Method for calibrating the orientation of a camera mounted to a vehicle

A method for calibrating the orientation of a camera mounted to a vehicle, in particular a truck, comprising the steps of

• placing the camera in front of a calibration pattern defining at least two horizontal lines and two vertical lines;
• acquiring an image of the calibration pattern with the camera, the image having a first axis and a second axis at least essentially corresponding to a horizontal axis and a vertical axis, respectively;
• identifying, with a microcontroller in communication with the camera, representations of the horizontal lines and the vertical lines within the acquired image;
• determining, with the microcontroller, a horizontal vanishing point from the representations of the horizontal lines;
• determining, with the microcontroller, a vertical vanishing point from the representations of the vertical lines;
• and
• determining, with the microcontroller, a roll angle, wherein calculating the roll angle comprises determining an angle of the line segment defined by a horizontal vanishing point and a principal point of the image with respect to the first axis by calculating the inverse tangent of the quotient of a second coordinate of the horizontal vanishing point measured along the second axis and the first coordinate of the horizontal vanishing point;
• determining, with the microcontroller, a yaw angle by calculating the inverse tangent of the quotient of a focal length of the camera and the product of a pixel pitch of the camera and the first coordinate of the horizontal vanishing point or of a corrected horizontal vanishing point;
• determining, with the microcontroller, a pitch angle by calculating the inverse tangent of the quotient of a focal length of the camera and the product of a pixel pitch of the camera and the second coordinate of the vertical vanishing point or of a corrected vertical vanishing point;
• and
• adjusting, with the microcontroller, an orientation of the image acquired by the camera based on at least one of the roll angle, the yaw angle, and the pitch angle.