Abstract: The invention relates to a method and to a device for determining the articulation angle of a combination, consisting of a towing vehicle and a trailer attached using a tongue, by identifying the hitch tongue using a digital back-up camera with variable exposure times, the following steps being carried out: a) recording a first color image of the rear environment of the towing vehicle, the color image being based on the HSY color space, b) analyzing the hue values, saturation values and brightness values of adjacent surfaces of a vehicle-environment region that is to be evaluated, c) determining the tongue from the first color image using an edge detection method in order to determine the articulation angle if the hue values, saturation values and brightness values of adjacent surfaces in the region that is to be evaluated are substantially equal, “substantially equal” meaning that the values of hue, saturation and brightness of adjacent surfaces differ by at most a first threshold in percent, d) recording a

Abstract: The invention relates to a method and to a device for determining the articulation angle of a combination, consisting of a towing vehicle and a trailer attached using a tongue, by identifying the hitch tongue using a digital back-up camera with variable exposure times, the following steps being carried out: a) recording a first color image of the rear environment of the towing vehicle, the color image being based on the HSY color space, b) analyzing the hue values, saturation values and brightness values of adjacent surfaces of a vehicle-environment region that is to be evaluated, c) determining the tongue from the first color image using an edge detection method in order to determine the articulation angle if the hue values, saturation values and brightness values of adjacent surfaces in the region that is to be evaluated are substantially equal, “substantially equal” meaning that the values of hue, saturation and brightness of adjacent surfaces differ by at most a first threshold in percent, d) recording a

Abstract: In a method and an apparatus for calibrating a camera system of a motor vehicle, the calibration parameters comprising the rotation angle, pitch angle, yaw angle and roll angle as well as the height of the camera above the road, the rotation angle is determined from the ascertainment of the vanishing point from a first optical flow between a first and a second successive camera image, and the height of the camera is determined from a second optical flow between a first and a second, successive camera image. To determine the first optical flow, a regular grid is placed over the first camera image, correspondences of the regular grid are searched for in the second camera image, and the first optical flow is determined from the movement of the grid over the camera images.

Abstract: In a method and an apparatus for calibrating a camera system of a motor vehicle, the calibration parameters comprising the rotation angle, pitch angle, yaw angle and roll angle as well as the height of the camera above the road, the rotation angle is determined from the ascertainment of the vanishing point from a first optical flow between a first and a second successive camera image, and the height of the camera is determined from a second optical flow between a first and a second, successive camera image. To determine the first optical flow, a regular grid is placed over the first camera image, correspondences of the regular grid are searched for in the second camera image, and the first optical flow is determined from the movement of the grid over the camera images.