Drive supporting device

Driving support apparatus comprising:

• image pickup means mounted on a mobile unit;
• conversion means for converting one or more images picked up by said image pickup means to an image seen from a virtual viewpoint above a position of said image pickup means or an image orthogonal-projected from above based on a road surface model;
• and
• obstacle area detection means for detecting an area where a parallax between images picked up by said image pickup means does not coincide with a parallax on the road surface model as an obstacle area.

Driving support apparatus comprising:

• image pickup means mounted on a mobile unit;
• conversion means for converting one or more images picked up by said image pickup means to an image seen from a virtual viewpoint above a position of said image pickup means or an image orthogonal-projected from above based on a road surface model;
• obstacle area detection means for detecting an unmatched area between said converted images as an obstacle area;
• overlay means for overlaying said obstacle area in said converted image;
• and
• display means for displaying said composite image.

Driving support apparatus comprising:

• image pickup means mounted on a mobile unit;
• intermediate image conversion means for converting one or more images picked up by said image pickup means to an intermediate image in which a distance and an angle from said image pickup means are coordinates based on a road surface model;
• obstacle area detection means for detecting an unmatched area between said converted images, compares two images in said area to estimate an actual distance, corrects a distance and a position of said area in said converted image with the estimated distance, and outputs the corrected area as an obstacle area;
• overlay means for overlaying said obstacle area in said converted image;
• conversion means for converting said composite image to an ordinary coordinate image of a road surface;
• and
• display means for displaying said converted image.

Driving support apparatus comprising:

• image pickup means mounted on a mobile unit;
• conversion means for respectively converting one or more images picked up by said image pickup means to an image seen from a virtual viewpoint above a position of said image pickup means or an image orthogonal-projected from above based on a road surface model;
• and
• display means for displaying said converted image,
• wherein said conversion means determines a strength based on a size of each pixel on the road surface model on the screen of said image pickup-means and an angle to the road surface, and varies a brightness and a color of pixels based on the strength.

Driving support apparatus comprising:

• image pickup means mounted on a mobile unit;
• intermediate image conversion means for converting one or more images picked up by said image pickup means to an intermediate image in which a distance or a height and an angle from said image pickup means are coordinates based on a road surface model and a cylinder model;
• obstacle area detection means for detecting an unmatched area between said converted images, compares two images in said area to estimate an actual distance, corrects a distance and a position of said area in said converted image with the estimated distance, and outputs the corrected area as an obstacle area;
• overlay means for overlaying said obstacle area in said converted image,
• conversion means for converting said composite image to an ordinary coordinate image of a road surface;
• and
• display means for displaying said converted image.

Driving support apparatus comprising:

• image pickup means mounted on a mobile unit;
• intermediate image conversion means for converting an image picked up by said image pickup means to an intermediate image in which a plane symmetrical with respect to a straight line linking between said image pickup means as a axis is a projection plane;
• obstacle area detection means for detecting an unmatched area between said converted images, compares two images in said area to estimate an actual distance, corrects a distance and a position of said area in said converted image with the estimated distance, and outputs the corrected area as an obstacle area;
• overlay means for overlaying said obstacle area in said converted image,
• conversion means for converting said composite image to an ordinary coordinate image of a road surface;
• and
• display means for displaying said converted image.

Driving support apparatus comprising:

• image pickup means mounted on a mobile unit;
• conversion means for converting an image picked up by said image pickup means to a viewpoint-converted image seen from a virtual viewpoint which is different from a position of said image pickup means;
• and
• display means for displaying an image converted by said conversion means,
• wherein said image pickup means picks up a plurality of images having a predetermined parallax and said display means displays an image which is corrected based on said parallax.

Distance information extraction apparatus comprising:

• image pickup means for picking up a plurality of images from a plurality of observation points;
• conversion means for converting said plurality of images to intermediate images projected onto a plane having orthogonal coordinates;
• means for defining one of said orthogonal coordinates (for example, a horizontal coordinate) as a direction of rotation angle about an axis passing through said plurality of observation points and aligning a search direction to obtain a parallax between said intermediate images in a direction of another coordinate (for example, the vertical coordinate) of said orthogonal coordinates;
• and
• measurement means for measuring a distance to a target in said image based on said parallax.