US 2026/0192749 A1Published application

Reflective pillar display to view blind spot of a vehicle pillar

AssigneeToyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.

InventorsErcan M. Dede, Sean P. Rodrigues, Paul Donald Schmalenberg

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Abstract

Methods, systems, and devices for displaying an image of an obstructed blind spot on a pillar of a vehicle. The system includes an internal camera and an external camera. The system also includes a projector configured to beam light in the form of an image onto the pillar, and an electronic control unit (ECU) configured to determine, from the internal camera, the position of a head or an eye of a driver, cause adjustment of the external camera to capture images of an area of a blind spot of the driver, receive, from the external camera, images depicting the area of the blind spot, apply a transformation of the plurality of images to generate a transformed image of the blind spot, and control the projector to emit light in the form of the transformed image towards the pillar to display the transformed image onto the pillar.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A system for displaying an image of an obstructed blind spot on a pillar connecting a roof to a body of a vehicle, the system comprising:

an internal camera configured to detect a position of a head of a driver of the vehicle;
an external camera configured to detect image data from around the vehicle;
a projector positioned on a dashboard of the vehicle and located adjacent to and underneath the pillar, the projector being configured to beam light in the form of an image onto the pillar;
and
an electronic control unit (ECU) configured to:
determine, from the internal camera, the position or view of a head or eyes of the driver of the vehicle;
adjust, based on the position or view of the head or the eyes of the driver, the external camera to capture a plurality of images of an area of a blind spot of the driver;
receive, from the external camera, a plurality of images depicting the area of the blind spot of the driver;
apply a transformation of the plurality of images based on a known geometry of the pillar and an orientation of the projector relative to the pillar to generate a transformed image of the blind spot;
and
control the projector to emit light in the form of the transformed image towards the pillar to display the transformed image, the transformed image being displayed on the pillar showing the blind spot behind the pillar when viewing the pillar.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.