eMirror 3-in-1 Stitching via Non-Rectilinear Warping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional electronic mirrors with three cameras present disjointed and cluttered views due to tiling or scaling issues, leading to redundant information and an inefficient use of display space, particularly with significant differences in rear and side view sizes caused by varying camera distances.
Innovation Solution
An apparatus that performs digital warping of video frames based on lens characteristics to achieve non-rectilinear distortion, ensuring size continuity at stitching seams and minimizing the invalid area, thereby generating panoramic video frames that fit a display size and provide a coherent, visually appealing interface for drivers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If camera views are tiled together on the eMirror display, then all camera views can be displayed, but the display becomes cluttered and distracting with redundant information
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges three separate camera views (rear camera and two side cameras) into a single panoramic display by warping and stitching the images together. This combining approach eliminates the clutter and redundancy of tiled displays while preserving all essential camera view information in a unified, driver-friendly interface.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies non-rectilinear warping to create a curved or spherical panoramic projection of the three camera views. This curvature transformation allows seamless stitching of images around the vehicle perimeter, creating a continuous panoramic view that eliminates the disjointed appearance of tiled displays while maintaining geometric accuracy for spatial reference.
2Ease of operation
If camera views are warped and scaled to assigned areas, then the views can be stitched together, but a large invalid area is created that does not correspond to any camera view
Solution Approach 1:
The patent adjusts the warping parameters and projection geometry to optimize the distribution of valid image areas across the display. By carefully controlling the non-rectilinear transformation parameters, the system minimizes invalid areas while maintaining coherent stitching and accurate spatial representation of objects across camera boundaries.
3Shape
If scaling is applied to warping camera views, then views can be fitted to display areas, but the rear view area becomes significantly smaller than the side view area due to distance differences
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses non-rectilinear warping with spherical or cylindrical projection geometry to compensate for the distance differences between camera mounting locations. This curved projection approach maintains consistent object size representation across all camera views by accounting for the different radial distances from the vehicle center, ensuring that objects at the same actual distance appear with similar sizes regardless of which camera captured them.
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus includes an interface and a processor. The interface may be configured to receive video frames corresponding to an exterior view of a vehicle generated by a plurality of capture devices. The processor may be configured to perform digital warping on the video frames, generate distorted video frames in response to the digital warping, perform video stitching operations on the distorted video frames and generate panoramic video frames in response to the video stitching operations. The digital warping may be performed to adjust the video frames based on lens characteristics of the capture devices. An amount of the digital warping applied may be selected to provide a size continuity of objects in the distorted video frames at a stitching seam in the panoramic video frames. The panoramic video frames may be generated to fit a size of a display.