ENVIRONMENT RECOGNITION DEVICE AND ENVIRONMENT RECOGNITION METHOD

• US 20120294482A1
• Filed: 05/15/2012
• Published: 11/22/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Fuji Heavy Industries Limited (Subaru Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Heavy Industries Limited (Subaru Corp.)
• Inventors: Kasaoki, Seisuke
• Application Number:
  US13/471,775
• Publication Number:
  US 20120294482A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/507 Summing image-intensity values; Histogram projection analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/56 exterior to a vehicle by using sensors mounted on the vehicle

Abstract

There are provided an environment recognition device and an environment recognition method. The environment recognition device includes: a position information obtaining unit that obtains position information of a target portion in a detection area, the position information including a relative distance to a subject vehicle; a grouping unit that groups the target portions as a target object based on the position information; a luminance obtaining unit that obtains a luminance of an image of the target object; a luminance distribution generating unit that generates a histogram of the luminance of the image of the target object; and a floating substance determining unit that determines whether or not the target object is a floating substance based on a statistical analysis on the histogram.

Claims

1. An environment recognition device comprising:

a position information obtaining unit that obtains position information of a target portion in a detection area of a luminance image, the position information including a relative distance to a subject vehicle;

a grouping unit that groups the target portions into a target object based on the position information;

a luminance obtaining unit that obtains luminances of a target object;

a luminance distribution generating unit that generates a histogram of luminances of the target object; and

a floating substance determining unit that determines whether or not the target object is a floating substance based on a statistical analysis on the histogram.

2. The environment recognition device according to claim 1, wherein the floating substance determining unit determines whether or not the target object is a floating substance based on one or more characteristic amounts that are calculated from the histogram and include an average, a variance, a skewness, or a kurtosis.

3. The environment recognition device according to claim 2, wherein the floating substance determining unit determines whether or not the target object is a floating substance based on the number of the characteristic amounts falling within respective predetermined ranges.

4. The environment recognition device according to claim 1, wherein the floating substance determining unit determines whether or not the target object is a floating substance based on the difference between a predetermined model of a histogram of a luminance of a floating substance and a histogram generated by the luminance distribution generating unit.

5. The environment recognition device according to claim 2, wherein the floating substance determining unit determines whether or not the target object is a floating substance based on the difference between a predetermined model of a histogram of a luminance of a floating substance and a histogram generated by the luminance distribution generating unit.

6. The environment recognition device according to claim 3, wherein the floating substance determining unit determines whether or not the target object is a floating substance based on the difference between a predetermined model of a histogram of a luminance of a floating substance and a histogram generated by the luminance distribution generating unit.

7. The environment recognition device according to claim 2, wherein:

the floating substance determining unit represents the difference between the predetermined model of a histogram of a luminance of a floating substance and the histogram generated by the luminance distribution generating unit, and the number of the characteristic amounts falling within the predetermined range, by a score, and

when a total obtained by adding up the scores within a predetermined number of frames exceeds a threshold value, the floating substance determining unit may determine that the target object is a floating substance.

8. The environment recognition device according to claim 1, wherein the luminance distribution generating unit limits the target object that is used for generating a histogram of luminances to a target object located above a road surface.

9. The environment recognition device according to claim 2, wherein the luminance distribution generating unit limits the target object that is used for generating a histogram of luminances to a target object located above a road surface.

10. The environment recognition device according to claim 3, wherein the luminance distribution generating unit limits the target object that is used for generating a histogram of luminances to a target object located above a road surface.

11. The environment recognition device according to claim 4, wherein the luminance distribution generating unit limits the target object that is used for generating a histogram of luminances to a target object located above a road surface.

12. The environment recognition device according to claim 5, wherein the luminance distribution generating unit limits the target object that is used for generating a histogram of luminances to a target object located above a road surface.

13. The environment recognition device according to claim 6, wherein the luminance distribution generating unit limits the target object that is used for generating a histogram of luminance to a target object located above a road surface.

14. The environment recognition device according to claim 7, wherein the luminance distribution generating unit limits the target object that is used for generating a histogram of luminances to a target object located above a road surface.

15. An environment recognition method comprising:

obtaining position information of a target portion in a detection area of a luminance image, the position information including a relative distance to a subject vehicle;

grouping the target portions into a target object based on the position information;

obtaining luminances of the target object;

generating a histogram of the luminances of the target object; and

determining whether or not the target object is a floating substance based on a statistical analysis on the histogram.