JPH11291817A - Rear confirmation device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] To prevent a rear-seat display from being partially reflected in an inside mirror during use and affecting rear view. SOLUTION: When a rear-seat occupant is watching with a rear-seat display 5 in use, an inside mirror control unit 22 is provided.
Detects the use state of the rear-seat display, and displays an image of the rear of the vehicle captured by the rear camera 14 on the inside mirror 8.
Is displayed on the small display 12 incorporated therein, and is shown to the driver through the magic mirror 13. As a result, even when the driver uses the rear-seat display 5, the driver can check the rear view by viewing a part of the rear-seat display 5 that is not reflected in the rear view in the same manner as viewing the original inside mirror.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a rear confirmation device used for confirming a driver's rear in a vehicle cabin.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 6, an openable / closable rear-seat display 5 is installed on a roof portion 4 at an intermediate position between front and rear seats 2 and 3 in a passenger compartment 1, and a rear passenger 6 There is known a vehicle in which a rear seat display 5 is opened downward and can be viewed.

[0003]

However, in a vehicle equipped with such a rear-seat display 5, the rear-seat occupant 6 looks at the screen with the rear-seat display 5 opened substantially vertically downward. In addition, there is a problem that the rear seat display 5 partially appears in the field of view of the inside mirror 8 from the driver 7.

[0004] The present invention has been made in view of such a conventional problem, and regardless of the use state of the rear seat display, a rear view in which a part of the rear seat display is not reflected. It is an object of the present invention to provide a backward confirmation device that can be presented.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a rear seat which is installed on a roof at an intermediate position between front and rear seats in a room and can be opened and closed between a state accommodated in the roof and a state opened downward. A rear view confirmation device for a vehicle having a display for a vehicle, comprising: an inside mirror installed at a left and right intermediate portion of a front end of a roof portion in the room; and a small-sized interior mirror incorporated with the display surface facing the inside of the vehicle. A display, a rear imaging unit that captures an image of the rear of the vehicle, an open / closed state detection unit that detects an open / closed state of the rear seat display, and a state where the open / closed state detection unit detects the open state of the rear seat display. A rear confirmation switching unit that displays an image of the rear of the vehicle taken by the imaging unit on the small display so that the driver can see it.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the rear seat occupant is watching the rear seat display with the rear seat display opened downward from the roof portion, the open / closed state detecting means detects the open state of the rear seat display. Is detected, and the rear confirmation switching unit displays an image of the rear of the vehicle captured by the imaging unit on the inside mirror on a small display installed with its display surface facing the interior of the vehicle, so that the driver can see it. Thus, even when the rear seat display is open, the driver can see the rear view in which part of the rear seat display is not reflected in the same manner as viewing the original inside mirror, and can confirm the rear.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the rear view confirmation apparatus of the first aspect, the mirror surface of the inside mirror is transparent when the screen luminance of the small display is high, and is mirrored when the screen luminance is low. It uses a magic mirror member that acts as a camera, which does not require any means to switch between the display image on the small display and the image actually shown on the inside mirror, simplifies the mechanism and reduces costs be able to.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the rear confirmation device according to the first or second aspect, the opening / closing state detecting means detects an opening / closing angle of the display for the rear seat, and the rear confirmation switching means detects the opening / closing state detection. When the opening / closing angle of the display for the rear seat detected by the means is within a predetermined range which is determined in advance as a range affecting the rear view of the inside mirror, the image of the rear of the vehicle is displayed on the small display. This allows the rear-view confirmation switching means to switch the rear display to the small display only when the rear-seat display is open in an angle range where it can be reflected in the rear view with a normal inside mirror. Substitute period for the role of the original inside mirror with a small display by displaying the image and showing it to the driver The suppressed to the necessary minimum.

[0009]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the rear seat occupant is looking at the rear-seat display with the rear-seat display opened downward, the small display installed behind the inside mirror is mounted on the rear of the vehicle. The driver can confirm the rear view by looking at the rear view where a part of the rear seat display is not reflected in the same form as looking at the original inside mirror even when using the rear seat display even when the rear seat display is in use it can.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the inside mirror is provided with a magic mirror member which is transparent when the screen brightness of the small display is high and which acts as a mirror when the screen brightness is low. No means is required for switching between the display image on the small display and the image actually shown on the inside mirror, and the mechanism can be simplified and the cost can be reduced.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the image of the rear of the vehicle is displayed on the small-sized display only when the rear-seat display is open in an angle range where the rear view can be reflected in the field of view behind the ordinary inside mirror. Since the display is made to be displayed to the driver, the replacement period of the role of the original inside mirror by the small display can be suppressed to the minimum necessary.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, an inside mirror 8 installed at a left and right intermediate position of a front end of a roof portion 4 in a vehicle compartment 1 accommodates a liquid crystal display 12 which is a small display in a mirror case 11. This is a structure in which a magic mirror 13 is attached to the front surface. When the screen brightness of the liquid crystal display 12 is high, that is, during display operation, the magic mirror 13 allows an image on the display to be seen by the driver, and when the screen brightness of the liquid crystal display 12 is low, that is, when the operation is stopped, It functions as a mirror to capture the scene behind the vehicle. A rear camera 14 for photographing a scene behind the vehicle is installed at an appropriate location at the rear of the vehicle, for example, near the center of the rear end of the roof portion 4 of the passenger compartment 1. The photographing range of the rear camera 14 or the display range of the liquid crystal display 12 is set to a range that substantially matches the rear field of view of the rear of the vehicle when the magic mirror 13 works as a mirror, and the focal length of the rear camera 14 is also a magic mirror. 13 is set as a mirror so that an image substantially coincides with a mirror image of the rear view of the vehicle.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the rear seat display 5 has a display housing case 15 installed on the roof portion 4 at an intermediate position between the front and rear seats when not in use.
And open downward when used. In order to open and close the rear-seat display 5 between a substantially horizontal storage state and a use state opened downward, a driven gear 17 is engaged with a driving gear 16 driven by a motor. The root portion of the rear-seat display 5 is driven to rotate forward and backward by the forward and reverse rotations of. A pickup sensor 1 for detecting the rotation state of the driven gear 17 is provided in the display housing case 15.
A pulse signal output from the pickup sensor 18 is used to determine the open / closed state of the rear seat display 5.

FIG. 4 shows the liquid crystal display 1 in the inside mirror 8 by judging the open / close state of the rear seat display 5.
2 shows a configuration of a control circuit for performing display on / off switching control of No. 2. The display control unit 20 controls opening and closing drive of the rear seat display 5, and adjusts the opening and closing angle of the rear seat display 5 arbitrarily in response to the operation of the angle adjustment switch 21. The pickup sensor 18 outputs a pulse signal corresponding to the opening / closing angle of the rear seat display 5.

The inside mirror control unit 22 receives the pulse signal from the pickup sensor 18 and calculates the opening / closing angle x of the rear seat display 5 to obtain a predetermined angle range α <x <β.
It is determined whether or not a part of the rear-seat display 5 is partially reflected in the rear view of the inside mirror 8 depending on whether the rear view 14 is turned on or off. Liquid crystal display 12
On / off control.

Next, the operation of the rear confirmation device having the above configuration will be described. As shown in the flowchart of FIG. 5, when the rear seat display 5 is opened, the inside mirror control unit 22 counts a pulse signal output from the pickup sensor 18 (step S1), and opens the rear seat display 5. The angle x is calculated (step S2). And
It is determined whether or not the opening angle x is within an angle range that affects the rear view of the inside mirror 8 based on whether or not a preset angle range α <x <β is satisfied (step S3).

Here, if the rear-seat display 5 has an angle range α <x <β where the rear display 5 may partially appear in the rear view of the inside mirror 8, the rear camera 14 is activated to display the image on the liquid crystal display. It is displayed on the display 12 (steps S4, S5). Here, when the magic mirror 13 is used on the mirror surface of the inside mirror 8, the screen brightness is increased simply by displaying the image of the rear view on the liquid crystal display 12, and the magic mirror 13 naturally becomes transparent so that the displayed image becomes transparent. Will be shown to the driver.

If the rear seat display 5 is in the closed state or the open angle x is not in the range of α <x <β even in the use state (branch to NO in step S3), the liquid crystal display 12 is not activated. (Step S
6). As a result, the magic mirror 13 in the inside mirror 8 is in a mirror state because the screen of the liquid crystal display 12 on the rear side is dark, so that the driver can photograph the rear view by himself and show it to the driver.

Thus, in the rear view confirming device of this embodiment, when the rear seat display 5 is opened and in use, if the rear view 5 is opened at an angle such that a part thereof is reflected in the rear field of view of the inside mirror, the inside The rear view image captured by the rear camera 14 is displayed on the liquid crystal display 12 incorporated in the mirror 8 so as to be shown through the magic mirror 13, so that the driver is always affected by the rear seat display 5. You will be able to obtain a rear view that you will not receive. In addition, since the rear view is substituted by the display image of the liquid crystal display 12 only when the rear seat display 5 is in the predetermined angle range α <x <β, the substitution period can be minimized. .

In the above embodiment, the on / off of the liquid crystal display 12 is controlled depending on whether the opening / closing angle of the rear seat display 5 is within a predetermined range. However, the present invention is not limited to this. In order to make the system simpler, the use / non-use state is determined by whether the rear seat display 5 is open or closed, or whether its power switch is on or off. Alternatively, the liquid crystal display 12 in the inside mirror 8 may be always turned on in use.

In the above-described embodiment, the magic mirror 13 has a property of switching naturally between a transparent state and a mirror state depending on the brightness of the back surface. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the liquid crystal display 12 is used. Sometimes, the mirror surface recedes and the liquid crystal screen is directly exposed, and a mechanism that returns the mirror surface to the original position when the liquid crystal display 12 is not used can be employed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an overall configuration of one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the inside mirror according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a mechanism diagram of a display for a rear seat in the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the rear confirmation device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 vehicle compartment 4 roof part 5 display for rear seat 8 inside mirror 11 mirror case 12 liquid crystal display 13 magic mirror 14 rear camera 15 storage case 16 drive gear 17 driven gear 18 pickup sensor 20 display control unit 21 angle adjustment switch 22 inside mirror 22 Control unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A rear side of a vehicle having a display for a rear seat installed on a roof portion at an intermediate position between front and rear seats in a room and capable of being opened and closed between a state stored in the roof portion and a state opened downward. A confirmation device, comprising: an inside mirror installed at a left and right intermediate portion of a front end of a roof portion in the room; a small display incorporated in the inside mirror with its display surface facing the vehicle interior; and a rear view image of the vehicle. A rear imaging means for photographing, an open / closed state detection means for detecting an open / closed state of the rear seat display, and the vehicle which the imaging means takes an image when the open / closed state detection means detects the open state of the rear seat display. A rear-view confirming device comprising: rear-view confirming switching means for displaying a rear image on the small display so as to be seen by a driver. 2. The mirror surface of the inside mirror is provided with a magic mirror member that is transparent when the screen brightness of the small display is high, and that acts as a mirror when the screen brightness is low. 2. The rear confirmation device according to 1. 3. The opening / closing state detecting means detects an opening / closing angle of the display for the rear seat, and the rear confirmation switching means sets an opening / closing angle of the display for the rear seat detected by the opening / closing state detecting means in advance. The rear view confirmation according to claim 1 or 2, wherein an image of the rear side of the vehicle is displayed on the small display when the distance is within a predetermined range determined as a range affecting the rear view of the inside mirror. apparatus.