Inspection of the contoured surface of the undercarriage of a motor vehicle

1. A method for providing a contrast enhanced image of a contoured surface of an undercarriage of a motor vehicle with an image capturing device and an illumination device including an illumination matrix formed of a plurality of illumination elements arranged in illumination rows, the method comprising:

(a) moving the motor vehicle with respect to the image capturing device and the illumination device;

(b) illuminating the surface with the illumination device by sequentially activating individual illumination rows of the illumination matrix such that the surface is illuminated from different directions;

(c) recording, using at least one image capturing device, multiple overlapping images of the surface using at least one of different light exposure and different illumination while the motor vehicle is moved with respect to the image capturing device;

(d) automatically generating partial images of the overlapping areas of the recorded images, wherein at least two partial images comprising the same region of the surface are generated from the images which have been recorded with at least one of different light exposure and different illumination;

(e) automatically generating, for each region, a contrast enhanced image from the partial images of the respective region; and

(f) automatically assembling the generated contrast enhanced images to form an enhanced total image of the surface;

wherein, in step (e) a contrast enhanced image for a region is generated by either

automatically generating from at least two partial images of the same region, which have been recorded with at least one of different light exposure and different illumination, at least one synthetic intermediate image, identifying partial objects having maximum contrast in the at least one synthetic intermediate image, and assembling the identified partial objects forming the contrast enhanced image; or by

automatically generating at least one synthetic intermediate image from at least two partial images of the same region, which have been recorded with at least one of different light exposure and different illumination, employing variance-based contrast adaption, and automatically generating the contrast enhanced image from adjacent partial images by employing variance-based contrast adaption.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the margins of the individual partial objects are adapted upon assembling of the partial objects in order to avoid artifacts at interfaces between the assembled partial objects.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein, upon assembly of the enhanced images in step (e), the margins of the individual images are adapted by a local histogram adaptation to avoid artifacts at interfaces between the assembled enhanced images.

4. A device for providing an contrast enhanced image of a contoured surface of an undercarriage of a motor vehicle, the device comprising:

(a) at least one image capturing device configured for recording multiple images of each of at least two regions of the surface using at least one of different light exposure and different illumination while the motor vehicle is moved over the at least one image capturing device;

(b) an illumination device including an illumination matrix formed of a plurality of illumination elements arranged in illumination rows, wherein the illumination device is configured for illuminating the surface by sequentially activating individual illumination rows of the illumination matrix such that the surface is illuminated from different directions;

(c) a processor providing the functions of an image enhancer and an image synthesizer;

(c1) wherein the image enhancer is configured for automatically generating partial images of the overlapping areas of the recorded images, wherein at least two partial images comprising the same region of the surface are generated from the images which have been recorded with at least one of different light exposure and different illumination; generating an contrast enhanced image for each of the regions from the partial images; and generating a contrast enhanced image for each region from the partial images of the respective region; and

(c2) wherein the image synthesizer is configured for assembling the contrast enhanced images generated for each of the at least two regions of the surface to form an enhanced total image of the surface;

(d) wherein the image synthesizer is configured for generating a contrast enhanced image for a region by either

(d1) automatically generating from at least two partial images of the same region, which have been recorded with at least one of different light exposure and different illumination, at least one synthetic intermediate image, identifying partial objects having maximum contrast in the at least one synthetic intermediate image, and assembling the identified partial objects forming the contrast enhanced image; or by

(d2) automatically generating at least one synthetic intermediate image from at least two partial images of the same region, which have been recorded with at least one of different light exposure and different illumination, employing variance-based contrast adaption, and automatically generating the contrast enhanced image from adjacent partial images by employing variance-based contrast adaption.

5. The device as recited in claim 4 , wherein the image synthesizer includes an image-margin adaptation device configured to adapt, upon assembly of the enhanced images, the margins of the individual images by a local histogram adaptation to avoid artifacts at interfaces between the assembled enhanced images.

6. The device as recited in claim 4 , further comprising:

at least one illumination device configured for illuminating at least one region of the surface, the illumination device including at least one illumination element and one illumination control device configured for adaptively controlling the at least one illumination element by taking into account the recorded images in order to adjust an enhanced illumination intensity.