An imaging system for a vehicle includes an imaging device having a field of view exteriorly and forward of the vehicle in its direction of travel, and an image processor operable to process the captured images in accordance with an algorithm. The algorithm comprises a sign recognition routine and a character recognition routine. The image processor processes the image data captured by the imaging device to detect signs in the field of view of the imaging device and applies the sign recognition routine to determine a sign type of the detected sign. The image processor is operable to apply the character recognition routine to the image data to determine information on the detected sign. The image processor applies the character recognition routine to the captured images in response to an output of the sign recognition routine being indicative of the detected sign being a sign type of interest.

Imaging system for vehicle

The demand for wireless mobile communications services is growing at an explosive rate, with the anticipation that communication to a mobile device anywhere on the globe at all times will be available in the near future. An array of antennas mounted on vehicles, ships, aircraft, satellites, and base stations is expected to play an important role in fulfilling the increased demand of channel requirement for these services, as well as for the realization of the dream that a portable communications device the size of a wristwatch be available at an affordable cost for such services. This paper is the first of a two-part study. It provides a comprehensive treatment, at a level appropriate to nonspecialists, of the use of an antenna array to enhance the efficiency of mobile communications systems. It presents an overview of mobile communications as well as details of how an array may be used in various mobile communications systems, including land-mobile, indoor-radio, and satellite-based systems. It discusses advantages of an array of antennas in a mobile communications system, highlights improvements that are possible by using multiple antennas compared to a single antenna in a system, and provides details on the feasibility of antenna arrays for mobile communications applications.

/pdf/applications-of-antenna-arrays-to-mobile-communications-i-4vrvp7rdiu.pdf

Applications of antenna arrays to mobile communications. I. Performance improvement, feasibility, and system considerations

In order to estimate the signal parameters accurately for mobile systems, it is necessary to estimate a system's propagation characteristics through a medium. Propagation analysis provides a good initial estimate of the signal characteristics. The ability to accurately predict radio-propagation behavior for wireless personal communication systems, such as cellular mobile radio, is becoming crucial to system design. Since site measurements are costly, propagation models have been developed as a suitable, low-cost, and convenient alternative. Channel modeling is required to predict path, loss and to characterize the impulse response of the propagating channel. The path loss is associated with the design of base stations, as this tells us how much a transmitter needs to radiate to service a given region. Channel characterization, on the other hand, deals with the fidelity of the received signals, and has to do with the nature of the waveform received at a receiver. The objective here is to design a suitable receiver that will receive the transmitted signal, distorted due to the multipath and dispersion effects of the channel, and that will decode the transmitted signal. An understanding of the various propagation models can actually address both problems. This paper begins with a review of the information available on the various propagation models for both indoor and outdoor environments. The existing models can be classified into two major classes: statistical models and site-specific models. The main characteristics of the radio channel - such as path loss, fading, and time-delay spread - are discussed. Currently, a third alternative, which includes many new numerical methods, is being introduced to propagation prediction. The advantages and disadvantages of some of these methods are summarized. In addition, an impulse-response characterization for the propagation path is also presented, including models for small-scale fading, Finally, it is shown that when two-way communication ports can be defined for a mobile system, it is possible to use reciprocity to focus the energy along the direction of an intended user without any explicit knowledge of the electromagnetic environment in which the system is operating, or knowledge of the spatial locations of the transmitter and the receiver.

A survey of various propagation models for mobile communication

A method of forming synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images of moving targets without using any specific knowledge of the target motion is presented. The new method uses a unique processing kernel that involves a one-dimensional interpolation of the deramped phase history which we call keystone formatting. This preprocessing simultaneously eliminates the effects of linear range migration for all moving targets regardless of their unknown velocity. Step two of the moving target imaging technique involves a two-dimensional focusing of the movers to remove residual quadratic range migration errors. The third and last step removes cubic and higher order defocusing terms. This imaging technique is demonstrated using SAR data collected as part of DARPA's Moving Target Exploitation (MTE) program.

SAR imaging of moving targets

A forward-facing vision system for a vehicle includes a forward-facing camera disposed in a windshield electronics module attached at a windshield of the vehicle and viewing through the windshield. A control includes a processor that, responsive to processing of captured image data, detects taillights of leading vehicles during nighttime conditions and, responsive to processing of captured image data, detects lane markers on a road being traveled by the vehicle. The control, responsive to lane marker detection and a determination that the vehicle is drifting out of a traffic lane, may control a steering system of the vehicle to mitigate such drifting, with the steering system manually controllable by a driver of the vehicle irrespective of control by the control. The processor, based at least in part on detection of lane markers via processing of captured image data, determines curvature of the road being traveled by the vehicle.

Vision system for vehicle

Novel algorithms for moving target imaging and trajectory computation using a two-receiver radar are presented. The range-bin alignment is implemented with an adaptive method using the envelope correlation feature of different returns and the angular trajectory equation is solved using a linear least squares method combined with a unique phase-unwrapping technique. The angular positions of the synthetic array elements are determined from the trajectory computation. Three target models moving along a perturbed straight line are used to verify the proposed algorithms. >

Moving target imaging and trajectory computation using ISAR

This paper reports on experimental results and their interpretations for an indoor extremely high frequency (EHF) multipath channel. It is intended to help in establishing design guidelines for indoor wireless communications systems using millimeter waves. It deals with measurements obtained for the narrow and wideband indoor radio channels at 37.2 GHz within a typical concrete building at Laval University. Two kinds of transmission antennas, omnidirectional and directional, are used to investigate the propagation characteristics for the indoor channel. Under line-of-sight (LOS) conditions, the distance-power law exponent is found to be lower than the free space condition with walls playing a major role on the sustaining of high level signals. Large- and smallscale variations extracted from the original data are shown to follow log-normal and Rice distributions, respectively. The observed wideband impulse response has delay spread extending over a range up to 40 ns and a maximum root mean square (rms) value of about 16 ns. Both amplitude and phase behaviors of the signals are available for a better understanding of the various effects.

Experimental characterization of EHF multipath indoor radio channels

A numerical method for the analysis of waveguide discontinuities is proposed. The approach is based on the coupling of the finite-element and boundary-element methods. The respective merits of these methods are extracted to yield a much faster solution and to enhance computation efficiency. A general procedure is described using quadratic elements approximation, and the validity and efficiency of the method is demonstrated in the cases of a three-port H-plane ferrite waveguide Y junction and of a right-angle corner bend with and without dielectric loading. Comparisons of the present results with those obtained using the finite-element approach are made and shown to be in good agreement. An experimental result is also presented. The validity of the technique can be easily verified. >

Waveguide discontinuity analysis with a coupled finite-boundary element method

An adaptive receiving phased-array antenna is considered as one of the desirable features of the next generation of personal wireless indoor system. Such a feature will render this communication system much less sensitive to the signal fluctuations due to multipath propagation. This paper presents a prototype adaptive phased array based on an original nonlinear method. This adaptive algorithm which uses as performance criterion the maximization of the array output power to adjust a phase angle, is developed and applied to antenna system in order to control automatically its directivity pattern. Numerical results for a linear eight element array are presented. To test the algorithm experimentally, an eight element 20-GHz array, constructed using horn antennas and analog phase shifters, was used. The results obtained so far with such an array are discussed in the context of its eventual, implementation in MHMIC. >

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel1/15/8741/00385884.pdf

A nonlinear algorithm for output power maximization of an indoor adaptive phased array

A short range, high resolution, radar system of particular use in training radar operators. The system transmits very short pulses of a radio-frequency (RF) signal at a very high pulse repetition frequency, PRFo. A signal pre-processor samples a received baseband radar signal and generates a time-expanded signal which is a replica of the real received radar signal, but with a much lower nominal pulse repetition frequency, PRFn. The signal pre-processor includes a sampling circuit which receives the baseband signal, and a timing circuit which controls the sampling circuit. The timing circuit operates by causing samples of the baseband signal to be taken at progressively later portions of subsequent pulses. While the radar system is particularly useful in demonstrating radar principles in a classroom setting, it has other applications.

Gilles Y. Delisle

Papers

Moving target imaging and trajectory computation using ISAR

Experimental characterization of EHF multipath indoor radio channels

Waveguide discontinuity analysis with a coupled finite-boundary element method

A nonlinear algorithm for output power maximization of an indoor adaptive phased array

High resolution short range radar