Imagination to Reality - Transparent Trailer
Hi, my name is Rohit Singh and I am currently working as a Technical Architect at Continental’s Technical Center India, Bangalore. I’m part of an enthusiastic team of Visualization, the same one that is responsible for a renowned feature called Transparent Hood. In the same vein, we also developed a feature called Transparent Trailer. I am fortunate for the opportunity to work on this feature and have the support and trust of my manager and team. Since then, I have proactively worked with a USA-based team to showcase the Transparent Trailer to various OEMs in the USA.
I joined Continental in late 2018. From the day I joined to today, I have been enjoying working here. Transparent Trailer was my first project. The problem statement of the project was to address an obscured rear view due to an attached trailer and its adverse effect on human and vehicle safety. Together, we brainstormed the idea to create a rear view wherein a driver can see what is behind the vehicle even if the trailer is attached to it, basically making the trailer transparent!
In a traditional mirror system, it’s completely impossible to see what is behind a trailer. In other rear-view systems, it’s difficult for the driver to understand the relative distances of other vehicles due to poor visualization.
In case of the Transparent Trailer, as the name suggests, the driver sees the rear view with the trailer being virtually invisible. This makes it easier to understand the driving and parking conditions for the driver. This solution was achieved by properly correcting and stitching the images from the trailer and vehicle cameras with the conjunction of Continental’s propriety algorithms to detect the trailer angle and dimensions.
There were some challenges to make Transparent Trailer possible. One of them was to align and stitch images, which were taken from different cameras with different perspectives. It was tackled by using projection geometry where those images can be projected to form a properly aligned and stitched image. Another challenge was to track the trailer body at any given point. This problem was solved by creating an algorithm to find the trailer body in the rear view, so that it can be later replaced by camera data to make it transparent.
Transparent Trailer is very useful for vehicles which tow any small or big trailer. While driving such vehicles, it becomes very difficult to maneuver the vehicle safely at fast, as well as slow speeds and this creates a potential risk for human and vehicle safety. Using Transparent Trailer, the driver can understand driving situations easily which reduces the risk of accidents as well.
I like to work in Continental’s Visualization team because we work on innovative technologies and solve real-world problems. Our goal is to make the best possible visualization for autonomous driving. My role gives me opportunities to work on technologies where I can utilize my skills to the best of my abilities. It also allows me to balance my personal and professional responsibilities together.
I am excited to share that we have also received the “CES 2021 Innovation Honoree Award” for Transparent Trailer, which encourages me to push my limits further and innovate more to shape the future of mobility.
This article was written by our employee.
Mr. Rohit Singh
