LIVING BODY RECOGNIZING DEVICE

• US 20140153777A1
• Filed: 08/31/2012
• Published: 06/05/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arriver Software AB (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Nagaoka, Nobuharu, Aimura, Makoto, Matsuda, Kodai
• Granted Patent: US 9,292,735 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/103 Static body considered as a whole, e.g. static pedestrian or occupant recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/33 Transforming infrared radiation cameras or camera modules for generating image signals from infrared radiation H04N23/20; circuitry of SSIS for transforming infrared radiation into image signals H04N25/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast

Abstract

A living body recognizing device is equipped with a captured image acquiring unit which acquires captured images from infrared cameras having a characteristics that a luminance of an image portion of a target object becomes higher as a temperature of the target object becomes higher than a background, and vice versa, according to a temperature difference between the background and the target object, a living body image extracting unit which executes a first living body image extracting processing of extracting the image portion of the target object assumed as a living body, from a region in the captured image where the luminance is equal to or lower than a first threshold value, and a living body recognizing unit which recognizes an existence of the living body, based on the image portion of the target object extracted by the living body image extracting unit.

Claims

1. A living body recognizing device, comprising:

a captured image acquiring unit which acquires a captured image having a characteristics that a luminance of an image portion of a target object becomes higher as a temperature of the target object becomes higher than a background, and the luminance of the image portion of the target object becomes lower as the temperature of the target object becomes lower than the background, according to a temperature difference between the background and the target object, using an infrared camera;

a living body image extracting unit which executes a first living body image extracting processing of extracting the image portion of the target object assumed to be a living body, from a region in the captured image in which the luminance is equal to or lower than a predetermined first threshold value, regardless of whether or not an area of the region in which the luminance is equal to lower than the predetermined first threshold value is larger than an area of a region in which the luminance is higher than the first threshold value; and

a living body recognizing unit which recognizes an existence of the living body, based on the image portion of the target object extracted by the living body image extracting unit.

2. The living body recognizing device according to claim 1, wherein

the living body image extracting unit generates an inverted captured image in which the luminance of each pixel of the captured image is inverted, and executes the first living body image extracting processing by extracting the image portion of the target object assumed to be the living body, from a region in the inverted captured image in which the luminance is equal to or higher than an inverted threshold value corresponding to the first threshold value.

3. The living body recognizing device according to claim 1, wherein

the living body image extracting unit executes

the first living body image extracting processing, and

a second living body image extracting processing which extracts the image portion of the target object assumed to be the living body, from a region in the captured image in which the luminance is equal to or higher than a predetermined second threshold value.

4. The living body recognizing device according to claim 3, wherein

the first threshold value and the second threshold value are set to different values.

5. The living body recognizing device according to claim 4, wherein

the living body image extracting unit sets the first threshold value and the second threshold value, according to a luminance distribution of the captured image.

6. The living body recognizing device according to claim 1, wherein

the living body recognizing device further comprises an outside air temperature sensor which detects an outside air temperature, and

the living body image extracting unit executes the first living body image extracting processing, when a detected temperature of the outside air temperature sensor is equal to or higher than a predetermined temperature.

7. The living body recognizing device according to claim 1, wherein

the living body recognizing device further comprises a rainfall detecting unit which detects a rainfall, and

the living body image extracting unit executes the first living body image extracting processing, when the rainfall is detected by the rainfall detecting unit.

8. The living body recognizing device according to claim 1, wherein

the living body image extracting unit executes the first living body image extracting processing, when a contrast of the captured image is equal to or less than a predetermined width.

9. The living body recognizing device according to claim 3, wherein

the living body image extracting unit executes the second living body image extracting processing, with respect to an identical range as a range of the captured image in which the first living body image extracting processing is executed.