Object detection for vehicles

• US 10,173,643 B2
• Filed: 02/20/2017
• Issued: 01/08/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Myers, Scott Vincent, Mahmoudieh, Parsa, Moosaei, Maryam, Goh, Madeline J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alavi, Amir
• Application Number:
  US15/437,107
• Publication Number:
  US 20180236975A1
• Time in Patent Office: 687 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/25 using biometry
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/56 exterior to a vehicle by using sensors mounted on the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/59 inside of a vehicle, e.g. relating to seat occupancy, driver state or inner lighting conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/166 using acquisition arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/171 Local features and components; Facial parts eye characteristics G06V40/18; Occluding parts, e.g. glasses; Geometrical relationships
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/172 Classification, e.g. identification
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/193 Preprocessing; Feature extraction

Abstract

A vehicle includes a pair of cameras disposed on the vehicle and oriented to view an entrance to the vehicle. The vehicle also includes a processor configured to compare a profile image of a passenger'"'"'s facial feature from one of the pair with a frontal image of the passenger'"'"'s facial feature from the other of the pair. The processor is configured to lock the entrance to the vehicle in response to the facial features being different.

Claims

1. A vehicle comprising:

a pair of cameras disposed on the vehicle and oriented to view an entrance to the vehicle; and

a processor configured to compare a profile image of a passenger'"'"'s facial feature from one camera of the pair with a frontal image of the passenger'"'"'s facial feature from the other camera of the pair, and responsive to the facial features being different, lock the entrance to prevent access to an interior of the vehicle by the passenger, wherein the processor is further configured to generate a three dimensional model of the facial features using the profile image and frontal image, wherein the facial features are different when the three dimensional model is invalid.

2. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein one of the pair is disposed on a side view mirror of the vehicle and the other of the pair is disposed in a passenger cabin of the vehicle.

3. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the facial feature is a nose.

4. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the facial feature is a chin of the passenger.

5. A vehicle comprising:

a pair of cameras disposed on the vehicle and oriented to view an entrance to the vehicle from different aspects; and

a processor configured to compare a profile image of a passenger from one camera of the pair with a frontal image of the passenger from the other camera of the pair, and responsive to the front and profile images corresponding to different shapes for a same facial structure, disable the vehicle.

6. The vehicle of claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to lock the vehicle after the passenger enters.

7. The vehicle of claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to sound an alarm of the vehicle in response to the front and profile images corresponding to different shapes for the same facial structure.

8. The vehicle of claim 5, wherein the facial structure is an eye socket of the passenger.

9. The vehicle of claim 5, wherein the facial structure is a cheek structure of the passenger.

10. The vehicle of claim 5, wherein the facial structure is an eye color of the passenger.

11. A vehicle comprising:

a processor configured to, responsive to

a passenger first exiting the vehicle,

a visual detector having cameras disposed in the vehicle and oriented to view an interior of the vehicle from different aspects recognizing an object in images taken by the cameras, and

a mass detector having a scale disposed in the vehicle sensing a weight of the object,

provide notification to the passenger that the object was left in the vehicle.

12. The vehicle of claim 11, wherein the notification is an electronic message.

13. The vehicle of claim 12, wherein the electronic message is an SMS message.

14. The vehicle of claim 12, wherein the electronic message is sent over vehicle 802.11 communication protocols.

15. The vehicle of claim 11, wherein the object is a cellular phone.

16. The vehicle of claim 15, wherein the notification is an audible alarm in response to the object being the cellular phone.

17. The vehicle of claim 11, wherein the visual detector performs edge detection on all objects in a field of view of the cameras.

18. The vehicle of claim 17, wherein the visual detector verifies objects recognized from the cameras.

19. The vehicle of claim 17, wherein the field of view is of an area measured by the scale.