Patent ID: 8487997

Claim:
A method for displaying an image of a scene in front of a vehicle, the image containing a roadway capable of illumination by headlights of the vehicle, the method comprising: recording the image by a video camera; weighting, using a reduction factor, gray values of pixels of image data generated by the video camera in such a way that a contrast between a display of a near range in front of the vehicle and a display of other parts of the image is reduced, the reduction factor being a function of a location of a respective pixel within the image and of a brightness of an object in the near range in front of the vehicle; calculating the reduction factor from a first factor and a second factor, the first factor determining a distribution of a reduction across the image, and the second factor determining a degree of reduction independently from a location within the image; and forming the second factor from a ratio of a first mean value and a second mean value, an assignment of positions in the image for forming the first mean value and the second mean value taking place in reverse as a function of the first factor.