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US 6,717,610 B1Granted
Wide angle image capture system for vehicle
AssigneeDonnelly Corporation
InventorsBrent J. Bos, Kenneth Schofield, Mark L. Larson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A wide-angle image capture system for providing a wide-angle field of view of an area immediately exteriorly of a vehicle. The system includes a convex aspheric, asymmetric reflective surface which reflects an image toward an image capture device, via a substantially flat mirrored surface, both of which are compactly packaged within a panel of the vehicle. The shape of the convex reflector provides a reflected image that has a minimal amount of distortion in critical areas of the image immediately adjacent to the vehicle, so that additional processing of the image prior to it being displayed to a vehicle operator is minimized.
Claims46
A vehicular vision system, comprising:
- a reflector fixedly attached at a portion of a vehicle for reflecting an image occurring exteriorly of the vehicle, said reflector having a reflector field of view exterior of the vehicle, said reflector field of view encompassing a view of a road portion and vehicles or objects thereon, said reflector field of view having a first principal axis;
- an image capture device fixedly attached at the portion of the vehicle, said image capture device having an image capture device field of view, said image capture device being oriented such that said image capture device field of view encompasses said image reflected from said reflector, said reflector and said image capture device defining an optical path therebetween and being oriented relative to one another such that the optical path is directed off of said first principal axis of said reflector so that the image captured by said image capture device does not include a reflection of the image capture device;
- and
- a display system which displays an image from an output of said image capture device, said display system including a display viewable by a driver of the vehicle when the driver is operating the vehicle.
1 more element
A vehicular vision system comprising:
- an image capturing system that captures an image of an area exteriorly of a vehicle, wherein said image capturing system comprises a reflector included at a portion of the vehicle, said portion of the vehicle also including an image capture device of said image capturing system, said reflector having a reflector field of view and being fixedly positioned such that said reflector field of view encompasses an area exteriorly of the vehicle, said reflector having a principal axis and reflecting a reflected image of the area, said image capture device being fixedly attached at said portion of the vehicle and having an image capture device field of view encompassing said reflected image, said image capture device being operable to receive said reflected image of the area exteriorly of the vehicle, said reflector and said image capture device defining an optical path therebetween and being oriented relative to one another such that the optical path is directed off of said principal axis of said reflector so that the image received by said image capture device does not include a reflection of the image capture device;
- and
- a display positioned within the vehicle and displaying an image, said image comprising an output of said image capture device of said image capturing system, said display being viewable by a driver of the vehicle when the driver is operating the vehicle.
A vehicular vision system comprising:
- a reflector having a curved reflective surface and a principal axis thereof, said reflector being fixedly attached at a portion of a vehicle and having a reflector field of view encompassing a view of a road portion and vehicles or objects thereon;
- an image capture device fixedly attached at the portion of the vehicle and operable to receive an image reflected from said reflector, said image capture device having an image capture device field of view, said image capture device being oriented such that said image capture device field of view encompasses said reflected image reflected from said reflector, said reflector and said image capture device defining an optic path therebetween and being oriented such that said optic path is directed off of said principal axis of said reflector so that the image captured by said image capture device does not include a reflection of the image capture device;
- and
- a display system which displays a synthesized image from an output of said image capture device, said display system including a display viewable by a driver of the vehicle when the driver is operating the vehicle.
1 more element
A vehicular vision system comprising:
- a reflector fixedly attached at a portion of a vehicle for reflecting an image of an exterior scene exterior of the vehicle, said reflector having a reflector field of view encompassing the exterior scene, said reflector comprising a curved reflective surface which provides a reflection with a minimal amount of distortion at a bottom portion and a center portion of the reflected image and with slightly greater distortion along an upper portion of the reflected image, said reflector having a reflective surface that has a principal axis;
- an image capture device which is adapted to receive the reflected image, said image capture device being fixedly attached at the portion of the vehicle and having an image capture device field of view;
- a mirrored surface positioned along an optic path between said reflector and said image capture device, said mirrored surface having a mirror field of view encompassing the reflected image reflected by said reflector, said mirrored surface redirecting the reflected image toward said image capture device, said image capture device field of view encompassing the redirected image from said mirrored surface, said optic path being off of said principal axis at said reflective surface so that the image received by said image capture device does not include a reflection of the image capture device;
- and
- a display system which displays an image from an output of said image capture device, said display system including a display viewable by a driver of the vehicle when the driver is operating the vehicle.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.