Patent ID: 8842181
Filing Date: 2014-09-23
Classification: B60R,H04N

Abstract:
1. A camera calibration apparatus comprising: circuitry configured to act as: an image photographing unit that has a plurality of cameras mounted on a vehicle to obtain camera images for the surrounding area of the vehicle; a feature point detection unit that identifies an image of lines representing a parking frame from each of images obtained by the plurality of cameras and detects at least two feature points on the parking frame from each of the camera images; a viewpoint conversion unit that synthesizes the camera images based on information including the at least two feature points detected by the feature point detection unit and two directions crossing vertical to each other at each of the at least two feature points to generate an overhead view having a viewpoint from above the vehicle; an adjustment unit that determines the boundary position between the vehicle and line image from the overhead view to determine the display frame of a vehicle image and changes the overhead view such that the size ratio and position of the display frame with respect to the overhead image become previously specified values, the adjustment unit performing the determining and the changing without requiring vehicle movement; wherein the adjustment unit sets the boundary lines based on the boundary position between each of the four sides of the vehicle and line image and determines a region defined by the minimum and maximum values of the coordinates of the intersections of the boundary lines as the display frame of the vehicle image; wherein the adjustment unit determines the position at which the line image disappears in the shade of the vehicle due to movement of the vehicle or position at which the line appears from the shade of the vehicle as the boundary position; and a camera data storage that stores camera parameters representing characteristics of each of the cameras which are calculated based on the changed overhead view.