×

Mapping images from one or more sources into an image for display

  • US 7,619,626 B2
  • Filed: 03/01/2003
  • Issued: 11/17/2009
  • Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2003
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
Patent Images

1. A system for providing images of an environment to a display, said system comprising:

  • at least two image sources of different types including a first image source comprising a camera for capturing a visual image and a second image source selected from a group consisting of an infrared source, a radar source and a synthetic vision system, each image source having a field of view and providing an image of the environment; and

    a processor in communication with each image source and said display, wherein said processor;

    receives a selected distance;

    defines a mapping surface that is spherical in shape and has a radius equal to the selected distance, wherein the mapping surface approximates the environment within the field of view of said image sources, wherein the mapping surface comprises a plurality of vertex vectors each representing a three-dimensional coordinate of a mapping space;

    for a selected vertex of the mapping surface within the field of display of said image sources, determines a texture vector of the image provided by said image sources that corresponds to the selected vertex of the mapping surface, and provides a collection of vectors comprising the selected vertex of the mapping surface, the texture vector of the image, and a color vector;

    defines a model that relates a geometry of said image sources, a geometry of said display, and a geometry of the mapping surface to each other, wherein said image sources, display and mapping surface all have different coordinate systems, and wherein said processor is configured to define the model so as to provide for transforming said image sources, said display, and the mapping surface to a different coordinate system; and

    maps different types of images provided by said image sources to said display using the model,wherein said image sources including image source A have respective fields of view that overlap each other on the mapping space such that said image sources provide respective images having texture vectors that correspond to the selected vertex of the mapping space, wherein respective images provided by each of said image sources have a unique characteristic, wherein said processor, for each image source, provides the selected vertex of the mapping surface and the texture vector of the respective image source such that the respective images from said image sources overlap on said display, and wherein said processor combines the respective images into a resultant image containing the unique characteristic of each respective image utilizing content-based fusion using a blending coefficient determined from source pixel intensity by defining a pixel value of a display pixel Display1 as follows;


    Display1=(ImageA/2N)*ImageA+(1−

    ImageA/2N)*Display0wherein Display0 is an initial display pixel value, Image A is the respective image from said image source A, and N is a pixel bit depth.

View all claims
  • 1 Assignment
Timeline View
Assignment View
    ×
    ×