Wolfgang Hintermaier

A Novel Network Architecture for In-Vehicle Audio and Video Communication

In-vehicle audio/video communication has recently received considerable attention in the automotive industry. First, because of the increasing number of audio/video oriented nomadic devices in the consumer electronic market and the requirement to integrate them in the car. Second, because the number of real-time audio/video based driver assistance systems is growing fast. So far, the interconnection of in-vehicle stream oriented devices has been performed by different and proprietary, automotive oriented network systems with limited transmission capacities. Ethernet provides good conditions for audio/video streaming, due to its high transmission capacity. But it unfortunately fails in providing adequate QoS. In this work, a new network architecture for in-car audio/video communication based on the Ethernet technology is introduced and solutions are proposed to extend Ethernet with QoS guarantees while keeping its cost low.

A system architecture for IP-camera based driver assistance applications

We present a novel system architecture for automotive IP-camera based driver assistance applications. We assume that the video data is carried by an in-car switched IP/Ethernet network. The proposed architecture borrows concepts from the CE industry and hence fully takes advantage of the corresponding price and performance advantages. As an implementation study, a top view service is investigated. The suitability of the proposed approach is evaluated by introducing performance measures reflecting the special requirements of the driver assistance domain. To meet the real-time requirements of the driver assistance services we investigate and compare different architectural approaches for IP network cameras. Based on the results obtained with the prototypical implementations, an appropriate solution for future IP-camera based driver assistance services is proposed.

A Dual-View Visualization of In-Car Communication Processes

With the increasing complexity of in-car communication architectures, their diagnostics have become essential for automotive development and maintenance. In order to help engineers to detect and analyze the potential sources and consequences of errors, it is crucial to provide both comprehensive and detailed insight into the communication processes and their contexts. Two important aspects of these are the dependencies and correlations between onboard functions. In this paper we present a dual-view visualization for exploring the functional dependency chains of in-car communication processes. One view presents the dependencies of hardware components using a space filling approach similar to a treemap, whereas the other view displays the functional correlations as an interactive sequence chart. The views are coupled via color coding and show the dependencies of an interactively selectable functional unit. In an expert evaluation, we assessed the benefits of using this visualization technique for in-car communication diagnostics with very positive results.

A novel network design for future IP-based driver assistance camera systems

The current in-vehicle driver assistance network system is realized via point-to-point connections. Due to the growing number of cameras, the in-vehicle network systems are becoming increasingly complex, inflexible and costly. In our previous work, we have proposed an IP over Ethernet (IP/Ethernet) in-vehicle network system and have shown the necessity of video compression for driver assistance cameras. In this paper, all existing camera systems in the car are presented and classified. Their current connections are introduced and a new network topology based on IP/Ethernet is proposed to interconnect the cameras. We also investigate how video codecs in the car should be parametrized in order to avoid negative effects for driver assistance image processing algorithms while reducing the overall cost. The results show compression ratio regions that do not negatively affect the image processing tasks but instead improve their performance.

Influence of Image/Video Compression on Night Vision Based Pedestrian Detection in an Automotive Application

With the introduction of IP/Ethernet networks in automobiles, video compression becomes mandatory for efficient video transfer. Lossy image and video compression standards, such as JPEG and H.264/AVC, achieve high compression efficiency, but also introduce irreversible modification to the video data. On the one hand, this can lead to perceivable image degradation, and on the other hand, affect the performance of image processing algorithms. The pedestrian detection application based on night vision technology, is one example of a driver assistance service using a video stream as input. In this paper, we examine the impact of image/video compression on pedestrian detection, which employs a far infrared (FIR) sensor. In order to measure application quality, metrics used for driver assistance system validation, are investigated through hardware in the loop (HIL) simulation.

Camera context based estimation of spatial and temporal activity parameters for video quality metrics in automotive applications

We present a low complexity approach for the estimation of the temporal and spatial activity parameters of videos which are captured by a front-facing camera of a vehicle based on context information of the vehicle. The estimated parameters are integrated into an objective video quality metric, which can be used to determine the perceptual quality of a compressed video stream. Our proposed video quality metric has very low computational complexity, which makes it suitable for live video streaming applications. It shows a high Pearson correlation of 0.98 with an average root-mean-square error of 6%, as verified by statistical analysis with data from subjective tests.

A vision for the in-car network

A universal and barrier-free in-car network in which all ECUs are connected with one another through an overall network: this is the task. BMW aims to address this challenge with a convergence layer for communications throughout the car. To this end, the Internet Protocol (IP) is particularly well suited as a common basis for in-car communication. In order to demonstrate the theory in practice, BMW Forschung und Technik GmbH assembled a test vehicle (BMW 530d), fitted with an IP-based in-car network. Both entertainment and driver assistance applications and real-time communications applications were connected using IP.

Vision für das Bordnetz

Ein universelles und barrierefreies Bordnetzes, in dem alle Steuergerate uber ein einheitliches Netzwerk mitei nander verbunden sind, lautet das Ziel. Die BMW Group will dies auf Basis des Internet-Protokolls (IP) als einheitlichem Kommunikationsstandard realisieren. Fur den praktischen Nachweis wurde bei der BMW Forschung und Technik GmbH ein Versuchsfahrzeug auf Basis eines BMW 530d mit einem IP-basierten Bordnetz aufgebaut. Dabei wurden sowohl Applikationen aus den Bereichen Entertainment, Fahrerassistenzsysteme als auch aus dem Bereich Echtzeitkommunikation auf IP umgesetzt.