Imaging device

1. An imaging device comprising:

a central processing unit (CPU);

an imaging unit that performs imaging,

wherein the imaging device is a device mounted in a vehicle, and

wherein the imaging unit images an image of an environment external to the vehicle,

wherein the imaging unit images the image when an ignition of the vehicle is in an off state; and

a memory storing:

 a software program storage unit that stores a plurality of software programs; and

 a priority storage unit that stores a priority table in which a priority is associated to each of the plurality of software programs and a priority higher than priorities of the other software programs of the plurality of software programs is associated to a software program contributing to an improvement of safety,

 wherein the priority table is a table that stores priority about an order of starting each of the plurality of software programs after the ignition is turned on;

wherein the CPU starts each of the plurality of software programs stored in the software program storage unit in an order corresponding to the stored priorities,

wherein the CPU:

 sets the priorities of the plurality of software programs according to the stored priorities in the priority table responsive to the ignition turning on;

 executes image recognition techniques on the image when the ignition is in the off state,

determines, after the ignition is turned on, a position of the vehicle has not changed from when the imaging unit imaged the image;

 determines whether the image of the external environment satisfies a condition based at least on (1) the determination that the position of the vehicle has not changed, and (2) the execution of the image recognition techniques occurring when the ignition was in the off state;

 responsive to determining the image satisfies the condition, updates the set priorities according to the satisfied condition by decreasing a priority of an image processing software program of the plurality of software programs; and

 serially executes the plurality of software programs in an updated order corresponding to the updated set priorities, and

wherein the CPU starts the software program contributing to an improvement of safety prior to the other software programs of the plurality of software programs.

2. The imaging device according to claim 1 , wherein the CPU further determines whether the image of the external environment satisfies the condition by:

determining an external situation using an image recognition technique; and

wherein the CPU updates the set priorities according to the external situation.

3. The imaging device according to claim 2 , wherein the CPU determines the external situation using image recognition techniques by determining a current state of the external environment is night; and

wherein the CPU updates the set priorities by increasing a priority of a software program that corresponds to light distribution control.

4. The imaging device according to claim 1 ,

wherein the priority storage unit stores a plurality of kinds of the priority tables, and

the CPU selects one of the plurality of kinds of priority tables and determines the order of starting each of the plurality of software programs by using the selected priority table.

5. The imaging device according to claim 1 , wherein the CPU further acquires external information that is information of an external world of the vehicle.

6. The imaging device according to claim 5 , wherein

the external information is a second imaged image that is imaged by the imaging unit.

7. The imaging device according to claim 5 ,

wherein the external information is at least any one piece of information among luminance information of the external world of the vehicle, temperature information of the external world of the vehicle, and own vehicle position information that is a current position of the vehicle.

8. The imaging device according to claim 1 ,

wherein the plurality of software programs includes a first initialization program to initialize a basic software program,

the plurality of software program includes a plurality of second initialization programs to respectively initialize software programs other than the basic software program among the plurality of software programs, and

after starting one of the plurality of second initialization programs based on the priority table, the CPU starts a software program initialized by the started second initialization program.

9. The imaging device according to claim 1 ,

wherein in a case where there is a plurality of software programs to which identical priority is associated in the priority table, the CPU starts a software program with a smaller capacity first among the plurality of software programs.

10. The imaging device according to claim 1 ,

wherein at least one of the plurality of software programs is a software program contributing to improvement of comfort, and

the CPU starts the software program contributing to improvement of safety prior to the software program contributing to improvement of comfort.