Free-view multi-camera visualization and harmonization for automotive systems

In this paper, we present framework for visualization of the vehicle-surround-views that include multiple cameras attached to the car exterior. The proposed framework harmonizes the input camera images in terms of brightness, colour and other related properties to enable advanced visualization, where the displayed image looks as it would have been captured by a single camera positioned at an arbitrarily chosen 3D point and oriented in 3D space around the vehicle. The rendering and harmonization framework is a hybrid based scheme that performs both adaptive camera tuning and post processing of the camera images. We discuss both algorithmic and implementation aspects of the image quality module within which the framework is designed. The algorithms involved in the image quality module perform camera image processing, which includes both image analyses and image post-tuning. In addition to algorithmic aspect of the framework, this paper also discusses real-time implementation aspects related to different embedded systems presently used in automotive systems.