Patent ID: 8115810

Claim:
A vehicle-periphery viewing apparatus comprising: an imaging device being mounted on a vehicle, the imaging device capturing an image of a surrounding area of the vehicle, the imaging device comprising a field of view larger in a horizontal direction than in a vertical direction; an electronic control unit comprising: a mask image storage section where a predetermined mask image is stored; and a photomontage section merging a video captured by the imaging device and the mask image read from the mask image storage section, to generate a merged video; and a display device comprising a display screen for displaying the merged video, the display screen having a vertical direction between an upper side of the display screen and a lower side of the display screen and a lateral direction between a left side of the display screen and a right side of the display screen, wherein the mask image comprises: an upper mask region displayed along the upper side of the display screen; and a lower mask region displayed along the lower side of the display screen; an interval being an area without a mask, the interval consisting of only the image which is detected by the imaging device provided on a front of the vehicle, the image which continuously extends from the front to both sides of the vehicle is displayed on the display screen, the interval is displayed continuously from near the left side of the display to near the right side of the display screen, the interval being disposed continuously between the upper mask region and the lower mask region, a vertical distance of the interval becoming narrower toward a center area of the display screen and wider toward the left side and the right side; and a center mask region extending from a substantially-center portion of the interval in the vertical direction to the upper side of the display screen.