Windshield Image Overlay for Driver Visibility in Adverse Weather
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Drivers face challenges in maintaining visibility during adverse weather conditions such as fog, rain, or snow, which can lead to hazardous driving situations due to reduced visibility of road features and objects.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method that selects a reference image of an object from an image repository, extracts an image portion, transforms it to match the vehicle occupant's view, and displays it on the transparent surface, overlaying the view to enhance visibility by interposing clearer images of objects in the driver's line-of-sight.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If a transparent surface (windshield/window) is used to maintain driver visibility, then the driver can see the environment, but visibility is degraded under adverse weather conditions (fog, rain, snow)
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a visual copy of the external environment by capturing images with cameras and displaying them on the transparent surface. This copied image compensates for the degraded visibility caused by adverse weather conditions, allowing the driver to see clear representations of road features and objects even when the actual view is obscured
Solution Approach 2:
The transparent surface serves as an intermediary medium that combines the actual external view with displayed image data. This intermediary layer allows the system to overlay enhanced or alternative visual information onto the degraded real-world view, mediating between the adverse external conditions and the driver's visibility needs
2Illumination intensity
If image data is displayed on the transparent surface to improve visibility, then object visibility is enhanced, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The transparent surface performs multiple functions: it serves as the vehicle's windshield or window for natural viewing, and simultaneously as a display surface for projected image data. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for separate display hardware, reducing overall system complexity while enhancing visibility
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces complex mechanical visibility enhancement systems (such as physical defrosters, wipers, or separate augmented reality displays) with a simpler optical projection system that displays images directly on the existing transparent surface, reducing mechanical complexity
Data Source
AI summary
Object overlay for vehicle occupants includes determining that visibility of an object in a view of a vehicle occupant through a transparent surface of the vehicle is degraded, the object being in an environment in which the vehicle travels, selecting from an image repository a reference image of the object, extracting, from the reference image, an image portion comprising an image of a least a portion of the object, transforming the extracted image portion to correspond to the view of the vehicle occupant, the transforming producing a transformed image portion, and displaying the transformed image portion on the transparent surface and interposed in a line-of-sight of the vehicle occupant to the object in the environment such that the transformed image portion overlays at least a portion of the vehicle occupant's view through the transparent surface to the object in the environment.