Harmonizing obscured area images in surround-view systems
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Solution Overview
Problem
Surround-view systems in mobile platforms, such as vehicles, face challenges in representing obscured areas due to physical and optical restrictions, leading to degraded visual quality from differences in optical properties between imaging devices, especially under the vehicle where ground areas are hidden, affecting parking and off-road conditions.
Innovation Solution
A method to harmonize optical properties of images from different imaging devices by determining a delta-area, calculating optical property differences, and adjusting pixels within overlap-images using a linear formula to achieve a smooth transition, ensuring accurate representation of obscured areas, even when they were not directly visible to the imaging devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If images from multiple imaging devices with different optical properties are composed to represent obscured areas, then the obscured areas can be visualized, but the visual quality degrades due to brightness and color differences between devices
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies parameter changes by adjusting brightness and color parameters of images from different imaging devices. A harmonization process modifies the optical properties (brightness, color temperature) of individual device images to match a reference device, ensuring consistent visual appearance when composing obscured area representations from multiple sources.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a reference imaging device as an intermediary standard. All other imaging devices are harmonized against this reference, using its optical properties as the target for adjustment. This intermediary approach enables seamless composition of images from multiple devices by mediating their differences through the reference standard.
2Loss of information
If images are composed from different imaging devices to show obscured areas, then hidden areas become visible, but transitions between image sections appear unnatural due to optical property differences
Solution Approach 1:
The patent modifies optical parameters (brightness, color temperature) of image sections from different devices to ensure smooth transitions. By adjusting these parameters based on harmonization calculations, the composition achieves natural-looking transitions between adjacent image sections representing obscured areas.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies homogeneity by making all image sections from different imaging devices have uniform optical properties through harmonization. This ensures that when sections are composed together to represent obscured areas, they appear as a unified, homogeneous image without visible discontinuities or abrupt transitions.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple imaging devices are used to capture different viewing angles, then comprehensive environment coverage is achieved, but complexity of the system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by establishing a reference imaging device that serves as a common standard for all other devices in the system. This reference device enables multiple imaging devices with different optical properties to work together harmoniously, reducing system complexity by providing a universal harmonization target rather than requiring complex pairwise matching between all devices.
Data Source
AI summary
A method is disclosed for representing an obscured area of a mobile platform environment relative to an object area of a first and second imaging devices of the mobile platform, including determining a delta-area, being the difference of a second obscured area of the environment which is obscured in respect to the object area at a second time step, and a first obscured area of the environment which is obscured in respect to the object area at a first time step. First and second overlap-images, being an overlap of an image of the first imaging device respectively of an image of the second imaging device with the delta-area, are determined, wherein both images are taken at the first time step. A difference of an optical property of the images is determined, and the difference of the optical property is harmonized within at least one of the overlap-images.