Vehicle camera system

1 . A method comprising:

determining, by a processor, that a first camera mounted arbitrarily onto an external position on a vehicle includes unknown extrinsic parameters and a second camera integrated into a fixed position on the vehicle includes known extrinsic parameters;

determining, by the processor, a predicted pose of the first camera that corresponds to at least a portion of the unknown extrinsic parameters using inertial measurement unit (IMU) data associated with the first camera and one or more wireless ranging measurements associated with the first camera;

continuously tracking, by the processor, the predicted pose of the first camera by performing online iterative calibration of the predicted pose while the vehicle is in motion, the online iterative calibration using the IMU data and the one or more wireless ranging measurements and further using wireless synchronization of timestamps between the first camera, the second camera, and the IMU data to refine the predicted pose of the first camera;

receiving, by the processor, first data from the first camera and second data from the second camera; and

stitching, based on the continuously tracked pose of the first camera and a pose of the second camera, the first data together with the second data to generate a stitched image having a contiguous field of view.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining comprises detecting the first camera at a non-fixed location on the vehicle having a wireless connection to the processor and detecting the second camera at a fixed location on the vehicle having a wired connection to the processor.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the first data and the second data are received over the wireless connection and the wired connection respectively.

4 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising determining a relative position between the first camera and the second camera based on the non-fixed location of the first camera and the fixed location of the second camera.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining comprises detecting the first camera at an arbitrary location on the vehicle and detecting the second camera at a predefined location on the vehicle, wherein the first data and the second data are received over a first wireless network associated with a first wireless protocol.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the determining the predicted pose of the first camera further comprises determining a pitch of the first camera using data from an inertial measurement unit in the first camera, wherein the pose of the second camera is predefined based at least in part on the predefined location of the second camera.

7 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising:

determining a position of the first camera by estimating the position of the first camera using one or more radio frequency signal measurements associated with a ranging estimator in the first camera; and

determining a position of the second camera based at least in part on the predefined location of the second camera.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the determining the position and the pose of each of the first camera and the second camera further comprises refining the position and the pose of each of the first camera and the second camera by performing a calibration on estimates from the inertial measurement unit and the ranging estimator in each of the first camera and the second camera.

9 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising performing, by the processor, a synchronization between the first camera and the second camera by continuously tracking the pose of each of the first camera and the second camera relative to a center of the vehicle while the vehicle is in motion, wherein the synchronization between the first camera and the second camera is performed over a second wireless network associated with a second wireless protocol.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the first wireless protocol is Wi-Fi and the second wireless protocol is ultra-wideband (UWB).

11 . The method of claim 9 , wherein each of the first wireless protocol and the second wireless protocol is Wi-Fi.

12 . A system comprising:

memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory and configured to:

determine that a first camera positioned at an arbitrary location on a vehicle includes unknown extrinsic parameters;

determine a predicted pose of the first camera that corresponds to at least a portion of the unknown extrinsic parameters using inertial measurement unit (IMU) data associated with the first camera and one or more wireless ranging measurements associated with the first camera;

continuously track the predicted pose of the first camera by performing online iterative calibration of the predicted pose while the vehicle is in motion, the online iterative calibration using the IMU data and the one or more wireless ranging measurements and further using wireless synchronization of timestamps between the first camera, a second camera, and the IMU data to refine the predicted pose of the first camera;

receive first data from the first camera; and

stitch the first data with second data associated with the second camera to generate a stitched image having a contiguous field of view based at least in part on a position and the continuously tracked pose of the first camera.

13 . The system of claim 12 , wherein a position and the pose of the first camera are unknown when the first camera is mounted arbitrarily at an external position on the vehicle.

14 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the first data is received over a wireless connection with the at least one processor from the external position on the vehicle.

15 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the first data is received over a first wireless network associated with a first wireless protocol when the first camera is mounted arbitrarily at an external position on the vehicle.

16 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to perform a synchronization between the first camera and the second camera on the vehicle by continuously tracking the pose of each of the first camera and the second camera relative to a center of the vehicle while the vehicle is in motion, wherein the synchronization between the first camera and the second camera is performed over a second wireless network associated with a second wireless protocol.

17 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the first wireless protocol is Wi-Fi, and the second wireless protocol is ultra-wideband (UWB).

18 . The system of claim 16 , wherein each of the first wireless protocol and the second wireless protocol is Wi-Fi.

19 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the predicted pose of the first camera is further determined using one or more measurements associated with the first camera that comprises one or more of data from an inertial measurement unit (IMU) in the first camera or radio frequency signal measurements associated with a ranging estimator in the first camera.

20 . A vehicle, comprising:

a first camera;

a second camera; and

a processor configured to:

detect a first connection to the first camera and a second connection to the second camera;

determine that the first camera is mounted arbitrarily onto an external position of the vehicle with unknown extrinsic parameters and the second camera is integrated into a fixed position on the vehicle with known extrinsic parameters;

determine a predicted pose of the first camera that corresponds to at least a portion of the unknown extrinsic parameters using inertial measurement unit (IMU) data associated with the first camera and one or more wireless ranging measurements associated with the first camera;

continuously track the predicted pose of the first camera by performing online iterative calibration of the predicted pose while the vehicle is in motion, the online iterative calibration using the IMU data and the one or more wireless ranging measurements and further using wireless synchronization of timestamps between the first camera, the second camera, and the IMU data to refine the predicted pose of the first camera;

receive, from the first camera, a transmission comprising first data having a first field of view of a scene;

receive, from the second camera, a transmission comprising second data having a second field of view of the scene; and

create a stitched image having a contiguous field of view using the first data having the first field of view and the second data having the second field of view based on a position and the continuously tracked pose of the first camera.