Monitoring and automatic equipment control systems

• US 8,326,483 B2
• Filed: 02/20/2004
• Issued: 12/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HL Klemove Corporation
• Original Assignee: Gentex Corporation
• Inventors: Stam, Joseph S., Pierce, Mark W., Bechtel, Jon H., Spence, William R., Turnbull, Robert R., Eid, El-Sayed
• Primary Examiner(s): Zanelli, Michael J.
• Application Number:
  US10/783,131
• Publication Number:
  US 20040230358A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,210 Days
• Field of Search: 701/36, 701/49, 250/208.1, 250/214.1, 348/118
• US Class Current: 701/36
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/1423 Automatic dimming circuits, i.e. switching between high beam and low beam due to change of ambient light or light level in road traffic
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/056 Special anti-blinding beams, e.g. a standard beam is chopped or moved in order not to blind
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/21 Manual control
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/314 Ambient light
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/41 preceding vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/42 oncoming vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/45 Special conditions, e.g. pedestrians, road signs or potential dangers
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 1/00 Optical viewing arrangements; Real-time viewing arrangements for drivers or passengers using optical image capturing systems, e.g. cameras or video systems specially adapted for use in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 1/12 Mirror assemblies combined with other articles, e.g. clocks
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2001/1215 with information displays
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2001/1223 with sensors or transducers
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2001/1253 with cameras, video cameras or video screens
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2001/1284 with communication systems other than radio-receivers, e.g. keyless entry systems, navigation systems; with anti-collision systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/207 using multi-purpose displays, e.g. camera image and navigation or video on same display
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/66 Remote control of cameras or camera parts, e.g. by remote control devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast

Abstract

The present invention relates to improved image sensor-processor interconnections and to monitoring and automatic control systems incorporating the improved image sensor-processor interconnections.

Claims

1. An enhanced transceiver, comprising:

at least one low voltage differential signal transceiver and at least one memory formed on a common silicon wafer configured to communicate with an imager, wherein at least one vehicle equipment control signal is generated as a function of at least a portion of at least one image.

2. An enhanced transceiver as in claim 1 further comprising at least one dual port memory, wherein said at least one dual port memory comprises greater than 32,000 bytes.

3. An enhanced transceiver as in claim 1 further comprising at least one dual port memory, wherein said at least one dual port memory comprises 8 bit architecture.

4. An imager board interconnection, comprising:

at least one low voltage differential signal transceiver defining at least a portion of the imager board interconnection, wherein the imager board interconnection is configured to operate up to at least one megabaud without emitting unacceptable electromagnetic interference.

5. An imager board interconnection as in claim 4 further configured to interconnect more than one image sensor to at least one processor.

6. A vision system, comprising:

at least one imager comprising at least one image sensor and at least one low voltage differential signal transceiver formed on a common silicon wafer;

at least one processor; and

at least one enhanced transceiver interconnected between said at least one imager and said at least one processor, said at least one enhanced transceiver comprising at least one dual port memory.

7. A vision system as in claim 6, said imager further comprising at least one output.

8. A vision system as in claim 7 wherein said at least one output is configured to connect to a supplemental light source.

9. A vision system as in claim 7 wherein said at least one output is configured to connect to an imager heater.

10. A vision system as in claim 9 wherein said at least one output is configured to automatically operate said imager heater as a function of a temperature sensor.

11. A vision system as in claim 9 wherein said at least one enhanced transceiver comprises at least one memory having at least two read addresses and is configured such that at least a portion of at least two images can be accessed by said at least one processor.

12. A vision system as in claim 11 further comprising a first spectrally filtered portion and a second spectrally filtered portion, wherein said processor is configured to read a first pixel from a row of said first spectrally filtered portion followed by a corresponding second pixel from a corresponding row of said second spectrally filtered portion.

13. A vision system as in claim 6 wherein said at least one enhanced transceiver comprises at least one memory having at least two read addresses and is configured such that at least a portion of at least two images can be accessed by said at least one processor.

14. A vision system as in claim 6 wherein said at least one imager is configured to acquire at least two images in response to one command instruction.

15. A vision system as in claim 14 wherein said first image comprises a first spectrally filtered portion and said second image comprises a second spectrally filtered portion.

16. A vision system as in claim 6 configured such that said at least one enhanced transceiver functions to pass command instructions torn said at least one processor to said at least one imager.

17. A vision system as in claim 6 configured such that said at least one enhanced transceiver functions to pass image data from said at least one imager to said at least one processor.

18. A vision system as in claim 17 further comprising first and second spectrally filtered portions, a first image and a second image, wherein said processor is further configured to read a complete row of pixels from said first and second spectrally filtered portions sequentially with one pixel from the first image followed by one pixel from the second image.

19. A vision system as in claim 6 wherein said imager is configured to transmit a first image having a first integration period and a second image having a second integration period in response to one command instruction.

20. A vision system as in claim 19 further comprising a first spectrally filtered portion and a second spectrally filtered portion, wherein said processor is further configured to read a first pixel from a row of said first image not within said first spectrally filtered portion followed by a corresponding pixel from a second row of said second image not within said second spectrally filtered portion.