Method and device for visualizing a motor vehicle environment with environment-dependent fusion of an infrared image and a visual image
US7199366B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Aug 5, 2005 |
| Grant date | Apr 3, 2007 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Aug 5, 2025 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04N23/20
- WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method is provided for visualizing the environment of a vehicle, particularly in darkness. For improving known methods, a weighted superimposition of isochronous and same-location image pairs of a visual image and an infrared image are performed for forming a fusion image. For a further improvement, it is provided to make the weighting dependent on the environment; thus, in darkness, a higher weighting and therefore a stressing of the infrared information is provided with respect to the visual information in the fusion image. In fog, it is provided to weight the visual information clearly higher in comparison to the infrared information, whereby the infrared information, which is often not very helpful in fog, is largely not taken into account in the fusion image. For implementing the method, a system is provided having a color-sensitive visual camera, an infrared camera and a fusion or superposing device, which superposes isochronous and same-location image pairs by pixels or areas and/or forms average values.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.