Display system and display method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020285884-A1
Application number	US-201716648780-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 22, 2017
Priority date	Sep 22, 2017
Publication date	Sep 10, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

A luminance determining unit 14 determines a luminance distribution of an exterior circumstantial image in a line-of-sight direction of a driver 300 , and a luminance changing unit 15 determines a bright region 301 of this luminance distribution. Further, the luminance changing unit 15 determines a luminance after the change in a peripheral region 302 of this bright region 301 . A virtual-image creating unit 16 A creates a virtual image based on the determined luminance, and a display processing unit 17 displays this virtual image on a display unit 200 . In this manner, since a display system 1 A displays the virtual image for use in increasing the luminance in periphery of the bright region 301 , the feeling of the brightness for the driver 300 can be moderated, and therefore, the visual recognition can be improved. That is, the display system 1 A can output the virtual image depending on the circumstances.

First claim

1 . A display system displaying a virtual image on a display unit mounted on a movable body, comprising:
an image capturing unit configured to capture an image of a forward part of the movable body through the display unit; a position determining unit configured to determine a position of the movable body; a target determining unit configured to determine an emphasis target displayed on the display unit, on the basis of the position determined by the position determining unit; a luminance determining unit configured to determine a luminance of the image captured by the image capturing unit; a virtual-image creating unit configured to create a virtual image for use in emphasizing the emphasis target determined by the target determining unit, on the basis of the luminance determined by the luminance determining unit; and a display processing unit configured to display the virtual image created by the virtual-image creating unit, on the display unit.

2 . The display system according to claim 1 ,
wherein, when the luminance determined by the luminance determining unit is equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold value, the virtual-image creating unit creates a virtual image being arranged at a position of the emphasis target and having a higher luminance than the luminance.

3 . The display system according to claim 1 or 2 ,
wherein, when the luminance determined by the luminance determining unit is equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold value, the virtual-image creating unit creates a virtual image masking a portion having the luminance.

4 . The display system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the emphasis target is a traffic signal or a traffic sign displayed on the display unit.

5 . The display system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the emphasis target is a signboard displayed on the display unit, the display system further includes a link-information storing unit configured to store link information that links signboard letters that are letters displayed on the signboard to a simplified symbol of the signboard letters, and the virtual-image creating unit refers to the link information stored in the link-information storing unit, and creates a virtual image based on the simplified symbol of the signboard letters corresponding to the signboard that becomes the emphasis target.

6 . A display system displaying a virtual image on a display unit mounted on a movable body, comprising:
an image capturing unit configured to capture an image of a forward part of the movable body through the display unit; a peripheral-information detecting unit configured to detect peripheral information indicating an attentive-look object on the forward part of the movable body; a judging unit configured to analyze the image captured by the image capturing unit, and judges whether this image contains an image of the attentive-look object indicated by the peripheral information detected by the peripheral-information detecting unit; a virtual-image creating unit configured to create a virtual image based on the peripheral information when the judging unit determines that the image captured by the image capturing unit does not contain the image of the attentive-look object indicated by the peripheral information; and a display processing unit configured to display the virtual image created by the virtual-image creating unit, on the display unit.

7 . A display system displaying a virtual image on a display unit mounted on a movable body, comprising:
an image capturing unit configured to capture an image of a forward part of the movable body through the display unit; a line-of-sight direction determining unit configured to determine a line-of-sight direction of a user of the display system; a luminance determining unit configured to determine a luminance of the image captured by the image capturing unit, the luminance being in the line-of-sight direction determined by the line-of-sight direction determining unit; a luminance changing unit configured to change a luminance in periphery of the line-of-sight direction on the basis of the luminance determined by the luminance determining unit and the luminance in periphery of the line-of-sight direction; a virtual-image creating unit configured to create a virtual image based on the luminance changed by the luminance changing unit; and a display processing unit configured to display the virtual image created by the virtual-image creating unit, on the display unit.

8 . The display system according to claim 7 further comprising a detecting unit configured to detect an eye state of the user,
wherein the luminance changing unit increases the luminance in periphery of the line-of-sight direction further on the basis of the eye state detected by the detecting unit.

9 . The display system according to claim 1 further comprising:
a relative-position information determining unit configured to determine relative-position information on the basis of an orientation of a user of the display system and an image-capturing direction of the image capturing unit;
a historical-information storing unit configured to store the image captured by the image capturing unit, the virtual image created by the virtual-image creating unit and the relative-position information determined by the relative-position information determining unit, as historical information; and
a reproducing unit configured to reproduce a synthesis image that is acquired by synthesizing the virtual image with the image captured by the image capturing unit on the basis of the relative-position information by using the historical information stored in the historical-information storing unit.

10 . The display system according to claim 9 ,
wherein the historical-information storing unit separately stores the image captured by the image capturing unit and the virtual image created by the virtual-image creating unit, as the historical information, and the reproducing unit synthesizes the virtual image with the image captured by the image capturing unit on the basis of the relative-position information, and reproduces the synthesis image.

11 . The display system according to claim 9 further comprising
a user-image capturing unit configured to capture an image of a forward part of the user of the display system,
wherein the historical-information storing unit further stores a user image that is an image captured by the user-image capturing unit, and
the reproducing unit further reproduces the user image stored by the historical-information storing unit.

12 . The display system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the movable body is a vehicle.

13 .- 15 . (canceled)

Assignees

• Maxell Ltd

Inventors

• Murata Seiji
• Mori Hiromitsu
• Shimada Kenichi
• Yamazaki Kazuyoshi
• Nagayoshi Mayumi

Classifications

• G06V40/18 Primary

  Eye characteristics, e.g. of the iris · CPC title

• G06V10/60

  relating to illumination properties, e.g. using a reflectance or lighting model · CPC title

• B60K35/234

  controlling the brightness, colour or contrast of virtual images depending on the driving conditions or on the condition of the vehicle or the driver · CPC title

• B60K35/235

  with means for detecting the driver's gaze direction or eye points · CPC title

• B60K35/25

  using haptic output · CPC title