Surrounding Image Generation Using Weighted Mask Overlay
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional systems for capturing a vehicle's surrounding environment using cameras installed on the front, rear, left, and right sides fail to naturally process overlapping regions, leading to blind spots and difficulty for drivers in accurately recognizing their surroundings, especially when parking or reversing.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus that corrects images captured by cameras to a top view form, using a mask image with region and weight information to overlay-process the images, effectively removing blind spots by combining image information from multiple channels with a weighting equation, and displaying the resulting surrounding image.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional systems simply combine and display images from multiple cameras, then the system complexity is low, but blind spots remain and overlapping regions are not naturally processed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-calculating and storing correction values for lens distortion, perspective transformation, and image merging in lookup tables before actual operation. This allows the system to quickly retrieve and apply pre-computed correction data during real-time image processing, reducing computational complexity while maintaining high surrounding recognition accuracy
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary processing layer that includes lookup tables for distortion correction, perspective transformation, and weighted image merging. This intermediary structure mediates between the raw camera inputs and the final displayed image, naturally handling overlapping regions and eliminating blind spots through pre-computed correction algorithms
2Reliability
If cameras are installed to capture all surrounding areas, then blind spots are reduced, but image distortion and overlapping region processing become problematic
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by using weighted merging where different regions of the overlapping areas are assigned different weights. The weighting scheme ensures that edges and important features are preserved with higher weights, while less critical regions use lower weights, maintaining image quality consistency across the entire surrounding view
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes parameters by applying perspective transformation and distortion correction to convert fisheye lens images into rectilinear views. This parameter transformation adjusts the geometric properties of each camera's field of view to create consistent, undistorted overlapping regions that can be naturally merged
3Reliability
If multiple image channels are processed and merged, then blind spots are removed, but processing time and computational load increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent significantly reduces processing time by pre-computing and storing all correction values, transformation matrices, and merging weights in lookup tables during system initialization or offline processing. During real-time operation, the system only needs to retrieve and apply these pre-computed values, eliminating the need for complex real-time calculations while maintaining complete blind spot elimination
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the image processing into distinct, independent stages: distortion correction, perspective transformation, and weighted merging. Each stage operates on specific parameters and can be independently optimized or pre-computed, reducing the overall computational burden and processing time while achieving complete blind spot elimination
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to a method and to an apparatus for generating a surrounding image. The method for generating a surrounding image according to the present invention comprises the steps of: taking, as an input, images captured by cameras installed in the front and the rear of a vehicle and in the left and right sides of the vehicle, via respective channels connected to the cameras; correcting the captured images into a top view form to generate a plurality of corrected images; performing an overlaying process on the plurality of corrected images using a mask image containing region information on each channel and weight information for pixels constituting each region to generate a surrounding image of the vehicle; and displaying the thus-generated surrounding image. The present invention removes blind spots around the vehicle, and corrects the overlapped images captured by a plurality of cameras into natural images, thus enabling drivers to accurately recognize the surrounding situation of the vehicle. Therefore, a driver may park a vehicle in a convenient manner, and drive the vehicle in a forward or a backward direction in a safe manner even without looking at a side-view mirror or a rearview mirror.