Denso Corporation

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Shotaro Eguchi

Yasuo Hirayama

Shinya Kawamata

Yasuo Hagisato

Ryuji Yamaguchi

Yoshimasa Hara

Kunihiko Toyofuku

Yoshihiko Goto

Hideki Senoo

Hirokazu Takagi

A vehicular forward-vision display system includes a night-vision camera for scanning a nighttime image ahead of a vehicle and a head-up display for displaying the scanned nighttime image as a virtual image on a front windshield. Luminance of the displayed image is decreased with decreasing vehicle speed. The luminance of the nighttime image is thereby decreased under a low speed where vision aid is not so necessary. This decreasing of the luminance results in giving a driver relief from the bother of being caught by the scanned image displayed on the front windshield.

Vehicular forward-vision display system decreasing luminance with decreasing vehicle speed

A second circuit separately extracts a synchronization signal and brightness signal from an image signal output from a camera for capturing an image of a subject. A gamma amplifier produces a gamma correction signal based on a brightness ratio characteristic in which a display brightness increases as the signal level of the brightness signal increases and the display brightness is set using a display brightness correction ratio which is preferably 70 to 90% of an equi-proportional display brightness correction ratio when the signal level of the brightness signal falls in a high-brightness range. A liquid crystal display receives the gamma correction signal and displays an image captured by the camera with the display brightness set in accordance with the brightness ratio characteristic while synchronizing with a drive timing signal output from a first circuit. Thus, the difference in display brightness between different high-brightness regions or subjects is made large, whereby halation which may otherwise occur between those regions or subjects can be prevented.

Night vision system and control method thereof

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Kariya, Japan

Shotaro Eguchi