Head-up display warping controller

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10026151-B2
Application number	US-201315024774-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 27, 2013
Priority date	Sep 27, 2013
Publication date	Jul 17, 2018
Grant date	Jul 17, 2018

Abstract

A script-driven head-up display controller comprising an image warping unit and an image projection unit wherein the image warping unit is coupled to the image projection unit and is adapted to:
receive a line-based warping descriptor comprising first information associated with a distortion caused by a non-flat display; and, in response to the reception of the line-based warping descriptor, the image warping unit is further adapted to, based on the line-based warping descriptor:
fetch one or more lines of the source image; and, output to the image projection unit at least one output line of the output image associated with an electronic image warping of one or more pixels of the one or more input lines,

and wherein the line-based warping descriptor further comprises second information associated with buffer management instructions calculated off-line.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A script-driven head-up display, HUD, controller comprising:
a memory, an image warping unit and an image projection unit;
wherein:
the image projection unit is adapted to project a source image onto a non-flat display unit;
the image warping unit is adapted to generate a first output line of an output image and a second output line of the output image, the output image corresponding to the result of an electronic image warping of the source image;
the image warping unit is operably coupled to the image projection unit and is further adapted to:
receive, from the memory, a first line-based warping descriptor comprising a first information associated with a distortion of a test pattern image caused by the non-flat display unit while the test pattern image is projected by the image projection unit onto the non-flat display unit without prior application of an electronic image warping process to the test pattern image; and,
in response to the reception of the first line-based warping descriptor, the image warping unit is further adapted to, based on the first line-based warping descriptor:
extract first buffer management instructions from the first line-based warping descriptor;
manage a line-buffer-based memory in accordance with the first buffer management instructions to fetch a first set of one or more lines of the source image, referred to as first input lines; and,
output to the image projection unit the first output line of the output image, the first output line being associated with an electronic image warping of one or more pixels of the first input lines,

and wherein:
the image warping unit comprises a processing unit and the line-buffer-based memory, the line buffer-based memory being adapted to store the first input lines;
the first line-based warping descriptor further comprises a second information including first buffer management instructions calculated off-line based on at least:
the first information mathematically describing the distortion due to the non-flat display unit; and,
a physical characteristic of the line-buffer-based memory;

the processing unit is adapted to perform the first buffer management instructions for the first output line, the operations of:
allocating fetched first input lines into the line-buffer-based memory; and,
de-allocating unneeded input lines from the line-buffer-based memory.

2. The HUD controller of claim 1 , wherein the line-buffer-based memory is a dual port circular line-buffer-based memory comprising independent first input port and second output port, respectively adapted to simultaneously store input lines and output one or more pixels of one or more stored input lines.

3. The HUD controller of claim 1 , wherein the line-buffer-based memory comprises at least one memory instance adapted to store input lines or output one or more pixels of one or more stored input lines according to a time-multiplexed scheme.

4. The HUD controller of claim 1 , wherein the line-buffer-based memory is physically limited in terms of the maximum number of fetched input lines to be stored at once versus the image warping unit outputting one output line.

5. The HUD controller of claim 1 , wherein the first line-based warping descriptor further comprises:
a third information describing an association of one output pixel of the first output line with one or more input pixels of the first input lines; and,
a fourth information describing an interpolation scheme to be used by the line-buffer-based memory to generate the output pixel associated with more than one input pixels.

6. The HUD controller of claim 5 wherein when a particular output pixel of the first output line is not associated with any input pixel of the first input lines:
the line-based warping descriptor further comprises a fifth information describing how the particular output pixel is to be displayed on the non-flat display unit; and,
the image warping unit is further adapted to generate the particular output pixel based on the fifth information.

7. The HUD controller of claim 1 , wherein the image warping unit is further adapted to, when outputting the first output line, fetch one or more input lines associated with the generation of the second output line.

8. The HUD controller of claim 1 , wherein the HUD controller is coupled to:
a storing unit adapted to store at least one source image and a line-based warping descriptor; and
a non-flat display unit adapted to display an output image projected and generated by the HUD controller based on at least the source image and the line-based warping descriptor.

9. The HUD controller of claim 8 , wherein the HUD controller is implemented in a vehicle.

10. The HUD controller of claim 8 , wherein the HUD controller is implemented in an apparatus.

11. A method of operating a script-driven head-up display, HUD, controller, the HUD controller comprising a memory, an image warping unit and an image projection unit operably coupled together, wherein the image projection unit is adapted to project a source image onto a non-flat display unit and the image warping unit is adapted to generate at least a first line of an output image and a second line of the output image, the output image corresponding to the result of an electronic image warping of the source image, the method comprising:
receiving, from the memory, a first line-based warping descriptor comprising a first information associated with a distortion of a test pattern image caused by the non-flat display unit while the test pattern image is projected by the image projection unit onto the non-flat display unit without prior application of an electronic image warping process to the test pattern image;
in response to the reception of the first line-based warping descriptor and based on the first line-based warping descriptor:
extracting first buffer management instructions from the first line-based warping descriptor;
managing a line-based memory in accordance with the first buffer management instructions to fetch a first set of one or more lines of the source image, referred to as first input lines; and,
outputting to the image projection unit the first output line of the output image, the first output line being associated with an electronic image warping of one or more pixels of the first input lines,

wherein:
the image warping unit comprises a processing unit and the line-buffer-based memory, the line buffer-based memory being adapted to store the first input lines;
the first line-based warping descriptor is calculated off-line based on at least:
one physical characteristics of the line-buffer-based memory; and,
the first information mathematically describing the distortion due to the non-flat display unit;

the first line-based warping descriptor further comprises a second information including the first buffer management instructions;
the method further comprising, performing the first buffer management instructions for the first output line:
allocating fetched first input lines into the line-buffer-based memory; and,
de-allocating unneeded input lines from the line-buffer-based memory.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the first line-based warping descriptor further comprises:
a third information describing an association of one output pixel of the first output line with one or more input pixels of the first input lines; and,
a fourth information describing an interpolation scheme to be used by the line-buffer-based memory to generate the one output pixel associated with the one or more input pixels.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein when a particular output pixel of the f

Assignees

• Staudenmaier Michael Andreas
• Bajaj Kshitij
• Singh Chanpreet
• Nxp Usa Inc

Inventors

• Staudenmaier Michael Andreas
• Bajaj Kshitij
• Singh Chanpreet

Classifications

• G02B27/0025 Primary

  for optical correction, e.g. distorsion, aberration · CPC title

• G02B2027/013

  comprising a combiner of particular shape, e.g. curvature · CPC title

• G02B2027/011

  comprising device for correcting geometrical aberrations, distortion · CPC title

• G02B27/01

  Head-up displays · CPC title

• G02B2027/014

  comprising information/image processing systems · CPC title