Vehicular camera with automatic lens defogging feature

A vehicular vision system comprising:

• a camera comprising a housing and a lens barrel including a lens, wherein the lens barrel is attached at the housing so that the lens is optically aligned with an imager disposed in the camera housing;
• wherein the camera is configured to be disposed at an exterior portion of a vehicle so as to have a field of view exterior of the vehicle;
• a heating device disposed at the lens;
• an image processor operable to process frames of image data captured by the camera;
• wherein the heating device is activated to initially heat the lens responsive to determination, via processing by the image processor of a first frame of captured image data, of lens occlusion at the lens;
• wherein the heating device is (i) deactivated responsive to determination, via processing by the image processor of multiple frames of image data captured by the camera subsequent to the first frame of captured image data, that the determined lens occlusion is not water or moisture, or (ii) further powered to increase the heating function responsive to determination, via processing by the image processor of multiple frames of image data captured by the camera subsequent to the first frame of captured image data, that the determined lens occlusion is water or moisture;
• and
• wherein the vehicular vision system determines that the determined lens occlusion is not water or moisture responsive to determination, via comparing at least one of the subsequent frames of captured image data to the first frame of captured image data, that a degree of lens occlusion does not change between the at least one subsequent frame of captured image data and the first frame of captured image data.

A vehicular vision system comprising:

• a camera comprising a housing and a lens barrel including a lens, wherein the lens barrel is attached at the housing so that the lens is optically aligned with an imager disposed in the camera housing;
• wherein the camera is configured to be disposed at an exterior portion of a vehicle so as to have a field of view exterior of the vehicle;
• a heating device disposed at the lens;
• an image processor operable to process frames of image data captured by the camera;
• wherein the heating device is activated to initially heat the lens responsive to determination, via processing by the image processor of a first frame of captured image data, of lens occlusion at the lens;
• wherein the heating device is (i) deactivated responsive to determination, via processing by the image processor of multiple frames of image data captured by the camera subsequent to the first frame of captured image data, that the determined lens occlusion is not water or moisture, or (ii) further powered to increase the heating function responsive to determination, via processing by the image processor of multiple frames of image data captured by the camera subsequent to the first frame of captured image data, that the determined lens occlusion is water or moisture;
• and
• wherein the vehicular vision system determines that the determined lens occlusion is water or moisture responsive to determination, via comparing at least one of the subsequent frames of captured image data to the first frame of captured image data, that a degree of lens occlusion reduces from the first frame of captured image data to the at least one subsequent frame of captured image data.

A vehicular vision system comprising:

• a camera comprising a housing and a lens barrel including a lens, wherein the lens barrel is attached at the housing so that the lens is optically aligned with an imager disposed in the camera housing;
• wherein the camera is configured to be disposed at an exterior portion of a vehicle so as to have a field of view exterior of the vehicle;
• a heating device disposed at the lens;
• an image processor operable to process frames of image data captured by the camera;
• wherein the image processor processes frames of captured image data to determine a degree of lens occlusion at the lens;
• wherein the heating device is activated to initially heat the lens responsive to determination, via processing by the image processor of a first frame of captured image data, of an activation threshold degree of lens occlusion at the lens;
• wherein, with the heating device activated, the camera captures multiple frames of image data captured by the camera subsequent to the first frame of captured image data and the image processor compares the subsequent frames of image data captured by the camera to the first frame of captured image data to determine change in the degree of lens occlusion at the lens while the heating device is activated;
• wherein the heating device is further powered to increase the heating function responsive to determination that the degree of lens occlusion reduces at least a threshold amount from the first frame of captured image data to at least one of the subsequent frames of captured image data;
• and
• wherein the heating device is deactivated responsive to determination that the degree of lens occlusion does not reduce the threshold amount from the first frame of captured image data to at least one of the subsequent frames of captured image data.

A method of heating a lens of a vehicular camera to reduce lens occlusion due to water or moisture, the method comprising:

• providing a camera comprising a housing and a lens barrel including a lens, wherein the lens barrel is attached at the housing so that the lens is optically aligned with an imager disposed in the camera housing, wherein the camera is configured to be disposed at an exterior portion of a vehicle so as to have a field of view exterior of the vehicle;
• disposing a heating device at the lens;
• processing, via an image processor, image data captured the camera to determine a degree of lens occlusion at the lens;
• activating the heating device to initially heat the lens responsive to determining, via processing by the image processor of a first frame of captured image data, an activation threshold degree of lens occlusion at the lens;
• with the heating device activated, capturing multiple frames of image data via the camera subsequent to the first frame of captured image data and comparing via the image processor the subsequent frames of image data captured by the camera to the first frame of captured image data to determine change in the degree of lens occlusion at the lens while the heating device is activated;
• further powering the heating device to increase the heating function responsive to determining that the degree of lens occlusion reduces at least a threshold amount from the first frame of captured image data to at least one of the subsequent frames of captured image data;
• and
• deactivating the heating device responsive to determining that the degree of lens occlusion does not reduce the threshold amount from the first frame of captured image data to at least one of the subsequent frames of captured image data.