Vehicle surrounding monitoring system and vehicle surrounding monitoring method

#The disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-110262 filed on Apr. 12, 2006, including the specification, drawings and abstract is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

#1. Field of the Invention

#The invention relates to a vehicle surrounding monitoring system and a vehicle surrounding monitoring method, in which the image of an area surrounding a vehicle is displayed.

#The foregoing and/or further objects, features and advantages of the invention will become more apparent form the following description of example embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like numerals are used to represent like elements and wherein:

#FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing a vehicle surrounding monitoring system according to a first embodiment of the invention;

#FIG. 2 is a plan view schematically showing an example of a manner in which cameras are provided, and an example of areas whose images are captured by the cameras according to the first embodiment;

#Hereinafter, example embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

#FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing a vehicle surrounding monitoring system according to a first embodiment of the invention. A vehicle surrounding monitoring system 70 according to the first embodiment includes an image-synthesizing device 100. The image-synthesizing device 100 displays an image (screen image) of an area surrounding a vehicle using a display 20 provided in the vehicle, based on images captured by cameras 10 provided in the vehicle. For example, the display 20 may be a liquid-crystal display. The display 20 is disposed at a position such that an occupant can easily see the display 20. For example, the display 20 may be disposed in an instrument panel. The camera 10 is regarded as “the image-capturing portion”, and the display 20 is regarded as “the display portion” according to the invention.

#FIG. 2 is a plan view showing an example of a manner in which the cameras 10 are provided, and an example of areas whose images are captured by the cameras 10. As shown in FIG. 2, one of the cameras 10 is provided in the front portion, and the other camera 10 is provided in the rear portion of the vehicle. That is, the cameras 10 are provided at two locations in total. Each of the cameras 10 (10FR and 10RR) captures the image of the surrounding area that includes a road surface, using an imaging element such as a CCD (charge-coupled device) and a CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor). Each camera 10 may be a wide-angle camera that includes a fisheye lens.