Image display device, display control device, and display control method, and program and recording medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022308663-A1
Application number	US-201917633587-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 30, 2019
Priority date	Sep 30, 2019
Publication date	Sep 29, 2022
Grant date	—

Abstract

A line of sight of a driver is detected based on an image of the driver obtained by image-capturing; whether the driver is viewing the image display unit or viewing an outside of the image display unit is judged based on the detected line of sight; glare is detected based on the image of the driver; and a luminance level of the image displayed by the image display unit is determined based on the glare at the time of viewing the image display unit and the glare at the time of viewing the outside of the image display unit. The visibility of the displayed image can be improved even when the driver feels glare because of external light falling upon the driver's eyes.

First claim

1 . An image display device including:
an image display unit mounted in a vehicle to display an image; a driver imaging unit to capture an image of a driver of said vehicle; and a display control device to acquire an image of said driver from the image obtained by image-capturing by said driver imaging unit, to detect a line of sight of said driver based on the image of said driver, to judge whether said driver is viewing said image display unit or an outside of said image display unit based on the detected line of sight and information indicating a position of said image display unit, to detect glare being felt by said driver based on the image of said driver, and to determine a luminance level of the image displayed by said image display unit based on the glare at the time of viewing said image display unit and the glare at the time of viewing the outside of said image display unit; wherein said image display unit displays the image with the luminance level determined by said display control device.

2 . The image display device as set forth in claim 1 , wherein
said display control device causes the luminance level of said displayed image to be higher when the glare at the time of viewing said image display unit is large, and the glare at the time of viewing the outside of said image display unit is large.

3 . The image display device as set forth in claim 1 , wherein
said display control device causes the luminance level of said displayed image to be the highest when the glare at the time when the driver is viewing the outside of said image display unit is large.

4 . The image display device as set forth in claim 1 , wherein
said display control device
determines an upper limit value and a lower limit value for the luminance of said displayed image, based on an illuminance in said vehicle, and performs such a control that the luminance level of said displayed image does not become larger than said upper limit and does not become smaller than said lower limit.

5 . The image display device as set forth in claim 1 , wherein
said display control device performs at least one of measurement of a pupil diameter and detection of a feature quantity of mimetic muscles, based on the image of said driver, and detects said glare based on a result of at least one of said measurement and said detection.

6 . The image display device as set forth in claim 1 , wherein
said display control device acquires an environment image representing a state of an environment of said vehicle, and said image display unit displays the environment image acquired by said display control device.

7 . The image display device as set forth in claim 1 , wherein
said display control device acquires an image from an image source, and said image display unit displays the image acquired by said display control device.

8 . The image display device as set forth in claim 1 , wherein
said image display unit includes a transmissive display panel and a backlight provided on a rear side of said display panel, and adjusts light emission brightness of said backlight based on the luminance level determined by said display control device.

9 . The image display device as set forth in claim 1 , wherein
said image display unit includes a gain multiplication unit to multiply image data representing the image inputted to said image display unit by a gain, and a display panel performing display based on the image data having been multiplied by said gain by said gain multiplication unit, wherein the gain of said gain multiplication unit is determined based on the luminance level determined by said display control device.

10 . A display control device to adjust luminance of an image displayed by an image display unit mounted in a vehicle to display the image, comprising:
processing circuitry to detect a line of sight of a driver based on an image of said driver obtained by image-capturing, and to judge whether said driver is viewing said image display unit or an outside of said image display unit based on the detected line of sight and information indicating a position of said image display unit; to detect glare being felt by said driver based on the image of said driver; and to determine a luminance level of the image displayed by said image display unit based on the glare at the time of viewing said image display and the glare at the time of viewing the outside of said image display unit, wherein said image display unit is caused to display the image with the luminance level determined by said processing circuitry.

11 . A display control method for adjusting luminance of an image displayed by an image display unit mounted in a vehicle to display the image; comprising:
detecting a line of sight of a driver based on an image of said driver obtained by image-capturing; judging whether said driver is viewing said image display unit or an outside of said image display unit based on the detected line of sight and information indicating a position of said image display unit; detecting glare being felt by said driver based on the image of said driver; determining a luminance level of the image displayed by said image display unit based on the glare at the time of viewing said image display unit and the glare at the time of viewing the outside of said image display unit; and causing said image display unit to display the image with the luminance level having been thus determined.

12 . (canceled)

13 . A recording medium in which a program for causing a computer to execute processes in the display control method as set forth in claim 11 is recorded, and which is readable by a computer.

14 . An image display device including:
an image display unit mounted in a vehicle to display an image; a driver imaging unit to capture an image of a driver of said vehicle; and a display control device
to determine a luminance level of the image displayed by said
image display unit, based on information indicating whether said driver is viewing said image display unit or an outside of said image display unit, determined using information on a line of sight of said driver detected based on the image of said driver obtained by said driver imaging unit, and information indicating glare being felt by said driver detected based on the image of said driver; wherein
said image display unit displays the image with the luminance level determined by said display control device.

15 . The image display device as set forth in claim 14 , wherein
said display control device causes the luminance level of said displayed image to be higher when the glare at the time of viewing said image display unit is large, and the glare at the time of viewing the outside of said image display unit is large.

16 . The image display device as set forth in claim 14 , wherein
said display control device causes the luminance level of said displayed image to be the highest when the glare at the time when the driver is viewing the outside of said image display unit is large.

17 . The image display device as set forth in claim 14 , wherein
said display control device
determines an upper limit value and a lower limit value for the luminance of said displayed image, based on an illuminance in said vehicle, and performs such a control that the luminance level of said displayed image does not become larger than said upper limit and does not become smaller than said lower limit.

18 . The image display device as set forth in claim 14 , wherein
said display control device performs at

Assignees

• Mitsubishi Electric Corp

Inventors

• Kubo Toshiaki
• KIKUTA Hayato

Classifications

• B60K35/22

  Display screens · CPC title

• B60K35/235

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

• B60K35/60

  Instruments characterised by their location or relative disposition in or on vehicles (arrangements of lighting devices on dashboards B60Q3/10) · CPC title

• B60K35/81

  for controlling displays · CPC title

• B60K35/10 Primary

  Input arrangements, i.e. from user to vehicle, associated with vehicle functions or specially adapted therefor · CPC title