“Stereo technology opens up new potential for video-based safety systems,” says Gerhard Steiger, President of the Bosch Chassis Systems Control division, whose new stereo video camera can significantly reduce collisions at speeds of up to 50mph.
Steiger says, “A mono video camera requires extensive training before it can distinguish between different types of objects, such as pedestrians and cars in its image field. In contrast, a stereo video camera can measure and detect all the obstacles based only on their movement and distance.”
As a result, the stereo camera data alone can be used to trigger an automatic emergency braking process, and if an accident cannot be prevented, it can trigger the priming of the passenger restraint system, airbags and seat belt pretensioners in the optimum way.
The stereo system can also perform all the tasks typically associated with a mono video camera, such as recognising traffic signs, lane departure monitoring, and automatically adjusting headlight beams to take account of vehicles in front and oncoming traffic.
By integrating the control unit for image processing and function control directly in the camera housing, Bosch has built a compact system with only 12cm between the optical axes of the lenses. Each of the two CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) image sensors has a resolution of 1.2 megapixels. The camera can capture an angle of view of 25 degrees vertically and +/-25 degrees horizontally, and offers a 3D measurement range in excess of 50m. The light-sensitive image sensors cover the full spectrum of visible light.
