Road Image Analyzing Apparatus and Road Image Analyzing Method

• US 20090274362A1
• Filed: 03/23/2007
• Published: 11/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pasco Corporation (Secom Company Limited)
• Original Assignee: Pasco Corporation (Secom Company Limited)
• Inventors: Zhu, Lin, Sasakawa, Tadashi
• Granted Patent: US 8,126,209 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/154
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2420/403 Image sensing, e.g. optical camera
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/00 Input parameters relating to infrastructure
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/072 Curvature of the road
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/076 Slope angle of the road
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30256 Lane; Road marking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/12 Edge-based segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/593 from stereo images
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/457 by analysing connectivity, e.g. edge linking, connected component analysis or slices
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/48 by mapping characteristic values of the pattern into a parameter space, e.g. Hough transformation
• 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 20/582 of traffic signs
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/588 Recognition of the road, e.g. of lane markings; Recognition of the vehicle driving pattern in relation to the road
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/647 by matching two-dimensional images to three-dimensional objects
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0962 having an indicator mounted inside the vehicle, e.g. giving voice messages

Abstract

In a road image analyzing apparatus capable of obviously and rapidly distinguishing a road marking from a guardrail and capable of obtaining precise position information, a pre-processing unit defines sub-areas to main image data obtained by an image pickup unit, and an edge extracting unit extracts an edge component in each of the sub-areas. A linear line extracting unit analyzes the extracted edge component to extract a linear component, and a linear component analyzing unit extracts a continuous component from the linear component by using the linear component. A matching process unit performs a matching process between a vertex of the continuous component and auxiliary image data to obtain three-dimensional position information of each continuous component. An identifying unit identifies whether the continuous component is a road marking or a guardrail on the basis of height information of each continuous component included in the three-dimensional position information.

Claims

1. A road image analyzing apparatus comprising:

two image pickup units that photograph the same position from different directions;

a continuous component extracting unit that extracts a continuous component from image data obtained by one of the image pickup units;

a three-dimensional position calculating unit that combines the continuous component with image data obtained by the other image pickup unit to calculate three-dimensional position information of the continuous component; and

an identifying unit that identifies the continuous component on the basis of the three-dimensional position information calculated by the three-dimensional position calculating unit.

2. The road image analyzing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the continuous component extracting unit extracts a linear component from the image data obtained by one of the image pickup units and extracts the continuous component on the basis of a position and an inclination of the linear component and association between linear lines.

3. The road image analyzing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the three-dimensional position calculating unit performs a matching process between an end point of the continuous component and the image data obtained by the other image pickup unit to calculate three-dimensional position information.

4. The road image analyzing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the identifying unit identifies the continuous component on the basis of height information of the continuous component included in the three-dimensional position information.

5. The road image analyzing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the continuous component extracting unit, the three-dimensional position calculating unit, and the identifying unit use a sub-area, which is defined in a direction orthogonal to a running direction of a road, as a process unit.

6. A road image analyzing method comprising:

a step of photographing the same position from two different directions;

a step of extracting a continuous component from image data photographed from one of the two different directions;

a step of combining the continuous component with image data photographed from the other direction and calculating three-dimensional position information of the continuous component; and

a step of identifying the continuous component on the basis of the calculated three-dimensional position information.

7. The road image analyzing method according to claim 6, wherein

in the step of extracting a continuous component, a linear component is extracted from the image data photographed from one of the two different directions;

and the continuous component is extracted on the basis of a position and an inclination of the linear component and association between linear lines.

8. The road image analyzing method according to claim 6, wherein

in the step of calculating three-dimensional position information of the continuous component, a matching process is performed between an end point of the continuous component and the image data photographed from the other direction to calculate three-dimensional position information.

9. The road image analyzing method according to claim 6, wherein

in the step of identifying a continuous component, the continuous component is identified on the basis of height information of the continuous component included in the three-dimensional position information.

10. The road image analyzing method according to claim 6, wherein

the step of extracting a continuous component, the step of calculating three-dimensional position information of a continuous component, and the step of identifying a continuous component are performed by using a sub-area, which is defined in a direction orthogonal to a running direction of a road, as a process unit.