IMAGE PROCESSING SYSTEM, VEHICLE INCLUDING THE SAME, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT

• US 20140300744A1
• Filed: 11/27/2012
• Published: 10/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Kasahara, Ryosuke
• Granted Patent: US 9,706,177 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/148
• CPC Class Codes: B60S 1/0844 including a camera
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/56 exterior to a vehicle by using sensors mounted on the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/55 Optical parts specially adapted for electronic image sensors; Mounting thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/60 Control of cameras or camera modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/75 by influencing optical camera components
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/811 by dust removal, e.g. from surfaces of the image sensor or processing of the image signal output by the electronic image sensor
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 for receiving images from a single remote source

Abstract

According to an embodiment, provided is an image processing system that includes: a light source that emits light; an imaging unit including an imaging element that captures light emitted and reflected from a foreign matter attached to the other surface of the transparent member and that captures light transmitted through the transparent member from the other surface side; and an image analyzing unit that analyzes captured image data. The captured image data is formed of a first image area frame used for detecting a foreign matter, and is formed of a second image area frame that corresponds to an effective imaging area excluding a predetermined area. Different rules are applied to read pixel data of between the first image area frame and the second image area frame.

Claims

1. An image processing system comprising:

a light source that emits light from one surface side of a transparent member to the transparent member;

an imaging unit including an imaging element

that captures light emitted by the light source and reflected from a foreign matter attached to the other surface of the transparent member and

that captures light transmitted through the transparent member from the other surface side; and

an image analyzing unit that analyzes captured image data captured by the imaging unit, wherein

the captured image data

is formed of a first image area frame containing a first image area that is used for detecting a foreign matter and that corresponds to a predetermined area of an effective imaging area, and

is formed of a second image area frame containing a second image area that corresponds to the effective imaging area excluding the predetermined area, and

the image analyzing unit applies different rules to the imaging unit between

for reading pixel data of the first image area frame and

for reading the second image area frame.

2. The image processing system according to claim 1, wherein

the imaging unit captures the first image area frame at a first exposure amount and captures the second image area frame at a second exposure amount.

3. The image processing system according to claim 1, wherein a number of the first image area frames is smaller than a number of the second image area frames.

4. The image processing system according to claim 1, wherein the image analyzing unit reads pixel data of the first image area frame from only the first image area.

5. The image processing system according to claim 1, wherein the image analyzing unit thins out pixels when reading the first image area frame.

6. The image processing system according to claim 1, wherein the image analyzing unit reads pixel data of the second image area frame from only the second image area.

7. The image processing system according to claim 1, wherein an area of the predetermined area is smaller than an area of the effective imaging area excluding the predetermined area.

8. The image processing system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an optical filter

that is provided between the transparent member and the imaging element and

that transmits only light in a predetermined wavelength range in the predetermined area of the effective imaging area.

9. The image processing system according to claim 1, wherein

the optical filter includes:

a substrate that is transparent with respect to light in a bandwidth to be used;

a first spectral filter layer

that is formed on an entire surface of the effective imaging area on the substrate on the transparent member side and

that transmits only light of a wavelength component in ranges from wavelength λ

1 to λ

2 and wavelengths λ

3 to λ

4 (λ

1<

λ

2<

λ

3<

λ

4); and

a second spectral filter layer

that is formed on the predetermined area of the effective imaging area on the substrate on the imaging element side and

that transmits only light of a wavelength component in the range from the wavelengths λ

3 to λ

4, wherein

an emission wavelength of the light source is within the range from the wavelengths λ

3 to λ

4.

10. A vehicle comprising:

an image processing system;

a windshield wiper that removes a foreign matter attached to a windshield of the vehicle; and

a windshield wiper control unit that receives a detection result of the foreign matter from an image analyzing unit of the image processing system and generates a control signal for controlling the windshield wiper, wherein

the image processing system includes;

a light source that emits light from one surface side of the windshield to the windshield;

an imaging unit including an imaging element

that captures light emitted by the light source and reflected from the foreign matter attached to the other surface of the windshield and

that captures light transmitted through the windshield from the other surface side; and

the image analyzing unit that analyzes captured image data captured by the imaging unit, wherein

the captured image data

is formed of a first image area frame containing a first image area that is used for detecting a foreign matter and that corresponds to a predetermined area of an effective imaging area, and

is formed of a second image area frame containing a second image area that corresponds to the effective imaging area excluding the predetermined area, and

the image analyzing unit applies different rules to the imaging unit between

for reading pixel data of the first image area frame and

for reading the second image area frame.

11. The vehicle according to claim 10, wherein

the image processing system further includes:

an optical filter

that is provided between the windshield and the imaging element and

that transmits only light in a predetermined wavelength range in the predetermined area of the effective imaging area;

12. An image processing method implemented by an image processing system that includes:

a light source that emits light from one surface side of a transparent member to the transparent member;

the image processing method comprising;

imaging that includes

capturing light emitted by the light source and reflected from a foreign matter attached to the other surface of the transparent member and

capturing light transmitted through the transparent member from the other surface side; and

image-analyzing that includes analyzing captured image data captured at the imaging, wherein

the imaging includes

imaging a first image area frame containing a first image area that is used for detecting a foreign matter and that corresponds to a predetermined area, and

imaging a second image area frame containing a second image area that corresponds to an effective imaging area other than the predetermined area, and

the image-analyzing includes applying different rules between for reading pixel data of the first image area frame and for reading the second image area frame.

13. The image processing method according to claim 12, further comprising

transmitting, by an optical filter provided in the image processing system, only light in a predetermined wavelength range in the predetermined area of the effective imaging area.

14. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium having computer-readable program codes embodied in the medium for an image processing system, when the program codes executed, to execute the image processing method according to claim 12.

15. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium having computer-readable program codes embodied in the medium for an image processing system, when the program codes executed, to execute the image processing method according to claim 13.