Visual assistance for drivers using roadside cameras

AHS (Advanced Cruise-Assist Highway System) will increase the road potential because it enables to shorten the distance between the cars. On the other hand, AHS may make the drivers uncomfortable because of the reduced field of vision by the car ahead and the anxiety for the reliability of the control system. In order to improve the amenity of drivers under the control of AHS, the recovery of driver's field of vision will be essential. In this paper, we propose the NaviView system for that purpose. In AHS, the entire traffic on the highway is visually monitored by a lot of roadside video cameras. The NaviView utilizes those video images for the recovery of driver's visual field. It enables the driver to observe the behavior of other cars by a virtual view as if he is sitting on a seat located above his car. The virtual view presented to the driver is synthesized by combining the video images of the fixed roadside cameras. The proposed algorithm was tested using a real road scene.