IMAGE COMPOSING APPARATUS AND METHOD

摘要

PURPOSE: An image composing apparatus and method is provided to be suitable for use in a system designed to convert/combine images acquired through the use of a plurality of image pickup units mounted in a motor vehicle for showing an image around the motor vehicle to a driver, so as to support the driving at parking or the like. CONSTITUTION: A plurality of image pickup units(1a,1b) are provided. Image pickup state detectors(2a,2b) detect image pickup states of the image pickup units. A plane projection unit(3) projects a plurality images formed by the image pickup units to generate a plurality of first projected images. A three-dimensional projection model projection unit(5) projects the plurality of first projected images with a three-dimensional projection model, to generate second projected images. A virtual image pickup unit(7) virtually picks up the second projected images. A three-dimensional projection model decision unit(4) decides a position and shape of the three-dimensional projection model. And an image pickup state decision unit(6) decides an image pickup state of the virtual image pickup unit. And the second projected images are picked up by the virtual image pickup unit at the image pickup state decided by the image pickup state decision unit, and is composed with the plurality of images formed by the plurality of image pickup units.