Vehicle

Abstract

To enable pattern display using a light-emitting component on a wiper without operating the wiper at a high speed.SOLUTION: A vehicle 10 includes: a light-emitting component 16 installed in a rear wiper 12; a front camera 13 that captures an image ahead of the own vehicle; a control unit 17 that displays a pattern by blinking a light-emitting component 16 in conjunction with an operation of a rear wiper 12; and a processing unit 18 that, based on an image captured by the front camera 13, acquires the pattern displayed by blinking of a light-emitting component 16 of a preceding vehicle.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a vehicle. [Background technology]

[0002] The vehicle described in Patent Document 1 is equipped with light-emitting elements arranged in a row on the wipers. In this vehicle, the light-emitting elements are made to blink in conjunction with the movement of the wipers, thereby displaying characters, figures, and the like, utilizing the afterimage effect of the human eye. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] JP 2005-271813 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] To utilize the afterimage effect, the wipers must be operated at a speed significantly faster than the speed required to wipe off water droplets, etc. Therefore, the movement and noise of the wipers when displaying the image can be irritating to the occupants. [Means for solving the problem]

[0005] A vehicle that solves the above problem includes an light-emitting component installed on a wiper, a camera that captures images of the area around the vehicle, a control unit that displays a pattern by blinking the light-emitting component in conjunction with the operation of the wiper, and a processing unit that obtains the pattern displayed by the blinking of the light-emitting component of another vehicle from the image captured by the camera. Effect of the Invention

[0006] The above vehicle has the advantage that inter-vehicle communication is possible using the light-emitting components on the wipers even if the wipers are not operated at high speed. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0007] [Figure 1] 1 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an embodiment of a vehicle. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a pattern display in the vehicle. [Diagram 3] 10 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing executed by a processing unit in a modified example of the vehicle. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0008] Hereinafter, one embodiment of a vehicle will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. <Vehicle configuration> First, the configuration of a vehicle 10 of this embodiment will be described with reference to Fig. 1. The vehicle 10 is equipped with a rear wiper 12 for wiping off raindrops and dirt adhering to a rear window 11. The vehicle 10 is also equipped with a front camera 13 and an HMI (human-machine interface) 14. The front camera 13 is an imaging device that captures images of the area in front of the vehicle. The HMI 14 is a device for exchanging information between the system of the vehicle 10 and the occupants. An example of the HMI 14 is a touch panel.

[0009] The vehicle 10 is equipped with a drive unit 15 that drives the rear wiper 12. The drive unit 15 is equipped with a motor and a link mechanism that converts the rotation of the motor into a reciprocating motion of the rear wiper 12. The rear wiper 12 is driven to reciprocate between a stop position and a turn-back position by the drive unit 15. In Fig. 1, the state of the rear wiper 12 when located at the stop position is shown by a solid line. Also, in Fig. 1, the state of the rear wiper 12 when located at the turn-back position is shown by a dashed line.

[0010] A plurality of light emitting components 16 are provided on the rear wiper 12. The plurality of light emitting components 16 are arranged in a line on the rear wiper 12. An example of the light emitting components 16 is a light emitting diode.

[0011] The vehicle 10 is further provided with a control unit 17 and a processing unit 18. The control unit 17 is an electronic circuit that controls the driving of the rear wiper 12 by the driving unit 15 and the blinking of the light emitting component 16. The processing unit 18 is an electronic circuit that processes the image captured by the front camera 13.

[0012] <About vehicle-to-vehicle communications> The vehicle 10 is configured to communicate with other vehicles 10 using a light-emitting component 16 provided on the rear wiper 12 and a front camera 13. Such vehicle-to-vehicle communication is performed through blinking control of the light-emitting component 16 by a control unit 17 and image processing of the front camera 13 by a processing unit 18. In the following description, the vehicle 10 is referred to as the vehicle itself, the vehicle 10 traveling in front of the vehicle itself is referred to as the leading vehicle, and the vehicle 10 traveling behind the vehicle itself is referred to as the following vehicle.

[0013] First, the blinking control of the light-emitting components 16 performed by the control unit 17 will be described with reference to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 shows the blinking state of each light-emitting component 16 when the four characters "STOP" are displayed as a pattern. In FIG. 2, the light-emitting components 16 that are turned on are represented by black circles, and the light-emitting components 16 that are turned off are represented by white circles. The control unit 17 displays the pattern as shown in FIG. 2 by switching the blinking of each light-emitting component 16 in conjunction with the operation of the rear wiper 12. Specifically, the control unit 17 switches the blinking of each light-emitting component 16 depending on the operating position of the rear wiper 12. In each operating position, the combination of the light-emitting components 16 that are turned on and the light-emitting components 16 that are turned off is predetermined according to the pattern to be displayed.

[0014] Next, the image processing performed by the processing unit 18 will be described. The processing unit 18 acquires a pattern displayed by the preceding vehicle by blinking the light-emitting element 16 of the rear wiper 12 based on the image captured by the front camera 13. Specifically, the processing unit 18 periodically acquires images of the front camera 13 capturing the rear window 11 of the preceding vehicle, and generates a composite image by combining a series of acquired images. The acquisition cycle and acquisition period of the images of the front camera 13 at this time are set to an appropriate cycle and period so that an image showing the pattern displayed by the preceding vehicle by blinking the light-emitting element 16 can be generated as a composite image. Then, the processing unit 18 causes the HMI 14 to display the generated composite image.

[0015] <Actions and Effects of the Embodiments> The operation and effect of this embodiment will be described. The vehicle 10 of this embodiment displays a pattern by blinking a plurality of light-emitting components 16 installed on the rear wiper 12 in conjunction with the operation of the rear wiper 12. At this time, if the rear wiper 12 is operated at high speed, the occupants of the following vehicle can directly recognize the displayed pattern due to the afterimage effect. However, if the rear wiper 12 is operated at such a high speed that the afterimage effect is generated, the occupants may feel annoyed by the movement and operation sound of the rear wiper 12. In response to this, the vehicle 10 of this embodiment identifies the pattern displayed by the blinking of the light-emitting components 16 of the rear wiper 12 of the preceding vehicle by processing the image captured by the front camera 13 by the processing unit 18. Therefore, in order to display the pattern, it is not necessary to operate the rear wiper 12 at such a high speed that the afterimage effect is generated.

[0016] The vehicle 10 of the present embodiment described above provides the following advantages. (1) The vehicle 10 is equipped with a control unit 17 that causes a plurality of light-emitting components 16 installed on the rear wiper 12 to blink in conjunction with the operation of the rear wiper 12. The vehicle 10 also has a processing unit 18 that acquires a pattern displayed by the blinking of the light-emitting components 16 of the preceding vehicle based on an image captured by the front camera 13. Therefore, even if the rear wiper 12 is not operated at high speed, it is possible to transmit information to the following vehicle through the pattern display by the blinking of the light-emitting components 16. As a result, the operating sound and movement of the rear wiper 12 for displaying the pattern are less likely to annoy the occupants.

[0017] (2) The processing unit 18 notifies the occupant of information indicated by the pattern acquired based on the image from the front camera 13. Therefore, information can be transmitted to the occupant of the following vehicle. (3) When the blinking of the light-emitting component 16 is to be confirmed by the human eye, it is necessary to increase the luminous intensity of the light-emitting component 16 in a bright environment such as daytime. However, if the luminous intensity of the light-emitting component 16 is increased, there is a risk that passengers of other vehicles who see it may feel dazzled. In the vehicle 10 of this embodiment, the blinking of the light-emitting component 16 is confirmed by the front camera 13. Therefore, it is possible to suppress the luminous intensity of the light-emitting component 16 to a level that is not dazzling to humans.

[0018] (Other embodiments) This embodiment can be modified as follows: This embodiment and the following modifications can be combined with each other to the extent that there is no technical contradiction.

[0019] <Information transmission to multiple vehicles> The vehicle 10 in the above embodiment is configured to transmit information to the following vehicle by blinking the light emitting component 16. The vehicle 10 can transmit information between three or more vehicles by configuring it as follows.

[0020] 3 shows a flow of processing executed by the processing unit 18 in the vehicle 10 in such a case. The processing unit 18 repeatedly executes the processing of FIG. 3 at each predetermined control period while the vehicle 10 is traveling. 3 starts, the processing unit 18 first captures an image captured by the front camera 13 in step S100. In the next step S110, the processing unit 18 checks whether the blinking of the light-emitting component 16 of the rear wiper 12 of the preceding vehicle is captured based on the acquired image. If the blinking of the light-emitting component 16 is confirmed (S100: YES), the processing unit 18 proceeds to step S120. If the blinking of the light-emitting component 16 is not confirmed (S110: NO), the processing unit 18 ends the processing for the current control cycle.

[0021] When the process proceeds to step S120, the processing unit 18 identifies a pattern displayed by the blinking of the light emitting element 16 of the preceding vehicle based on a series of images captured by the front camera 13. Then, in the next step S130, the processing unit 18 notifies the occupant of information indicated by the identified pattern. Furthermore, in the following step S140, the processing unit 18 instructs the control unit 17 to display the same pattern as the identified pattern.

[0022] In such a case, the vehicle 10 blinks the light-emitting element 16 of its own rear wiper 12 to display the same pattern as that displayed by the preceding vehicle. As a result, the information transmitted from the preceding vehicle to the vehicle itself is further transmitted to the following vehicle. If the processing unit 18 of the following vehicle also performs the same processing, the same information is transmitted to the vehicle 10 traveling behind the following vehicle. As a result, information is transmitted to the following vehicles in turn, making it possible to transmit information to a large number of vehicles 10.

[0023] <Notification to crew members> The processing unit 18 may play back a series of images captured by the front camera 13 on the HMI 14 at high speed, so that a pattern displayed by the blinking light-emitting elements 16 of the preceding vehicle is presented to the occupant. In this case, the rear wiper 12 operates faster in the image displayed on the HMI 14 than in reality. Therefore, even if the rear wiper 12 is not actually operated at high speed, the pattern displayed by the blinking light-emitting elements 16 can be recognized by the occupant due to the afterimage effect.

[0024] The processing unit 18 may read information indicated by a pattern acquired based on an image from the front camera 13, convert the read information into text, sound, or the like, and notify the occupant.

[0025] A pattern indicating information used for controlling the automatic driving or the like of the vehicle 10 may be displayed by blinking the light-emitting components 16. In this case, if there is no need to notify the occupant of the information indicated by the displayed pattern, notification to the occupant may be omitted.

[0026] <About the displayed pattern> The pattern displayed by the blinking of the light-emitting element 16 linked to the operation of the rear wiper 12 may be switched in sequence, and multiple patterns may be linked together to transmit information. For example, the characters displayed as the pattern may be switched each time the rear wiper 12 makes a round trip, and the combined characters may be transmitted as a message to the following vehicle.

[0027] The control unit 17 may display a pattern other than characters or images by blinking the light-emitting element 16 in conjunction with the operation of the rear wiper 12. For example, the control unit 17 may control the blinking of the light-emitting element 16 so that a two-dimensional code indicating information to be notified to a following vehicle is displayed as the above-mentioned pattern. In this case, the processing unit 18 acquires the two-dimensional code displayed by the blinking of the light-emitting element 16 of the preceding vehicle based on the image from the front camera 13. Then, the processing unit 18 decodes the acquired two-dimensional code, thereby enabling information transmission between the vehicles.

[0028] <About light-emitting components> The number and arrangement of the light emitting components 16 provided on the rear wiper 12 may be different from that shown in FIG.

[0029] In the vehicle 10, the blinking of the light-emitting component 16 is confirmed by the front camera 13. Therefore, it is possible to use a component that emits light with a wavelength other than visible light, such as an infrared light-emitting component or an ultraviolet light-emitting component, as the light-emitting component 16. In such a case, it is possible to prevent passengers in following vehicles from feeling annoyed by the blinking of the light-emitting component 16.

[0030] <Other> The light-emitting component 16 may be installed on the front wiper of the vehicle 10. In this case, the processing unit 18 captures the blinking of the light-emitting component 16 installed on the front wiper of the following vehicle using a rear camera that captures the rear of the vehicle, and obtains the pattern displayed by the blinking.

[0031] If a camera is used to capture images of the surroundings of the vehicle, for example, a camera capturing images of the entire circumference of the vehicle 10 may be used to capture images of the blinking light emitting components 16 of the surrounding vehicles 10 . Each of the control unit 17 and the processing unit 18 may be configured as a circuit including one or more processors operating according to a computer program, one or more dedicated hardware circuits such as dedicated hardware for performing at least some of the various processes, or a combination of these. An example of the dedicated hardware is an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). The processor includes a CPU and memory such as RAM and ROM, and the memory stores program code or instructions configured to cause the CPU to perform the processes. The memory, i.e., the storage medium, includes any available medium accessible by a general-purpose or dedicated computer. The vehicle 10 may also be configured such that the processes of both the control unit 17 and the processing unit 18 are performed by a single circuit. [Explanation of symbols]

[0032] 10 Vehicles 11 Rear Window 12 Rear wiper 13. Front Camera 14 Human Machine Interface 15 Drive unit 16 Light emitting components 17 Control Unit 18 Processing section

Claims

1. A light-emitting component disposed on the wiper; A camera that captures images of the surroundings of the vehicle; a control unit that causes the light emitting components to blink in response to an operation of the wiper to display a pattern; A processing unit that acquires a pattern displayed by the blinking of the light emitting components of the other vehicle based on the image captured by the camera; A vehicle equipped with.

2. 2. The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the light emitting component is installed in a rear wiper, and the camera is a front camera that captures an image of an area ahead of the vehicle.

3. 2. The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the light emitting component is an infrared light emitting component or an ultraviolet light emitting component.

4. The vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit displays a two-dimensional code as the pattern.

5. The vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit causes the light-emitting components of the host vehicle to display the same pattern as the pattern acquired by the processing unit.

Images