METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IN-VEHICLE AUGMENTED REALITY VISUALIZATION OF SENSOR RANGE AND FIELD-OF-VIEW
Some embodiments of a method disclosed herein may include: receiving a predicted driving route, sensor ranges of sensors on an autonomous vehicle (AV), and sensor field-of-view (FOV) data; determining whether minimum sensor visibility requirements are met along the predicted driving route; predicting blind areas along the predicted driving route, wherein the predicted blind areas are determined to have potentially diminished sensor visibility; and displaying an augmented reality (AR) visualization of the blind areas using an AR display device.
1 . A method comprising:
receiving sensor ranges of sensors on a vehicle and sensor field-of-view (FOV) data;
predicting blind areas along a predicted driving route, wherein the predicted blind areas are determined to have potentially diminished sensor visibility; and
displaying an augmented reality (AR) visualization of the blind areas using an AR display device.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle is a partially-autonomous vehicle with at least one of a manual mode or a driver assist mode.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle is a fully-autonomous vehicle.
4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving map data; and
updating the blind areas,
wherein updating the blind areas comprises comparing the received map data with local dynamic map data.
5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving blind area information from a second vehicle; and
determining that the second vehicle is in a blind area of the predicted blind areas based on the blind area information.
6 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
responsive to determining that the second vehicle is in the blind area of the predicted blind areas, displaying an indication that the second vehicle is in the blind area.
7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying blind area reduction techniques; and
responsive to identifying blind area reduction techniques, moving the vehicle from a first position to a second position.
8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the blind area reduction techniques comprise at least one of repositioning the vehicle or adjusting an orientation of one of the sensors.
9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein predicting blind areas comprises determining visibility areas at a plurality of locations along the predicted driving route.
10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein determining visibility areas comprises simulating sensor visibility at the plurality of locations along the predicted driving route using three-dimensional (3D) map data.
11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein predicting blind areas comprises continually estimating locations of blind areas based on a plurality of sensor readings.
12 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
tracking an orientation of the vehicle,
wherein predicting blind areas is based on the orientation of the vehicle.
13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein displaying the AR visualization of the blind areas comprises projecting the AR visualization using an in-vehicle augmented reality projection system to display the AR visualization.
14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein displaying the AR visualization of the blind areas comprises overlaying highlighting on a map indicating the blind areas.
15 . The method of claim 1 , wherein displaying the AR visualization of the blind areas comprises displaying an outline of areas on a map indicating the blind areas.
16 . (canceled)
17 . An apparatus comprising:
a processor; and
a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that are operative, when executed by the processor, to cause the apparatus to:
receive sensor ranges of sensors on a vehicle and sensor field-of-view (FOV) data;
predict blind areas along a predicted driving route, wherein the predicted blind areas are determined to have potentially diminished sensor visibility; and
display an augmented reality (AR) visualization of the blind areas using an AR display device.
18 . The apparatus of claim 17 , further comprising:
a set of sensors; and display device.
19 - 24 . (canceled)
25 . The method of claim 1 , wherein blind areas with potentially diminished sensor visibility comprises regions in which the sensors on the vehicle are unable to detect potential hazards.
26 . The method of claim 5 , wherein blind area information comprises position and orientation of one or more of the predicted blind areas.
27 . A method comprising:
receiving a predicted driving route, sensor ranges of sensors on a vehicle, and sensor field-of-view (FOV) data;
determining whether minimum sensor visibility requirements are met along the predicted driving route;
predicting blind areas along the predicted driving route, wherein the predicted blind areas are determined to have potentially diminished sensor visibility; and
displaying an augmented reality (AR) visualization of the blind areas using an AR display device.