SENSITIVITY CONTROL METHOD FOR ON-VEHICLE IMAGE PICKUP MEANS, AND VEHICLE PERIPHERY MONITORING DEVICE TO WHICH THIS SENSITIVITY CONTROL METHOD IS APPLIED

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a sensitivity control method for on-vehicle image pickup means capable of faithfully picking up the image of the peripheral vehicles regardless of classification of time including daytime, evening and nighttime or pickup environment such as weather, and suppressing the wrong recognition of the peripheral vehicles. SOLUTION: The peripheral information including the peripheral brightness of an own vehicle and the lamp lighting state of peripheral vehicles is gained by use of the image picked up by use of an on-vehicle image pickup means, and the own vehicle information including the lamp lighting state of the own vehicle is also gained. The both of information are totally taken into consideration to calculate the proper sensitivity of the on-vehicle image pickup means, and the sensitivity of the on-vehicle image pickup means is controlled so that the calculated proper sensitivity is set as the sensitivity of the on-vehicle image pickup means.