Vehicle Imaging Lighting Uniformity via Dynamic Intensity Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing imaging apparatuses struggle to capture images of tunnel walls with appropriate brightness and resolution due to variations in lighting areas, leading to white or dark areas in captured images, especially in dark environments like tunnels.
Innovation Solution
The imaging apparatus includes a camera unit and a lighting unit that can be slid and fixed at specific positions relative to the movement direction of a vehicle, ensuring consistent image capture conditions by overlapping or non-overlapping lighting areas, using a guide shaft to maintain the relative position and posture of the units and inclining the projection direction of the lighting unit to ensure adequate illumination.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If multiple lighting units are used to illuminate the entire object with sufficient brightness, then the illumination coverage is improved, but the brightness uniformity deteriorates due to overlapping and non-overlapping lighting areas creating white and dark areas
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by adjusting the emission intensity of each lighting unit based on its position. Lighting units at overlapping regions reduce their intensity, while units at non-overlapping regions maintain higher intensity. This creates locally optimized illumination that compensates for the overlapping effect, ensuring uniform brightness across the entire illuminated area without requiring complex mechanical positioning.
2Stability of the object's composition
If the imaging apparatus is operated to reduce the phenomenon of white area and dark area in the images, then the brightness uniformity is improved, but the image capture capability deteriorates as the entire object cannot be captured with appropriate brightness and resolution
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the operational parameters of the lighting units by dynamically adjusting emission intensity based on position and overlap relationships. This parameter adjustment allows the system to maintain uniform brightness across the entire object while preserving adequate illumination for high-quality image capture, resolving the contradiction between brightness uniformity and image capture capability.
3Device complexity
If fixed imaging and lighting units are used, then the device complexity is reduced, but the adaptability to different tunnel conditions deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces dynamic control of lighting intensity without requiring mechanical movement or complex reconfiguration. The system adapts to different tunnel conditions by automatically adjusting the emission parameters of fixed lighting units based on their positional relationships, maintaining simplicity while achieving adaptability to various illumination requirements.
Data Source
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AI summary
An imaging apparatus (100) mountable on a moveable apparatus includes a plurality of lighting-imaging units (32, 33), each configured to capture an image of a different area on an object in a direction intersecting with a movement direction of the moveable apparatus. Each of the plurality of lighting-imaging units (32, 33) includes a light source unit (32a, 33a) configured to illuminate a partial area on the object as a lighting area; and an image capture unit (32b, 33b) configured to capture an image of an image capture area set within the lighting area. The plurality of lighting-imaging units (32, 33) captures an image of a non-overlapped lighting area on the object where the lighting areas of the plurality of lighting-imaging units (32, 33) do not overlap with each other.