APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MONITORING A VEHICLE'S SURROUNDINGS

• US 20080205706A1
• Filed: 02/26/2008
• Published: 08/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sanyo Electric Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sanyo Electric Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: HONGO, Hitoshi
• Application Number:
  US12/037,545
• Publication Number:
  US 20080205706A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/104
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 1/00 Optical viewing arrangements; Real-time viewing arrangements for drivers or passengers using optical image capturing systems, e.g. cameras or video systems specially adapted for use in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/607 from a bird's eye viewpoint
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/8093 for obstacle warning
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51
• 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: H04N 13/211 using temporal multiplexing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/221 using the relative movement between cameras and objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 for receiving images from a single remote source

Abstract

A vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus has: a point-of-view converter that converts an image shot with a camera installed on a vehicle into a bird'"'"'s-eye-view image through point-of-view conversion; a position adjuster that performs position adjustment between two bird'"'"'s-eye-view images produced from two images shot at different time points, the position adjuster performing the position adjustment based on the two bird'"'"'s-eye-view images; and a three-dimensional object detector that detects a three-dimensional object around the vehicle based on differences between the two bird'"'"'s-eye-view images having undergone the position adjustment.

Claims

1. A vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus, comprising:

a point-of-view converter converting an image shot with a camera installed on a vehicle into a bird'"'"'s-eye-view image through point-of-view conversion;

a position adjuster performing position adjustment between two bird'"'"'s-eye-view images produced from two images shot at different time points, the position adjuster performing the position adjustment based on the two bird'"'"'s-eye-view images; and

a three-dimensional object detector detecting a three-dimensional object around the vehicle based on differences between the two bird'"'"'s-eye-view images having undergone the position adjustment.

2. The vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein, when, in each of the two bird'"'"'s-eye-view images, a region thereof where a subject comparatively far from the vehicle appears is called a first image region and a region thereof where a subject comparatively near to the vehicle appears is called a second image region,

the position adjuster excludes, from image data with which it performs the position adjustment between the two bird'"'"'s-eye-view images, image data of the first image region of each of said images, and performs the position adjustment between the two bird'"'"'s-eye-view images based on image data of the second image region of each of said images.

3. The vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein, based on the differences between the two bird'"'"'s-eye-view images having undergone the position adjustment, the three-dimensional object detector not only detects the three-dimensional object but also recognizes whether the three-dimensional object is a stationary or moving object.

4. The vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus according to claim 3,

wherein, based on the differences, the three-dimensional object detector identifies a three-dimensional object region where the three-dimensional object appears in each of the two bird'"'"'s-eye-view images having undergone the position adjustment and, based on a distance of movement of a particular point in the three-dimensional object region between the two bird'"'"'s-eye-view images having undergone the position adjustment, recognizes whether the three-dimensional object is a stationary or moving object.

5. The vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus according to claim 4,

wherein the particular point is a point in the three-dimensional object region nearest to the vehicle.

6. The vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising:

a warning indicator sending off a warning indication based on a result of detection by the three-dimensional object detector,

wherein the warning indicator sends off different warning indications depending on whether the detected three-dimensional object is a stationary or moving object.

7. The vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising:

a danger evaluator evaluating a level of danger that the three-dimensional object poses to the vehicle; and

a warning indicator sending off a warning indication according to the evaluated level of danger,

wherein the danger evaluator evaluates the level of danger based on one or more of

a result of recognizing whether the three-dimensional object is a stationary or moving object,

a direction of movement of the three-dimensional object relative to the vehicle as detected on the two bird'"'"'s-eye-view images having undergone the position adjustment,

a speed of movement of the three-dimensional object relative to the vehicle as detected on the two bird'"'"'s-eye-view images having undergone the position adjustment,

a position of the three-dimensional object relative to the vehicle as detected on a bird'"'"'s-eye-view image in which the three-dimensional object appears, and

a size of the three-dimensional object as observed on a bird'"'"'s-eye-view image in which the three-dimensional object appears.

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

a vehicle travel condition estimator estimating travel condition of the vehicle based on a result of the position adjustment that the position adjuster has performed on the two bird'"'"'s-eye-view images,

wherein the position adjuster, when performing position adjustment on another two bird'"'"'s-eye-view images acquired after acquisition of the two bird'"'"'s-eye-view images, imposes as a condition for the position adjustment of the newly acquired two bird'"'"'s-eye-view images a restriction according to the estimated travel condition.

9. A vehicle comprising the vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus according to claim 1.

10. A vehicle surroundings monitoring method, comprising:

converting an image shot with a camera installed on a vehicle into a bird'"'"'s-eye-view image through point-of-view conversion;

performing position adjustment between two bird'"'"'s-eye-view images produced from two images shot at different time points, the position adjustment being performed based on the two bird'"'"'s-eye-view images; and

detecting a three-dimensional object around the vehicle based on differences between the two bird'"'"'s-eye-view images having undergone the position adjustment.