Image pickup information recognition system

• US 20030169903A1
• Filed: 08/29/2002
• Published: 09/11/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Inventors: Yamada, Katsuhiko, Yoshikawa, Shoji, Takeya, Akito, Yamaguchi, Masafumi
• Granted Patent: US 7,305,149 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/106
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/05 Geographic models
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/006 Mixed reality object pose determination, tracking or camera calibration for mixed reality G06T7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/16 involving adaptation to the client's capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/74 involving reference images or patches

Abstract

An image collating center has a communication unit, a processing unit, and a memory unit. The processing unit accesses a geographic information database through a communication network, extracts appropriate geographic information from the geographic information database based on a picked-up image and additional information transmitted from an image provider, and simulatively generates a simulated image assumed to be viewed from the image provider. Further, the image collating center estimates the image pickup position and the image pickup attitude of the image provider through collating the simulated image with the picked-up image and returns the estimated image pickup position and image pickup attitude of the image provider to the image provider through the communication network.

Claims

1. An image pickup information recognition system comprising:

reception section for receiving a picked-up image and additional information concerning the picked-up image from an image providing source through a communication network,

processing section for extracting geographic information from a geographic information database based on the additional information concerning the picked-up image received, simulatively generating a simulated image assumed to be viewed from said image providing source, collating the simulated image with the picked-up image received from said image providing source, and estimating an image pickup position or an image pickup attitude of the picked-up image in response to the collating result, and

transmission section for transmitting the estimated image pickup position or image pickup attitude to said image providing source.

2. The image pickup information recognition system as in claim 1, wherein

said processing section comprises:

section for extracting geographic information from the geographic information database based on the additional information concerning the picked-up image received and simulatively generating a plurality of simulated images assumed to be viewed from said image providing source,

section for collating each of the plurality of simulated images with the picked-up image, and

section for estimating that position information or attitude information in the simulated image having the maximum match degree with the picked-up image is the image pickup position or the image pickup attitude of the picked-up image.

3. The image pickup information recognition system as in claim 1, wherein

said processing section comprises:

section for extracting geographic information from the geographic information database based on the additional information concerning the picked-up image received and simulatively generating a simulated image assumed to be viewed from said image providing source,

section for collating the simulated image with the picked-up image,

section for repeating generation of the simulated image and collation of the simulated image with the picked-up image a setup number of times or less until the match degree between the simulated image and the picked-up image becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined value, and

section for estimating that position information or attitude information in the simulated image when the match degree between the simulated image and the picked-up image is equal to or greater than the predetermined value is the image pickup position or the image pickup attitude of the picked-up image.

4. The image pickup information recognition system as in claim 1, further comprising:

section for requesting said image providing source to additionally transmit a picked-up image or additional information.