New Car Sensor System Simulates Birds-Eye View

narramissic writes "Remember when you had to turn around in your seat to parallel park? Ok, maybe you still do, but if you drive a Nissan, those days may soon be behind you. The company's 'Around View Monitor system' displays a virtual bird's-eye view of the car and what's around it. Video from four small video cameras with wide-angle lenses — two mounted on the underside of the wing mirrors, one at the front under the grill and one at the rear under the license plate — is displayed on the navigation system monitor so that it appears to be a view from above the car and sonar sensors at each corner of the vehicle provide an audible warning when it is coming close to an object or person. And as if that weren't enough... the system also projects the car's future course based on the current direction of the wheels."

Comments

AVM in action

[heneon]

See the link:
https://www.nissan-global.com/EN/TECHNOLOGY/INTRODUCTION/DETAILS/AVM/index.html

Re:AVM in action

[Anonymous Coward]

Why are you giving people an https? Here it is without the 'wrong certificate warning' dialogs,

http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/TECHNOLOGY/INTRODUCTION/DETAILS/AVM/index.html

While it's an interesting concept, especially in Tokyo where you regularly see microvans in spaces with an inch to spare (it's a tax thing, not land cost), do we have anything but PR here?

This could be just another flavour of concept-car, in which case it's no more now than it was in 60s Mechanic's Illustrated. (Yes, I was promised flying cars when I grew up, and I'm kinda bitter.)

The crucial bug to be defeated is it must see everything yet not generate false positives, and that's a very difficult "last mile" to accomplish. Where we are right now is your ubercar backup sensor causes very expensive damage because it was confused the antique metal bar fence.

Re:Saving lives

[Paco103]

What's there to learn? Ever car has pretty much the same blind spot, some are just larger than others. If the vehicle has no rear view mirror (trucks, cargo vans, etc) , than close behind is a blind spot (you should never be that close anyway). The dangerous blind spots are always about about 4 and 8 o'clock. Too far up for [regular] mirrors to see you, too far back for the drivers peripheral. Convertibles don't have steel beams in the roof, so there's a large canvas patch that would interfere with the view here. True, the driver should be aware of their vehicles blind spots. I personally use convex mirrors on both sides, so even without having to turn I have no blind spots.

Yes, the driver SHOULD still be checking their blind spots. But as a vigilant driver, shouldn't you still be aware when you're driving in one, and know that it's in your best interest to get out of it. Either pass or fall back.

What do real obstacles look like?

[CTho9305]

The demo video somebody else linked to looks interesting, but it's easy to synthesize a good "top-down" view from side views when you're on an empty parking lot (i.e. flat surface). It would have to look strange to see a side view of the car next to you munged to appear as top-down though...

Re:I want to see around corners

[internewt]

A mate's Toyota has got that, but its more for pulling the car out of really blind entrances onto a road. You can see sideways from the very from of the car so that you can see if anything is coming, even when it may be impossible to tell from the cabin. It is not a system to let you see round corners!

Re:Does the system record the video?

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

I think the scariest thing about that video is the fact that the police chief found no problems with the officer's behavior. At least enough other people did that they fired the guy:
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/D46A8EE4AB8299A68625735D000200C0?OpenDocument