Car backup cameras make for safer driving. Imagine how much more effective they'd be if they were mounted higher on the car, provided a birds-eye view, and kept the path from receding to infinity. A prototype camera from Sanyo does all that, but by processing the image rather than just raising the camera.

Shown at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the Advanced View Rear Backup Camera has a 135-degree wide angle lens—a fairly standard width (although some cameras cover 180 degrees with even more distortion). Sanyo provides special processing on the fly, with no perceptible image lag, that does several things to improve the driver's view behind: Sanyo can raise the apparent height of the camera and make it appear to be several feet behind the car, providing more of a birds-eye view looking down onto the road or parking space, rather than back at the space. It can remove some of the parallax distortion (the effect that makes railroad tracks appear to merge in the distance) so the lines on a parking space appear more parallel than convergent. And it can zoom in, which is useful for backing up as far as possible, or for lining up with a trailer hitch.

Sanyo offers three views, called Undistorted, Top View, and Hybrid. The company's goal is to offer the technology to automakers for even safer and more realistic backing, without getting into the esoteric and costly self-parking-car options offered by Lexus and prototyped by BMW. Add that to other technologies, now becoming common, that project the car's width onto the image and the turning path (where the car is headed if the wheel is turned), sell it with backup sonar that accurately gauges distance, and parking lot fender-crunches may become a thing of the past.

Why do you need backup cameras and sonar? To find out, click here.