IMAGE-BASED VEHICLE DETECTION AND DISTANCE MEASURING METHOD AND APPARATUS
First Claim
1. A system for numerical analysis of physical data comprising:
- an input operable to receive multiple, discrete data input values corresponding to a commonly associated physical phenomenon, whereina functional relationship associated with the physical phenomenon is defined in by a plurality of subfunctions,each subfunction is operable on at least one data input value, andat least one of the subfunctions is bounded between a minimum value and maximum value corresponding thereto;
a memory operable to store received digital data;
a processor operable to evaluate a first subfunction of the plurality for each of a plurality data input values to determine a candidate maximum value;
the processor further operable to compare the candidate maximum value to a system maximum value achievable by at least a second of the plurality of subfunctions; and
an output operable to communicate the candidate subfunction value after termination to at least one of a physical monitoring or control system as an extremum value so as to perform at least one of a monitoring and control operation relative to the physical system when the candidate subfunction value exceeds the system maximum value.
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Abstract
In an example embodiment, an image based vehicle detection and measuring apparatus that employs an accelerated, structured, search method is described for quickly finding the extrema of a multivariable function. The input domain of the function is determined. The method exploits information as it becomes available, calculating a best possible value with the information available so far, and terminating further evaluation when the best possible value does not exceed the extreme value found so far. Ordering and best guess schemes are added to the best possible value idea to accelerate it further. The method is applied to speed up an image processing problem, an example of which is given, but has general application, for example, in fields such as vehicle detection.
37 Citations
38 Claims
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1. A system for numerical analysis of physical data comprising:
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an input operable to receive multiple, discrete data input values corresponding to a commonly associated physical phenomenon, wherein a functional relationship associated with the physical phenomenon is defined in by a plurality of subfunctions, each subfunction is operable on at least one data input value, and at least one of the subfunctions is bounded between a minimum value and maximum value corresponding thereto; a memory operable to store received digital data; a processor operable to evaluate a first subfunction of the plurality for each of a plurality data input values to determine a candidate maximum value; the processor further operable to compare the candidate maximum value to a system maximum value achievable by at least a second of the plurality of subfunctions; and an output operable to communicate the candidate subfunction value after termination to at least one of a physical monitoring or control system as an extremum value so as to perform at least one of a monitoring and control operation relative to the physical system when the candidate subfunction value exceeds the system maximum value. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method for numerical analysis for physical data comprising the steps of:
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receiving multiple, discrete data input values corresponding to a commonly associated physical phenomenon, wherein a functional relationship associated with the physical phenomenon is defined in by a plurality of subfunctions, each subfunction is operable on at least one data input value, and at least one of the subfunctions is bounded between a minimum value and maximum value corresponding thereto; storing received digital data in an associated data storage; evaluating a first subfunction of the plurality for each of a plurality data input values to determine a candidate maximum value; comparing compare the candidate maximum value to a system maximum value achievable by at least a second of the plurality of subfunctions; and communicating the candidate subfunction value after termination to at least one of a physical monitoring or control system as an extremum value so as to perform at least one of a monitoring and control operation relative to the physical system when the candidate subfunction value exceeds the system maximum value. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. An apparatus, comprising:
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an image capturing device; a vehicle detection and measuring module coupled with the image capturing device; the vehicle detection and measuring module is operable to receive an image from the image capturing device; the vehicle detection and measuring module is operable to extract edge segments from the image; the vehicle detection and measuring module is operable to search for a combination of edge segments that form a predefined shape to identify a vehicle; the vehicle detection and measuring module compares a fill value for a combination of a first edge segment and a maximum possible fill value for a second edge segment to a predefined threshold; and the vehicle detection and measuring module rejects the combination of the first edge segment and the second edge segment without performing further evaluating the second edge segment responsive to determining that the fill value for the combination of the first edge segment and the maximum possible fill value for the second edge segment is less than the predefined threshold. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. A non-transitory tangible computer readable storage medium for storing computer readable instructions for execution by a processor, and when executed operable to:
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receive an image from the image capturing device; extract edge segments from the image; search for a combination of edge segments that form a predefined shape to identify a vehicle; compare a fill value for a combination of a first edge segment and a maximum possible fill value for a second edge segment to a predefined threshold; and reject the combination of the first edge segment and the second edge segment without further evaluating the second edge segment responsive to determining that the fill value for the combination of the first edge segment and the maximum possible fill value for the second edge segment is less than the predefined threshold. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. An apparatus, comprising:
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an image capturing device; a vehicle detection and measuring module coupled with the image capturing device; the vehicle detection and measuring module is operable to receive an image from the image capturing device; the vehicle detection and measuring module is operable to extract edge segments and shadow pixels from the image; the vehicle detection and measuring module is operable to search for a combination of edge segments and shadow pixels that form a predefined shape to identify a vehicle; the vehicle detection and measuring module compares a fill value for a combination of a first of a group consisting an edge segment and shadow pixels, and a maximum possible fill value for a second of the group consisting of an edge segment and shadow pixels to a predefined threshold; and the vehicle detection and measuring module rejects the combination of the first of the group consisting of an edge segment and shadow pixels, and the second of the group consisting of an edge segment and shadow pixels without performing further evaluating the second of the group consisting of an edge segment and shadow pixels responsive to determining that the fill value for the combination of the first of the group consisting of an edge segment and shadow pixels and the maximum possible fill value for the second of the group consisting of an edge segment and shadow pixels is less than the predefined threshold. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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Specification