Obstacle detection apparatus and a method therefor
First Claim
1. An apparatus of detecting an object on a road surface comprising:
- a stereo set of video cameras mounted on a vehicle to produce right and left images on a road surface;
an image storage unit configured to store the right and left images;
a parameter computation unit configured to compute a parameter representing road planarity constraint based on the images stored in the image storage unit;
a corresponding point computation unit configured to compute correspondence between a first point on one image of the right and left images on the road surface and a second point on other image of the right and left images, which corresponds to the first point, based on the parameter;
an image transformation unit configured to produce a transformed image from the one image using the correspondence; and
a detector to detect an object having a dimension larger than a given value in a substantially vertical direction with respect to the road surface, using the correspondence and the transformed image.
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Abstract
An apparatus of detecting an object on a road surface includes a stereo set of video cameras mounted on a vehicle to produce right and left images, a storage to store the right and left images, a parameter computation unit to compute a parameter representing road planarity constraint based on the images of the storage, a corresponding point computation unit to compute correspondence between a first point on one of the right and left images and a second point on the other, which corresponds to the first point, based on the parameter, an image transformation unit to produce a transformed image from the one image using the correspondence, and a detector to detect an object having a dimension larger than a given value in a vertical direction with respect to the road surface, using the correspondence and the transformed image.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. An apparatus of detecting an object on a road surface comprising:
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a stereo set of video cameras mounted on a vehicle to produce right and left images on a road surface;
an image storage unit configured to store the right and left images;
a parameter computation unit configured to compute a parameter representing road planarity constraint based on the images stored in the image storage unit;
a corresponding point computation unit configured to compute correspondence between a first point on one image of the right and left images on the road surface and a second point on other image of the right and left images, which corresponds to the first point, based on the parameter;
an image transformation unit configured to produce a transformed image from the one image using the correspondence; and
a detector to detect an object having a dimension larger than a given value in a substantially vertical direction with respect to the road surface, using the correspondence and the transformed image. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method of detecting an object on a road surface comprising:
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acquiring right and left images by a set of stereo video cameras mounted on a vehicle;
storing the right and left images in a storage unit;
obtaining a parameter representing road planarity constraint based on the right and left images stored in the storage unit;
computing the correspondence between a first point set to one image of the right and left images on the road surface and a second point on other image of the right and left images, which corresponds to the first point, based on the parameter;
generating a transformed image from the one image using the correspondence; and
detecting as an obstacle an object having a height larger than a given value with respect to the road surface, using the correspondence and the transformed image. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. An apparatuses to detect an object on a road surface, the apparatus comprising:
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a plurality of cameras each capturing an image;
an image memory to store a plurality of images captured by the cameras respectively;
a dividing unit configured to divide a target image captured by one camera of the cameras into a plurality of stripe regions;
a correspondence computing unit configured to compute correspondence between the target image and a reference image captured by other camera of the plurality of cameras for each of the stripe regions based on the stripe regions, when receiving a boundary line function representing a boundary between a road area and an obstacle area in the target image;
an image matching score computing unit configured to compute matching score between a whole of the target image or a part thereof and a corresponding region of the reference image for each of the stripe regions based on the correspondence obtained by correspondence computing unit; and
a boundary line function optimization unit configured to generate an optimum boundary line function maximizing the correspondence with respect to the whole of the target image or the part thereof. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14)
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15. A method of detecting an object on a road surface, the method comprising:
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capturing multiple images with multiple cameras, respectively;
storing in a memory the multiple images;
dividing a target image captured by one camera of the cameras into multiple strip regions;
computing correspondence between the target image and a reference image captured by the other camera of the cameras for each of the strip regions, using a boundary line function representing a boundary between a road area and an obstacle area in the target image;
computing matching value between whole of the target image or a part thereof and a corresponding region of the reference image for each of the strip regions based on the correspondence obtained by correspondence computing unit; and
generating an optimum boundary line function maximizing the matching value with respect to the whole of the target image or the part thereof. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18)
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Specification