SURROUNDINGS MONITORING DEVICE AND METHOD FOR OPERATING A SURROUNDINGS MONITORING DEVICE

An environmental monitoring device for vehicles comprises a stereo camera having two fisheye lenses, an image sensor device with at least two sensor areas for detecting optical signals from the fisheye lenses in each case in one of the sensor areas and for generating and outputting image data signals based on the respective optical signals, wherein the sensor areas each have at least a first sub-area, which corresponds to a first aperture angle within the maximum aperture angle of the respective fisheye lens, and a second sub-area, which corresponds to a second aperture angle within the maximum aperture angle of the respective fisheye lens, a processing unit for processing the image data signals output by the image sensor device and for providing the processed image data signals, wherein the processing unit is adjustable to, in particular at a respective point in time, selectively process the image data signals according to only one of the sub-areas, and a control unit for adjusting the processing unit.