Vehicle Vision System Dynamic Image Scaling

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current vision systems for vehicles struggle to effectively display multiple adjacent vision areas around the vehicle in a way that is easily understandable for the driver, particularly in varying driving situations, as they often fail to clearly differentiate between areas of high and low importance, leading to information overload and poor situational awareness.

Innovation Solution

A vision system that uses a recording unit, display unit, and calculation unit to scale and process images based on the angle of view, allowing for dynamic adjustment of image areas to prioritize important information and reduce less relevant areas, ensuring a clear and understandable display for the driver by compressing or expanding image sections accordingly.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If the entire recorded image area is displayed on the limited display area, then all information is visible, but the display becomes cluttered and important information cannot be quickly identified

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecompleteness of displayed informationVSAvoiddriver's ability to quickly identify important information
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies local quality by differentiating the display treatment of various image regions. Important areas (such as regions adjacent to the vehicle) are displayed with higher resolution and larger scale, while less important areas (such as distant regions) are displayed with lower resolution and smaller scale. This allows the limited display area to prioritize critical information while still showing the complete scene, resolving the contradiction between information completeness and ease of identification.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

2Area of stationary object

If the display area is used to show all recorded regions equally, then comprehensive coverage is achieved, but critical areas do not receive sufficient emphasis

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedisplay area utilizationVSAvoidclarity and distinguishability of important features
Core Design Contradiction:
Area of stationary objectVSManufacturing precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the recorded image area into multiple zones with different importance levels (e.g., first region adjacent to the vehicle, second region at a distance). Each segment is then displayed with appropriate scaling and resolution allocation. This segmentation allows the display system to allocate limited display resources efficiently, ensuring that critical areas receive sufficient emphasis while maintaining comprehensive coverage.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

3Area of moving object

If the camera captures a wide angle to cover all areas, then comprehensive vision is achieved, but the resolution and detail in critical areas are reduced

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvefield of view coverageVSAvoidimage resolution and detail quality
Core Design Contradiction:
Area of moving objectVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces an additional dimension of importance weighting to the image processing. Instead of treating all pixels equally in terms of resolution allocation, it adds an importance dimension that allows critical regions to receive higher resolution treatment. This is achieved by selectively scaling and rendering different regions at different resolutions based on their importance, thereby maintaining wide angle coverage while preserving detail quality in critical areas.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

Data Source

PatentEP3028898B1Vision system
Publication Date: 2019.09.18 MEKRA LANG GMBH & CO KG
  • EP3028898B1 patent drawingFigure 1~3
  • EP3028898B1 patent drawingFigure 4~6
  • EP3028898B1 patent drawingFigure 7~9

AI summary

A vision system (13) for a vehicle (10) for displaying a recording area (A, B, C) located outside the vehicle (10) comprises a recording unit (14) attached to the vehicle (10) with at least one recording device for capturing an image of the recording area (A, B, C), wherein the recording area has at least two sub-recording areas (A, B, C, D), a display unit (15) for the vehicle interior with a display area (16) having predetermined dimensions, and a processing unit (17) that processes the image captured by the recording unit (14) and supplies it to the display unit (15) for display.The computation unit (17) is adapted to scale the image of the recording area (A, B, C) captured by the recording unit (14) at least in one image angle direction with a scaling factor (n), and the playback unit (15) is adapted to display the scaled image (20, 22, 24, 26) in the playback area (16), wherein the scaled image contains at least two sub-images (20, 22, 24, 26) that correspond to the at least two sub-recording areas (A, B, C, D) respectively.The scaling factor (n) is determined as a function of an image angle (ϕ) of the captured image of the recording area (A, B, C) according to an imaging function (f(ϕ)), and the imaging function (f(ϕ)) is adapted according to a driving situation and has at least two different areas in the image angle direction, which correspond to the at least two partial recording areas, and the function curve of the imaging function (f(ϕ)) is abrupt in the transition area between the partial recording areas.