Building night vision and other Driver Assistance Systems (DAS) using Near Infra-Red (NIR) Illumination and rolling shutter
First Claim
1. A system comprising:
- a processor configured to;
receive image data from a camera, the camera configured to scan the image data line-by-line into a plurality of image frames;
generate a plurality of infra-red image frames, the plurality of infra-red image frames including infra-red image data scanned while an illuminator provides a first intensity of infra-red illumination in a field of view of the camera; and
generate a plurality of color image frames, the plurality of color image frames including color image data scanned while the illuminator provides the second intensity of infra-red illumination, the first intensity of infra-red illumination greater than the second intensity of infra-red illumination;
wherein;
the first and second infra-red illuminations oscillate with an oscillation frequency and an illumination duty cycle; and
the infra-red illuminator provides the first and second infra-red illuminations based on a synchronization signal provided by a synchronization mechanism configured to synchronize the oscillation frequency and the illumination duty cycle line-by-line with an exposure of the image frames and vary the intensity of the first and second infra-red illuminations between at least two lines during line-by-line scanning of image data by the camera.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system mountable in a motor vehicle. The system includes a camera and a processor configured to receive image data from the camera. The camera includes a rolling shutter configured to capture the image data during a frame period and to scan and to read the image data into multiple image frames. A near infra-red illuminator may be configured to provide a near infra-red illumination cone in the field of view of the camera. The near infra-red illumination oscillates with an illumination period. A synchronization mechanism may be configured to synchronize the illumination period to the frame period of the rolling shutter. The frame period may be selected so that the synchronization mechanism provides a spatial profile of the near infra-red illumination cone which may be substantially aligned vertically to a specific region, e.g. near the center of the image frame.
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32 Claims
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1. A system comprising:
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a processor configured to; receive image data from a camera, the camera configured to scan the image data line-by-line into a plurality of image frames; generate a plurality of infra-red image frames, the plurality of infra-red image frames including infra-red image data scanned while an illuminator provides a first intensity of infra-red illumination in a field of view of the camera; and generate a plurality of color image frames, the plurality of color image frames including color image data scanned while the illuminator provides the second intensity of infra-red illumination, the first intensity of infra-red illumination greater than the second intensity of infra-red illumination; wherein; the first and second infra-red illuminations oscillate with an oscillation frequency and an illumination duty cycle; and the infra-red illuminator provides the first and second infra-red illuminations based on a synchronization signal provided by a synchronization mechanism configured to synchronize the oscillation frequency and the illumination duty cycle line-by-line with an exposure of the image frames and vary the intensity of the first and second infra-red illuminations between at least two lines during line-by-line scanning of image data by the camera. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method comprising:
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receiving image data at a processor from a camera, the camera configured to scan the image data line-by-line into a plurality of image frames; generating a plurality of infra-red image frames at the processor, the plurality of infra-red image frames including infra-red image data scanned while an illuminator provides a first intensity of infra-red illumination in a field of view of the camera; and generate a plurality of color image frames at the processor, the plurality of color image frames including non infra-red image data scanned while the illuminator provides the second intensity of infra-red illumination, the first intensity of infra-red illumination greater than the second intensity of infra-red illumination; wherein; the first and second infra-red illuminations oscillate with an oscillation frequency and an illumination duty cycle; and the infra-red illuminator provides the first and second infra-red illuminations based on a synchronization signal provided by a synchronization mechanism configured to synchronize the oscillation frequency and the illumination duty cycle line-by-line with an exposure of the image frames and vary the intensity of the first and second infra-red illuminations between at least two lines during line-by-line scanning of image data by the camera. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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Specification