Vehicle 360° surround view system having corner placed cameras, and system and method for calibration thereof
First Claim
1. A method of calibrating an associated imaging system providing a bird'"'"'s eye view of an area surrounding an associated vehicle, the method comprising:
- receiving first image data, the first image data being related by a first homography matrix to a first image of a first target area adjacent the associated vehicle;
receiving second image data, the second image data being related by a second homography matrix to a second image of a second target area adjacent the associated vehicle, wherein a portion of the second target area overlaps a portion of the first target area at an overlap area;
receiving first collective image data, the first collective image data being related by the first and second homography matrices to a composite image of a first plurality of target objects disposed in the overlap area;
determining a composite registration error between the collective image data and the area surrounding the associated vehicle in accordance with a comparison between locations of images of the first plurality of target objects in the collective image data and known physical locations of the first plurality of target objects in the overlap area; and
simultaneously modifying the first and second homography matrices as globally modified first and second homography matrices in accordance with the determined composite registration error to register the collective image data with the known physical locations of the plurality of target objects.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Cameras having wide fields of view are placed at each of the front left, front right, rear left, and rear right corners of a nominally rectangular-shaped vehicle, thereby providing a continuous region of overlapping fields of view completely surrounding the vehicle, and enabling complete 360° stereoscopic vision detection around the vehicle. In an embodiment the regions of overlapping fields of view completely surround the vehicle. The cameras are first individually calibrated, then collectively calibrated considering errors in overlapping viewing areas to develop one or more calibration corrections according to an optimization method that adjusts imaging parameters including homography values for each of the cameras, to reduce the overall error in the 360° surround view image of the continuous region surrounding the vehicle.
24 Citations
18 Claims
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1. A method of calibrating an associated imaging system providing a bird'"'"'s eye view of an area surrounding an associated vehicle, the method comprising:
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receiving first image data, the first image data being related by a first homography matrix to a first image of a first target area adjacent the associated vehicle; receiving second image data, the second image data being related by a second homography matrix to a second image of a second target area adjacent the associated vehicle, wherein a portion of the second target area overlaps a portion of the first target area at an overlap area; receiving first collective image data, the first collective image data being related by the first and second homography matrices to a composite image of a first plurality of target objects disposed in the overlap area; determining a composite registration error between the collective image data and the area surrounding the associated vehicle in accordance with a comparison between locations of images of the first plurality of target objects in the collective image data and known physical locations of the first plurality of target objects in the overlap area; and simultaneously modifying the first and second homography matrices as globally modified first and second homography matrices in accordance with the determined composite registration error to register the collective image data with the known physical locations of the plurality of target objects. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. An apparatus for calibrating an associated imaging system operatively coupled with an associated vehicle and providing a bird'"'"'s eye view of an area surrounding the associated vehicle, the apparatus comprising:
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a communication interface operatively coupled with cameras of the associated imaging system and configured to communicate with the cameras; and a processor coupled with the communication interface, and configured to; receive first image data, the first image data being related by a first homography matrix to a first image of a first target area adjacent the associated vehicle; receive second image data, the second image data being related by a second homography matrix to a second image of a second target area adjacent the associated vehicle, wherein a portion of the second target area overlaps a portion of the first target area at an overlap area; receive first collective image data, the first collective image data being related by the first and second homography matrices to a composite image of a first plurality of target objects disposed in the overlap area; determine a composite registration error between the collective image data and the area surrounding the associated vehicle in accordance with a comparison between locations of images the first plurality of target objects in the collective image data and known physical locations of the first plurality of target objects in the overlap area; and simultaneously modify the first and second homography matrices as globally modified first and second homography matrices in accordance with the determined composite registration error to register the collective image data with the known physical locations of the plurality of target objects. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method of calibrating an imaging system providing a bird'"'"'s eye view of an area surrounding an associated vehicle, the method comprising:
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receiving first image data, the first image data being related by a first homography matrix to a first image of a first target area adjacent the associated vehicle; receiving second image data, the second image data being related by a second homography matrix to a second image of a second target area adjacent the associated vehicle, wherein a portion of the second target area overlaps a portion of the first target area at a first overlap area; receiving third image data, the third image data being related by a third homography matrix to a third image of a third target area adjacent the associated vehicle, wherein a portion of the third target area overlaps a portion of the second target area at a second overlap area; receiving fourth image data, the fourth image data being related by a fourth homography matrix to a fourth image of a fourth target area adjacent the associated vehicle, wherein a portion of the fourth target area overlaps a portion of the third target area at a third overlap area, and wherein a portion of the fourth target area overlaps a portion of the first target area at a fourth overlap area; receiving first collective image data, the first collective image data being related by the first, second, third, and fourth homography matrices to a composite image of a first plurality of target objects disposed in the first, second, third, and fourth overlap areas; determining a composite registration error between the collective image data and the area surrounding the associated vehicle in accordance with a comparison between locations of images the first plurality of target objects in the collective image data and known physical locations of the first plurality of target objects in the first, second, third, and fourth overlap areas; and simultaneously modifying the first, second, third, and fourth homography matrices as globally modified first, second, third, and fourth homography matrices in accordance with the determined composite registration error to register the collective image data with the known physical locations of the plurality of target objects.
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14. A surround view system generating a bird'"'"'s eye view of an area adjacent an associated apparatus disposed in an environment, the surround view system comprising:
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a computer system comprising a processor; a non-transient memory operably coupled with the processor; and a plurality of cameras operatively coupled with the processor and memory, the plurality of cameras being disposed at selected positions on the associated apparatus, each of the plurality of cameras respectively having a field of view projected onto the area adjacent the associated apparatus wherein each field of view overlaps at least one other field of view defining a continuous field of view overlap area completely surrounding the associated apparatus, wherein the processor is configured to calibrate the plurality of cameras by; determining a set of registration errors in respective images of each pair of the plurality of cameras having overlapping fields of views; determining an average value of the set of registration errors; and simultaneously adjusting homography matrix values of each camera of the set of cameras stored in the memory by the determined average value. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
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17. A method of calibrating a plurality of cameras disposed in an environment wherein each of the plurality of cameras respectively has a field of view projected onto an area adjacent the camera wherein each field of view overlaps at least one other field of view defining a continuous field of view overlap area completely surrounding a selected target area, the method comprising:
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determining a set of image registration errors in respective images of each pair of a plurality of cameras having overlapping fields of view; determining an average value of the set of registration errors; and simultaneously adjusting homography matrix values of each camera of the set of cameras by the determined average value. - View Dependent Claims (18)
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Specification