined image data and a color pattern database 33 that stores color patterns to be described later.
The image data stored in the image information database 32 includes display position data in which an image display position is set and image part data to be displayed on the display position data.
Examples of the image parts data include a direction guide arrow image, a speed display image, a travel line image, a road maximum speed display image, an icon display image, and a name display of the nearest destination to be displayed in each display area 20 described above. There are images, distance display images to the nearest destination, notification images such as SNS, and the like.
As the display position data, the position information of each display area 20 with respect to the entire display, the position information indicating which image part is displayed in which display area 20, and in which position in each display area 20 the image part is displayed There is location information. The position information includes, for example, the coordinate information of the reference position of each display area 20 with respect to the entire display of the virtual image 15, the coordinate information of the reference position of the image part with respect to each display area 20, and the like.

In addition, the control unit 30 of the vehicle head-up display device 1 determines the background color and sets the display color, and displays on the display device 12 according to the display color set by the color analysis unit 34. A drawing unit 35 that creates an image to be displayed, and a display control unit 36 that controls the display device 12 based on the image created by the drawing unit 35.
For example, the drawing unit 35 creates a drawing image in which image parts corresponding to a predetermined display area 20 are arranged based on display position data specified by coordinate information. The display control unit 36 controls the display device 12 based on the image created by the drawing unit 35 and projects image light on each display region 20. The color analysis unit 34 will be described later.

In addition, the vehicle 2 includes a navigation device 40. The navigation device 40 includes a navigation unit 42 that generates display information such as corresponding map information and road information based on position information acquired from the GPS device 41 and vehicle information such as vehicle speed acquired from the vehicle 2, and predetermined navigation. And an audio unit 43 for reproducing audio for CD, music for CD, radio sound and the like.
Further, the navigation device 40 is connected to a mobile device 44 that can be connected to the Internet, such as a smartphone, a mobile phone, a tablet personal computer, and a notebook personal computer. The mobile device 44 and the navigation device 40 may be connected by a wired connection using a cable such as USB, or wirelessly using a wireless communication means such as Bluetooth (registered trademark). May be.
The navigation device 40 is configured to be able to receive information such as SNS notifications and emails received by the mobile device 44.
The navigation unit 42 generates display information such as map information based on position information from the GPS device 41, speed display information based on vehicle information acquired from the vehicle 2, and notification reception information from the mobile device 44, and the vehicle head-up display device 1 is output.

  The camera 16 also includes an image acquisition unit 45 that acquires an image in front of the photographed vehicle 2. The image acquisition unit 45 is configured to acquire an image in front of the vehicle 2 corresponding to at least a range where the virtual image 15 is displayed by the display device 12 and output the acquired image to the vehicle head-up display device 1. ing.

Then, the color analysis unit 34 extracts an image in a range corresponding to each display region 20 of the virtual image 15 by the display device 12 from the images sent from the image acquisition unit 45 of the camera 16. Hereinafter, an image extracted corresponding to each display area 20 is referred to as an extracted image.
For example, the shooting range by the camera 16 can be determined in advance based on the installation position of the camera 16, the optical axis of the camera 16, the focal length of the lens, and the like. On the other hand, the display range of the virtual image 15 by the display device 12 can be determined in advance based on the size of the display device 12, the distance between the display device 12 and the combiner 13, the curvature of the combiner 13, and the like. For this reason, the display area 20 of the virtual image 15 can correspond to which position of the image captured by the camera 16 by, for example, coordinate values, and each display of the virtual image 15 from the image. A range corresponding to the region 20 can be extracted in correspondence.
In this case, since the camera 16 is directly attached to the vehicle head-up display device 1 in this embodiment, the range of images captured by the camera 16 when the vehicle head-up display device 1 is shipped from the factory. It is possible to correspond the range of the virtual image 15 in advance.
When the camera 16 is separately installed on the vehicle head-up display device 1, the display range of the virtual image 15 relative to the image range by the camera 16 when the vehicle head-up display device 1 and the camera 16 are installed. Should be made to correspond.
Then, the color analysis unit 34 analyzes the color of each pixel for each pixel of the extracted image for the region of the extracted image corresponding to each display region 20.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of color patterns stored in the color pattern database 33.
In FIG. 5, the vertical axis extending upward from the central zero point is blue (B), the horizontal axis extending rightward in the drawing from the central zero point is red (R), and the horizontal axis extending leftward is green (G). Has been. In the present embodiment, 256 gradations are set for each color. When the gradation of each color is changed from 0 to 255, the 0 gradation is the thinnest and the 255 gradation is the darkest, and an arbitrary color is set by specifying the gradations of the three colors. be able to. When all the gradations of each color are 0, the color is black, and when all the gradations of each color are 255, the color is white.
In the present embodiment, this color pattern is divided into eight color patterns.
FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing ranges of gradations of red, green, and blue in each divided color pattern.
That is, as shown in FIG. 6, the color pattern (1) is a case where red (R) ranges from 0 to 127, green (G) ranges from 0 to 127, and blue (B) ranges from 0 to 127. The background color of the system. The color pattern (2) is a case where red (R) is in the range of 0 to 127, green (G) is in the range of 0 to 127, and blue (B) is in the range of 128 to 255, and is a blue background color. The color pattern (3) is a case where red (R) is in the range of 0 to 127, green (G) is in the range of 128 to 255, and blue (B) is in the range of 0 to 127, and is a green background color. The color pattern (4) is a case where red (R) is 128 to 255, green (G) is 0 to 127, and blue (B) is 0 to 127, and is a red background color. The color pattern (5) is a case where red (R) is in the range of 0 to 127, green (G) is in the range of 128 to 255, and blue (B) is in the range of 128 to 255, and is a light blue background color. The color pattern (6) is a case where red (R) is in the range of 128 to 255, green (G) is in the range of 0 to 127, and blue (B) is in the range of 128 to 255, and is a magenta background color. The color pattern (7) is a case where red (R) is in the range of 128 to 255, green (G) is in the range of 128 to 255, and blue (B) is in the range of 0 to 127, and is a yellow background color. The color pattern (8) is a case where red (R) is in the range of 128 to 255, green (G) is in the range of 128 to 255, and blue (B) is in the range of 128 to 255, and is a white background color.
The number of gradations for each color is not limited to the above-described 256 gradations, and can be set to any number of gradations.

After determining the color of each pixel of the image in each display area 20, the color analysis unit 34 refers to the gradation range of each divided color pattern shown in FIG. 6, and each pixel in each display area 20 has any color. Determine if it belongs to the pattern. Then, the color analysis unit 34 sets the most color pattern among the color patterns of each pixel in each display area 20 of the extracted image as a background color.
In addition, for example, the average value of each pixel color of the extracted image is obtained for each component of red, green, and blue, and the background color is determined by determining which color pattern the color obtained by the average value belongs to. You may make it set.

When the background color in each display area 20 of the extracted image is set in this way, the color analysis unit 34 sets the display color for the background color. FIG. 6 shows examples of the background color and the display color. In the present embodiment, the display color is set to a color that is complementary to the background color, but is not limited to this.
In addition, regarding the display for alerting the driver such as a warning, the display color is fixed to red or the like so that the driver can recognize that the driver needs attention. For example, a warning display when the distance from the front car is small, a warning display when traveling outside the driving line, a warning display when the traveling speed is too fast, etc. Display in a conspicuous color.

Then, the color analysis unit 34 outputs the display color information in each display region 20 to the drawing unit 35.
The drawing unit 35 selects and reads an image part corresponding to the predetermined display area 20 from the image information database 32 based on the display position data specified by the coordinate information based on the display information acquired from the navigation device 40. The drawing unit 35 arranges the image parts read from the image information database 32 in the predetermined display area 20, and sets these image parts to a predetermined display color based on the display color information sent from the color analysis unit 34. Create a drawing image converted to.
Note that one color image part is stored as the image part data stored in the image information database 32, and the drawing unit 35 converts the display color according to the display color determined by the color analysis unit 34. Alternatively, an image part corresponding to the display color may be stored for each display color, and the corresponding image part may be extracted according to the display color determined by the color analysis unit 34.
Further, the drawing unit 35 may perform various corrections on the image data to be displayed, such as enlargement / reduction correction of the display image and distortion correction of the projected image.

  The display control unit 36 controls the display device 12 based on the drawing image created by the drawing unit 35 to control the image light of the display image whose display color has been converted to be projected onto the combiner 13. Thus, the virtual image 15 is displayed in the display color corresponding to the background color in each display area 20 in front of the combiner 13 and can be viewed from the user's eye point E.

Note that, for example, when the vehicle traveling in front of the vehicle 2 moves to another lane, the background color of each display region 20 based on the extracted image extracted from the image captured by the camera 16 changes sequentially. In this case, if the display color is changed based on the background color that changes sequentially, the visibility of the display in the display area 20 may deteriorate.
Therefore, in this embodiment, for example, when setting the background color in the extracted image every 1 second, the background color of the same color pattern continues for a certain period of time, for example, about 5 seconds. In this case, the display color is changed. As a result, frequent changes in the display color associated with changes in the background color can be prevented, and the visibility of the virtual image 15 can be improved.

Next, the operation of the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
First, the front of the vehicle 2 is imaged by the camera 16, and an image in front of the vehicle 2 is acquired by the image acquisition unit 45 (ST1).
The image acquisition unit 45 outputs the acquired image to the color analysis unit 34, and the color analysis unit 34 extracts a region corresponding to each display region 20 by the virtual image 15 from the image (ST2). The color analysis unit 34 analyzes how many colors each pixel of the extracted image has (ST3), and determines which color pattern each pixel of the extracted image belongs to (ST4).
Then, the color analysis unit 34 determines that the color pattern having the largest number of all the pixels is the background color of the display area 20 (ST5). The color analysis unit 34 determines whether or not the same background color continues for a certain time (ST6). If it is determined that the same background color continues for a certain time (ST6: YES), the display color corresponding to the background color is selected. Set (ST7).

Then, the color analysis unit 34 outputs the set display color to the drawing unit 35, and the drawing unit 35 displays the display color of the display area 20 currently displayed by the display device 12 and the display set by the color analysis unit 34. The color is compared (ST8). If the display color of the currently displayed display area 20 is different from the set display color (ST8: YES), the drawing unit 35 creates a drawing image that has been changed to the display color set by the color analysis unit 34. To do. The display control unit 36 controls the display device 12 based on the image whose display color has been changed, and projects image light having the changed display color onto the combiner 13 (ST9).
On the other hand, when the display color of the display area 20 currently displayed by the display device 12 is the same as the set display color (ST8: NO), the display color is not changed.
This series of operations is repeated for each display area 20, and the display colors of all the display areas 20 are set (ST10).

  As described above, the vehicle head-up display device 1 according to the present embodiment has the color analysis unit 34 for each display region 20 on which the virtual image 15 is displayed based on the image acquired by the image acquisition unit 45. The background color is determined, the display color of the virtual image 15 is set according to the background color, a drawing image according to the display color is created by the drawing unit 35, and image light is projected onto the combiner 13 by the display device 12. Therefore, the virtual image 15 can be displayed in a display color corresponding to the background color in the display area 20, and the visibility of each display area 20 can be improved.

In addition, the present embodiment is characterized in that the color analysis unit 34 determines the background color based on a plurality of color patterns in which the background color is classified.
According to this embodiment, the background color can be easily determined.

In addition, the present embodiment is characterized in that the color pattern is set to a plurality of gradations for each color of red, green, and blue, and is classified into a plurality of color patterns according to the gradation of each color.
According to this embodiment, the background color can be easily determined based on each color of red, green, and blue.

In the present embodiment, the color analysis unit 34 determines which color pattern the color of each pixel of the image corresponding to the display area 20 belongs to, and determines the color pattern having the most pixels as the background color. It is characterized by.
According to this embodiment, the background color can be determined according to the color of each pixel.

In addition, the present embodiment is characterized in that the color analysis unit 34 determines that the background color is the background color when the background color of the same color pattern continues for a certain period of time.
According to this embodiment, it is possible to prevent frequent changes in display color associated with changes in the background color, and to improve the visibility of the virtual image 15.

Further, the present embodiment is characterized in that the color analysis unit 34 does not set the display color when the display displayed in the display area 20 is a caution or warning display.
According to this embodiment, a caution or warning can be urged by always displaying the caution or warning display in a conspicuous color.

In addition, this embodiment is characterized in that the color analysis unit 34 sets a color that is complementary to the background color as a display color.
According to this embodiment, it is possible to improve the visibility by the display color.

In addition, the present embodiment is characterized in that the camera 16 equipped with the image acquisition unit 45 is integrally provided, and an image captured by the camera 16 is acquired by the image acquisition unit 45.
According to this embodiment, the background color can be determined based on the image captured by the camera 16.

In the above embodiment, the background color is determined by the color analysis unit 34 of the head-up display device 1 for a vehicle, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the background color may be determined by outputting an image captured by the camera 16 to the navigation device 40 and analyzing the image by the navigation device 40. In this case, the navigation device 40 may determine the display color.
Moreover, in the said embodiment, although the navigation apparatus 40 is used, it is not limited to this, For example, you may make it acquire navigation information with this smart phone using the smart phone equipped with the application for navigation. .

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the camera 16 is used to acquire an image in front of the vehicle 2, but any device such as an optical sensor may be used as long as the background color in front of the vehicle 2 can be determined. You may make it use.
In the embodiment, the vehicle head-up display device 1 in which the display device 12 and the combiner 13 are integrated has been described. However, the display device 12 (including the control unit 30) and the combiner 13 are separated. You may apply to the comprised vehicle head-up display apparatus 1. FIG.
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications can be made based on the gist of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Vehicle head-up display apparatus 2 Vehicle 10 Apparatus main body 11 Projection part 12 Display apparatus 13 Combiner 15 Virtual image 16 Camera 20 Display area 30 Control part 31 Memory | storage device 32 Image information database 33 Color pattern database 34 Color analysis part 35 Drawing part 36 Display Control unit 40 Navigation device 41 GPS device 42 Navigation unit 43 Audio unit 44 Mobile device 45 Image acquisition unit

Claims (8)

In a vehicle head-up display device for projecting image light from a display device to a combiner and displaying a virtual image based on the image light,
Based on the image acquired by the image acquisition unit, a color analysis unit that determines a background color for each display region in which the virtual image is displayed, and sets a display color of the virtual image according to the background color;
A drawing unit for creating a predetermined drawing image corresponding to the display color;
A display control unit that performs display control of the display device based on a drawing image created by the drawing unit;
A vehicle head-up display device.   The vehicle head-up display device according to claim 1, wherein the color analysis unit determines a background color based on a plurality of color patterns in which a background color is classified.   3. The vehicle according to claim 2, wherein the color pattern is configured such that each color of red, green, and blue is set to a plurality of gradations, and is classified into a plurality of color patterns according to the gradation of each color. Head-up display device.   The color analysis unit determines which color pattern a color of each pixel of an image corresponding to the display area belongs to, and determines a color pattern having the largest number of each pixel as a background color. The head-up display device for a vehicle according to claim 2 or claim 3.   The vehicle head-up according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the color analysis unit determines that the background color of the same color pattern is a background color when the background color continues for a certain period of time. Display device.   6. The vehicle head according to claim 1, wherein when the display displayed in the display area is a caution or warning display, the color analysis unit does not set a display color. 6. Up display device.   The vehicle head-up display device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the color analysis unit sets a color that is complementary to the background color as a display color.   The vehicle according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein a camera equipped with the image acquisition unit is integrally provided, and an image captured by the camera is acquired by the image acquisition unit. Head-up display device.

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