Image recording apparatus and image processing method

Abstract

To provide a recording device and an image processing method for recording vehicle travel information capable of prompt examination, with high image resolution, and in which reliability of information is high.SOLUTION: An image recording device 10 includes a first image capturing module 102, a processor 106, and a storage module 108. The first image capturing module includes a first lens 1021 and a first sensor 1022 that captures a light flux transmitted through the first lens and generates the first image. The processor receives the first image, surrounds and selects a first partial region on the first image, duplicates image data of the first partial region and generates a first partial image, and performs image processing on the first image and generates a first adjustment image. The storage module stores the first image, the first partial image and the first adjustment image.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus and an image processing method.

Background Art

[0002] Currently, the need in the market to record vehicle driving information has already gone beyond simply continuously recording videos as evidentiary data that can be referred to in the future when a traffic accident occurs. Moreover, for users, rather than spending a long time viewing the recorded data, they hope to be able to quickly investigate and confirm the key accident causes and the license plate numbers of the accident vehicles after an accident. On the other hand, considering long-time recording, a large-capacity memory card is required, so conventional drive recorders adopt a recording mechanism with somewhat low resolution. For this reason, even after a driver can confirm information such as the license plate number of the accident vehicle from the image, they often face the problem that they cannot accurately identify the license plate. Therefore, in order to record vehicle driving information, there is no doubt that there is a need to provide a recording apparatus and an image processing method that can be quickly investigated, have high image resolution, and high information reliability.

[0003] In contrast, in conventional technical documents, for example, several solution methods have been proposed, such as the image forming system provided in Patent Documents 1 to 2, the imaging apparatus provided in Patent Document 3, and the image acquisition apparatus provided in Patent Document 4.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0004]

Patent Document 1

[0005]

Patent Document 2

[0006]

Patent Document 3

[0007] [Patent Document 4] Japanese Patent No. 2016177375A [Summary of the Invention]

[0008] Embodiments of the present invention disclose an image recording apparatus including a first image capture module, a processor, and a memory module. The first image capture module includes a first lens and a first sensor that captures a light beam transmitted through the first lens and generates a first image. The processor surrounds and selects a first partial region on the first image, copies the image data of the first partial region, generates a first partial image, and adjusts the first image to generate a first adjusted image. And the memory module stores the first image, the first partial image, and the first adjusted image.

[0009] One embodiment of the present invention further includes a first image capture module, a second image capture module, and a processor. The first image capture module includes a first sensor that captures a light beam and generates a first image. The second image capture module captures a light beam and generates a second image. The processor generates a first partial image from the first image and / or generates a second partial image from the second image, and combines the first image and the second image to form a composite image.

[0010] Another embodiment of the present invention includes the step of capturing a first image by a first image capture module, and the step of using a processor to surround and select a first partial region on the first image, copy the image data of the first partial region, generate a first partial image, and adjust the first image to generate a first adjusted image. An image processing method is disclosed.

[0011] In order to better understand the above and other aspects of the present invention, the following describes embodiments and provides a detailed explanation in conjunction with the drawings as follows.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0012]

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Modes for Carrying Out the Invention

[0013] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an image recording apparatus 10 according to a first embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the image recording apparatus 10 includes at least a first image capture module 102, a processor 106, and a storage module 108. The first image capture module 102 includes a first lens 1021 and a first sensor 1022. The processor 106 electrically connects the first image capture module 102 and the storage module 108. In one specific embodiment, the image recording apparatus 10 can be a drive recorder mounted on a vehicle including, but not limited to, an automobile, a truck, a bus, a motorcycle, etc. Among these, the first sensor 1022 can be a photoelectric conversion element including, but not limited to, a CMOS phototransistor such as a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) sensor or a CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) sensor. The processor 106 can be an image processing chip. The storage module 108 can be a non-volatile memory such as a flash memory, for example.

[0014] FIG. 2 is a flowchart of an initial processing method for a first image IMG1 according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of capturing a first partial image ROI1 of a first partial region R1 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

[0015] Refer to FIGS. 1 to 3 simultaneously. As shown in step S201, the first image capture module 102 captures an image in the first direction. After the first sensor 1022 captures the light beam transmitted through the first lens 1021 and generates the first image IMG1, the processor 106 receives the first image IMG1. As shown in step S202, the processor 106 can surround and select the first partial region R1 on the first image IMG1 and form the first partial image ROI1 by copying the image data of the first partial region R1. On the other hand, as shown in step S203, the processor 106 further performs image adjustment on the first image IMG1 and generates the first adjusted image SD1 after the image adjustment (step S203).

[0016] Subsequently, the image recording device 10 can further store the first image IMG1, the first partial image ROI1, and the first adjusted image SD1 in the storage module 108. Among them, the image adjustment generates the first adjusted image SD1 in a way of reducing pixels, including but not limited to making the pixels of the first adjusted image SD1 less than those of the first image IMG1 as a scaled-down image, a compressed image, and a cropped image.

[0017] In the first embodiment, before surrounding and selecting the first partial region R1 on the first image IMG1, the processor 106 can further perform initial processing of the image on the first image IMG1. Among them, the items of the initial processing of the image include but are not limited to removing the letter box of the image, improving the distorted image area, solving the color deviation of the image, and correcting the deformation of the image edge. In one specific embodiment, the image adjustment program is executed after the initial processing of the image is completed.

[0018] In the first embodiment, the first image IMG1 can have m1×n1 pixels, the first partial image ROI1 can have m0×n0 pixels, and the first adjusted image SD1 after image adjustment can have a1m1×b1n1 pixels. Among these, m1, a1m1, and m0 are the number of columns in which the first image IMG1, the first adjusted image SD1, and the first partial image ROI1 are arranged vertically, respectively, and can represent the length of the image. n1, b1n1, and n0 are the number of rows in which the first image IMG1, the first adjusted image SD1, and the first partial image ROI1 are arranged horizontally, respectively, and can represent the width of the image, and m1, n1, m0, and n0 are all positive integers, a1 and b1 are both integers less than 1, and a1m1 and b1n1 are both positive integers.

[0019] In one specific embodiment, m1 can be x times n1, m0 can be y times n0, x and y are positive numbers, for example, x and y can be interposed between 1.7 and 2.3 respectively. In other specific embodiments, a1 and b1 can be interposed between 0.4 and 0.6 respectively. In still other specific embodiments, m1×n1 = 3840×1920, m0×n0 = 1920×1080, a1m1×b1n1 = 1920×960, but none of these are used to limit the present invention.

[0020] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a first adjustment image SD1, a second image IMG2, and a first partial image ROI1 according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an image recording apparatus 20 according to a second embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 5, the image recording apparatus 20 is substantially similar to the image recording apparatus 10, and the same reference numerals are used for each component. Among these, the main differences between the image recording apparatus 20 and the image recording apparatus 10 are as follows: The image recording apparatus 20 further includes a second image capture module 104 electrically connected to the processor 106. The second image capture module 104 includes a second lens 1041 and a second sensor 1042. The second image capture module 104 can capture an image in a second direction, and the second sensor 1042 can capture the light beam transmitted through the second lens 1041 and generate a second image IMG2.

[0021] Refer to FIGS. 3 to 5. The first image capture module 102 and the second image capture module 104 respectively provide the first image IMG1 and the second image IMG2 to the processor 106. The processor 106 can surround and select a first partial region R1 by the first image IMG1, obtain a first partial image ROI1, perform image adjustment on the first image IMG1, and generate a first adjusted image SD1 after image adjustment. Further, the processor 106 can combine the first adjusted image SD1 and the second image IMG2 to generate a composite image, and the storage module 108 can store the first image IMG1, the second image IMG2, the first partial image ROI1, the first adjusted image SD1, and the composite image IMG. Among these, the first image capture module 102 and the second image capture module 104 can have the same viewing angle or different viewing angles. Specifically, the processor 106 can perform the combination by calculating the image information of the region where the first adjusted image SD1 and the second image IMG2 overlap. Among these, the image information includes, but is not limited to, luminance, chroma, and RGB values, and is not used to limit the present invention.

[0022] In one specific embodiment, before enclosing and selecting the first partial region R1, the processor 106 can perform initial processing of the images on the first image IMG1 and the second image IMG2 respectively. In other specific embodiments, the aligned image IMG can be a 360-degree horizontal panoramic image.

[0023] In the first embodiment, the second image IMG2 can have m2×n2 pixels. Among them, m2 is the number of columns in which the second image IMG2 is arranged in the vertical direction and represents the length of the image. n2 is the number of columns in which the second image IMG2 is arranged in the horizontal direction and can represent the width of the image, and m2 and n2 are positive integers.

[0024] In the first embodiment, the length of the second image IMG2 is not equal to the length of the first adjusted image SD1, and their widths are substantially equal, that is, m2≠a1m1, n2=b1n1. In the second embodiment, both the length and width of the second image IMG2 are substantially equal to the length and width of the first adjusted image SD1, that is, m2=a1m1, n2=b1n1. In one specific embodiment, the number of pixels of the second image IMG2 is m2×n2 = 1920×960, but none of them are used to limit the present invention.

[0025] Referring back to FIG. 5 again. In the first embodiment, the processor 106 can also enclose and select the second partial region of the second image IMG2 to generate a second partial image, and generate a second adjusted image after image adjustment through image adjustment. Among these, the first image IMG1 has m1×n1 pixels, the second image IMG2 has m2×n2 pixels, the first partial image ROI1 has m0×n0 pixels, the second partial image ROI2 has m'0×n'0 pixels, the first adjusted image SD1 has a1m1×b1n1, and the second adjusted image SD2 has a2m2×b2n2 pixels, and m1, m2, m0, m'0, n1, n2, n0, and n'0 are positive integers, a1, a2, b1, and b2 are positive numbers less than 1, and a1m1, a2m2, b1n1, and b2n2 are positive integers. In one specific embodiment, a1, a2, b1, and b2 can each be interposed between 0.4 and 0.6.

[0026] In one specific embodiment, the first image capture module 102 and the second image capture module 104 can capture images in opposite directions, that is, the first direction and the second direction are substantially 180 degrees out of phase. In other specific embodiments, the first lens 1021 can be a fish-eye lens, and the second lens 1041 can be a fish-eye lens or a wide-angle lens. In still other specific embodiments, the viewing angles of the first image capture module 102 and the second image capture module 104 can overlap in the horizontal direction. For example, the viewing angles of the first image capture module 102 and the second image capture module 104 in the horizontal direction are both 182 degrees, so that the first image IMG1 and the second image IMG2 can each have an overlap of 2 degrees on both sides in the horizontal direction.

[0027] In one specific embodiment, the first image capture module 102 and the second image capture module 104 can be installed back-to-back, and the image recording device 10 can be provided on the rearview mirror inside the vehicle, the front windshield, or erected on the dashboard, so that the first image capture module 102 captures the scene in front of the vehicle, while the second image capture module 104 can capture the situation inside the vehicle. In other specific embodiments, the first image capture module 102 can be provided on the rearview mirror, the front windshield, or erected on the dashboard, while the second image capture module 104 can be provided on the rear windshield to capture the scene behind the vehicle.

[0028] FIG. 6A is a schematic diagram of a first image IMG1 according to a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 6B is a schematic diagram of imaging in the horizontal direction according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6C is a schematic diagram of imaging in the vertical direction according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

[0029] As shown in FIG. 6A, if a fish-eye lens is adopted for the first lens 1021, a first image IMG1 that is circular on the imaging surface 204 is obtained. At this time, the circular first image IMG1 is perfectly imaged on the first sensor 1022. Among them, regions 209 and 210 are letter boxes that do not contain information on the first sensor 1022. Actually, regions 209 and 210 remove the letter boxes from the initial processing of the image, that is, the letter boxes that do not contain information in the first image IMG1 can be excised or completely erased.

[0030] Refer to FIGS. 6A through 6C simultaneously. If a fisheye lens is also adopted for the second lens 1041, and the light beam transmitted through the second lens 1041 is completely imaged on the second sensor 1042, and at the same time the total viewing angles of the first image capturing module 102 and the second image capturing module 104 exceed 360 degrees, then both the horizontal and vertical images of the vehicle will overlap. At this time, the image recording device 20 can provide a matching image IMG that is a 360-degree full viewing angle panorama in both the horizontal and vertical directions.

[0031] FIG. 7A is a schematic diagram of a first image of a second embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 7B is a schematic diagram of a viewing angle for imaging in the horizontal direction of a second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 7C is a schematic diagram of a viewing angle for imaging in the vertical direction of a second embodiment of the present invention.

[0032] As shown in FIG. 7A, in the second embodiment, the circular first image IMG1 transmitted through the first lens 1021 is imaged by the first sensor 1022, and the center of the first image IMG1 can substantially overlap with the center of the first sensor 1022. In fact, at this time, both horizontal sides of the initial size of the first image IMG1 are substantially in contact with both horizontal sides of the first sensor 1022, while both vertical partial regions are protruding outside the first sensor 1022 and cannot be captured by the first sensor 1022. At this time, the area of the letterbox region 316 is small, and the utilization rate of the first sensor 1022 is high.

[0033] Refer to FIGS. 7A through 7C simultaneously. If both horizontal sides of the second image IMG2 are substantially in contact with both horizontal sides of the second sensor 1042, and both vertical partial regions of the initial size of the second image IMG2 are protruding outside the second sensor 1042 and cannot be captured by the second sensor 1042, and at the same time the total viewing angles of the first image capturing module 102 and the second image capturing module 104 exceed 360 degrees, then the horizontal images of the vehicle will overlap but the vertical images will not. At this time, the image recording device 20 can provide a matching image IMG of a panorama that is 360 degrees in the horizontal direction but not continuous in the vertical direction.

[0034] FIG. 8A is a schematic diagram of the first image of the third embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 8B is a schematic diagram of the first image of the third embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 8C is a schematic diagram of the first image of the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

[0035] Refer to FIGS. 8A and 8B simultaneously. Also in the third embodiment, both horizontal sides and one vertical side of the initial size of the first image IMG1 are substantially in contact with both horizontal edges and one vertical edge of the first sensor 1022 at the same time, and the other vertical partial region of the initial size of the first image IMG1 protrudes outside the first sensor 1022 and is not captured by the first sensor 1022. Or, as shown in FIG. 8C, also in the fourth embodiment, since the initial size of the first image IMG1 is large and contacts outside the imaging surface 204 of the first sensor 1022, both horizontal and vertical partial regions of the initial size of the first image IMG1 will protrude outside the first sensor 1022.

[0036] In the first embodiment, the first partial region R1 of the first image IMG1 may be information that the driver is interested in or that requires later investigation, such as the license plate of the vehicle ahead. In practical terms, usually, since it appears within the sector range of about 100 to 150 degrees of the forward line of sight of the image recording devices 10 and 20, in the present invention, in particular, the image within this region is captured by the processor 106 while maintaining the original resolution, thereby preventing it from becoming insufficient information due to distortion. Similarly, the processor 106 can also surround and select the second partial region R2 from the second image IMG2 provided by the second image capture module 104 and copy the second partial image for storage for later investigation.

[0037] In the second embodiment, the processor 106 determines a first partial region R1 to be surrounded and selected based on one or more features in the first image IMG1. Specifically, the processor 106 can identify a lane boundary line from the first image IMG1, calculate an intersection point where the lane boundary line extends, and determine a first partial region to be surrounded and selected based on this, with the intersection point as the center. Similarly, the processor 106 can also determine a second partial region from the intersection point where the lane boundary line in the second image IMG2 extends.

[0038] With the image recording apparatus and the image processing method of the present invention, even when the performance of the hardware is limited, it is possible to record and identify a target object at a certain distance from the lens in the aligned image IMG with sufficient resolution.

[0039] In summary, although embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed as above, this is not for limiting the present invention. Those skilled in the art of the present invention can make various changes and additions within the technical idea and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention shall be subject to that defined by the scope of the claims in the attached sheet.

Explanation of Reference Numerals

[0040] 10, 20: Image recording apparatus 102: First image capture module 106: Processor 108: Memory module 1021: First lens 1022: First sensor R1: First partial region ROI1: First partial image IMG1: First image SD1: First adjusted image S201~S203: Steps 104: Second image capture module 1041: Second lens 1042: Second sensor IMG2: Second image IMG: Integrated Image 204: Image formation plane 209, 210, 316: Letter box

Claims

1. A first image capture module including a first lens and a first sensor that captures a light beam transmitted through the first lens and generates a first image; A second image capture module that captures a second image; A processor that surrounds and selects a first partial region on the first image, copies the image data of the first partial region to generate a first partial image, adjusts the first image to generate a first adjusted image, combines the first adjusted image and the second image to generate a composite image, and the number of pixels of the first adjusted image is smaller than the number of pixels of the first image; A storage module that stores the first image, the first partial image, the first adjusted image, the second image, and the composite image; An image recording apparatus comprising:

2. A first image capture module including a first sensor that captures a light beam and generates a first image; A second image capture module that captures a light beam and generates a second image; A processor that generates a first partial image from the first image and / or generates a second partial image from the second image, reduces the number of pixels of the first image to generate a first adjusted image, and / or reduces the number of pixels of the second image to generate a second adjusted image, and combines them to form a composite image; an image recording apparatus comprising.

3. The first image has m １ ×n １ pixels, the second image has m ２ ×n ２ pixels, the first partial image has m ０ ×n ０ pixels, and the first adjusted image has a １ m １ ×b １ n １ pixels, and m １ 、m ２ 、m 0、n １ and n ２ n0, a １ m １ and b １ n １ is a positive integer, and a １ a ２ b １ and b ２ is a positive number less than 1. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1 or 2.

4. The first image completes imaging on the first sensor, or both horizontal sides of the first image and both horizontal edges of the first sensor are substantially in contact. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1 or 2.

5. The processor identifies two lane boundary lines from the first image / second image, calculates the intersection point where the two lane boundary lines extend, and determines the first partial image / second partial image based on the intersection point. The image recording apparatus according to claim 2.

6. The step of capturing a first image by a first image capture module, The step of providing a second image by a second image capture module, Using a processor to surround and select a first partial area on the first image, copy the image data of the first partial area and generate a first partial image, reduce the number of pixels of the first image and generate a first adjusted image, and combine the first adjusted image and the second image to generate a matching image An image processing method including.

7. The first partial area is a scene that is fixed and surrounded and selected corresponding to a specific angle that spreads on both sides in the horizontal direction captured by the first image capture module, or the first partial area is determined based on the lane boundary lines of the lane where the vehicle driven by the user is located. The image processing method according to claim 6.

Images