VEHICLE-TO-VEHICLE DISTANCE CALCULATION APPARATUS AND METHOD
First Claim
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;
a first 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 the target vehicle pixel count calculation device and the number of width or height pixels of the image obtained by imaging by the camera;
a target-vehicle image detection device for detecting a target-vehicle image, which represents a target vehicle, from within the image obtained by imaging by the camera;
a vanishing point detection device for detecting a vanishing point from within the image obtained by imaging by the camera;
a second distance calculation device for calculating the distance to the target vehicle based upon a position of at least one of an upper edge and lower edge of the target-vehicle image detected by said target-vehicle image detection device and position of the vanishing point detected by said vanishing point detection device; and
a distance decision device for deciding the distance to the target vehicle from the first distance calculated by said first distance calculation device and the second distance calculated by said second distance calculation device upon applying weighting such that the closer together the position of the target-vehicle image detected by said target-vehicle image detection device and position of the vanishing point detected by said vanishing point detection device, the smaller the weight of the second distance calculated by said second distance calculation device becomes.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The distance to a target vehicle is calculated comparatively accurately. To achieve this, a target vehicle traveling ahead of one'"'"'s own vehicle is imaged by a camera 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. A first distance from one'"'"'s own vehicle to the target vehicle is calculated by a circuit using the representative vehicle width of the vehicle group decided. A vanishing point is detected from the captured image by a vanishing point detection circuit and a second distance from one'"'"'s own vehicle to the target vehicle is calculated utilizing the vanishing point. The distance to the target vehicle is decided from the first and second distances by a distance decision circuit, wherein the shorter the distance to the vanishing point, the more the value of a weighting coefficient of the second distance is reduced.
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Citations
5 Claims
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1. A vehicle-to-vehicle distance calculation apparatus comprising:
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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; a first 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 the target vehicle pixel count calculation device and the number of width or height pixels of the image obtained by imaging by the camera; a target-vehicle image detection device for detecting a target-vehicle image, which represents a target vehicle, from within the image obtained by imaging by the camera; a vanishing point detection device for detecting a vanishing point from within the image obtained by imaging by the camera; a second distance calculation device for calculating the distance to the target vehicle based upon a position of at least one of an upper edge and lower edge of the target-vehicle image detected by said target-vehicle image detection device and position of the vanishing point detected by said vanishing point detection device; and a distance decision device for deciding the distance to the target vehicle from the first distance calculated by said first distance calculation device and the second distance calculated by said second distance calculation device upon applying weighting such that the closer together the position of the target-vehicle image detected by said target-vehicle image detection device and position of the vanishing point detected by said vanishing point detection device, the smaller the weight of the second distance calculated by said second distance calculation device becomes. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A vehicle-to-vehicle distance calculation method comprising the steps of:
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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; 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; detecting a target-vehicle image, which represents a target vehicle, from within the image obtained by imaging by the camera; detecting a vanishing point from within the image obtained by imaging by the camera; calculating the distance to the target vehicle based upon a position of at least one of an upper edge and lower edge of the target-vehicle image detected and position of the vanishing point detected; and deciding the distance to the target vehicle from the first distance calculated and the second distance calculated upon applying weighting such that the closer together the position of the target-vehicle image detected and position of the vanishing point detected, the smaller the weight of the second distance calculated becomes.
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Specification