Car Camera idea (only an idea)

[Oleh]

Right, i was on a coach yesterday and was thinking and this came to mind.

Kinect is only an example because its the only camera i have knowledge of with such technology for so cheap/small

Kinect has been hacked so it can control a remote control car automatically.

I got thinking.

Hook up a kinect camera to the back and front of a car facing slightly down on both sides and perhaps another on the left and right.

Then have some sort of program which would be hooked up to the cars electronics and steering.
This program then reads and processes all information fedback from the 4 cameras and for example.
Your driving down a motorway at 3am and want a easy relaxing journey, the cameras analyze the speed at which your travelling, the cars in the vicinity are travelling and alters speed to match the average of those, the cameras would also analyse the road markings and set a dead zone whereby if the car drifts to a certain distance closer to one marking it triggers the steering to level it out unless of course you activate the turning idicator and it will deactivate for the duration. This would enable almost automatic driving down a long stretch of road such as a motorway as it would alter its-self and stay aligned almost all the time going round hard shoulders.

Thoughts on wether my idea is plausible and if it has been tried please.

[Stephen!]

It's plausible. But who's going to program it?

Sounds like a fantasy kinda thing. I want my stairs to transform into a water slide at the push of a button. But somebody needs to make it first.

[Trinity]

Right, i was on a coach yesterday and was thinking and this came to mind.

Kinect is only an example because its the only camera i have knowledge of with such technology for so cheap/small

Kinect has been hacked so it can control a remote control car automatically.

I got thinking.

Hook up a kinect camera to the back and front of a car facing slightly down on both sides and perhaps another on the left and right.

Then have some sort of program which would be hooked up to the cars electronics and steering.
This program then reads and processes all information fedback from the 4 cameras and for example.
Your driving down a motorway at 3am and want a easy relaxing journey, the cameras analyze the speed at which your travelling, the cars in the vicinity are travelling and alters speed to match the average of those, the cameras would also analyse the road markings and set a dead zone whereby if the car drifts to a certain distance closer to one marking it triggers the steering to level it out unless of course you activate the turning idicator and it will deactivate for the duration. This would enable almost automatic driving down a long stretch of road such as a motorway as it would alter its-self and stay aligned almost all the time going round hard shoulders.

Thoughts on wether my idea is plausible and if it has been tried please.

I don't think a kinect is really necessary for this as you'll need a separate computer system to control everything anyway so you might as well use cheap little cameras and distance sensors and stuff and do all of the processing in the main computer. Plus kinect is designed to recognise people, not cars and road markings so there might be difficulties there.

Similar things have been tried before, but I don't think any of them have ever been made road legal.

You'd also have to take into account the fact that some road markings are a bit faded, so it would need to recognise them too, but you can't make it too sensitive or it could pick up things that aren't really road markings (like litter or something) and cause the car to swerve off the road.

Yes, it's plausible, but there are so many difficulties that it's unlikely to be made successfully any time soon.

[Recursion]

It's already been done by Ford or Honda or someone, beeps at you if you start crossing the lines, slows down / speeds up with traffic etc, I think it's in the mass market too.

[Jordy]

Aha decent post, you're right it theoretically is possible and it's how driveless cars will eventually work. And technology such as copying the speed/breaking of the car infront is already available on higher end cars I believe.

It's all very much cameras and motion sensors. Google have been having a lot of success in this field; http://gizmodo.com/5662005/test-driving-googles-driverless-car
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/8054149/Google-tests-driverless-car.html

[GommeInc]

It's already been done by Ford or Honda or someone, beeps at you if you start crossing the lines, slows down / speeds up with traffic etc, I think it's in the mass market too.
^ What he said. Volvo started off the technology with a car that brakes for you, Ford created a similar technology which, when in cruise control, brakes when approaching the car infront and keeps you in the lines. It's an on going technology - Citroen famously have the vibrating seat when the car enters the hard shoulder or crosses the line. I think they use sensors that go by colour, as well as distance sensors which are more sensitive than the parking sensors, so it ends up cheaper than kinect because there is no video involved.

An interesting idea though, and quite plausible as it goes an extra mile beyond what is currently being worked up, but it is a bit too advanced for its use :P

[Jack!]

Mercedes are usually the pioneers of stuff, They were the first to have anti lock brakes, Seatbelts, The new infra red light system, If Mercedes have it most cars will in a few years time, And they were working on something like this a while back I believe, but it was scrapped

[ChickenFaces]

It seems like a pretty plausible idea, however you'll only know for sure if you put it in action. Brainstorming is only half of the work when you want to get an idea across.

[ChristopherH]

Aha decent post, you're right it theoretically is possible and it's how driveless cars will eventually work. And technology such as copying the speed/breaking of the car infront is already available on higher end cars I believe.

It's all very much cameras and motion sensors. Google have been having a lot of success in this field; http://gizmodo.com/5662005/test-driving-googles-driverless-car
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/8054149/Google-tests-driverless-car.html

Hahahahaha,
what if a bird went in front of the camera. youd be screwed.