Video-based rear-view mirror system for vehicles including motorcycles

An improved video-based rear-view mirror system for vehicles including motorcycles (but also with application to other vehicles including cars, trucks, bicycles, and so on) includes at least one digital display screen configured to be mounted in a side-mirror positioned unit; and at least one camera unit coupled to the digital display screen, such that the digital display screen is configured to display video data captured by the camera unit; wherein the system is configured such that the video data displayed by the at least one display screen is tuned to provide a side-mirror proxy view.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application claims the benefit of the filing date of Australian Patent Application Serial No. 2019901405, filed Apr. 24, 2019, for “Improved Video-Based Rear-View Mirror System for Vehicles including Motorcycles,” the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by this reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates, in various embodiments, to an improved video-based rear-view mirror system for vehicles including motorcycles (but also with application to other vehicles including cars, trucks, bicycles, and so on). While some embodiments will be described herein with particular reference to that application, it will be appreciated that the present disclosure is not limited to such a field of use, and is applicable in broader contexts.

BACKGROUND

Any discussion of the background art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.

Side mirrors on motorcycles are often of limited usefulness. There is an inherent compromise between the lateral extension of the mirrors (which can be undesirable from an aesthetic and aerodynamic perspective) and functional field of view (which is adversely affected as lateral extension decreases, for example, with the rider's body blocking a major portion of the mirror's field of view).

As a partial solution to the known problem of mirrors, a known approach is to provide a screen, for example, a LCD screen, on a motorcycle, and use that screen to display a video feed from a centrally-mounted rear-facing camera. Usually, this is by way of a centrally-mounted display screen. The use of such a centrally-mounted screen, particularly as an aftermarket accessory, is seen as unpreferable by many motorcycle enthusiasts. Additionally, positioning of a central mirror often causes a rider to take his/her eyes off the road.

There have been some attempts to mount screens in side mirror units, primarily as a means to overcome aesthetic concerns with the mounting of a central aftermarket screen. Whilst the approach of mounting screens into side mirror units can be more aesthetically pleasing than an aftermarket centrally-mounted screen, functionally it is problematic. In particular, the present inventor has identified a technical problem in that the view provided by a rear-facing camera is quite different from the view a rider would expect from a side mirror. This can lead to confusion, and potentially accidents.

It is an object of the present disclosure to overcome or ameliorate at least one of the disadvantages of the prior art, or to provide a useful alternative.

BRIEF SUMMARY

Example embodiments are described below in the section entitled “claims,” and in the section entitled “detailed description.”

As used herein, the term “exemplary” is used in the sense of providing examples, as opposed to indicating quality. That is, an “exemplary embodiment” is an embodiment provided as an example, as opposed to necessarily being an embodiment of exemplary quality.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments include rear-facing camera systems for vehicles, such as motorbikes, cars, trucks, bicycles, and so on. For the purposes of the present disclosure, these will be described by reference to practical application in a motorcycle context, but it should be appreciated that this is for the purposes of example only. However, one should note that the technology is especially useful in a motorcycle context as it overcomes vision deficiencies typically associated with low-profile side mirrors (as a camera feeding image data to a mirror-unit-mounted screen is positioned rearward of a rider's body).

These systems include at least one digital display screen configured to be mounted in a side-mirror positioned unit; and at least one camera unit coupled to the digital display screen, such that the digital display screen is configured to display video data captured by the camera unit. The system is configured such that the video data displayed by the at least one display screen is tuned to provide a side-mirror proxy view.

The term “side mirror proxy view” is used to describe a view that is intended to replace a side mirror view, for example, in that it is side-specific for the vehicle (as opposed to showing a full rearward view). For example, for a left-side “side mirror proxy view” is, the view is configured to display a region of potential hazard on the left side of a motorcycle, including a left-rear region (and preferably with blind spots avoided, for example, by selecting an adequately wide-angled camera unit).

Whilst in some embodiments there is only a single side mirror unit digital display, preferred embodiments provide dual side mirror unit digital displays. Such embodiments provide a left-side digital display screen configured to be mounted in a left-side side-mirror positioned unit; and a right-side digital display screen configured to be mounted in a right-side side-mirror positioned unit. The system is configured such that: the video data displayed by the left-side display screen is tuned to provide a left-side side-mirror proxy view; and the video data displayed by the right-side display screen is tuned to provide a right-side right-mirror proxy view.

FIG. 1illustrates a system according to one embodiment. The system ofFIG. 1includes: a right-side assembly101, including digital display screen102configured to be mounted in a right-side side-mirror positioned unit103(which is mounted to a vehicle via a mounting member104); and a left-side assembly111, including digital display screen112configured to be mounted in a left-side side-mirror positioned unit113(which is mounted to a vehicle via a mounting member114).

The shape and configuration of units103and113and members104and114is illustrative only, and it will be appreciated that the shape and configuration of these components is determined by aesthetic and/or functional choices made based on a vehicle to which the system is applied. In some embodiments those components are inherently provided by the vehicle (i.e., by conventional side mirror units), and the system includes mounting components that enable mounting of display screens102and112to those side mirror units.

In the embodiment ofFIG. 1, screens102and112are coupled to a common control unit, which is a computing device including two input ports that are, respectively, coupled to a camera unit105and a camera unit115(the diagrams show components in a non-mounted arrangement, although with a dashed oval generally representing a motorcycle body shape for approximate visualization purposes). In use, the camera units are mounted to a vehicle in positions that, respectively, provide a right-side side-mirror proxy view and a left-side side-mirror proxy view. For example, they are mounted to the body of a motorcycle rearward of a rider seating position (precise mounting location may vary between motorcycles, and cameras are angled based on their positioning and field of view) Digital camera units are preferably used; otherwise an analogue-digital-converter is provided by control unit120. Control unit120includes processing componentry that is configured to pass input signals from the cameras to the respective display screens. In preferred embodiments, as described further below, this includes applying a video transformation algorithm thereby to cause the display screen to display a restricted portion of a video field of view for the respective camera. Control unit120is coupled to a power supply130, which is preferably inherently provided by the vehicle.

The embodiment ofFIG. 2provides a variation in that there are two separate control units120and120b, which, respectively, couple camera unit115to digital display screen112and camera unit105to screen102. Although the control units are illustrated separately of the screens, a preferred embodiment makes use of screen units, which are housed in a body that also contains the control unit. For example, there are a range of known display devices, which include microprocessors configured to receive and display video data from camera devices, and these are readily configured to execute customized software instructions to provide functionalities described further below (for example, devices that operate on an Android operating system). In the illustrated embodiment a common power supply130is again used. This is optionally to provide back-up power for battery power supplies, which are incorporated into screen units.

The embodiment ofFIG. 3provides a further variation where both screens are coupled to a common camera. Although there is a single common video input, the system is nevertheless configured such that the video data displayed by the left-side display screen is tuned to provide a left-side side-mirror proxy view; and the video data displayed by the right-side display screen is tuned to provide a right-side right-mirror proxy view. This is archived via each screen's control unit applying a video transformation algorithm thereby to display a reduced portion of the camera's field of view. This is discussed further below.

In providing a side-mirror proxy view from a camera positioned rearward of a motorcycle rider, a conventional camera display may be inadequate. For example, a spherical camera lens with field of vision suitable to eliminate blind spots and provide an adequate horizontal spread of visual information will also provide a similarly wide vertical spread, which is: (i) of limited use to the rider; and (ii) has potential to draw away from the regions of actual interest to the rider. Accordingly, some embodiments of the technology disclosed herein make use of a digital video transformation process, which takes a sub-region of the captured video data (for example, a rectangular or non-rectangular spatial sub-region), and transforms that for display on the screen (for example, by applying zoom and other transformations to each video frame thereby to transform the sub-region in each frame to a rectangular shape (or other defined shape) that is displayed in a display area provided by the screen). So, for example, video data captured by a wide-angle camera lens is constrained digitally between capture and display (e.g., by a “live filter” algorithm that provides substantially imperceptible latency in display) thereby to display on the side mirror unit screen a side-mirror proxy view, which displays a sub region of the field of view of the total capture of wide-angle lens that is of pertinent relevance to the rider. This is achieved by video zoom, pan and spatial transformation algorithms.

So as to provide some visual examples, in various embodiments, providing a side-mirror proxy view includes:Receiving input from the at least one camera unit, wherein the input is defined by a feed of video data having a first field of view. For example, this is represented by the larger rectangles illustrated inFIG. 5AandFIG. 5B.Processing the input, for example, via one or more video transformation algorithms, thereby to display video data having a second field of view, wherein the second field of view is constrained relative to the first field of view thereby to provide the side-mirror proxy view.

In the example ofFIG. 5A, the portion of video that provides the side-mirror proxy view is represented by the smaller rectangle. In this example, a customized portion of the video data is applied, requiring a video zoom transformation. However, in further embodiments alternate shapes are used to define the second field of view, and that shape is transformed via a video warping algorithm to define a rectangular shape displayable by the display screen. This is useful for reducing warping that may be present in wide angle cameras, and in doing so providing a view that is a better like-for-like proxy for a conventional side mirror.

In the example ofFIG. 5Bthere are two reduced displays, represented by irregular quadrangular shapes (which are transformed to standard rectangles for display on screens). This is relevant to the embodiment ofFIG. 3, where left and right side mirror proxies are extracted from a single wide-angle camera via video zoom and warping operations. In some cases the left and right reduced display regions overlap.

FIG. 4illustrates a video processing module400, which is configured to provide side-mirror proxy views from a digital camera video input from a conventionally-shaped camera lens. An input module401receives the video data, and a video pan/zoom/transformation module402(which is optionally defined by software instructions stored in computer memory and executing on a microprocessor) are controlled to provide a transformed video signal (i.e., a stream of video frames each transformed in a predefined matter), which is outputted via an output module403and transmitted for display on the display screen.

Module402is controlled by a field of view (FOV) control module404. In some embodiments the FOV control module executes a predefined algorithm, which is selected based on whether the screen is a left side or right side screen, and based on a predefined expected location of a camera. In some embodiments a user input device405allows for user customization of the side mirror proxy view, by adjusting zoom level and position. In this regard, the user input device provides controls that allow for control over video zoom and pan characteristics thereby to customize the side mirror proxy view. These controls may be inputted, for example, via: a touchscreen device (for example, using slide to pan and pinch to zoom techniques); or via physical buttons or other toggles (for example, an input control for horizontal pan, an input control for vertical pan, and optionally a further input control for zooming in or out). In both cases, the system provides a user interface that is configured to allow a user to adjust the second field of view thereby to customize the side-mirror proxy view.

It will be appreciated that the above disclosure provides advantages over known technology in terms of allowing screen-based rear-view mirrors to provide views that are, for an operator, a closer “like-for-like” proxy to what would be displayed by a conventional mirror.

Although connections between cameras and screen units shown as wired connections, some embodiments make use of wireless networking protocols (for example, WiFi or BLUETOOTH®).