Patent ID: 7058207

Claim:
A picture synthesizing apparatus comprising: an image pickup means that is in operative association with a vehicle disposed on a road surface and that is adapted to obtain an original image of an object outside said vehicle as viewed from a viewpoint of the image pickup means; a viewpoint change image synthesizing means that is adapted to produce a synthesized image, in which the outside object is viewed from a virtual viewpoint different from the viewpoint of the image pickup means and different, from the original image obtained by said image pickup means; wherein said synthesizing means is adapted to draw the synthesized image on a plane corresponding to the road surface; a vehicle locus line generation means that is adapted to generate a locus line of said vehicle placed at an arbitrary height above the road surface; a vehicle locus line drawing means that is adapted to draw the locus line, generated by said vehicle locus line generation means, on the synthesized image produced by said viewpoint change image synthesizing means such that the drawn locus line is adapted to be viewed from the viewpoint of the image pick up means, wherein when the locus line as viewed from the viewpoint of the image pickup means is projected onto the road surface to form a first projected line, the first projected line is viewed from a virtual viewpoint, and the first projected line viewed from the virtual viewpoint is again projected onto the plane corresponding to the road surface to obtain a second projected line as the locus line drawn on the synthesized image; a storage means that is adapted to store predetermined auxiliary data; and a drawing means that is adapted to superimpose stored auxiliary data upon a synthesized image produced by said viewpoint change image synthesizing means based on auxiliary data read from said storage means; wherein said image pick up means is adapted to obtain an original image in which a rear part of said vehicle is positioned in a view field; and wherein said picture synthesizing apparatus is adapted to represent said vehicle by an illustration of a skeleton or a wire frame, and is adapted to provide an image including a portion of said vehicle comprising a tire that is likely to come into contact with said outside object.