Patent Document ID: 8553081
Application ID: 11845520
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for capturing images of the surroundings of a vehicle and displaying the captured images together with an image of the vehicle, the method comprising: capturing, using fisheye cameras, images of at least a landscape ahead of the vehicle, a landscape behind the vehicle, a landscape to the left side of the vehicle, and a landscape to the right side of the vehicle, and storing the captured images in at least one camera frame memory; storing in a table, information indicative of relationships between pixels constituting a screen image and addresses in the camera frame memories so that a portion of the surrounding images within a predetermined distance from the vehicle are displayed at the same scale as the scale of the vehicle image, and portions of the surrounding images outside the predetermined distance are displayed at a larger scale than the scale of the vehicle image; mapping pixel data in the at least one camera frame memory to a screen frame memory based on the relationships stored in the table to combine the surrounding images; reading the combined surrounding images from the screen frame memory; displaying the read surrounding images on a display screen; and wherein the relationships are stored in the table so that the surrounding images are displayed at a larger scale as a distance from the vehicle to the portion of the captured image increases, and wherein the surrounding images are displayed at the variable scale in association with a state of the vehicle and in accordance with an instruction from a navigation apparatus.