Nissan releases details about "Around View Monitor"

Spatially-challenged drivers rejoice! As previously reported, Nissan has developed a new parking assist system that employs four ultra-wide high-resolution cameras mounted in the front, rear and both sides of the vehicle to provide a bird's eye view of the vehicle's surroundings. All those images are processed and displayed in real-time on a dash-mounted screen, giving drivers a 360-degree view of what they don't want to hit.

Shifting the car into reverse or drive will alternate between a view of the front or rear, while drivers will be able to toggle the left, front and right views when performing a particularly tricky parallel parking maneuver.

The first application of Nissan's "Around View Monitor" in the U.S. will be in the Infiniti EX35, but we'd expect it to become a hot commodity on some of Nissan and Infiniti's more bloated SUV offerings soon.

Nissan's full press release, including a video, is posted after the jump.

[Source: Nissan]

PRESS RELEASE

NISSAN TO INTRODUCE WORLD'S FIRST AROUND VIEW MONITOR

TOKYO (Oct. 12, 2007) – Nissan Motor Co., Ltd will introduce the world's first Around View Monitor, which offers the driver a bird's eye view of the vehicle and its surroundings in real-time. In Japan, the Around View Monitor will debut in the new Elgrand, scheduled for introduction at the end of this month. The technology will also be offered to the U.S. market on the all new Infiniti EX35 scheduled for launch this December.

The Around View Monitor system sythesises a bird's eye image of the vehicle and its surroundings from four ultrawide-angle (180-degree) high-resolution cameras mounted on the front, sides and rear of the vehicle. The Around View Monitor is particularly helpful when parking, enabling the driver to steer easily and precisely into a parking space.

The screen displays the view from above on the left, and a front or rear view on the right. The front and rear views alternate according to the gear shift. This allows the driver a comprehensive view of the vehicle and its surrounding environment from all angles.

The left side-view is offered with the rear view, allowing the driver to more easily observe both the rear and left-front when attempting to parallel-park. The driver has the option to choose between the top view and the left side-view.

The camera-enabled sensors mounted on all four corners of the vehicle depict the distance to an obstacle in easy-to-understand coloured graphics, and help warn the driver via a "beeping" alert the closer the vehicle approaches a fixed obstacle.

The video meant to be presented here is no longer available. Sorry for the inconvenience.