Patent ID: 7046171

Claim:
A vehicle surrounding area imaging system comprising: an image acquiring device configured and arranged to acquire images of peripheral side areas of a vehicle equipped with the vehicle surrounding area imaging system; a position detecting device configured and arranged to detect a current vehicle position of the vehicle; a startup imaging device configured and arranged to detect predetermined road regions that require one of the images of the peripheral side areas of the vehicle to be displayed based on the current vehicle position detected by the position detecting device as well as map information; and an image displaying device configured and arranged to selectively display one of the images acquired by the image acquiring device before the vehicle enters into one of the predetermined road regions that was detected by the startup imaging device, the startup imaging device being configured and arranged to determine an image displaying location that is a prescribed distance prior to one of the predetermined road regions that was detected, and the image displaying device being configured and arranged to display selected ones of the images acquired by the image acquiring device when the vehicle is detected by the position detecting device to have passed the image displaying location.