Qualcomm and Alps Alpine advance lane-level vehicle positioning in GNSS challenged environments for enhanced driver safety & convenience with new camera-based positioning technology, “ViewPose”
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Alps Alpine Co., Ltd. announced the companies’ efforts to deliver a new camera-based sensing and positioning device, ViewPose, to support absolute lane-level vehicle positioning in virtually all environments. In creating this new device, Alps Alpine is leveraging multiple solutions from Qualcomm Technologies, including the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ Automotive 5G platform, which supports Multi Frequency Global Navigation Satellite System (MF-GNSS), and a 3rd Generation Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ Automotive Cockpit Platform for the processing and stitching of multiple camera images. With the unique combination of a Snapdragon 5G Platform and 3rd Generation Snapdragon Automotive Cockpit Platform with integrated heterogenous computing capabilities, as well as Qualcomm® Vision Enhanced Precise Positioning (VEPP) software, Alps Alpine developed ViewPose to provide highly accurate position and attitude in virtually all environments at an update rate as high as the camera frame rate. Even under extended periods of limited GNSS reception, such as in tunnels and covered parking garages, Qualcomm VEPP is able to maintain accurate vehicle pose.
Additionally, ViewPose will serve as one of the first camera-sensing devices to feature the Qualcomm VEPP software from Qualcomm Technologies.
By leveraging MF-GNSS information provided by the Snapdragon Automotive 5G platforms, ViewPose provides a cost-effective solution to lane-level accuracy for applications including electric front, rear- and side-view mirrors, called “eMirror,” with blind spot warning features, high-definition map crowdsourcing, lane-level navigation for cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) and advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving applications, and wherever accurate lane-level absolute positioning in challenging environments is required.
“Alternate solutions, such as using Lidar map scan, achieve highly accurate positioning and attitude in most environments, however these approaches are costly and limited only to areas where Lidar point cloud maps are available,” said Nakul Duggal, senior vice president & GM, automotive, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “ Working with Alps Alpine, we will provide a globally accurate lane-level positioning solution for challenging environments by leveraging already available sensor information in the car for a fraction of the cost of substitute technologies.”
“We are pleased work with Qualcomm Technologies to bring the benefits of accurate lane-level positioning in virtually all environments, to mainstream vehicle platforms,” said Alps Alpine Hideo Izumi, Vice President Device Business and Engineering. “Through our adoption of Snapdragon Automotive 5G Modem technology with MF-GNSS support and Qualcomm VEPP software integration into the Snapdragon camera-based sensor platform, we are enabling a range of applications improving safety and increasing convenience for end-users.”
ViewPose is currently in development targeting OEM deployment starting 2024.
