US 7,038,577 · Granted 2006-05-02

The Smart Camera That Sees Your Blind Spot

Imagine a camera mounted on your car that watches the areas you can't see when you're changing lanes. Instead of analyzing every pixel, it focuses its computing power on the danger zone beside you—using smart edge-detection to spot cars, motorcycles, or obstacles faster and more efficiently than scanning the whole image.

Curated and verified by the IsItPatented Editorial team

The plain-English version

What it protects

The claim covers a vehicle imaging system that captures exterior scenes and intelligently processes a focused target zone—typically a blind spot region—using edge detection algorithms while treating other parts of the image with less computational intensity. What's protected here is the specific method of dividing image data into priority zones and processing the target zone more heavily than peripheral areas to detect objects.

Why it matters

This patent represents an early approach to the blind-spot detection systems that became standard on modern vehicles. By focusing processing power on high-risk zones rather than wasting computational resources on the entire camera feed, the system could run on cheaper hardware and still deliver real-time object detection—a critical safety feature that helps prevent collisions during lane changes.

Real-world use

When you glance at your side mirror and see an orange warning light appear, or hear a beep warning you not to change lanes, you're experiencing technology descended from this patent's core insight.

Original USPTO abstract

An imaging system for a vehicle includes an imaging sensor and a control. The imaging sensor is operable to capture an image of a scene occurring exteriorly of the vehicle. The control receives the captured image, which comprises an image data set representative of the exterior scene. The control may apply an edge detection algorithm to a reduced image data set of the image data set. The reduced image data set is representative of a target zone of the captured image. The control may be operable to process the reduced image data set more than other image data, which are representative of areas of the captured image outside of the target zone, to detect objects present within the target zone. The imaging system may be associated with a side object detection system, a lane change assist system, a lane departure warning system and/or the like.

Patent details

Publication number: US 7,038,577
Filing date: 2003-04-30
Grant date: 2006-05-02
Assignee: Donnelly Corporation
Inventor(s): PAWLICKI JOHN A., MCMAHON MARTHA A., CHINN STEVEN G., GIBSON JOEL S.
CPC class: B60K31/0008

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