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posted by Fnord666 on Friday February 23 2018, @08:26PM   Printer-friendly
from the here's-lookin-at-you-kid dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The number of cameras in cars is increasing. However, through the flood of data the internal networks are being pushed to their limits. Special compression methods reduce the amount of video data, but exhibit a high degree of latency for coding. Fraunhofer researchers have adapted video compression in such a way that a latency is almost no longer perceivable. It is therefore of interest for use in road traffic or for autonomous driving. This technology will be on display at the Embedded World from 27 February until 1 March 2018 in Nuremberg in hall 4 (booth 4-470).

[...] The Fraunhofer HHI, for example, has made a decisive contribution to the development of the two video coding standards H.264/Advanced Video Coding (AVC) and H.265/MPEG High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC). "With these methods, the data quantities can be sharply reduced. In this way, more than ten times the quantity of data can be transmitted," emphasizes the group leader of the "Video Coding and Machine Learning" department at the Fraunhofer HHI.

Normally, 30 to 60 images per second are sent from a camera to the vehicle's central computer. By compressing the image data, a small delay in transmission occurs, known as the latency. "Usually, this is five to six images per second," explains Stabernack. The reason for this is that the methods compare an image with those that have already been transmitted in order to determine the difference between the current image and its predecessors. The networks then only send the changes from image to image. This determination takes a certain amount of time.

"However, this loss of time can be of decisive importance in road traffic," says Stabernack. In order to avoid latency, the professor and his team only use special mechanisms of the H.264-coding method, whereby determining the differences in individual images no longer takes place between images, but within an image. This makes it a lowlatency method.

"With our method the delay is now less than one image per second, almost real time. We can therefore now also use the H.264 method for cameras in vehicles," is how Stabernack describes the additional value. The technology was implemented in the form of a special chip. In the camera it compresses the image data, and in the on-board computer it decodes them again.


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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @09:58PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @09:58PM (#642661)

    If you processing at the camera. PROCESS at the camera. Find edges shapes so central can do real work not decompress and find shapes and edges. What are they thinking with?

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Friday February 23 2018, @10:41PM (1 child)

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Friday February 23 2018, @10:41PM (#642681)

    Honestly, I thought this was already how it worked, at least in today's cars with cameras for lane-departure warning and lane-keeping: the camera is directly connected to the processing box with a short cable, or the two are a single unit. Maybe planned future systems will be doing a lot more than just looking for lane lines, so they want a much beefier CPU to handle it plus other auto-driving duties, and that requires a much longer cable from the camera to the CPU.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Saturday February 24 2018, @12:28AM

      by frojack (1554) on Saturday February 24 2018, @12:28AM (#642759) Journal

      You are forgetting this is Frauhofer.

      How do you expect them to maintain a revenue stream with their expired patents unless they introduce stupid new encoding?

      --
      No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by bob_super on Friday February 23 2018, @10:57PM (2 children)

    by bob_super (1357) on Friday February 23 2018, @10:57PM (#642696)

    Have you looked at the front-facing camera on most new cars? It's that thing right under the windshield at the top, above the rear-view mirror.
    Obviously, you knew that, you're on SN.

    Now, did you consider the thermal design parameters of an advanced processing unit stuck at the top of a windshield, going full-greenhouse in a dust-proof enclosure ? How well/long will that work in Phoenix or Dubai?
    That side camera under the mirror, or the one above the rear bumper ... how much will you pay for a replacement after a bump already, without adding more pieces where they are likely to get damaged?

    Car design is full of fun tradeoffs.

    • (Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday February 24 2018, @12:26AM

      by frojack (1554) on Saturday February 24 2018, @12:26AM (#642757) Journal

      how much will you pay for a replacement

      About 20 bucks per camera. (I've replaced one, and added one). Not expensive as long as you can use the same wire harness.
      Entire systems with camera and monitor are available for under $30

      Front cams are only used by SOME adaptive cruise control systems (the less reliable ones). Most cars use lidar or radar in 25 or 27ghz band.

      --
      No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by sjames on Saturday February 24 2018, @02:18AM

      by sjames (2882) on Saturday February 24 2018, @02:18AM (#642824) Journal

      The processor doesn't have to be right there at the camera, it just has to be between the camera and the rest of the car's network.