OBJECT DETECTION APPARATUS AND STORAGE MEDIUM

• US 20150055825A1
• Filed: 03/13/2013
• Published: 02/26/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Megachips Corporation
• Original Assignee: Megachips Corporation
• Inventors: Hasegawa, Hiromu
• Granted Patent: US 9,245,184 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10024 Color image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30252 Vehicle exterior; Vicinity of vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/68 of symmetry
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/73 using feature-based methods

Abstract

Important information about an object is detected using less arithmetic processing. An object detection unit generates an edge image from a color image. The object detection unit evaluates symmetry of an image included in the edge image by performing processing in accordance with the position of a target pixel. The object detection unit identifies a symmetry center pixel forming an object having symmetry. The object detection unit detects an object width for each symmetry center pixel. The object detection unit identifies the width of the object in the vertical direction based on the width of the symmetry center pixels in the vertical direction, and identifies the width of the object in the horizontal direction based on the object width identified for each symmetry center pixel.

Claims

1. :

An object detection apparatus, comprising;

an image input unit configured to receive an image;

an image feature quantity extraction unit configured to extract a predetermined image feature quantity from the image to generate a feature-quantity extraction image; and

a symmetry evaluation unit configured to set, for every processing target pixel in the feature-quantity extraction image, a symmetry evaluation area for evaluating symmetry in a first direction in the image in such a manner that the symmetry evaluation area is symmetrical with respect to a central axis that is a predetermined axis in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction, and calculates a weighted value resulting from weighting a value indicating a correlation value based on a distance of a group of pixels included in the symmetry evaluation area and located symmetrical with respect to the central axis from the central axis, the correlation value indicating a correlation between image feature quantities of the group of pixels, while varying a size of the symmetry evaluation area to obtain a symmetry evaluation value indicating a degree of the symmetry in the first direction.

2. :

The object detection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the symmetry evaluation unit determines a width of the first-direction symmetry based on the size of the symmetry evaluation area corresponding to the symmetry evaluation value indicating the highest symmetry in the first direction.

3. :

The object detection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the symmetry evaluation unit calculates the symmetry evaluation value for the target pixel using the formula below;

4. :

The object detection apparatus according to claim 3, wherein

the symmetry evaluation unit obtains a maximum value maxSYM of the symmetry evaluation value SYM_w(i, j), and determines the symmetry width based on the width 2w+1 of the symmetry evaluation area in the first direction corresponding to the maximum value of the symmetry evaluation value SYM_w(i, j).

5. :

The object detection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the symmetry evaluation unit calculates a weighted value resulting from weighting a value indicating a correlation between image feature quantities of a group of pixels included in the symmetry evaluation area and located symmetrical with respect to the central axis based on a distance from the central axis to the group of pixels and an image feature quantity on the group of pixels to obtain a symmetry evaluation value indicating a degree of the first-direction symmetry.

6. :

The object detection apparatus according to claim 5, wherein

the symmetry evaluation unit calculates the symmetry evaluation value for the target pixel using the formula below;

7. :

The object detection apparatus according to claim 6, wherein

the symmetry evaluation unit obtains a maximum value maxSYM of the symmetry evaluation value SYM_w(i, j), and determines the symmetry width based on the width 2w+1 of the symmetry evaluation area in the first direction corresponding to the maximum value of the symmetry evaluation value SYM_w(i, j).

8. :

The object detection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the symmetry evaluation unit calculates the symmetry evaluation value for the target pixel using the formula below;

9. :

The object detection apparatus according to claim 8, wherein

the symmetry evaluation unit obtains a maximum value maxSYM of the symmetry evaluation value SYM_w(i, j), and determines the symmetry width based on the width 2w+1 of the symmetry evaluation area in the first direction corresponding to the maximum value of the symmetry evaluation value SYM_w(i, j).

10. :

The object detection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the symmetry evaluation unit calculates the symmetry evaluation value for the target pixel using the formula below;

11. :

The object detection apparatus according to claim 10, wherein

the symmetry evaluation unit obtains a maximum value maxSYM of the symmetry evaluation value SYM_w(i, j), and determines the symmetry width based on the width 2w+1 of the symmetry evaluation area in the first direction corresponding to the maximum value of the symmetry evaluation value SYM_w(i, j).

12. :

The object detection apparatus according to claim 3, wherein

the weighting function c(k) is a monotonically increasing function of k.

13. :

The object detection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the weighting function c(k) is a monotonically decreasing function of k.

14. :

The object detection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

(1) when a value of a row i indicating a position of the target pixel in the first direction is equal to or less than H/2, the symmetry evaluation unit calculates the symmetry evaluation value by varying a value of w within a range of 1≦

w≦

(i−

1), where w is a half of the width of the symmetry evaluation area in the first direction and H is the number of pixels in the first direction of the image, and H is a natural number, and

(2) when the value of the row i indicating the position of the target pixel in the first direction is greater than H/2, the symmetry evaluation unit calculates the symmetry evaluation value by varying the value of w within a range of 1≦

w≦

(H−

i).

15. :

The object detection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the image feature quantity is an edge intensity of the image.

16. :

The object detection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the image feature quantity is an intensity of a specific color component of the image.

17. :

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a program enabling a computer to implement an object detection method comprising;

an image input step of receiving an image;

a feature quantity extraction step of extracting a predetermined image feature quantity from the image to generate a feature-quantity extraction image; and

a symmetry evaluation step of setting, for every processing target pixel in the feature-quantity extraction image, a symmetry evaluation area for evaluating symmetry in a first direction in the image in such a manner that the symmetry evaluation area is symmetrical with respect to a central axis that is a predetermined axis in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction, and calculating a weighted value resulting from weighting a value indicating a correlation value based on a distance of a group of pixels included in the symmetry evaluation area and located symmetrical with respect to the central axis from the central axis, the correlation value indicating a correlation between image feature quantities of the group of pixels, while varying a size of the symmetry evaluation area to obtain a symmetry evaluation value indicating a degree of the symmetry in the first direction.