Marine Display Device Georeferencing Camera Stream

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Solution Overview

Problem

Maritime vessel navigation faces challenges in synthesizing and correlating multiple data streams, such as geographical position, weather, and vessel positions, with the actual visual environment, leading to difficulties in safe navigation.

Innovation Solution

A marine environment display device that georeferences an image stream from a camera by projecting it onto a virtual marine environment, associating location information with image points, and overlaying object indicators for enhanced situational awareness.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If multiple independent data streams are used for navigation, then comprehensive navigation information is obtained, but synthesizing and correlating the data becomes challenging

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecomprehensive navigation informationVSAvoiddata synthesis complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent merges multiple independent data streams (geographical position, weather, vessel positions, charted features, depth, speed) with the actual visual environment into a single integrated display. This combines separate information sources into one unified presentation, resolving the challenge of synthesizing and correlating multiple data streams while maintaining comprehensive navigation information.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

The system uses an intermediary processing layer that receives data from multiple sources (sensors, charts, weather services) and correlates this data with the camera's actual view of the surroundings. This intermediary layer automatically synthesizes the information and presents it in a correlated manner, reducing the operator's burden of manual synthesis.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Measurement precision

If reference locators are placed on streaming video images, then correlation with actual environment is improved, but data processing complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveenvironment correlation accuracyVSAvoidimage processing complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent creates a virtual copy of the marine environment based on charted surface and subsurface features, then overlays this virtual environment with the actual camera stream. Reference locators are placed on this virtual copy rather than directly processing the raw video, which simplifies the correlation process while maintaining accurate alignment between the virtual and real environments.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #26Copying

3Manufacturing precision

If virtual environment is projected onto camera image stream, then alignment accuracy is improved, but computational requirements increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvevirtual-real environment alignmentVSAvoidcomputational power
Core Design Contradiction:
Manufacturing precisionVSPower

Solution Approach 1:

The system segments the environment into distinct layers: charted surface features, charted subsurface features, and the actual camera stream. The virtual environment is constructed by projecting these segmented elements separately and then compositing them with the camera image. This segmentation allows for efficient processing of each layer independently while achieving accurate overall alignment.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentEP2950530B1Marine environment display device
Publication Date: 2020.04.01 FURUNO ELECTRIC CO LTD
  • EP2950530B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2950530B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP2950530B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

Disclosed is a marine environment display device (10) for georeferencing an image stream of a marine environment captured by a camera (12). The marine environment display device may comprise an image receiver (14) configured to receive an image of the image stream from the camera, a location receiver (18) configured to receive an object location of an object, an image generator (22) configured to generate, from the image, a projected image having location information associated with each of a plurality of points on the projected image and corresponding to a camera position and field of view of the camera, an object generator (24) configured to generate an object indicator at a position on the projected image based on the object location and the location information, and a display (26) configured to display the projected image and the object indicator at the position on the projected image.