Method and system for visualizing the environment of a vehicle with a distance-dependent merging of an infrared and a visual image
First Claim
1. Method of visualizing an environment of a vehicle in darkness, the method comprising the acts of:
- providing a visual image or its digital data of the environment, preferably a colored visual image, the visual image showing visible objects; and
providing an infrared image or its digital data of the environment, the infrared image showing the infrared radiation emanating from the visible and/or other objects;
wherein the visual image or its digital data are provided by a visual camera sensitive in a visual spectral range, preferably a color-sensitive visual camera, or a first sensor, and the infrared image or its digital data are provided by an infrared camera sensitive in the infrared spectral range or a second sensor;
wherein the visual camera or the first sensor or its lens system has a first optical axis, and the infrared camera or the second optical sensor or its lens system has a second optical axis, which are offset parallel to one another so that the cameras or sensors provide at least partially different cutouts of the environment of the vehicle in the form of a first and a second cutout;
wherein the provided first cutout and the provided second cutout are completely or partially superposed or merged by a superposing or merging device with respect to pixels and/or areas, and wherein during the merging at least one distance-dependent adaptation parameter obtained during calibration for different distances, particularly at least one registration or transformation parameter, is taken into account, and the adaptation parameter or parameters are stored during the calibration in a data memory in the vehicle; and
wherein the distance between the vehicle and a vehicle driving in front of it is determined by a transmitting and receiving device and it is checked by the superposing or merging device whether the actually used distance-dependent adaptation parameter is suitable for the determined distance for providing a ghost-image-free merged image and, in the event of a lacking suitability, at least one additional suitable distance-dependent adaptation parameter is determined and the latter is used for providing a partially merged image which shows the vehicle driving ahead.
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Abstract
The invention relates to an improved method for visualizing the environment of a vehicle, especially in the dark. The invention also relates to a night vision system, which especially provides a visual image of the environment or the digital data thereof. Preferably, the visual image is a color image which indicates the visually perceptible objects of the environment. The system also provides an infrared image of the environment or the digital data thereof. The infrared image indicates the infrared radiation radiated by the visually perceptible and/or other objections. In a preferred form of embodiment, a merged image of the visual image and the infrared image of largely identical sections of the environment of the vehicle is represented on a display comprising at least one merged region and at least one region which is not merged or not merged to the same extent or not merged with the same weighting.
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Citations
34 Claims
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1. Method of visualizing an environment of a vehicle in darkness, the method comprising the acts of:
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providing a visual image or its digital data of the environment, preferably a colored visual image, the visual image showing visible objects; and providing an infrared image or its digital data of the environment, the infrared image showing the infrared radiation emanating from the visible and/or other objects; wherein the visual image or its digital data are provided by a visual camera sensitive in a visual spectral range, preferably a color-sensitive visual camera, or a first sensor, and the infrared image or its digital data are provided by an infrared camera sensitive in the infrared spectral range or a second sensor; wherein the visual camera or the first sensor or its lens system has a first optical axis, and the infrared camera or the second optical sensor or its lens system has a second optical axis, which are offset parallel to one another so that the cameras or sensors provide at least partially different cutouts of the environment of the vehicle in the form of a first and a second cutout; wherein the provided first cutout and the provided second cutout are completely or partially superposed or merged by a superposing or merging device with respect to pixels and/or areas, and wherein during the merging at least one distance-dependent adaptation parameter obtained during calibration for different distances, particularly at least one registration or transformation parameter, is taken into account, and the adaptation parameter or parameters are stored during the calibration in a data memory in the vehicle; and wherein the distance between the vehicle and a vehicle driving in front of it is determined by a transmitting and receiving device and it is checked by the superposing or merging device whether the actually used distance-dependent adaptation parameter is suitable for the determined distance for providing a ghost-image-free merged image and, in the event of a lacking suitability, at least one additional suitable distance-dependent adaptation parameter is determined and the latter is used for providing a partially merged image which shows the vehicle driving ahead. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. Method of visualizing an environment of a vehicle in darkness, the method comprising the acts of:
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providing, by a visual camera, a visual image or its digital data of the environment, preferably a colored visual image, the visual image showing visible objects; providing, by an infrared camera, an infrared image or its digital data of the environment, the infrared image showing the infrared radiation emanating from the visible and/or other objects; and merging or superposing, by a superposing or merging device, the visual image and the infrared image during which a merged image is created which has at least a first merged image area and a second merged image area, the first merged image area being formed by using at least a first distance-dependent adaptation parameter, and the second merged image area is formed by using at least a second distance-dependent adaptation parameter, wherein the distance between the vehicle and a vehicle driving in front of it is determined by a transmitting and receiving device and it is checked by the superposing or merging device whether the actually used distance-dependent adaptation parameter is suitable for the determined distance for providing a ghost-image-free merged image and, in the event of a lacking suitability, at least one additional suitable distance-dependent adaptation parameter is determined and the latter is used for providing a partially merged image which shows the vehicle driving ahead. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. Method of visualizing an environment of a vehicle in darkness, the method comprising the acts of:
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providing, by a visual camera, a visual image or its digital data of the environment, preferably a colored visual image, the visual image showing visible objects; providing, by an infrared camera, an infrared image or its digital data of the environment, the infrared image showing the infrared radiation emanating from the visible and/or other objects; and merging or superposing, by a superposing or merging device, the visual image and the infrared image, during which a merged image is created which has at least a first area which shows a portion of the visual image and a portion of the infrared image, and has at least a second area which is formed by the merging of another portion of the visual image and of the corresponding portion of the infrared image; wherein the distance between the vehicle and a vehicle driving in front of it is determined by a transmitting and receiving device and it is checked by the superposing or merging device whether the actually used distance-dependent adaptation parameter is suitable for the determined distance for providing a ghost-image-free merged image and, in the event of a lacking suitability, only the corresponding portion of the visual image or of the infrared image is partially illustrated in the merged image.
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30. Method of visualizing an environment of a vehicle in darkness, the method comprising the acts of:
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providing a visual image or its digital data of the environment, preferably a colored visual image, the visual image showing visible objects; and providing an infrared image or its digital data of the environment, the infrared image showing the infrared radiation emanating from the visible and/or other objects; wherein the visual image or its digital data are provided by a visual camera sensitive in a visual spectral range, preferably a color-sensitive visual camera, or a first sensor, and the infrared image or its digital data are provided by an infrared camera sensitive in the infrared spectral range or a second sensor; wherein the visual camera or the first sensor or its lens system has a first optical axis, and the infrared camera or the second optical sensor or its lens system has a second optical axis, which are offset parallel to one another so that the cameras or sensors provide at least partially different cutouts of the environment of the vehicle in the form of a first and a second cutout; wherein the visual image or a normalized visual image is aligned with respect to the infrared image or the normalized visual image or vice-versa by the processing of digital data of the images by a superposing or merging device, so that image pairs of both spectral ranges are provided which are identical with respect to time and location; wherein a weighted superposition or averaging is carried out by the superposing or merging device for one or more pixels largely having the same location from the visual image and the infrared image; and wherein regions with large amounts of information in comparison to regions with small amounts of information of the visual image and/or of the infrared image are weighted higher during the superposition or averaging. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34)
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Specification