Translucent Vehicle Body Image for Blind Area Visibility
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing parking assisting systems do not effectively display blind areas to the driver in top perspective views, which are crucial for recognizing the vehicle's surroundings during automatic parking operations.
Innovation Solution
A parking assisting device that includes a processor with a display control section, which synthesizes images from cameras to create top perspective views, making blind areas visible by making portions of the vehicle translucent based on its direction, thereby enhancing driver awareness of the vehicle's surroundings.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If a top perspective view image is displayed to show the surrounding area, then the driver can recognize the overall environment, but blind areas behind the vehicle remain invisible
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies color and transparency changes to the vehicle body image to reveal blind areas. The vehicle body is displayed with different transparency levels: the front portion is shown with high transparency to reveal the blind area behind the vehicle, while the rear portion maintains normal opacity. This visual differentiation allows drivers to perceive previously invisible areas without requiring separate blind spot cameras.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transforms the traditional 2D camera views into a synthesized 3D top perspective view. By combining images from multiple cameras (front, rear, left, right) and rendering them from an overhead perspective, the system creates a dimensional transformation that allows the vehicle body to be semi-transparent, revealing areas that would otherwise be obscured from any single camera angle.
2Loss of information
If the vehicle body is made translucent to show blind areas, then driver awareness of surrounding areas is improved, but the visual clarity of the vehicle structure may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different transparency properties to different parts of the vehicle body. Specifically, the front portion of the vehicle body is rendered with high transparency to reveal the blind area, while the rear and side portions maintain normal opacity. This localized application of transparency ensures that only the necessary areas are made visible without compromising the overall structural clarity of the vehicle in the display.
3Area of stationary object
If multiple cameras are used to capture surrounding areas, then complete coverage is achieved, but the system complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges images from multiple cameras (front, rear, left, and right cameras) into a single synthesized top perspective view. By combining these multiple image sources and rendering them from an overhead perspective with selective transparency, the system achieves complete surrounding area coverage while presenting a unified, simplified visual display to the driver, rather than requiring them to interpret multiple separate camera feeds.
Data Source
AI summary
An automatic parking control unit comprises a recognizing section recognizing an outer world outside a vehicle, a vehicle operation control section performing an operation control on the vehicle, an automatic parking control section performing a parking operation to park the vehicle at a target parking position and a display control section synthesizing images taken by a camera group into an image of a surrounding area of the vehicle and displaying the image on an output device group. The display control section displays an image of the surrounding area of the vehicle and a vehicle body image of the vehicle with a portion of the vehicle made translucent, the portion of the vehicle making a blind area to a driver in the surrounding area of the vehicle and the portion of the vehicle is changed according to a direction in which the vehicle is running.