World's first 360deg car camera

By Tim Pollard

Motor Industry

15 October 2007 08:27

First Nissan brought us Birdview sat-nav giving us overhead, 3D mapping; now it's launching a parking camera that can see all around the car. Owlview anyone?

Clearly Nissan has missed a trick here, as it's calling its new gadget the rather more sober Around View Monitor. But the technology is pretty interesting. It uses four wide-angle cameras mounted on the front, rear and sides of the car. Each camera has a 180-degree field of vision. A computer then stitches the images together, providing an all-round view of the car. It'll even focus on the front if you're in a forwards gear, switching attention to the rear when in reverse. And there's beeping if the slightly warped picture is too confusing for confused parkers. Around View Monitor will appear first in the Japanese-market Elgrand, due out at the end of October 2007, but could come to Europe in the Infiniti EX35.

By Tim Pollard