Method for operating a camera assembly, camera assembly and driver assistance system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10194077-B2
Application number	US-201715428191-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 9, 2017
Priority date	Dec 24, 2011
Publication date	Jan 29, 2019
Grant date	Jan 29, 2019

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for operating a camera assembly, in which a first camera and a second camera capture images ( 36, 42 ). Respective fields of view of the two cameras overlap at least in a partial region ( 24 ). At least in an image ( 36 ) captured by the first camera, at least one contamination region ( 38 ) including a plurality of pixels is detected within the partial region ( 24 ). Thereupon, data values specifying the respective transparency of the pixels in the at least one contamination region ( 38 ) are varied with respect to respective reference values of transparency, wherein those reference values increase in the partial region ( 24 ) towards an edge ( 28 ) of the respective images upon superimposition of the images. Furthermore, the invention relates to a camera assembly.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for operating a camera assembly for a vehicle, in which a first camera and a second camera capture images, wherein respective fields of view of the two cameras overlap at least in a partial region, and in which at least in an image captured by the first camera at least one contamination region including a plurality of pixels is detected within the partial region, the method comprising: altering data values specifying the respective transparency of the pixels in the at least one contamination region with respect to respective reference values of the transparency, which increase in the partial region towards an edge of the respective image upon superimposition of the images; in the image captured by the first camera, in at least one edge region of the contamination region, decreasing the data values specifying the respective transparency of pixels with respect to the respective reference values; and in the image captured by the second camera, in the at least one edge region, increasing the data values with respect to the respective reference values.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein in the partial region, in which the image captured by the first camera and the image captured by the second camera overlap, the data values specifying the opacity of pixels of the two images superimposed with each other result in a value of 1 in sum on a scale ranging from zero to 1.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein in the detection of the at least one contamination region in the image captured by the first camera, it is taken into account whether in the image captured by the second camera a structure corresponding to the at least one contamination region is present in an image region superimposed with the at least one contamination region.

4. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising means of an evaluation device associated with the respective camera, it is checked whether the at least one contamination region is present in the image captured by the first camera and in the image captured by the second camera.

5. A camera assembly for a vehicle, comprising
a first camera; and
a second camera for capturing respective images,
wherein respective fields of view of the two cameras overlap at least in a partial region, and including at least one evaluation device, by means of which at least in an image captured by the first camera at least one contamination region including a plurality of pixels is detectable within the partial region,
wherein the camera assembly includes an image processing device, by means of which data values specifying the respective transparency of the pixels in the at least one contamination region are alterable with respect to respective reference values increasing towards an edge of the respective image upon superimposition of the images in the partial region, and
wherein in the image captured by the first camera, in at least one edge region of the contamination region, the data values specifying the respective transparency of pixels are decreased with respect to the respective reference values, wherein in the image captured by the second camera, in the at least one edge region, the data values are increased with respect to the respective reference values.

6. The driver assistance system with a camera assembly according to claim 5 , wherein an output of the camera assembly is utilizable by at least one functional unit of the driver assistance system.

Assignees

• Connaught Electronics Ltd

Inventors

• Burke Michael
• Denny Patrick Eoghan

Classifications

• G06T11/10

  Texturing; Colouring; Generation of textures or colours (retouching, inpainting or scratch removal G06T5/77) · CPC title

• G06T3/4038 Primary

  Image mosaicing, e.g. composing plane images from plane sub-images · CPC title

• G06T2207/20221

  Image fusion; Image merging · CPC title

• B60R1/00

  Optical viewing arrangements; Real-time viewing arrangements for drivers or passengers using optical image capturing systems, e.g. cameras or video systems specially adapted for use in or on vehicles · CPC title

• G06T11/001

  Physics · mapped topic