VEHICLE-TO-VEHICLE DISTANCE CALCULATION APPARATUS AND METHOD

• US 20140241578A1
• Filed: 01/31/2014
• Published: 08/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation), Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: NONAKA, Shunichiro, Matsui, Yuko
• Granted Patent: US 9,361,528 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30252 Vehicle exterior; Vicinity of vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/50 Depth or shape recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/62 of area, perimeter, diameter or volume
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/255 Detecting or recognising potential candidate objects based on visual cues, e.g. shapes
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/58 Recognition of moving objects or obstacles, e.g. vehicles or pedestrians; Recognition of traffic objects, e.g. traffic signs, traffic lights or roads

Abstract

The distance to a target vehicle is calculated. To achieve this, a target vehicle traveling ahead is imaged and it is determined to what vehicle group, such as a light-duty vehicle group, standard passenger car group or heavy-duty vehicle group, the image of the target vehicle belongs. Representative vehicle widths are stored in a vehicle group table on a per-vehicle-group basis. The distance from one'"'"'s own vehicle to a target vehicle is calculated using the vehicle width that corresponds to the vehicle group decided.

Claims

1. A vehicle-to-vehicle distance calculation apparatus comprising:

an imaging control device for controlling a camera, which has been mounted on one'"'"'s own vehicle, so as to image a target vehicle present ahead of one'"'"'s own vehicle;

a vehicle group decision device for deciding to what group the target vehicle belongs based upon an image obtained by imaging by the camera;

a target vehicle pixel count calculation device for calculating number of width or height pixels of a target image contained in an image obtained by imaging by the camera; and

a distance calculation device for calculating the distance to the target vehicle based upon a representative vehicle width or vehicle height of the vehicle group decided by said vehicle group decision device, the number of pixels calculated by said target vehicle pixel count calculation device and the number of width or height pixels of the image obtained by imaging by the camera.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a vehicle memory in which representative vehicle widths or vehicle heights have been stored beforehand on a per-vehicle-group basis;

wherein said distance calculation device calculates the distance to the target vehicle based upon a representative vehicle width or vehicle height of the vehicle group, which has been decided by said vehicle group decision device, from among the representative vehicle widths or vehicle heights that have been stored in said vehicle memory, the number of pixels calculated by said target vehicle pixel count calculation device and the number of width or height pixels of the image obtained by imaging by the camera.

3. A vehicle-to-vehicle distance calculation method comprising the steps of:

controlling a camera, which has been mounted on one'"'"'s own vehicle, so as to image a target vehicle present ahead of one'"'"'s own vehicle;

deciding to what group the target vehicle belongs based upon an image obtained by imaging by the camera;

calculating number of width or height pixels of a target image contained in an image obtained by imaging by the camera; and

calculating the distance to the target vehicle based upon a representative vehicle width or vehicle height of the vehicle group decided, the number of pixels calculated and the number of width or height pixels of the image obtained by imaging by the camera.