Patent Description:
Generally, an excavator may include a lower driving body, an upper swing body pivotally connected to the lower driving body, a boom connected to the upper swing body, an arm connected to the boom, and an attachment selectively connected to the arm. The attachment may include a bucket, breaker, crusher, etc..

When the boom may be rotated, a worker in a cabin may not see a front, a rear and sides of the cabin at the same time. Thus, when a man or a fixture may exist in front of the cabin, a negligent accident may be generated.

According to related arts, a camera may be installed at the cabin. An image photographed by the camera may be displayed on a monitor in the cabin. The worker may rotate the boom with seeing the image on the monitor to prevent the generation of the negligent accident.

However, a dead zone may be generated due to the rotated boom. The camera may not photograph the dead zone. Thus, an image of the dead zone may not be displayed on the monitor so that the worker in the cabin may not see the dead zone screened by the rotated boom. Prior art documents <CIT> Al and <CIT> Al both disclose methods and devices for monitoring the dead (or hazard) zone around a construction machine by means of cameras mounted in the cabin but with views to the back and sides of the machine. The images are displayed to the machine operator as real-time moving images.

The invention is defined by independent claim <NUM> which refers to a method of displaying a dead zone of a construction machine. A further aspect of the invention is defined in claim <NUM>.

The invention is further defined by independent claim <NUM> which refers to an apparatus for displaying a dead zone of a construction machine. A further aspect of the invention is defined in claim <NUM>.

Example embodiments will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. <FIG> represent non-limiting, example embodiments as described herein.

Various example embodiments will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some example embodiments are shown. The present disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the example embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these example embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the present disclosure to those skilled in the art. In the drawings, the sizes and relative sizes of layers and regions may be exaggerated for clarity.

It will be understood that when an element or layer is referred to as being "on," "connected to" or "coupled to" another element or layer, it can be directly on, connected or coupled to the other element or layer or intervening elements or layers may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being "directly on," "directly connected to" or "directly coupled to" another element or layer, there are no intervening elements or layers present.

It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, third etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections, these elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections should not be limited by these terms. Thus, a first element, component, region, layer or section discussed below could be termed a second element, component, region, layer or section without departing from the teachings of the present disclosure.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular example embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the present disclosure.

Example embodiments are described herein with reference to cross-sectional illustrations that are schematic illustrations of idealized example embodiments (and intermediate structures). Thus, example embodiments should not be construed as limited to the particular shapes of regions illustrated herein but are to include deviations in shapes that result, for example, from manufacturing. For example, an implanted region illustrated as a rectangle will, typically, have rounded or curved features and/or a gradient of implant concentration at its edges rather than a binary change from implanted to non-implanted region. Likewise, a buried region formed by implantation may result in some implantation in the region between the buried region and the surface through which the implantation takes place. Thus, the regions illustrated in the figures are schematic in nature and their shapes are not intended to illustrate the actual shape of a region of a device and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.

Hereinafter, example embodiments will be explained in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

<FIG> is a block diagram illustrating an apparatus for displaying a dead zone of a construction machine in accordance with example embodiments.

Referring to <FIG>, an apparatus for displaying a dead zone of a construction machine in accordance with this example embodiment may include a camera unit <NUM>, an image-matching unit <NUM>, a rotation-detecting unit <NUM>, a rotation angle-measuring unit <NUM>, a dead zone-detecting unit <NUM>, a controlling unit <NUM> and a displaying unit <NUM>.

In example embodiments, the construction machine may include a cabin and a working tool connected to the cabin. For example, the construction machine may include an excavator. The excavator may include a lower driving body, an upper swing body pivotally connected to the lower driving body, a boom as the working tool connected to the upper swing body, an arm connected to the boom, and an attachment selectively connected to the arm. A worker in the cabin may not see a dead zone screened by the rotated boom. The dead zone may correspond to a zone positioned in front of a rotation direction of the boom and screened by the boom. Alternatively, the apparatus may be applied to other construction machines as well as the excavator.

The camera unit <NUM> may be configured to obtain actual images with respect to omnidirectional views of the cabin in the excavator. That is, the camera unit <NUM> may photograph views shown from the cabin to obtain the actual images. The actual images photographed by the camera unit <NUM> may be displayed on the displaying unit <NUM>. Thus, an around view monitoring (AVM) system may be applied to the excavator.

The camera unit <NUM> may include a front camera <NUM>, a rear camera <NUM>, a left camera <NUM> and a right camera <NUM>. The front camera <NUM> may be installed at a front of the cabin to photograph front views of the cabin. The rear camera <NUM> may be installed at a rear of the cabin to photograph rear views of the cabin. The left camera <NUM> may be installed at a left side of the cabin to photograph left views of the cabin. The right camera <NUM> may be installed at a right side of the cabin to photograph right views of the cabin. Thus, the actual images may include front actual images, rear actual images, left actual images and right actual images. Alternatively, the camera unit <NUM> may include two cameras, three cameras or at least five cameras.

The actual images photographed by the camera unit <NUM> may be transmitted to the image-matching unit <NUM>. The image-matching unit <NUM> may be configured to continuously match the actual images. For example, the image-matching unit may synthesize a previously photographed actual image with a presently photographed actual image to form a virtual image. The matched images by the image-matching unit <NUM> may be transmitted to the controlling unit <NUM>.

The rotation-detecting unit <NUM> may be configured to detect a rotation of the cabin. Because the dead zone may be changed in accordance with the rotation of the cabin, the rotation-detecting unit <NUM> may detect the rotation of the cabin. The rotation-detecting unit <NUM> may transmit a detected rotation of the cabin to the controlling unit <NUM>.

The rotation angle-measuring unit <NUM> may be configured to measure a rotation direction and a rotation angle of the boom. Because the dead zone may be changed in accordance with the rotation direction and the rotation angle of the boom, the rotation angle-measuring unit <NUM> may measure the rotation direction and the rotation angle of the boom. The rotation angle-measuring unit <NUM> may transmit a rotated direction and a rotated angle of the boom to the controlling unit <NUM>.

The dead zone-detecting unit <NUM> may be configured to detect positions of the dead zone generated in accordance with the rotation direction and the rotation angle of the boom measured by the rotation angle-measuring unit <NUM>. Because the dead zone may be continuously changed in accordance with the rotation angle of the boom, the dead zone-detecting unit <NUM> may detect the positions of the dead zone in accordance with the rotation angles of the boom. The dead zone-detecting unit <NUM> may transmit a detected position of the dead zone to the controlling unit <NUM>.

As mentioned above, the controlling unit <NUM> may continuously receive the virtual images from the image-matching unit <NUM>. The controlling unit <NUM> may receive information with respect to the rotation of the cabin from the rotation-detecting unit <NUM>. The controlling unit <NUM> may receive information with respect to the positions of the dead zone from the dead zone-detecting unit <NUM>. The controlling unit <NUM> may measure a substitutive dead zone. The substitutive dead zone may correspond to a dead zone defined by a present front camera <NUM>, but not a dead zone defined by a previous front camera <NUM>. The controlling unit <NUM> may select a virtual image among the virtual images, which may correspond to a present dead zone at a present position of the boom, based on the information. The controlling unit <NUM> may transmit the selected virtual image to the displaying unit <NUM>.

The displaying unit <NUM> may be configured to display the transmitted virtual image. The displaying unit <NUM> may include a monitor in the cabin. The virtual image on the displaying unit <NUM> may correspond to an image obtained by synthesizing a previous image of the dead zone just before photographed by the front camera <NUM>, i.e., a previous image of the substitutive dead zone photographed by the front camera <NUM> with a present image presently photographed by the front camera <NUM>. A zone at the present position of the front camera <NUM> may correspond to the dead zone. However, the zone at the previous position of the front camera <NUM> may not correspond to the dead zone. Thus, the man or the fixture may not be shown on the present image because the man or the fixture may be screened by the boom. However, the man or the fixture may be shown in the previous image because the man or the fixture may not be screened by the boom. Therefore, the virtual image obtained by synthesizing the previous image with the present image may display the man or the fixture. As a result, the worker in the cabin may recognize the existence of the man or the fixture in the dead zone by seeing the virtual image on the displaying unit <NUM>.

<FIG> is a flow chart illustrating a method of displaying the dead zone of the construction machine using the apparatus in <FIG>, and <FIG> are images displayed by the method in <FIG>.

Referring to <FIG> and <FIG>, in step ST210, the camera unit <NUM> may obtain the actual images with respect to the omnidirectional views of the cabin in the excavator. The camera unit <NUM> may photograph the views from the cabin to obtain the actual images. The actual images may include the front actual images photographed by the front camera <NUM>, the rear actual images photographed by the rear camera <NUM>, the left actual images photographed by the left camera <NUM>, and the right actual images photographed by the right camera <NUM>.

In step ST220, the image-matching unit <NUM> may continuously match the actual images. For example, the front camera <NUM> may photograph a zone by a time interval by the rotation of the cabin to obtain two actual images. The two actual images may show the same zone. The image-matching unit <NUM> may synthesize the two actual images with each other to from a virtual image. The image-matching unit <NUM> may continuously form the virtual images. The virtual images may be transmitted to the controlling unit <NUM>.

In step ST230, the rotation angle-measuring unit <NUM> may measure the rotation angle of the boom. The measured rotation angle of the boom may be transmitted to the dead zone-detecting unit <NUM>. The dead zone-detecting unit <NUM> may determine whether the dead zone may be generated or not in accordance with the rotation angle of the boom. When the dead zone may be generated, as shown in <FIG>, the dead zone-detecting unit <NUM> may measure a position of the dead zone.

In step ST240, as shown in <FIG>, the controlling unit <NUM> may store a virtual image corresponding to the dead zone among the transmitted virtual images. Because the dead zone may be continuously changed in accordance with the continuous rotation of the boom, the controlling unit <NUM> may continuously store the virtual images corresponding to the continuously changed dead zones.

In step ST250, the rotation-detecting unit <NUM> may detect the rotation of the cabin. The detected rotation of the cabin may be transmitted to the controlling unit <NUM>. As shown in <FIG>, the controlling unit <NUM> may measure a position of the substitutive dead zone of the boom based on the information with respect to the rotation of the boom.

In step ST260, as shown in <FIG>, the controlling unit <NUM> may select a previous image of the substitutive dead zone corresponding to the present dead zone. The previous image may show a man not shown on the present image.

In step ST270, the controlling unit <NUM> may synthesize the previous image of the substitutive dead zone with the present image of the present dead zone to form a virtual image of the dead zone. As shown in <FIG>, although the present image of the present dead zone may not show the man due to the boom, the previous image of the substitutive dead zone may show the man. Thus, the virtual image of the dead zone may show the man.

In step ST280, as shown in <FIG>, the displaying unit <NUM> may display transmitted from the controlling unit <NUM>. Because the man may exist in the virtual image displayed on the displaying unit <NUM>, the worker may recognize the main in the dead zone by seeing the virtual image so that the negligent accident may be prevented.

According to example embodiments, the actual images photographed by the camera unit may be processed to obtain the virtual image of the dead zone generated by the rotation of the boom. A worker in the cabin may accurately acknowledge whether a man or a fixture may exist or not in a region in front of the rotation direction of the boom by seeing the virtual image on the displaying unit. Thus, a negligent accident caused by the rotation of the boom may be prevented.

Claim 1:
A method of displaying a dead zone of a construction machine, the method comprising:
a) obtaining (ST210) actual images with respect to omnidirectional views of a cabin in the construction machine photographed by a camera unit (<NUM>) installed at the cabin, the actual images including front actual images photographed by a front camera (<NUM>), rear actual images photographed by a rear camera (<NUM>), left actual images photographed by a left camera (<NUM>), and right actual images photographed by a right camera (<NUM>);
b) continuously matching (ST220) actual images to continuously form virtual images by the front camera (<NUM>) photographing a zone by a time interval by a rotation of the cabin to obtain two actual images showing the same zone and synthesizing the two actual images with each other to form a respective virtual image;
c) measuring (ST230) a rotation angle of a rotating working tool which is connected to the cabin and determining whether a dead zone is generated or not in accordance with the rotation angle of the rotating working tool and when the dead zone is generated, measuring a position of the dead zone, the dead zone being a zone positioned in front of a rotation direction of and screened by the working tool and not photographed by the camera unit;
d) continuously storing (ST240) virtual images corresponding to continuously changed dead zones in accordance with a continuous rotation of the rotating working tool;
e) further comprising detecting (ST250) a rotation of the cabin and measuring a present position of a present substitutive dead zone of the rotating working tool based on information with respect to a present position of the rotating working tool;
f) selecting a virtual image among the stored virtual images, which corresponds to the present substitutive dead zone at the present position of the rotating working tool, based on the information; and
g) displaying (ST280) the selected virtual image on a displaying unit (<NUM>) of the cabin.