TIME TO COLLISION USING A CAMERA

• US 20150085119A1
• Filed: 02/13/2013
• Published: 03/26/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/15/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MobilEye Vision Technologies Ltd. (Intel Corporation)
• Original Assignee: MobilEye Vision Technologies Ltd. (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Stein, Gideon, Dagan, Erez, Kahlon, Noam, Latowicki, Micky
• Granted Patent: US 10,860,869 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/148
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10021 Stereoscopic video; Stereoscopic image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30252 Vehicle exterior; Vicinity of vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30261 Obstacle
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51
• 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

Computing a time-to-contact (TTC) of a vehicle with an object. The object includes a light source. The system mountable in the vehicle includes a camera and a processor configured to capture images of the object. The processor is operable to track a spot between the images to produce a tracked spot. The spot includes an image of the light source. The processor is operable to compute time-to-contact (TTC) responsive to changes in brightness of the tracked spot.

Claims

1. A method of computing a time-to-contact (TTC) of a vehicle with an object, wherein the object includes a light source, the method performable by a camera connectible to a processor, the method comprising:

capturing a plurality of images of the object;

tracking a spot between said images, wherein said spot includes an image of the light source, thereby producing a tracked spot between the images; and

computing the time-to-contact responsive to a change in brightness of the tracked spot.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the time-to-contact is computed from energy of the spot in the image.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein said energy is computed by summing pixel values from a plurality of pixels of the spot.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the time-to-contact is computed from change in said energy over time.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising:

fitting a function of the energy to a function of said time-to-contact,

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the reciprocal of the square root of the energy is fit to a linear function of said time-to-contact.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the vehicle and the object are on a collision course responsive to image motion of the tracked spot.

8. A system for computing a time-to-contact (TTC) of a vehicle with an object, wherein the object includes a light source, the system mountable in the vehicle, the system comprising:

a camera; and

a processor configured to capture from said camera a plurality of images of the object;

wherein the processor is operable to track a spot between said images to produce a tracked spot, wherein said spot includes an image of the light source;

wherein the processor is operable to compute time-to-contact (TTC) responsive to changes in brightness of the tracked spot.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the time-to-contact is computed from energy of the spot in the image.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein said energy is computed by summing pixel values from a plurality of pixels of the spot.

11. The system according to claim 9, wherein the time-to-contact is computed from change in said energy over time.

12. The system according to claim 9, further comprising:

fitting a function of the energy to a function of said time.

13. A system according to claim 8, wherein said camera is a camera from a stereo pair of cameras.

14. A system according to claim 8, wherein the time-to-contact is computed from a sensor input to said processor from a combination of said camera with a radar system.

15. A system according to claim 8, wherein the time-to-contact is computed from a sensor input provided to said processor from a combination of said camera with a lidar system.