Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and recording medium

An image processing apparatus processing image data obtained by surroundings image of a vehicle through a plurality of imaging devices mounted on the vehicle, comprising:

• a state information obtaining unit obtaining state information that indicates a state of driving operation of the vehicle, from the vehicle at regular intervals or alternatively at occasions of a change;
• an image storage unit storing a plurality of two-dimensional image data pieces obtained from the plurality of imaging devices whose viewing fields partly overlap with each other;
• a specifying unit compositing a plurality of two-dimensional image data pieces stored in the image storage unit into a shape of a three-dimensional projection plane, and then specifying, in correspondence to the state information obtained by the state information obtaining unit, a compositing method for overlapping portions of viewing fields or the transformation information to be used for transformation from a three-dimensional image based on the obtained three-dimensional image data into projection image data viewed from a position of a given viewpoint along a given line-of-sight direction;
• and
• an image transformation unit transforming the plurality of two-dimensional image data pieces stored in the image storage unit into projection image data viewed from the position of the given viewpoint along the given line-of-sight direction, by using the compositing method or the transformation information specified by the specifying unit.

An image processing method performed with surroundings image of a vehicle through a plurality of imaging devices mounted on the vehicle, comprising:

• obtaining state information that indicates a state of driving operation of the vehicle;
• compositing a plurality of two-dimensional image data pieces obtained from the plurality of imaging devices whose viewing fields partly overlap with each other into a shape of a three-dimensional projection plane when given state information is obtained;
• specifying, in correspondence to the state information, a compositing method for overlapping portions of viewing field or transformation information to be used for transformation from three-dimensional image based on the obtained three-dimensional image data into projection image data viewed from a position of a given viewpoint along a given line-of-sight direction;
• and
• transforming, by using the transformation information or the compositing method having been specified, the plurality of two-dimensional image data pieces into projection image data viewed from the position of the given viewpoint along the given line-of-sight direction.

A recording medium capable of being read by a computer in which program for making the computer execute processing image data obtained by surroundings image of a vehicle through a plurality of imaging devices mounted on the vehicle, comprising:

• obtaining state information that indicates a state of driving operation of the vehicle;
• compositing a plurality of two-dimensional image data pieces obtained from the plurality of imaging devices whose viewing fields partly overlap with each other into a shape of a three-dimensional projection plane when given state information is obtained;
• specifying, in correspondence to the state information, a compositing method for overlapping portions of viewing fields or transformation information to be used for transformation from three-dimensional image based on the obtained three-dimensional image data into projection image data viewed from a position of a given viewpoint along a given line-of-sight direction;
• and
• transforming, by using the compositing method or the transformation information having been specified, the plurality of two-dimensional image data pieces into projection image data viewed from the position of the given viewpoint along the given line-of-sight direction.