Rear vision system for a vehicle and method of using the same
First Claim
1. A method of using a rear vision system for a host vehicle, the rear vision system includes a rear facing camera, a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) unit, and an electronic display mirror, and the method comprises the steps of:
- determining if a towed object behind the host vehicle is obstructing the rear facing camera;
identifying an area of interest behind the host vehicle when the rear facing camera is obstructed;
gathering information from a remote vehicle with the V2V unit;
using the gathered information to determine if the remote vehicle is in the area of interest;
generating a rendering of the remote vehicle when the remote vehicle is in the area of interest; and
displaying video output and the rendering of the remote vehicle on the electronic display mirror in the form of enhanced video output.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A rear vision system and a corresponding method for use with a host vehicle towing a trailer or other object. The rear vision system may include a rear facing camera, a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) unit, vehicle dynamic sensors, a navigation unit, a control unit, and an electronic display mirror. When the towed trailer obstructs the rear facing camera, the system and method look for unseen vehicles behind the trailer and use the V2V unit to gather information from these vehicles. This information is then used to generate a rendering that graphically depicts or represents the unseen vehicle, and the rendering is superimposed on top of the video output from the rear facing camera in the form of enhanced video output, which is then displayed on the electronic display mirror. Thus, the driver is able to “see” behind the obstructing trailer without the use of additional cameras installed on the trailer.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A method of using a rear vision system for a host vehicle, the rear vision system includes a rear facing camera, a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) unit, and an electronic display mirror, and the method comprises the steps of:
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determining if a towed object behind the host vehicle is obstructing the rear facing camera; identifying an area of interest behind the host vehicle when the rear facing camera is obstructed; gathering information from a remote vehicle with the V2V unit; using the gathered information to determine if the remote vehicle is in the area of interest; generating a rendering of the remote vehicle when the remote vehicle is in the area of interest; and displaying video output and the rendering of the remote vehicle on the electronic display mirror in the form of enhanced video output.
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2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining step further comprises determining if the towed object is obstructing the rear facing camera by using an image processing technique to analyze an image taken from the video output and to identify the towed object from the image.
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3. The method of claim 2, wherein the image processing technique includes the use of a multi-stage algorithm that identifies a plurality of edges in the image taken from the video output and associates the plurality of edges with the towed object.
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4. The method of claim 3, wherein the multi-stage algorithm includes the sub-steps:
- storing a first image taken from the video output, applying one or more filters to the first stored image to obtain a first filtered image, identifying a first plurality of edges from the first filtered image, waiting a predetermined period of time and repeating the preceding sub-steps on a second image taken from the video output so that a second plurality of edges is identified, evaluating the first and second pluralities of edges and determining if they are consistent, and determining that the towed object is obstructing the rear facing camera when there is sufficient consistency between the first and second pluralities of edges.
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5. The method of claim 4, wherein the sub-step of applying one or more filters to the first stored image includes the use of a Canny filter, a Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) filter, or both.
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6. The method of claim 3, wherein the multi-stage algorithm includes the sub-step:
- determining an obstruction angle α
that is based on a geometric relationship between the rear facing camera and at least one of the plurality of edges.
- determining an obstruction angle α
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7. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying step further comprises identifying the area of interest behind the host vehicle by obtaining a host vehicle position from a navigation unit and at least partially defining the area of interest based on the host vehicle position.
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8. The method of claim 7, wherein a boundary of the area of interest forms a polygon and includes a pair of first ends that are joined by a vertex having an angle α
- that is representative of an obstruction angle caused by the towed object.
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9. The method of claim 7, wherein a boundary of the area of interest includes a first end and a second end which are separated from one another by a length X that is between 50 m and 200 m.
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10. The method of claim 7, wherein a boundary of the area of interest includes a first side and a second side which are separated from one another by a width Y that is between 5 m and 20 m.
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11. The method of claim 7, wherein the area of interest is at least partially defined by a size and/or shape of the towed object.
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12. The method of claim 1, wherein the gathering step further comprises gathering information with the V2V unit by receiving a basic safety message (BSM) from the remote vehicle and extracting from the BSM at least one piece of information selected from the group consisting of:
- a remote vehicle position, a remote vehicle speed, or a remote vehicle heading.
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13. The method of claim 12, wherein the using step further comprises using the gathered information to determine if the remote vehicle is within the area of interest by comparing the vehicle position of the remote vehicle to a boundary of the area of interest.
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14. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating step further comprises generating the rendering of the remote vehicle and adding the rendering to the video output from the rear facing camera by graphically superimposing the rendering over the video output to form enhanced video output, and the displaying step further comprises displaying the enhanced video output on the electronic display mirror in real time.
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15. The method of claim 14, wherein the rendering of the remote vehicle includes a basic shape representing the remote vehicle and at least one metric selected from the group consisting of:
- a distance from the host vehicle to the remote vehicle, a remote vehicle time-to-impact, or a remote vehicle speed.
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16. The method of claim 14, wherein the rendering of the remote vehicle includes a graphic depiction representing the remote vehicle that changes color depending on how close the remote vehicle is to the host vehicle.
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17. The method of claim 14, wherein the generating step further comprises selecting a closest remote vehicle from a plurality of remote vehicles, generating the rendering of the closest remote vehicle, and adding the rendering of the closest remote vehicle to the video output from the rear facing camera to form enhanced video output when the plurality of remote vehicles are in the area of interest.
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18. A rear vision system for use with a host vehicle, comprising:
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a rear vision system control unit that includes an electronic memory device and an electronic processing device; a rear facing camera that is coupled to the rear vision system control unit and provides the rear vision system control unit with video output of an area behind the host vehicle; a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) unit that is coupled to the rear vision system control unit and provides the rear vision system control unit with traffic output relating to one or more remote vehicles; and an electronic display mirror that is coupled to the rear vision system control unit and receives enhanced video output from the rear vision system control unit; wherein the rear vision system control unit is configured to;
electronically process the traffic output from the V2V unit to determine if a remote vehicle is in the area behind the host vehicle, generate a rendering of an obstructed vehicle when the remote vehicle is in the area behind the host vehicle, add the rendering of the obstructed vehicle to the video output from the rear facing camera so as to create the enhanced video output, and provide the enhanced video output to the electronic display mirror so that the electronic display mirror displays the enhanced video output.
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Specification