Object recognition apparatus
First Claim
1. An object recognition apparatus comprising:
- an active range finder having a floodlight unit which floodlights a light onto a target object, and determines a distance up to a target object on the basis of a reflected light therefrom;
a stereo camera to determine a distance up to the target object on the basis of image information from the target object;
an object recognition unit which recognizes the target object on the basis of an output signal from the active range finder and an output signal from the stereo camera; and
a fill light control unit which controls the floodlight unit to operate so as to irradiate a light floodlit by the floodlight unit of the active range finder as a fill light of the stereo camera.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The object recognition apparatus has an active range finder having a floodlight unit which floodlights a light onto a target object, and determines a distance up to a target object on the basis of a reflected light therefrom, a stereo camera to determine a distance up to the target object on the basis of image information from the target object, an object recognition unit which recognizes the target object on the basis of an output signal from the active range finder and an output signal from the stereo camera, and a fill light control unit which controls the floodlight unit to operate so as to irradiate a light floodlit by the floodlight unit as a fill light of the stereo camera.
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Citations
34 Claims
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1. An object recognition apparatus comprising:
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an active range finder having a floodlight unit which floodlights a light onto a target object, and determines a distance up to a target object on the basis of a reflected light therefrom;
a stereo camera to determine a distance up to the target object on the basis of image information from the target object;
an object recognition unit which recognizes the target object on the basis of an output signal from the active range finder and an output signal from the stereo camera; and
a fill light control unit which controls the floodlight unit to operate so as to irradiate a light floodlit by the floodlight unit of the active range finder as a fill light of the stereo camera. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34)
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2. An on-board object recognition apparatus comprising:
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an active range finder having a floodlight unit which floodlights a light onto a target object, and determines a distance up to a target object on the basis of a reflected light therefrom;
a stereo camera to determine a distance up to the target object on the basis of image information from the target object; and
an object recognition unit which recognizes the target object on the basis of an output signal from the active range finder and an output signal from the stereo camera, wherein the active range finder and the stereo camera are provided in a vehicle interior.
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3. An object recognition apparatus comprising:
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an active range finder having a floodlight unit which floodlights a light onto a target object, and determines a distance up to a target object on the basis of a reflected light therefrom;
a stereo camera to determine a distance up to the target object on the basis of image information from the target object;
an object recognition unit which recognizes the target object on the basis of an output signal from the active range finder and an output signal from the stereo camera;
a fill light control unit which controls the floodlight unit to operate so as to irradiate a light floodlit by the floodlight unit of the active range finder as a fill light of the stereo camera; and
a cover glass disposed in front of the stereo camera, wherein, with respect to the cover glass, a predetermined region including a region into which a light that is floodlit from the floodlight unit of the active range finder, and is reflected from the target object, is incident serves as an infrared radiation permeable region, and a region other than the predetermined region serves as an infrared radiation permeability-limited region.
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4. An object recognition apparatus comprising:
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an active range finder having a floodlight unit which floodlights a light onto a target object, and determines a distance up to a target object on the basis of a reflected light therefrom;
a stereo camera to determine a distance up to the target object on the basis of image information from the target object;
an object recognition unit which recognizes the target object on the basis of an output signal from the active range finder and an output signal from the stereo camera;
a fill light control unit which controls the floodlight unit to operate so as to irradiate a light floodlit by the floodlight unit of the active range finder as a fill light of the stereo camera; and
a cover glass disposed in front of the stereo camera, wherein the cover glass has an available sensitivity region through which a part or all of a frequency domain of an infrared radiation floodlit from the floodlight unit is permeable.
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5. An object recognition apparatus comprising:
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an active range finder having a floodlight unit which floodlights a light onto a target object, and determines a distance up to a target object on the basis of a reflected light therefrom;
a stereo camera to determine a distance up to the target object on the basis of image information from the target object;
an object recognition unit which recognizes the target object on the basis of an output signal from the active range finder and an output signal from the stereo camera; and
a fill light control unit which controls the floodlight unit to operate so as to irradiate a light floodlit by the floodlight unit of the active range finder as a fill light of the stereo camera, wherein the floodlight unit of the active range finder and the stereo camera are housed in a same housing so as to be unitized. - View Dependent Claims (6)
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7. An object recognition apparatus comprising:
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an active range finder having a floodlight unit which floodlights a light onto a target object, and determines a distance up to a target object on the basis of a reflected light therefrom;
a stereo camera to determine a distance up to the target object on the basis of image information from the target object;
a fill light control unit which irradiates a light floodlit by the floodlight unit of the active range finder as a fill light of the stereo camera onto an irradiating range in a predetermined relationship with a visual field range of the stereo camera; and
an object recognition unit which recognizes the target object on the basis of an output signal from the active range finder and an output signal from the stereo camera.
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8. An object recognition apparatus comprising:
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an active range finder having a floodlight unit which floodlights a light onto a target object, and determines a distance up to a target object on the basis of a reflected light therefrom;
a stereo camera to determine a distance up to the target object on the basis of image information from the target object;
an object recognition unit which recognizes the target object on the basis of an output signal from the active range finder and an output signal from the stereo camera;
a fill light control unit which controls the floodlight unit to operate so as to irradiate a light floodlit by the floodlight unit of the active range finder as a fill light of the stereo camera; and
an adjustment unit which adjusts a range onto which a light floodlit by the floodlight unit of the active range finder is irradiated as a fill light of the stereo camera, with respect to a visual field range or a reference position of the visual field range of the stereo camera. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10)
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11. An object recognition apparatus comprising:
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an active range finder having a floodlight unit which floodlights a light onto a target object, and determines a distance up to a target object on the basis of a reflected light therefrom;
a stereo camera to determine a distance up to the target object on the basis of image information from the target object;
a fill light control unit which causes the floodlight unit of the active range finder to operate as a fill light irradiation unit of the stereo camera at predetermined timings, with respect to imaging operations of the stereo camera; and
an object recognition unit which recognizes the target object on the basis of an output signal from the active range finder and an output signal from the stereo camera. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14)
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15. An object recognition apparatus comprising:
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an active range finder having a floodlight unit which floodlights a light onto a target object, and determines a distance up to a target object on the basis of a reflected light therefrom;
a stereo camera to determine a distance up to the target object on the basis of image information from the target object, the stereo camera being provided in a vehicle interior;
an object recognition unit to recognize the target object on the basis of an output signal from the active range finder and an output signal from the stereo camera; and
a fill light control unit which controls the floodlight unit to operate so as to irradiate a light floodlit by the floodlight unit of the active range finder as a fill light of the stereo camera, wherein the stereo camera has spectral sensitivity at which a part or all of a frequency domain of an infrared radiation floodlit from the floodlight unit is captured as an available sensitivity region.
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16. An object recognition apparatus comprising:
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an active range finder having a floodlight unit which floodlights a light onto a target object, and determines a distance up to a target object on the basis of a reflected light therefrom;
a stereo camera to determine a distance up to the target object on the basis of image information from the target object;
an object recognition unit which recognizes the target object on the basis of an output signal from the active range finder and an output signal from the stereo camera; and
a fill light control unit which controls the floodlight unit to operate so as to irradiate a light floodlit by the floodlight unit of the active range finder as a fill light of the stereo camera, wherein the stereo camera further has an image signal amplifier, and a gain of the image signal amplifier is controlled so as to be variable in accordance with image luminance information accompanying the fill light obtained from the stereo camera.
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17. An object recognition apparatus comprising:
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an active range finder having a floodlight unit which floodlights a light onto a target object, and determines a distance up to a target object on the basis of a reflected light therefrom;
a stereo camera to determine a distance up to the target object on the basis of image information from the target object;
an object recognition unit which recognizes the target object on the basis of an output signal from the active range finder and an output signal from the stereo camera; and
a fill light control unit which controls the floodlight unit to operate so as to irradiate a light floodlit by the floodlight unit of the active range finder as a fill light of the stereo camera, wherein the fill light control unit carries out control of the floodlight unit as a fill light irradiation unit on the basis of image information obtained from the stereo camera. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. An object recognition apparatus comprising:
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an active range finder having a floodlight unit which floodlights a light onto a target object, and determines a distance up to a target object on the basis of a reflected light therefrom;
a stereo camera to determine a distance up to the target object on the basis of image information from the target object;
an object recognition unit which recognizes the target object on the basis of an output signal from the active range finder and an output signal from the stereo camera; and
a fill light control unit which controls the floodlight unit to operate so as to irradiate a light floodlit by the floodlight unit of the active range finder as a fill light of the stereo camera, wherein the fill light control unit carries out control of the floodlight unit as a fill light irradiation unit in accordance with image information obtained from the stereo camera, and carries out an adjustment of light receiving sensitivity of the stereo camera.
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28. An object recognition apparatus comprising:
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an active range finder having a floodlight unit which floodlights a light onto a target object, and determines a distance up to a target object on the basis of a reflected light therefrom;
a stereo camera to determine a distance up to the target object on the basis of image information from the target object;
an object recognition unit which recognizes the target object on the basis of an output signal from the active range finder and an output signal from the stereo camera;
a fill light control unit which controls the floodlight unit to operate so as to irradiate a light floodlit by the floodlight unit of the active range finder as a fill light of the stereo camera; and
a calibration executing unit which carries out calibration of a distance output signal of the stereo camera by a distance output signal from the active range finder.
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29. An on-board object recognition apparatus comprising:
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an active range finder having a floodlight unit which floodlights a light onto a target object, and determines a distance up to a target object on the basis of a reflected light therefrom;
a stereo camera to determine a distance up to the target object on the basis of image information from the target object;
an object recognition unit which recognizes the target object on the basis of an output signal from the active range finder and an output signal from the stereo camera;
a fill light control unit which controls the floodlight unit to operate so as to irradiate a light floodlit by the floodlight unit of the active range finder as a fill light of the stereo camera; and
an operation condition input unit to input an operation condition of a vehicle, wherein the fill light control unit determines an irradiating range of the floodlight unit as a fill light irradiation unit on the basis of an operation condition inputted by the operation condition input unit. - View Dependent Claims (30)
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31. An object recognition apparatus comprising:
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an active range finder having a floodlight unit which floodlights a light onto a target object, and determines a distance up to a target object on the basis of a reflected light therefrom;
a stereo camera to determine a distance up to the target object on the basis of image information from the target object;
an object recognition unit which recognizes the target object on the basis of an output signal from the active range finder and an output signal from the stereo camera;
a fill light control unit which controls the floodlight unit to operate so as to irradiate a light floodlit by the floodlight unit of the active range finder as a fill light of the stereo camera; and
a reliability determining unit to determine reliability in object recognition performance on the basis of the output signal from the active range finder and the output signal from the stereo camera.
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32. An object recognition apparatus comprising:
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an active range finder having a floodlight unit which floodlights a light onto a target object, and determines a distance up to a target object on the basis of a reflected light therefrom;
a stereo camera including an image pickup unit to acquire image information from the target object, and to periodically determine a distance up to a target object by causing the image pickup unit to periodically operate;
an object recognition unit which recognizes the target object on the basis of an output signal from the active range finder and an output signal from the stereo camera;
a fill light control unit which controls the floodlight unit to operate so as to irradiate a light floodlit by the floodlight unit of the active range finder as a fill light of the stereo camera; and
a floodlight control unit which, during a period of an operation cycle of the image pickup unit, causes the floodlight unit to operate as a fill light irradiation unit of the stereo camera within a time frame of carrying out charge storage, and causes the floodlight unit to operate as the active range finder out of a time frame of carrying out charge storage.
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Specification