Patent ID: 7502048
Filing Date: 2009-03-10
Classification: B60R,H04N

Abstract:
1. A vehicle surroundings monitoring system comprising: a plurality of cameras, including at least a first camera and a second camera, for capturing images of surroundings of a vehicle, the first and second cameras being arranged apart from each other; and an image processing unit operable to receive camera images captured by the plurality of cameras, and operable to generate a virtual viewpoint synthesized image in which the surroundings of the vehicle are looked down upon from above and each of the plurality of cameras is represented as a separate and distinct point, based on a first partial image according to the first camera and a second partial image according to the second camera, the first partial image being a portion of the image captured by the first camera, the second partial image being a portion of the image captured by the second camera, the first and second partial images being represented in the virtual viewpoint synthesized image as areas that share a common boundary line substantially parallel to and coincident with a line drawn between the separate and distinct points of the first and second cameras so that an image of objects near the common boundary line between the first and second partial images does not disappear on the synthesized image.