Approach to HIR (human-oriented information restructuring) using bird's-eye views

In this paper, we describe a system that creates a virtual bird's-eye view from multi-camera images in real-time and its application to 'HIR (Human-Oriented Information Restructuring) system for ITS' we have proposed. In recent years, studies on AHS (Advanced Highway Systems) are seen in many fields. However, there still remains many problems when we try to realize the automated driving, the goal of AHS. To overcome these problems of AHS, we have proposed HIR system, which assists drivers by providing them with integrated and restructured images. The striking point of the proposed system compared with the conventional one is that it is human, not the mechanical cars, that recognizes the situation and controls the car, and for that purpose, we just generate and show easy-to-understand images for human. The step is, integrate and restructure numerous camera images from all driving environment, such as cars and roads, and non-image information like VICS (Vehicle Information and Communication Systems) information. Then pick out the most important information according to the situation and show it in the form of 'image.' This paper proposes a bird's-eye view system as an example of HIR. We describe the algorithm and hardware to create a bird's-eye view in real-time. In the experiment, we show that the bird's-eye view is useful as a driver-assisting image under the situation of right turn at the intersection.