Vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus, vehicle, vehicle surroundings monitoring method, and vehicle surroundings monitoring program

• US 20070248245A1
• Filed: 04/13/2007
• Published: 10/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arriver Software AB (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Aimura, Makoto, Hattori, Hiroshi, Takahashi, Akio
• Granted Patent: US 7,957,556 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/104
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/095 Predicting travel path or likelihood of collision
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/58 Recognition of moving objects or obstacles, e.g. vehicles or pedestrians; Recognition of traffic objects, e.g. traffic signs, traffic lights or roads
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/10 Human or animal bodies, e.g. vehicle occupants or pedestrians; Body parts, e.g. hands

Abstract

An object such as a person is extracted from images captured by cameras (2R, 2L) to determine the degree of vertical symmetry of the object (step 33). In the case where the degree of vertical symmetry is determined to be high, the object is determined to be other than a living body (step 33a). In the case where the degree of vertical symmetry is determined to be low, the object is determined likely to be a living body (step 33b). In the case where determined likely to be a living body, the object is further determined to be a predetermined kind of living body (for example, a person) or not based on the image of the object (steps 34 and 35). This allows an extremely reliable and simple determination of whether the type of the object extracted from the image captured by the camera is a living body such as a person.

Claims

1. A vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus comprising:

an object extraction process unit which extracts an object existing in an imaging area of a camera mounted on a vehicle from an image captured by the camera;

an object type determination process unit which determines the type of the extracted object on the basis of the image of the object in the captured image; and

a vertical symmetry determination process unit which determines whether the degree of vertical symmetry of the extracted object is high or low on the basis of the image of the object in the captured image,

wherein the object type determination process unit includes at least a first-type determination process unit which determines the type of the extracted object on the basis of the determination result of the vertical symmetry determination process unit.

2. The vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first-type determination process unit determines the type of the object to be other than a living body in the case where the degree of vertical symmetry of the object is determined to be high by the vertical symmetry determination process unit.

3. The vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the object type determination process unit determines the type of the extracted object with a distinction between a predetermined kind of living body including at least a person and other object types, and further includes a second-type determination process unit which determines whether the object is the predetermined kind of living body, on the basis of the image of the object in the captured image, for objects other than those each determined not to be a living body by the first-type determination process unit among the extracted objects.

4. The vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein;

the camera is an infrared camera and the captured image is a grayscale image;

the object extraction process unit includes a process unit which extracts an area having a luminance value equal to or greater than a predetermined value as a binary object from the captured image, and a process unit which extracts an area including the binary object in the grayscale image as the image of a grayscale object on the basis of at least the binary object and the luminance value data of the grayscale image; and

the object whose degree of vertical symmetry is determined by the vertical symmetry determination process unit is the grayscale object.

5. The vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an object-to-be-avoided determination process unit which determines whether the object extracted by the object extraction process unit is an object which must be avoided from coming into contact with the vehicle at least on the basis of the determination result of the object type determination process unit; and

a vehicle equipment control process unit which controls predetermined equipment mounted on the vehicle at least according to the determination result of the object-to-be-avoided determination process unit.

7. A vehicle equipped with the vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus according to claim 1.

6. A vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus having a computer, wherein the computer performs:

an object extraction process for extracting an object existing in an imaging area of a camera mounted on a vehicle from an image captured by the camera;

an object type determination process for determining the type of the extracted object on the basis of the image of the object in the captured image; and

a vertical symmetry determination process for determining whether the degree of vertical symmetry of the extracted object is high or low on the basis of the image of the object in the captured image, wherein the object type determination process performed by the computer includes a process for determining the type of the extracted object at least on the basis of the determination result of the vertical symmetry determination process.

8. A vehicle equipped with the vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus according to claim 6.

9. A vehicle surroundings monitoring method comprising:

a step of extracting an object existing in an imaging area of a camera mounted on a vehicle from an image captured by the camera;

a step of determining the type of the extracted object on the basis of the image of the object in the captured image; and

a step of determining whether the degree of vertical symmetry of the extracted object is high or low on the basis of the image of the object in the captured image, wherein the step of determining the type of the extracted object includes at least the step of determining the type of the object on the basis of the result of determining whether the degree of vertical symmetry is high or low.

10. A vehicle surroundings monitoring program having the functions of causing a computer to perform:

a process for extracting an object existing in an imaging area of an imaging device mounted on a vehicle from an image captured by the imaging device;

a process for determining the type of the extracted object on the basis of the image of the object in the captured image;

a process for determining whether the degree of vertical symmetry of the extracted object is high or low on the basis of the image of the object in the captured image; and

a process for determining the type of the object at least on the basis of the determination result of the degree of vertical symmetry.