Vehicular Vision System with 3D Transparent Vehicle Representation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current vehicle vision systems fail to provide a realistic and accurate representation of the vehicle in the displayed environment, leading to confusion for drivers, as they often do not match the actual vehicle's appearance and can obscure objects with the vehicle representation, hindering visibility during maneuvers like reversing.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle vision system that uses multiple cameras to capture images and process data to generate a three-dimensional representation of the vehicle, allowing for adjustable transparency and accurate calibration, ensuring the displayed vehicle image matches the actual vehicle's type, style, and color, while also allowing partial transparency to enhance object visibility by rendering obscured objects visible.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If a vehicle representation is displayed in the surround view to help drivers recognize their vehicle, then driver recognition is improved, but the vehicle representation may obscure objects in the environment, reducing visibility
Solution Approach 1:
The vehicle representation is rendered with spatially varying transparency properties. Areas of the vehicle representation that would obscure important environmental objects are made more transparent, while other areas maintain higher opacity to preserve vehicle recognition. This local differentiation of transparency quality resolves the contradiction between vehicle recognition and object visibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The transparency of the vehicle representation is dynamically adjusted based on the detected environment and object positions. When objects are detected near or behind the vehicle representation, the system automatically increases transparency in those specific regions. This dynamic adaptation allows the vehicle representation to maintain recognition value while preventing obstruction of important visual information.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the vehicle representation is made fully transparent to improve object visibility, then visibility of objects is improved, but driver recognition of the vehicle is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
Rather than making the entire vehicle representation uniformly transparent, the system applies transparency selectively to specific local regions where objects are detected. This preserves the overall vehicle shape and recognition characteristics while allowing visibility of objects in critical areas.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies transparency partially - only to the extent necessary to reveal obscured objects, rather than making the entire vehicle representation transparent. This partial application of transparency achieves the necessary object visibility while minimizing the loss of vehicle recognition information.
3Loss of information
If a three-dimensional vehicle representation is generated to provide accurate visual feedback, then driver cognitive association is improved, but the complexity of image processing increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a simplified three-dimensional copy or model of the vehicle that can be efficiently rendered and overlaid on the surround view. This virtual vehicle copy maintains the essential geometric and visual characteristics needed for driver recognition while being computationally efficient to generate and update in real-time.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from two-dimensional camera images to a three-dimensional vehicle representation that can be positioned and oriented in virtual space. This dimensional enhancement provides more realistic visual feedback and better cognitive association, while modern graphics processing enables efficient rendering of these 3D models.
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicular vision system includes a plurality of cameras and a processor operable to process image data captured by the cameras. The plurality of cameras includes a front camera, a rear camera, a driver-side camera and a passenger-side camera. Images derived from image data captured by at least some of the cameras are displayed on a display screen of the vehicle for viewing by a driver of the vehicle during a driving maneuver of the vehicle. During the driving maneuver of the vehicle, the display screen displays a three dimensional vehicle representation as would be viewed from a viewpoint exterior to the vehicle. A portion of the displayed three dimensional vehicle representation is at least partially transparent. A degree of transparency of the portion of the displayed three dimensional vehicle representation is adjustable.