Method and apparatus for determining characteristics of an object from a contour image
First Claim
1. A method for classifying an image of a vehicle occupant into one of a plurality of output classes to regulate the operation of a vehicle occupant protection system, comprising:
- determining a centroid of the image of the vehicle occupant;
producing an image representative signal that represents the image data as a series of discrete values according to its position relative to the determined centroid;
converting the image representative signal to a frequency domain to produce a plurality of coefficients;
determining an associated output class for the occupant utilizing at least two of the plurality of coefficients; and
regulating an actuatable occupant restraint device according to the determined output class.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods are provided for determining an associated occupant class for a vehicle occupant from an image of a vehicle interior. An image characterizer (154) determines a centroid of the image of the vehicle occupant is determined and produces an image representative signal that represents the image data as a series of discrete values according to its position relative to the determined centroid. A frequency domain transform (156) converts the image representative signal to a frequency domain to produce a plurality of coefficients. A pattern recognition classifier (56) determines an associated output class for the occupant utilizing at least two of the plurality of coefficients. A controller interface (58) regulates an actuatable occupant restraint device according to the determined output class.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for classifying an image of a vehicle occupant into one of a plurality of output classes to regulate the operation of a vehicle occupant protection system, comprising:
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determining a centroid of the image of the vehicle occupant; producing an image representative signal that represents the image data as a series of discrete values according to its position relative to the determined centroid; converting the image representative signal to a frequency domain to produce a plurality of coefficients; determining an associated output class for the occupant utilizing at least two of the plurality of coefficients; and regulating an actuatable occupant restraint device according to the determined output class. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A system for determining an associated occupant class for a vehicle occupant from an image of a vehicle interior comprising:
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an image generator that isolates a portion of the image that represents the vehicle occupant and determines a contour of the occupant from the isolated portion of the image of the vehicle interior; a centroid locator that determines a centroid of the image contour; a image characterizer that produces an image representative signal that represents the distance between the centroid and the contour along each of a plurality of angles; a frequency domain transform that converts the contour signal to a frequency domain to produce a plurality of frequency coefficients; a coefficient selector that selects a subset of the plurality of frequency coefficients as the plurality of feature values; and a pattern recognition classifier that determines an associated output class for the occupant utilizing the selected subset of parameters. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A computer readable medium comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a data processing system, generate a plurality of feature values representing a vehicle occupant from an image portion taken from an image of the vehicle interior, the executable instructions comprising:
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a centroid location routine that determines a centroid of the image portion; an image characterizing routine that transforms image data within the image portion to a polar coordinate representation having an origin at the determined centroid; taking a plurality of samples from the transformed image data to provide the image representative signal; a frequency domain transform that converts the image representative signal to a frequency domain to produce a plurality of frequency coefficients; and a coefficient selection routine that selects a subset of the plurality of frequency coefficients as the plurality of feature values. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification