FRONT VEHICLE DETECTING METHOD AND FRONT VEHICLE DETECTING APPARATUS

• US 20130083971A1
• Filed: 09/28/2012
• Published: 04/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Cheng Du, Liyan Liu, Ping Hu, Xiaomeng Wang
• Inventors: DU, Cheng, LIU, Liyan, WANG, Xiaomeng, HU, Ping
• Granted Patent: US 8,848,980 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/584 of vehicle lights or traffic lights

Abstract

A method for detecting a front vehicle comprises: a moving light detecting step of detecting a front moving light area of an own vehicle in at least one image of a front scene of the own vehicle obtained at a time; a vehicle candidate generating step of extracting a light area pair from the detected front moving light area so that a front vehicle candidate is generated; and a vehicle candidate verifying step of verifying that the front vehicle candidate is the front vehicle in cases where the front vehicle candidate meets predetermined characteristics of a vehicle light.

Claims

1. A method for detecting a front vehicle, comprising:

a moving light detecting step of detecting a front moving light area of an own vehicle in at least one image of a front scene of the own vehicle obtained at a time;

a vehicle candidate generating step of extracting a light area pair from the detected front moving light area so that a front vehicle candidate is generated; and

a vehicle candidate verifying step of verifying that the front vehicle candidate is the front vehicle in cases where the front vehicle candidate meets predetermined characteristics of a vehicle light.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the moving light detecting step comprises:

a light area extracting step of extracting a light area from a first image of the at least one image;

a distance calculating step of calculating a distance between the extracted light area and the own vehicle;

a light area matching step of matching the extracted light area with a light area of a first image of at least one image obtained at a previous time; and

a moving light determining step of determining the obtained light area as the front moving light area in cases where the obtained light area meets predetermined characteristics of a moving light area.

3. The method according to claim 1, before the vehicle candidate generating step, further comprising:

a step of detecting a vehicle layer from a first image of the at least one image; and

a step of eliminating a moving light area appearing above the vehicle layer.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle candidate generating step comprises:

a light pair extracting step of constituting the light area pair by approximately symmetric light areas having a similar speed in a first image of the at least one image; and

a light pair combining step of combining the light areas that constitute the light area pair into one area so that the front vehicle candidate is obtained.

5. The method according to claim 4, after the light pair extracting step, further comprising:

a step of generating a straight line across each of the light area pairs, calculating the gradients of the straight lines, and calculating the numbers of lights crossed by the straight lines;

a step of detecting the straight line that crosses most lights; and

a step of removing the lights crossed by the straight line that crosses the most lights in cases where the gradient of the straight line that crosses the most lights is within a predetermined gradient range.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

a vehicle chasing step of matching a location of the front vehicle determined in a first image of the at least one image to a location of the front vehicle determined in a first image of at least one image obtained at a previous time so as to track the location of the front vehicle.

7. An apparatus for detecting a front vehicle, comprising:

a moving light detecting unit for detecting a front moving light area of an own vehicle in at least one image of a front scene of the own vehicle obtained at a time;

a vehicle candidate generating unit for extracting a light area pair from the detected front moving light area so that a front vehicle candidate is generated; and

a vehicle candidate verifying unit for verifying that the front vehicle candidate is the front vehicle in cases where the front vehicle candidate meets predetermined characteristics of a vehicle light.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the moving light detecting unit comprises:

a light area extracting unit for extracting a light area from a first image of the at least one image;

a distance calculating unit for calculating a distance between the extracted light area and the own vehicle;

a light area matching unit for matching the extracted light area with a light area of a first image of at least one image obtained at a previous time; and

a moving light determining unit for determining the obtained light area as the front moving light area in cases where the obtained light area meets predetermined characteristics of a moving light area.

9. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the vehicle candidate generating unit comprises:

a light pair extracting unit for constituting the light area pair by approximately symmetric light areas having a similar speed in a first image of the at least one image; and

a light pair combining unit for combining the light areas that constitute the light area pair into one area so that the front vehicle candidate is obtained.

10. The apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising:

a vehicle chasing unit for matching a location of the front vehicle determined in a first image of the at least one image to a location of the front vehicle determined in a first image of at least one image obtained at a previous time so as to track the location of the front vehicle.