JP5538112B2 - Travel simulation device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a traveling simulation apparatus that projects a surrounding image viewed from a passenger side of a vehicle on a screen and constructs a boarding environment in a pseudo manner.

  Traffic fatalities account for nearly half of the nighttime traffic despite the low traffic volume. This nighttime accident is characterized by a high ratio of accidents to pedestrians who are vulnerable to traffic. Many of these nighttime accidents are thought to be caused by the driver's poor visual perception at night (decreased visual acuity, increased glare sensitivity, decreased visual field of detection). In addition, regarding the operation of the visual system at night, attention should be paid not only to its visibility but also to glare (glare). There is a risk that the pedestrian will not be able to see.

  In addition, with the progress of an aging society, the number of licensed persons aged 65 and over has been increasing year by year, reaching about 10 million in FY2005. Along with this, the proportion of elderly people involved in accidents has also increased, increasing 2.2 times over the past decade. In 2005, the average number of fatal accidents per 10,000 license holders was 0.8 on average, but 1.6, 80- The rate of development of fatal accidents increases as the driver becomes older, such as 2.3 at the age of 84 and 4.2 at the age of 85 and over.

  Deterioration of visual cognitive ability is one of the factors that increase the number of fatal accidents caused by elderly drivers. Due to the increase in turbidity of the lens with aging, the glare sensitivity and the like change, and the visual function deteriorates. Due to such a decrease in visual function, driving information collected from the visual field may not be sufficiently recognized.

  However, since the conventional driving simulator only displays images that can be seen from the passenger side on the screen, there is a limit to its ability to express, and there is a problem that glare cannot be reproduced. For this reason, the current situation is that there are various restrictions on nighttime evaluation using a simulator.

  For example, in the case of elderly drivers, it is speculated that human visual ability declines with aging, but this causes any problems during driving and the environment for dealing with them. There was a problem that it was not possible to examine how to make and how to make concrete safety measures.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a traveling simulation device that can virtually create and evaluate various situations such as driving at night and driving by elderly drivers. It is said.

  The above object can be achieved by the following means based on the earnest research of the present inventors.

  That is, the present invention that achieves the above-described object provides a planar display device capable of projecting an image viewed from the passenger side and transmitting light, and a vehicle head disposed on the back side of the planar display device. A vehicle pseudo-light source that transmits light similar to a lamp to the front side through the planar display device, a light source moving mechanism that moves the vehicle pseudo light source in the surface direction of the planar display device, and A travel simulation device comprising: a control device that moves the vehicle pseudo light source using the light source moving mechanism in accordance with the movement of a vehicle headlamp included in an image.

  The planar display device of the traveling simulation apparatus that achieves the above object is characterized in that, in the above invention, the planar display device includes a light transmissive screen capable of transmitting light and a projector that projects the image on the light transmissive screen.

  In the traveling simulation apparatus that achieves the above object, in the above invention, the light transmissive screen forms a part of a dark box, and the pseudo light source for the vehicle and the light source moving mechanism are accommodated in the dark box. It is characterized by.

  The traveling simulation apparatus that achieves the above object is characterized in that, in the above invention, a light control device that adjusts the light intensity of the vehicle pseudo light source is provided.

  In the above invention, the control device of the travel simulation device that achieves the above object is configured to match the virtual optical axis change of the headlight of the vehicle included in the video via the dimming device. It has the luminous intensity control part which controls the luminous intensity of the pseudo light source for light.

  The control device of the traveling simulation apparatus that achieves the above object includes: an intraocular light scattering simulation unit that artificially analyzes a light scattering state in the eyeball according to a user's age and generates an aging filter; A video generation unit that applies the aging filter to a preparation video that can be seen from a person's side, adds scattering information to a bright part of the preparation video, and generates the video. To do.

  The intraocular light scattering simulation unit of the traveling simulation apparatus that achieves the above object further includes: a lens turbid particle setting unit that calculates a particle size of the turbid particle in the lens according to age, and the particle size based on the particle size. A light curtain luminance distribution for one simulated photon is calculated using a light attenuation rate / light scattering angle calculation unit for calculating a light attenuation rate and a light scattering angle in the lens, and the light attenuation rate and the light scattering angle. And a simulated photon statistical processing unit, wherein the aging filter includes the light curtain luminance distribution.

The control device of the traveling simulation apparatus that achieves the above object further includes a reproduction control unit that displays the video on a planar display device, and movement information when a vehicle in the video moves in a plane direction in the video. And a light source movement control unit that issues an instruction to move the pseudo light source for the vehicle to the light source movement mechanism.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to achieve an excellent effect that the field of view of a traveling passenger can be reproduced with extremely high accuracy.

The side view which shows the whole structure of the driving | running | working simulation apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. Front view showing a vehicle pseudo light source and a moving mechanism of the traveling simulation apparatus Front view showing the internal configuration of the control device of the traveling simulation device Conceptual diagram explaining the theory of the light intensity control unit in the traveling simulation device The block diagram which shows the production | generation flow of the completion image | video performed with the control apparatus of the traveling simulation apparatus The block diagram which shows the production | generation procedure of the aging filter in the driving | running | working simulation apparatus The figure which shows the picture generated with the traveling simulation device

  Hereinafter, specific examples of embodiments of the present invention will be described.

  FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of a travel simulation apparatus 1 of the present embodiment. The travel simulation device 1 includes a planar display device 10, a vehicle pseudo light source 20, a light source moving mechanism 30, a control device 40, a dark box 50, and a light control device 60.

  The planar display device 10 is configured to project surrounding images seen from the passenger side and to transmit light. Specifically, the planar display device 10 includes a light transmissive screen 12 that can transmit light and a projector 14. The projector 14 is disposed above the front side of the light transmissive screen 12 and projects an image toward the light transmissive screen 12. The light transmissive screen 12 reflects the image of the projector 14 and provides the image to the user (virtual passenger). Further, the light transmissive screen 12 can transmit light from the back side to the front side. That is, the light-transmitting screen 12 has a semi-transmission characteristic that reflects part of light and transmits part of light. The projector 14 video data is supplied from a control device 40 described later.

  The vehicle pseudo-light source 20 is a so-called point light source disposed on the back side of the on-screen display device 10, that is, on the back side of the light-transmissive screen 12, and is equivalent to a vehicle headlamp including a two-wheeled vehicle and a four-wheeled vehicle. It emits the light of The vehicular pseudo light source 20 emits light when a current is supplied from the light control device 60, and the light intensity can be changed by the light control device 60. Here, the two pseudo light sources 20 for vehicles are arrange | positioned at the same height.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the light source moving mechanism 30 is a so-called XY moving stage, and moves the vehicle pseudo light source 20 along the surface direction of the on-surface display device 10. The light source moving mechanism 30 of the present embodiment further includes an X-axis supplement guide 32 that changes the distance between the two vehicle pseudo light sources 20 arranged at the same height. When the lighting is virtually represented, the distance between the two can be freely controlled.

  Returning to FIG. 1, the dark box 50 accommodates the light source moving mechanism 30 and the vehicle pseudo light source 20, and a part of the peripheral wall thereof is constituted by the light-transmissive screen 12. Therefore, since the light of the vehicular pseudo light source 20 is emitted to the outside of the dark box 50 only through the light-transmitting screen 12, an effective night environment can be constructed. If light from the vehicular pseudo light source 20 leaks from a place other than the light-transmissive screen 12, the surrounding space becomes bright, and the nighttime expression tends to vary.

  The control device 40 is a so-called electronic computer (personal computer), and includes at least a memory, a CPU, a hard disk (recording medium), and a bus (not shown). A software program for the travel simulation apparatus 1 is stored in the memory or the hard disk, and the entire travel simulation apparatus 1 is controlled by the software program being executed by the CPU.

  The most important control function of the control device 40 is to generate an image to be displayed on the screen 12, and further to display the image on the screen 12 to reproduce the surrounding state visible to the passenger. Further, the vehicle light source 20 is moved by controlling the light source moving mechanism 30 in accordance with the movement of the vehicle headlamp included in the image projected on the screen 12.

  As illustrated in FIG. 3, the control device 40 includes a regeneration control unit 70, a headlamp superimposition control unit 71, as a functional configuration realized by executing a traveling simulation video generation program (hereinafter referred to as a program). An intraocular light scattering simulation unit 80 and an image generation unit 96 are provided. Therefore, although expressed as a “functional block” in the control device 40 here, it is synonymous with “execution step” from the viewpoint of the program.

  The reproduction control unit 70 reads out the video generated by the video generation unit 96 described later and stored in the recording medium, and transmits it to the projector 14. For example, as shown in FIGS. 7 (A) and 7 (B), this video is a video seen from the user (virtual passenger) of the driving simulation apparatus 1 and when passing the oncoming vehicle. The video is transmitted.

  The headlamp superimposing control unit 71 issues a movement instruction to the light source moving mechanism 30 and an irradiation instruction to the light control device 60 so as to match the reproduction timing of the video. Specifically, the headlamp superimposing control unit 71 includes a light source movement control unit 72 and a luminous intensity control unit 74. When the oncoming vehicle in the image moves in the surface direction, the light source movement control unit 72 moves the vehicle pseudo light source 20 in accordance with the movement of the headlamp of the oncoming vehicle. This is done by preliminarily storing the movement information on the screen regarding the two headlamps of the oncoming vehicle included in the video in a recording medium, which is read by the program and transmitted to the light source movement mechanism 30. As a result, the position of the vehicle headlamp in the image and the positions of the pseudo light sources for vehicles 20 and 20 on the back of the vehicle always coincide with each other.

  The luminous intensity control unit 74 instructs the dimming device 60 to control the luminous intensity of the vehicle pseudo light source 20 based on the positional relationship between the optical axis of the headlamp of the oncoming vehicle and the passenger in the image. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, when the occupant passes the right curve driving and the oncoming vehicle in the image passes the left curve driving, the optical axis of the oncoming vehicle temporarily overlaps the occupant. The light intensity control unit 74 uses the relationship between the optical axis and the boarding difference and the distance between the oncoming vehicle and the occupant to calculate light intensity change information in accordance with the timing chart of the video, and records it on a recording medium in advance. deep. The luminous intensity controller 74 reads the luminous intensity change information from the recording medium and transmits it to the dimmer 60 simultaneously with the reproduction of the video. As a result, the brightness of the vehicular pseudo light source 20 is controlled in synchronization with the image, and a state as if passing the actual oncoming vehicle can be reproduced.

  In addition, the luminous intensity control unit 74 previously determines the type of vehicle headlamps included in the video, the simulation time zone (daytime, nighttime, dusk), the weather (sunny, rainy, cloudy), etc. The light intensity can be changed with respect to the light control device 60 in consideration of these. Further, it is possible to finely adjust the light intensity using the calculation result of the intraocular light scattering simulation unit 80 described later.

  The intraocular light scattering simulation unit 80 analyzes the color vision, glare light curtain, and visual spatial frequency characteristics in the eyeball according to age, and generates aging filter information. This analysis is performed by light scattering simulation that calculates the increase / decrease of the turbidity particles in the lens of the eyeball according to the age and considers the amount and size of the turbidity particles. In addition, the analysis result of the glare light curtain of the intraocular light scattering simulation unit 80 and the spatial frequency characteristics of the viewing angle is an aging filter.

  Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 5, the aging filter is applied to the headlamps and surrounding street lamps in the preparation video by the video generation unit 96, and the application result is stored in a recording medium as a completed video. It is supposed to be. The preparation video may be a video obtained by actually photographing a scene passing by an oncoming vehicle using a general digital camera or the like, or a video produced by computer graphics. Figure 7 (A) shows an image passing through an aging filter assuming a young driver, and Fig. 7 (B) shows an image passing through an aging filter assuming an elderly driver. Show. As can be seen from these figures, the younger driver is less dazzled and therefore has better visibility. On the other hand, since an elderly driver is strongly dazzled, visibility is extremely poor.

  Specifically, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 6, the intraocular light scattering simulation unit 80 includes an intra-crystal turbid particle setting unit 82, an in-video light source setting unit 84, a light attenuation rate / light scattering angle calculation unit 86, A simulated photon statistical processing unit 88 is provided.

The lens turbid particle setting unit 82 calculates the optical density of the lens, the refractive index in the lens, and the particle size of the turbid particles in the lens. Since the optical density in the lens changes with age, the age change model formula of Formula 1 below is registered in the program. Using this equation 1, optical density information is generated from the age of the input user.

  Here, the refractive index of the crystalline lens is registered in advance in the program with the refractive index of the crystalline lens itself being 1.40 and the refractive index of the turbid particles in the crystalline lens being 1.55. This value can be changed as appropriate, and may be reset based on the aging state.

Since the particle size of the turbid particles changes with aging, the aging change model formula of Formula 2 below is used. That is, the particle size is calculated from the input user's age using Equation 2. The particle size is usually in the range of 1 to 7 μm.

  Similarly to the light intensity control unit 74, the in-image light source setting unit 84, for example, the type of vehicle headlamp included in the image, the optical axis fluctuation when passing each other, the distance between the headlamp and the user, and the simulation time zone (Day, night, dusk), weather (sunny, rainy, cloudy), etc. Such information is stored in a recording medium.

  The light attenuation rate / light scattering angle calculation unit 86 performs analysis using Mie scattering theory. The scattering intensity I (α, θ) and the scattering efficiency Ke (α) (scattering cross section / geometric cross section) when a plane wave having unit illuminance is incident are the scattering angle θ, the particle refractive index m, and the size parameter α. = 2πr / λ (r: fine particle radius, λ: light wavelength).

P ¹ V (cos θ) is a Legendre polynomial, and a _v and b _v are first-order, second-order Ricatti-Bessel functions ψ _v and ζ _v and their derivatives. If the scattering efficiency K (α) and the scattering intensity I (α, θ), which are the scattering characteristics of each fine particle, are obtained, the scattered light distribution in a space where a plurality of fine particles exist can be estimated by the following equation 4.

Furthermore, the attenuation coefficient σ (m ⁻¹ ) when light travels through the atmosphere is obtained from Equation 5 based on the scattering efficiency Ke (α).

From this σ, the predicted distance L until the next photon is scattered is obtained from Equation 6.

Then, the scattering angle θ at each scattering point can be predicted from the scattering angle probability density distribution F (α, θ) of Equation 7 below.

  From the above results, it is possible to simulate one by one, at which position and in which direction the photon is sequentially scattered after being emitted.

  FIG. 6 shows a simulation step in the intraocular light scattering simulation unit 80. This simulation is performed by the simulated photon statistical processing unit 88 using the Monte Carlo method. Specifically, the lens conditions that change with aging and the light source conditions (position and intensity) are set first. Based on the conditions, the angle of entry of photons entering the eyeball from various light sources is determined. Then, it is probabilistically predicted one by one at which position in the eyeball the photon is scattered at which angle, or whether it reaches the retina without being scattered. In the case of scattering, predict the next scattering position and continue the trial until the scattering number> the maximum scattering order or photon absorption (the maximum scattering order is a sufficiently large number that does not affect the analysis result). Finally, the position / angle (or release outside the eyeball) reaching the retina is predicted. We tried this prediction for the total number of simulated photons (the total number of simulated photons is a sufficiently large number that does not affect the analysis result), and the light scattering in the eyeball was taken into account from the distribution of photons that reached the retina. Estimate the retinal image.

  As a result, a light curtain luminance distribution for one simulated photon is calculated, and this becomes aging filter information. As described above, if the preparatory image is reprocessed using this aging filter, an image for projection from the projector 14 in consideration of age can be obtained as shown in FIG.

  As a result, according to the travel simulation device 1 of the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, by using the planar display device 10 to display an image that can be seen from the passenger side, the field of view seen from the passenger Can be created in a pseudo manner. Furthermore, according to the traveling simulation apparatus 1, the vehicle light source 20 is used to irradiate the user with light having the same luminous intensity as the actual headlight of the vehicle from the back side of the planar display device 10. can do. Further, by moving the vehicular pseudo light source 29 in the plane direction of the planar display device 10, it is possible to match the movement of the vehicle headlamp included in the image, so that it is similar to the actual driving situation. It is also possible to evaluate glare.

  In particular, according to the traveling simulation apparatus 1, the planar display device 10 includes a light transmissive screen 12 that can transmit light and a projector 14 that projects an image on the light transmissive screen 12. A large image can be projected, and the light from the vehicle pseudo light source 29 can be easily transmitted. Here, the projector 14 is shown only when it is arranged above the front surface of the light-transmitting screen 12, but the present invention is not limited to this, and it may be arranged on the back side, or on the lower side. Also good. Further, as the planar display device 10, a surface emitting display such as an organic EL can be used instead of the projector type.

  Further, the traveling simulation apparatus 1 is configured such that the light-transmitting screen 12 constitutes a part of the dark box 50, and the pseudo light source 20 for the vehicle is accommodated in the dark box 50. Leakage of the light from the pseudo light source 20 for use is suppressed, and the night vision can be reproduced more specifically. In addition, the vehicular pseudo light source 20 is controlled by a dimming device 60 in conjunction with the control device 40, the direction of the oncoming vehicle in the image, the road reflection status, the headlight status (high beam, low beam), the headlamp. The luminous intensity can be changed with time in accordance with the type (LED, HID, halogen), etc. Therefore, for example, it is possible to simulate a situation in which the vehicle is passing by an oncoming vehicle on a curve during night driving. Therefore, various environments can be evaluated and used for verification of safety measures. In addition, the kind of pseudo light source 20 for vehicles is not specifically limited, LED, HID, a halogen, and various other types are employable.

  In addition, the traveling simulation apparatus 1 includes an aging filter (intraocular light scattering simulation unit 80) that converts video data according to age based on changes in the eyeball according to age by the control apparatus 40. Therefore, for example, an elderly driver can reproduce how the scenery is seen during night driving.

  Note that the aging filter and the light intensity control unit can also generate information for setting the light intensity of the vehicle pseudo light source 20 in cooperation with each other. Since an elderly person generally feels the headlamps of the oncoming vehicle dazzling, the intensity of the headlamps may be controlled to increase with age. Also, for example, using this aging filter, a 30-year-old user can experience a 70-year-old vision state so that a 30-year-old user can obtain the same dazzlingness of 70-year-old, that is, an eyeball. The headlamp may be controlled to increase the light intensity.

  In addition, although the case where it is a four-wheeled motor vehicle was illustrated here as a vehicle shown in a video, this invention is not limited to this, In addition, various vehicles, such as a two-wheel, a three-wheel, a truck, a bus, are shown. It is possible to project.

  The travel simulation device of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and it is needless to say that various changes can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to more specifically evaluate the visual field state during traveling at night or the like.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Traveling simulation apparatus 10 Planar display apparatus 20 Pseudo light source for vehicles 30 Light source moving mechanism 40 Control apparatus 50 Dark box 60 Light control apparatus

Claims (8)

A planar display device capable of projecting video viewed from the passenger side and transmitting light;
A pseudo light source for a vehicle which is disposed on the back side of the planar display device and emits light similar to that of a vehicle headlamp to the front side through the planar display device;
A light source moving mechanism for moving the pseudo light source for a vehicle in a surface direction of the planar display device;
A control device that moves the vehicle pseudo light source using the light source moving mechanism in accordance with the movement of the vehicle headlamp included in the video,
A travel simulation apparatus comprising:   The travel simulation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the planar display device includes a light transmissive screen capable of transmitting light and a projector that projects the video onto the light transmissive screen.   The travel simulation according to claim 1, wherein the light transmissive screen forms a part of a dark box, and the vehicle pseudo light source and the light source moving mechanism are accommodated in the dark box. apparatus.   The travel simulation apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising a light control device that adjusts a light intensity of the pseudo light source for the vehicle.   The control device includes a light intensity control unit that controls the light intensity of the pseudo light source for the vehicle in accordance with a virtual optical axis change of the vehicle headlamp included in the video via the light control device. The travel simulation apparatus according to claim 4. The control device includes:
Simulates the light scattering state in the eyeball according to the age of the user, and generates an aging filter in the eyeball light scattering simulation unit,
Applying the aging filter to the preparation image seen from the passenger side, adding scattering information to a bright part in the preparation image, and generating the image,
The travel simulation apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising: The intraocular light scattering simulation unit further comprises:
The turbid particle setting unit for calculating the particle size of the turbid particles in the lens according to the age,
A light attenuation rate / light scattering angle calculation unit for calculating a light attenuation rate and a light scattering angle in the lens based on the particle size;
A simulated photon statistical processing unit that calculates a light curtain luminance distribution for one simulated photon using the light attenuation rate and the light scattering angle; and
The travel simulation apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the light filter luminance distribution is included in the aging filter. The control device includes:
A playback control unit for projecting the video onto a planar display device;
A light source movement control unit for instructing the light source movement mechanism to move the pseudo light source for the vehicle using movement information when the vehicle in the video moves in a plane direction in the video; and
The travel simulation apparatus according to claim 1, comprising: