Driving assistance apparatus

A driving assistance apparatus for displaying and guiding a peripheral condition of a vehicle in an easily understanding manner, comprising:

• a camera mounted on a peripheral portion of the vehicle;
• a virtual observing point converting unit which converts an image picked up by the camera into an image viewed from a virtual observing point;
• an image synthesizing unit which synthesizes the images viewed from a virtual observing point to display a peripheral condition of the vehicle;
• an obstacle sensing unit which senses presence of an obstacle and which measures at least one of a distance from the own vehicle up to an obstacle and a direction of the obstacle;
• an obstacle area predicting unit for predicting an obstacle area;
• and
• an obstacle area superposing unit which superposes the obstacle area on the image synthesized by the image synthesizing unit for display the superposed area.

A driving assistance apparatus for displaying and guiding a peripheral condition of a vehicle in an easily understanding manner, comprising:

• a camera mounted on a peripheral portion of the vehicle;
• an virtual observing point converting unit which converts an image picked up by the camera into an image viewed from a virtual observing point;
• an image synthesizing unit which synthesizes the images viewed from a virtual observing point to display a peripheral condition of the vehicle;
• an obstacle sensing unit which senses presence of an obstacle and which measures at least one of a distance from the own vehicle up to an obstacle and a direction of the obstacle;
• and
• a safety area predicting unit which predicts a safety area of the peripheral portion of the own vehicle, in which the obstacle is not present, based upon the information acquired by the obstacle sensing unit;
• wherein the obstacle sensing unit corresponds includes a distance measuring sensor capable of measuring a distance from the own sensor up to the obstacle, and outputs the shortest distance from the own vehicle among the detected obstacles as the distance up to the obstacle,
• wherein the safety area predicting unit predicts a safety area corresponding to an area is detectable by the distance measuring sensor and the area is located within one of a sphere and a circle where the distance up to the obstacle is defined as a radius, while a mounting position of the distance measuring sensor is used as a center of the sphere or the circle.

A driving assistance apparatus for displaying and guiding a peripheral condition of a vehicle in an easily understanding manner, comprising:

• a camera mounted on a peripheral portion of the vehicle;
• an virtual observing point converting unit which converts an image picked up by the camera into an image viewed from a virtual observing point;
• an image synthesizing unit which synthesizes the images viewed from a virtual observing point to display a peripheral condition of the vehicle;
• a first obstacle sensing unit for measuring a distance from the own vehicle up to an obstacle and a direction of the obstacle, and also for sensing presence of the obstacle by way of a sensor;
• a second obstacle sensing unit which senses presence of an obstacle and which measures at least one of a distance from the own vehicle up to an obstacle and a direction of the obstacle;
• an obstacle area predicting unit for predicting an obstacle area;
• and
• an obstacle area superposing unit which superposes the obstacle area on the image synthesized by the image synthesizing unit for display the superposed area;
• wherein the first and second obstacle sensing units include an ultrasonic-wave sensor capable of measuring a distance from the own sensor up to the obstacle, and outputs the shortest distance from the own vehicle among the detected obstacles as the distance up to the obstacle;
• and
• wherein the obstacle area predicting unit predicts an area where an obstacle is present, that corresponds to an area detectable by the ultrasonic-wave sensor, and the area located outside one of a sphere and a circle where the distance up to the obstacle is defined as a radius, while a mounting position of the ultrasonic-wave sensor is used as a center of the sphere or circle.

A driving assistance apparatus for displaying and guiding a peripheral condition of a vehicle in an easily understanding manner, comprising:

• a camera mounted on a peripheral portion of the vehicle;
• an virtual observing point converting unit which converts an image picked up by the camera into an image viewed from a virtual observing point;
• an image synthesizing unit which synthesizes the images viewed from a virtual observing point to display a peripheral condition of the vehicle;
• a first obstacle sensing unit for measuring a distance from the own vehicle up to an obstacle and a direction of the obstacle, and also for sensing presence of the obstacle by way of a sensor;
• a second obstacle sensing unit which senses presence of an obstacle and which measures at least one of a distance from the own vehicle up to an obstacle and a direction of the obstacle;
• an obstacle area predicting unit for predicting an obstacle area;
• and
• an obstacle area superposing unit which superposes the obstacle area on the image synthesized by the image synthesizing unit for display the superposed area;
• wherein the first and second obstacle sensing units include one of an ultrasonic-wave sensor having a plurality of ultrasonic-wave oscillating sources and an ultrasonic-wave sensor capable of varying a direction of the scanning operation,
• wherein the obstacle area predicting unit grasps a substantially shape of the obstacle which is faced to a side of the own vehicle based upon the information derived from the first and second obstacle sensing units, and predicts the area where the obstacle is present, which involving a dimension of the obstacle.