Patent ID: 11967098
Assignee: MAGNA ELECTRONICS INC.
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  B | IPC B  G

Claim 21:
22. A vehicular trailer angle detection system, the vehicular trailer angle detection system comprising:
a camera disposed at a rear portion of a vehicle, the camera viewing exterior and at least rearward of the vehicle;
wherein the camera comprises an imaging array having at least one million photosensor elements arranged in rows and columns;
wherein the camera is operable to capture frames of image data;
an image processor operable to process frames of image data captured by the camera;
wherein the vehicular trailer angle detection system determines, via processing by the image processor of captured frames of image data, features of a trailer present rearward of the vehicle and hitched to the vehicle;
wherein the vehicular trailer angle detection system determines features of the trailer by determining, via processing by the image processor of captured frames of image data, features that have similar position changes between a current frame of image data captured by the camera and a previous frame of image data captured by the camera;
wherein, responsive to movement of the trailer relative to the vehicle, and via processing by the image processor of captured frames of image data, the vehicular trailer angle detection system tracks determined features over multiple captured frames of image data for different positions of the trailer relative to the vehicle;
wherein the determined features of the trailer are tracked over multiple captured frames of image data based at least in part on at least one vehicle parameter;
wherein the vehicular trailer angle detection system determines angle of the trailer relative to the vehicle based at least in part on tracking of determined features of the trailer over multiple captured frames of image data; and
wherein the vehicular trailer angle detection system determines angle of the trailer without use of a target on the trailer.