System and method for increasing sharpness of image

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11348206-B2
Application number	US-201916591485-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 2, 2019
Priority date	Oct 2, 2019
Publication date	May 31, 2022
Grant date	May 31, 2022

Abstract

Provided herein is a system and method that acquires data and determines a driving action based on the data. The system comprises a sensor, one or more processors, and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the system to perform, determining data of interest comprising an object, feature, or region of interest, determining whether a sharpness of the data of interest exceeds a threshold, in response to determining that the sharpness does not exceed a threshold, operating the sensor to increase the sharpness of the data of interest until the sharpness exceeds the threshold, in response to the sharpness exceeding the threshold, determining a driving action of a vehicle based on the data of interest, and performing the driving action.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a sensor;
one or more processors; and
a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the system to perform:
determining data of interest, wherein the data of interest comprises an object, feature, or region of interest;
determining whether a sharpness of the data of interest exceeds a threshold sharpness;
in response to determining that the sharpness does not exceed the threshold sharpness, operating the sensor to increase the sharpness of the data of interest until the sharpness exceeds the threshold sharpness, wherein the operating of the sensor comprises performing, on a lens of the sensor, one or more operations selected from a group consisting of: an azimuth rotation, a tilt, and a translation;
in response to the sharpness exceeding the threshold sharpness, determining a driving action of a vehicle based on the data of interest; and
performing the driving action.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operating the sensor comprises determining which one of an azimuth rotation, a tilt, and a translation to perform on a lens of a sensor based on a difference between the sharpness of the data and the threshold sharpness.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the determining data of interest comprises determining one or more objects or features to be data of interest based on a rate of change of the one or more objects or features.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the data of interest comprises a traffic light, a road sign, a pedestrian, or another vehicle.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the determining data of interest comprises determining a region to be data of interest in response to a temperature, barometric pressure, pollution, or smog level of the region differing from a temperature, barometric pressure, pollution, or smog level of a surrounding region exceeding a second threshold level.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the determining data of interest comprises predicting an existence of an object or feature based on another object or feature being present at a same location.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the determining data of interest comprises predicting an existence of an object or feature based on a road condition or terrain.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the threshold sharpness is determined based on a weather condition, an air condition, or a time of day.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the system to perform: in response to the sharpness of the data of interest exceeding the threshold sharpness, sending the data of interest to another vehicle.

10. A method implemented by a computing system including one or more processors and storage media storing machine-readable instructions, wherein the method is performed using the one or more processors, the method comprising:
determining data of interest, wherein the data of interest comprises an object, feature, or region of interest, the determining of the data of interest comprises determining one or more objects or features to be included with the data of interest:
based on a rate of change of the one or more objects or features;
in response to a first temperature, a first barometric pressure, a first pollution level, or a first smog level of the region differing from a second temperature, a second barometric pressure, a second pollution level, or second smog level of a surrounding region exceeding a threshold level;
predicting an existence of an object or feature based on another object or feature being present at a same location; or
predicting an existence of an object or feature based on a road condition or terrain;

determining whether a sharpness of the data of interest exceeds a threshold sharpness;
in response to determining that the sharpness does not exceed the threshold sharpness, operating the sensor to increase the sharpness of the data of interest until the sharpness exceeds the threshold sharpness; and
in response to the sharpness exceeding the threshold sharpness, determining a driving action of a vehicle based on the data of interest; and
performing the driving action.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the operating the sensor comprises performing, on a lens of a sensor, one or more operations selected from a group consisting of: an azimuth rotation, a tilt, and a translation.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the operating the sensor comprises determining which one of an azimuth rotation, a tilt, and a translation to perform on a lens of a sensor based on a difference between the sharpness of the data and the threshold sharpness.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the data of interest comprises a traffic light, a road sign, a pedestrian, or another vehicle.

14. The method of claim 10 , further comprising: determining the threshold sharpness based on a weather condition, an air condition, or a time of day.

15. The method of claim 10 , further comprising: in response to the sharpness of the data of interest exceeding the threshold sharpness, sending the data of interest to another vehicle.

16. A system comprising:
a sensor;
one or more processors; and
a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the system to perform:
determining data of interest, wherein the data of interest comprises an object, feature, or region of interest;
determining whether a sharpness of the data of interest exceeds a threshold sharpness based on a weather condition, an air condition, or a time of day;
in response to determining that the sharpness does not exceed the threshold sharpness, operating the sensor to increase the sharpness of the data of interest until the sharpness exceeds the threshold sharpness;

in response to the sharpness exceeding the threshold sharpness, determining a driving action of a vehicle based on the data of interest; and
performing the driving action.

17. A system comprising:
a sensor;
one or more processors; and
a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the system to perform:
determining data of interest, wherein the data of interest comprises an object, feature, or region of interest;
determining whether a sharpness of the data of interest exceeds a threshold sharpness based on a weather condition, an air condition, or a time of day;
in response to determining that the sharpness does not exceed the threshold sharpness, operating the sensor to increase the sharpness of the data of interest until the sharpness exceeds the threshold sharpness;
in response to the sharpness exceeding the threshold sharpness, determining a driving action of a vehicle based on the data of interest and sending the data of interest to another vehicle; and
performing the driving action.

Assignees

• Pony Ai Inc

Inventors

• Diehl Peter G
• Dingli Robert
• Abari Cyrus
• Tan Yui-Hong Matthias

Classifications

• H04N23/61

  based on recognised objects · CPC title

• H04N23/672

  based on the phase difference signals · CPC title

• H04N23/58 Primary

  Means for changing the camera field of view without moving the camera body, e.g. nutating or panning of optics or image sensors · CPC title

• B60Y2400/306

  Pressure sensors · CPC title

• B60Y2400/301

  for position or displacement · CPC title