Patent ID: 9118838
Filing Date: 2015-08-25
Classification: G06K,H04N

Abstract:
1. An exposure controller for an on-vehicle camera mounted on a vehicle, comprising: an imaging part mounted on the vehicle and configured to image vehicle peripheral including a predetermined subject, the imaging part being capable of changing a shutter speed; an exposure property conversion part configured to convert a plurality of first exposure properties indicating a relationship between brightness values of the subject imaged by the imaging part and density values of pixels corresponding to the subject in an imaged image by the imaging part into a plurality of second exposure properties where each of the relationships has linearity; a density conversion part configured to convert the brightness values of the subject imaged by the imaging part into density values based on one of the plurality of second exposure properties; a target density value setting part configured to set a target density value with which pixels in at least one predetermined window set in the image having the density values obtained by the density conversion part are to be imaged; an exposure property setting part configured to set a third exposure property having the same exposure property as the second exposure property in a range where the second exposure property has linearity, the third exposure property being used to convert the brightness values corresponding to the density values of the pixels in the window into the target density value; and an image pickup device controller configured to change the shutter speed of the imaging part so as to achieve the third exposure property to perform an imaging.