Patent ID: 7868913

Claim:
An apparatus for converting images of vehicle surroundings, comprising: at least one camera configured to start, upon receiving a synchronizing signal, photographing the surroundings of a vehicle and outputting image data representative of the photographs; at least one input buffer corresponding to the at least one camera, configured to receive image data from the corresponding camera and store pixel data of the image data associated with an input buffer read address; an output memory configured to store image data to be displayed on a display installed in the vehicle; a pattern memory configured to store the input buffer read addresses and a destination addresses of the output memory, each destination address associated with an input buffer read address; and an image converter configured to generate the synchronizing signal, obtain the image data from the camera, and transfer part or the whole of the image data to the output memory according to the destination addresses stored in the pattern memory, wherein the image converter comprises: a synchronizing timer configured to generate the synchronizing signal at predetermined intervals; a pixel counter configured to increment its count in synchronization with each pixel data of the image data; and a controller configured to reset the synchronizing timer and the pixel counter to zero, obtain a destination address of each pixel data of the image data from the pattern memory according to the count of the pixel counter, and output the pixel data to store the pixel data into the output memory at the obtained destination address, wherein the controller reads an input buffer read address on which an address conversion process is conducted from the pattern memory, if pixel data in the input buffer is an object of the conversion process, the controller fetches the pixel data from the input buffers, the controller reads a destination address in associate with the input buffer read address from the pattern memory, and writes the pixel data to the destination address in the output memory, and wherein: the controller is configured to provide the pattern memory with a count of the pixel counter, the pattern memory is configured to provide each destination address corresponding to the count, and the controller is configured to store the image data in the output memory according to the destination addresses provided by the pattern memory.