OBSTACLE DETECTION APPARATUS
First Claim
1. An obstacle detection apparatus for detecting an obstacle based on an image of periphery of a vehicle and a distance to an obstacle present in the vehicle'"'"'s periphery, the apparatus comprising:
- distance determining means for determining, in association with traveling of the vehicle along a direction, a distance to the obstacle present in a direction perpendicular to the vehicle traveling direction;
image inputting means for obtaining a peripheral image having a view angle including the obstacle, in association with the traveling of the vehicle;
subject-vehicle position specifying means for sequentially specifying a present position of the vehicle which changes in association the traveling of the vehicle;
first-plane setting means for setting, as a first plane and based on said distance and said subject-vehicle position, a face of the obstacle which extends perpendicular to the horizontal plane and extends, at the same time, along the traveling direction of the vehicle;
plane-edge estimating means for estimating a plane edge of said first plane relative to the vehicle moving direction, based on said distance and said position of the vehicle;
image recognition area setting means for setting, as an image recognition area, an area included in the peripheral image and including said plane edge;
image recognizing means for image-recognizing a shape characteristics of the obstacle in the image recognition area from the peripheral image; and
three-dimensional shape recognizing means for recognizing the obstacle three-dimensionally, based on said first plane and result of the image recognition made by said image recognizing means.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
There is provided an obstacle detection apparatus for detecting an obstacle based on an image of periphery of a vehicle and a distance to an obstacle present in the vehicle'"'"'s periphery.
The apparatus includes distance determining means 3 for determining, in association with traveling of the vehicle along a direction, a distance to the obstacle present in a direction perpendicular to the vehicle traveling direction, image inputting means 2 for obtaining a peripheral image having a view angle including the obstacle, subject-vehicle position specifying means 4 for sequentially specifying a present position of the vehicle which changes in association the traveling of the vehicle, first-plane setting means 5 for setting, as a first plane, a face of the obstacle which extends perpendicular to the horizontal plane and extends, at the same time, along the traveling direction of the vehicle, plane-edge estimating means 6 for estimating an edge of the first plane relative to the vehicle moving direction, based on the distance and the position of the vehicle, image recognition area setting means 7 for setting, as an image recognition area, an area included in the peripheral image and including the plane edge, image recognizing means 8 for image-recognizing a shape characteristics of the obstacle in the image recognition area from the peripheral image, and three-dimensional shape recognizing means 9 for recognizing the obstacle three-dimensionally, based on the first plane and result of the image recognition made by the image recognizing means 8.
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Citations
10 Claims
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1. An obstacle detection apparatus for detecting an obstacle based on an image of periphery of a vehicle and a distance to an obstacle present in the vehicle'"'"'s periphery, the apparatus comprising:
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distance determining means for determining, in association with traveling of the vehicle along a direction, a distance to the obstacle present in a direction perpendicular to the vehicle traveling direction; image inputting means for obtaining a peripheral image having a view angle including the obstacle, in association with the traveling of the vehicle; subject-vehicle position specifying means for sequentially specifying a present position of the vehicle which changes in association the traveling of the vehicle; first-plane setting means for setting, as a first plane and based on said distance and said subject-vehicle position, a face of the obstacle which extends perpendicular to the horizontal plane and extends, at the same time, along the traveling direction of the vehicle; plane-edge estimating means for estimating a plane edge of said first plane relative to the vehicle moving direction, based on said distance and said position of the vehicle; image recognition area setting means for setting, as an image recognition area, an area included in the peripheral image and including said plane edge; image recognizing means for image-recognizing a shape characteristics of the obstacle in the image recognition area from the peripheral image; and three-dimensional shape recognizing means for recognizing the obstacle three-dimensionally, based on said first plane and result of the image recognition made by said image recognizing means. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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Specification