Patent ID: 7369041

Claim:
A vehicle surrounding display device which selectively displays at least two types of images in a vicinity of a vehicle, the vehicle surrounding display device comprising: a measurement section for measuring a distance and a direction from the vehicle to an obstacle in the vicinity of the vehicle; a comparison section for comparing the distance measured by the measurement section with a predetermined threshold value; a viewpoint determination section for determining a predetermined first viewpoint when a comparison result generated by the comparison section indicates that the measured distance is larger than the threshold value, and for determining a second viewpoint based on the direction measured by the measurement section when the comparison result generated by the comparison section indicates that the measured distance is not larger than the threshold value; an image generating section for generating, when receiving the first viewpoint from the viewpoint determination section, a first image representing a view in the vicinity of the vehicle as seen from the received first viewpoint, and for generating, when receiving the second viewpoint from the viewpoint determination section, a second image representing a view of the vehicle and the obstacle as seen from an area in the vicinity of the received second viewpoint; and a display section for displaying one of the first image and the second image generated by the image generating section.