Vehicle Viewing Device Composite Imaging for Situational Awareness
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle viewing devices, such as electronic mirrors, fail to provide a comprehensive view of vehicle surroundings, including rear seats and structures, leading to a feeling of strangeness and incomplete understanding of conditions behind and inside the vehicle, unlike conventional optical mirrors.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle viewing device with multiple imaging apparatuses of different ranges, generating composite images of the rear, vehicle structures, and rear seat occupants, displayed semi-transparently to mimic the viewing angle of a conventional optical mirror, thereby removing blind spots and enhancing situational awareness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If a wide-angle rear image is composited from multiple cameras to remove blind spots, then the viewing coverage is improved, but the feeling of strangeness increases and familiarity with conventional mirrors is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The display is segmented into multiple regions: a first region showing the wide-angle rear image from cameras, and a second region showing the interior mirror image. This segmentation allows the system to provide both the expanded viewing coverage of electronic mirrors and the familiar perspective of conventional mirrors simultaneously, resolving the contradiction between viewing coverage and familiarity.
2Area of stationary object
If the rear camera image is displayed to remove blind spots, then the viewing angle is improved, but the ability to see vehicle structures and rear seat occupants is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges the rear camera image with the interior mirror image in a composite display. The interior mirror image, which captures vehicle structures and rear seat occupants, is overlaid or adjacent to the wide-angle rear camera image. This combination ensures that both the expanded viewing angle from the rear camera and the contextual information about vehicle structures and occupants from the interior mirror are preserved simultaneously.
3Loss of information
If images are viewed from the vehicle upper portion to show cabin interior, then the understanding of cabin conditions is improved, but the ability to see the vehicle rear with a conventional mirror feeling is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The display is segmented into multiple regions: a first region showing the wide-angle rear image from cameras, and a second region showing the interior mirror image. This segmentation allows the system to provide both the expanded viewing coverage of electronic mirrors and the familiar perspective of conventional mirrors simultaneously, resolving the contradiction between viewing coverage and familiarity.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of displaying only the upper-portion cabin view that loses the conventional mirror perspective, the system inverts the approach by incorporating the interior mirror image that captures the familiar rearward view. This inversion allows the familiar conventional mirror feeling to be preserved while still providing cabin interior understanding through the multi-region display composition.
Data Source
AI summary
A viewing device for a vehicle, comprises: a plurality of imaging apparatuses that differ in imaging range; an image generation apparatus that, on the basis of images imaged by one or a plurality of the imaging apparatuses, generates a viewing image that is a composite of: an image to a vehicle rear, an image of a vehicle structure, the image being semi-transparent, and an image of a vehicle occupant on a rear seat; and a displayer that displays the viewing image.