A prototype of landmark-based car navigation using a full-windshield head-up display system

In driving applications, a full windshield head-up display (FWD) system provides a flexible way for delivering driving related information. The projected information (text, image and graphics) is distorted on the car windshield because of its non-planar surface, the FWD projector's position and the viewing angle of the driver. In this paper, we present development of a prototype of landmark-based car navigation using an FWD system. We propose to use a computer vision method to automatically correct FWD projection distortion on the windshield. Our system consists of an FWD, a camera and an LCD video projector. In the calibration phase, the camera captures the patterns projected by the FWD projector and our method automatically models the windshield distortion. In the working phase, the LCD video projector projects a video sequence (that is captured on a moving vehicle in the real driving situation) onto a wall to simulate real driving and the camera simulates the driver's view. Our system aims to detect and highlight key landmarks such as road signs on the windshield by controlling the FWD projector to provide better navigation information. We demonstrate the proposed concept using our previously developed street landmark detection system.

[1]  G. Allen,et al.  The role of perceptual context in structuring spatial knowledge. , 1978 .

[2]  Kevin Lynch,et al.  The Image of the City , 1960 .

[3]  Xilin Chen,et al.  Automatic detection and recognition of signs from natural scenes , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing.

[4]  R. Golledge,et al.  Environmental Knowing: Theories, Research and Methods , 1978 .

[5]  Ming-Hui Wen,et al.  Comparison of head-up display (HUD) vs. head-down display (HDD): driving performance of commercial vehicle operators in Taiwan , 2004, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[6]  Thomas A. Dingus,et al.  Visual Attentional Demand of An In-car Navigation Display System , 1988 .

[7]  Wen Wu,et al.  Object fingerprints for content analysis with applications to street landmark localization , 2008, ACM Multimedia.

[8]  Rainer Lienhart,et al.  Automatic text recognition for video indexing , 1997, MULTIMEDIA '96.

[9]  Yuichi Ohta,et al.  VISUAL NAVIGATION SYSTEM ON WINDSHIELD HEAD-UP DISPLAY , 2006 .

[10]  Kar-Hai Chu,et al.  Traffic and Navigation Support through an Automobile Heads Up Display (A-HUD) , 2008 .

[11]  L A Streeter,et al.  A Profile of Drivers' Map-Reading Abilities , 1986, Human factors.

[12]  Xilin Chen,et al.  Detection of text on road signs from video , 2005, IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst..

[13]  Gerhart F King DRIVER PERFORMANCE IN HIGHWAY NAVIGATION TASKS , 1986 .

[14]  Jing Zhang,et al.  A Multimedia System for Route Sharing and Video-Based Navigation , 2006, 2006 IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo.

[15]  Gary E. Burnett 'Turn right at the King's Head' : drivers' requirements for route guidance information , 1998 .

[16]  Andrew J. May,et al.  Presence and Quality of Navigational Landmarks: Effect on Driver Performance and Implications for Design , 2006, Hum. Factors.