How does car camera top view work?

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I was in an Uber that had front / back cameras. It also showed a top view of the car in real time. You could see other cars moving next to us. How is this done? The top view was too high to be a top mounted cam. My only explanation is that it takes the view from other cameras and creates a top view and the top view of the car is just a graphic with other data added. How does this work?

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4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

>My only explanation is that it takes the view from other cameras and creates a top view and the top view of the car is just a graphic with other data added.

This is exactly how it works.

The computer inside the infotainment (screen) knows the angle, position and field of view for every camera. And there are several around the car. So it takes the footage, angles it appropriately for a “top down” view, and stitches it together.

Anonymous 0 Comments

This is called a Birds Eye view camera. It is created by using perspective transformations (math) while stitching camera pixels together from different cameras.

Anonymous 0 Comments

>My only explanation is that it takes the view from other cameras and creates a top view and the top view of the car is just a graphic with other data added.

You got it. It has cameras with overlapping fields of view completely around the car. Some clever software combines all the cameras’ views into one panoramic shot with a top down perspective and just draws in a graphic of the car’s roof for position reference.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Yes, the image of the car is simply a graphic that is superimposed on the combined images from the side, front and back cameras. I own a black Hyundai Santa Fe and the image on my overhead view is a white/grey vehicle.