Vehicle surroundings monitoring device, and image production method/program

An image production method for producing a synthesized image showing the situation around a vehicle using images taken with at least one camera capturing the surroundings of the vehicle, the method comprising:

• computing position information for a plurality of points in the images taken with the at least one camera, and precision of the position information, wherein said precision represents a degree of a measurement error;
• comparing the precision with a predetermined reference;
• producing a first synthesized image viewed from a predetermined viewpoint which is different from a viewpoint of the at least one camera, based on the images taken with the at least one camera and position information if the precision is determined higher than the predetermined reference;
• and
• producing a second synthesized image viewed from a predetermined viewpoint which is different from a viewpoint of the at least one camera, based on the images taken with the at least one camera by a predetermined method without use of the position information if the precision is determined lower than the predetermined reference.

A program enabling a computer to execute a method for producing a synthesized image showing the situation around a vehicle from images taken with a camera capturing the surroundings of the vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:

• (1) computing position information and precision of the position information, for a plurality of points in the camera images;
• (2) comparing the precision computed in the step (1) with a predetermined reference;
• (3) producing the synthesized image viewed from a predetermined viewpoint using the camera images and the position information computed in the step (1) if the precision is determined higher than the predetermined reference in the step (2);
• and
• (4) producing the synthesized image from the camera images by a predetermined method without use of the position information if the precision is determined lower than the predetermined reference in the step (2).

A vehicle surroundings monitoring device for producing a synthesized image showing the situation around a vehicle, said the device comprising:

• at least one camera operable to capture the surroundings of the vehicle;
• a position computation section operable to compute position information for a plurality of points in images taken with the at least one camera, and operable to compute a measurement error for the position information;
• an image variable-synthesis section operable to produce a first synthesized image having a predetermined view point which is different from a view point at which the images were captured by the camera, based on the images taken with the at least one camera and position information;
• an image fixed-synthesis section operable to produce a second synthesized image having a predetermined view point which is different from a view point at which the images were captured by the camera, based on the images taken with the at least one camera by a predetermined method without use of the position information;
• a synthesis scheme section operable to select as the synthesized image either the first synthesized image or the second synthesized image based on the measurement error of the position information;
• and
• a display unit operable to display the synthesized image.