METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GENERATING INFRASTRUCTURE-BASED BASIC SAFETY MESSAGE DATA

• US 20120105625A1
• Filed: 12/30/2010
• Published: 05/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Raytheon Company (Rtx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Raytheon Company (Rtx Corporation)
• Inventors: Richardson, James Joseph, Kavner, Douglas M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,878,927 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/135
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/022 by means of tv-camera scanning
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/04 using optical or ultrasonic detectors
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/164 Centralised systems, e.g. external to vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/183 Processing at user equipment or user record carrier

Abstract

A roadside infrastructure system configured to generate and broadcast basic safety message data to augment vehicle safety applications. In one example, a roadside module of the system includes a camera, video analytics to process images from the camera to detect vehicles, a BSM generator that generates a BSM for each detected vehicle, and an antenna for broadcasting the BSM. In another example, the roadside module is configured to detect BSM data generated by equipped vehicles, to determine whether any detected vehicles are equipped vehicles generating their own BSM data, and to generate a BSM only for unequipped detected vehicles.

Claims

1. A roadside infrastructure system for generating basic safety message (BMS) data, the system including a roadside module comprising:

a camera configured to provide an image of a predetermined fixed area;

video analytics coupled to the camera and configured to process the image to detect objects within the image, the video analytics being further configured to output a position of a detected object;

a BSM generator coupled to the video analytics and configured to receive the position of the detected object and to generate a BSM comprising the position of the object; and

an antenna coupled to the BSM generator and configured to receive the BSM from the BSM generator and to broadcast the BSM.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the video analytics is configured to output the position of the detected object as a latitude and longitude of the detected object.

3. The system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the video analytics is configured to register the image to a known latitude and longitude grid based on a known location or registration of the camera to determine the latitude and longitude of the detected object.

4. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the video analytics is configured to output an image-based position of the detected object, and further comprising:

a processor coupled to the video analytics and to the BSM generator, and configured to receive the image-based position of the detected object and to determine an object-center position of the detected object; and

wherein the BSM generator is configured to generate the BSM comprising the object-center position of the detected object.

5. The system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a processor coupled to the antenna and to the BSM generator;

wherein the antenna is further configured to receive BSM data from BSM-generating objects; and

wherein the processor is configured to determine whether the detected object corresponds to a BSM-generating object, and to control the BSM generator to generate the BSM only for non-BSM-generating detected objects.

6. The system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a sensor coupled to the video analytics.

7. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sensor includes at least one of an infrared sensor, a radar, a sonar, and a thermal imaging sensor.

8. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the detected object is a vehicle.

9. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the BSM comprises an indicator identifying the BSM as having been generated by the roadside module.

10. A method of generating basic safety message (BSM) data from stand-off sensors, the method comprising:

obtaining an image of a predetermined fixed area;

processing the image to detect an object within the image;

determining a position of the detected object;

generating a BSM comprising the position of the detected object; and

broadcasting the BSM.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein determining the position of the detected object includes:

determining an image-based position of the detected object; and

converting the image-based position to an object-center position of the detected object.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the image-based position corresponds to a lower center position on a bounding box surrounding the detected object in the image, and wherein converting the image-based position to the object-center position includes:

determining a three-dimensional object box corresponding to the detected object in the image;

performing geometric calculations to determine a calculated length, height and depth of the three-dimensional object box;

comparing the length, height and depth to known ratios of length to height to depth corresponding to common objects to confirm that the calculated length, height and depth of the three-dimensional object box are within predetermined tolerances; and

determining the object-center position from the image-based position.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein determining the object-center position of the detected object includes determining a latitude and longitude of the detected object.

14. The method as claimed in claim 10, further comprising:

receiving vehicle-generated BSM data; and

determining whether the vehicle-generated BSM data originates from the detected object.

15. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein generating the BSM includes generating the BSM only if the vehicle-generated BSM data does not originate from the detected object.

16. The method as claimed in claim 14, further comprising:

detecting multiple objects;

resolving which detected objects are generating the vehicle-generated BSM data; and

generating the BSM only for those detected objects which are not generating the vehicle-generated BSM data.

17. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein broadcasting the BSM includes broadcasting the BSM using a dedicated short range communication standard.

18. The method as claimed in claim 10, determining the position of the detected object includes registering the image to a known latitude and longitude grid to determine a latitude and longitude of the detected object.

19. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein obtaining the image includes obtaining the image using at least one of a camera, radar, sonar, and a thermal imaging sensor.

20. A method of generating infrastructure-based basic safety message (BSM) data, the method comprising:

obtaining at a roadside module at least one image of a predetermined fixed area corresponding to a zone of coverage of the roadside module;

processing the at least one image to detect a plurality of detected vehicles and to obtain an image-based position of each detected vehicle;

using a depth-dimensioning process to determine a vehicle-center latitude and longitude for each detected vehicle based on the image-based position of each detected vehicle;

receiving at the roadside module vehicle-generated BSM data;

resolving which of the plurality of detected vehicles are generating the vehicle-generated BSM data;

generating a BSM for each detected vehicle which is not generating the vehicle-generated BSM data; and

broadcasting the BSM from the roadside module.