System and Method for Providing Mobile Range Sensing

• US 20080247602A1
• Filed: 09/25/2007
• Published: 10/09/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SRI International, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sarnoff Corporation (SRI International, Inc.)
• Inventors: Salgian, Garbis, Fields, John Richard, Bergen, James Russell
• Granted Patent: US 8,059,887 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/106
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30188 Vegetation; Agriculture
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30241 Trajectory
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30252 Vehicle exterior; Vicinity of vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/246 using feature-based methods, e.g. the tracking of corners or segments
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/596 from three or more stereo images
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/147 Details of sensors, e.g. sensor lenses fingerprint or palmprint sensors G06V40/13; vascular sensors G06V40/145; eye sensors G06V40/19
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/12 Acquisition of 3D measurements of objects

Abstract

The present invention provides an improved system and method for estimating range of the objects in the images from various distances. The method comprises receiving a set of images of the scene having multiple objects from at least one camera in motion. Due to the motion of the camera, each of the images are obtained at different camera locations Then an object visible in multiple images is selected. Data related to approximate camera positions and orientations and the images of the visible object are used to estimate the location of the object relative to a reference coordinate system. Based on the computed data, a projected location of the visible object is computed and the orientation angle of the camera for each image is refined. Additionally, pairs of cameras with various locations can then be chosen to obtain dense stereo for regions of the image at various ranges. The process is further structured so that as new images arrive, they are incorporated into the pose adjustment so that the dense stereo results can. be updated.

Claims

1. A method for detecting range of at least one object of a scene comprising the steps of:

receiving a set of images of the scene having multiple objects from at least one camera in motion, said images obtained at different locations of the camera;

selecting images having at least one said object;

computing data related to estimation of a position and orientation of the camera and position and orientation of the selected images;

determining a projected location of the object based on said computed data; and

adjusting the estimated orientation of said camera for each said selected images based on said projected location of the object.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of adjusting matches the location of the object in the selected images with the projected location of the object.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of buffering said computed data of said selected images for at the least one said camera in motion.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of rectifying the selected image based on said adjusted estimated orientation of the camera.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein said rectified image is displayed through the adjusted estimation orientation of the camera.

6. The method of claim 4 further comprising the step of computing a dense stereo image of the rectified image.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said images having range estimates obtained for a distant background and for a foreground.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said range estimates comprise in the range of about 5 m to about 2000 m.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein said range estimates is measured relative to the distance of the object from the camera.

10. A computer program product comprising computer readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon for performing the method of claim 1.