VEHICLE EXTERIOR ENVIRONMENT RECOGNITION DEVICE

• US 20150278615A1
• Filed: 03/25/2015
• Published: 10/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Subaru Corp.
• Original Assignee: Fuji Heavy Industries Limited (Subaru Corp.)
• Inventors: OGAWA, Genya
• Granted Patent: US 9,558,412 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/48 by mapping characteristic values of the pattern into a parameter space, e.g. Hough transformation
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/582 of traffic signs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/80 Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 for receiving images from a single remote source

Abstract

A vehicle exterior environment recognition device includes an image acquiring module that acquires an image, a traffic sign identifying module that identifies a circle of a predetermined radius centering on any one of pixels in the image as a traffic sign, a traffic sign content recognizing module that recognizes content of the identified traffic sign, and a traffic sign content determining module that uses at least one template for one certain country to integrate traffic sign integration points based on correlation evaluation values with the content of the recognized traffic sign, uses a template for each of a plurality of countries corresponding to the content of the traffic sign having the traffic sign integration points to integrate total points by country based on overall evaluation values of the content of the recognized traffic sign, and conclusively determines a currently-traveling country.

Claims

1. A vehicle exterior environment recognition device, comprising:

an image acquiring module that acquires an image;

a traffic sign identifying module that identifies a circle of a predetermined radius centering on any one of pixels in the image as a traffic sign;

a traffic sign content recognizing module that recognizes content of the identified traffic sign; and

a traffic sign content determining module that uses at least one template for one certain country to integrate traffic sign integration points based on correlation evaluation values with the recognized content of the identified traffic sign, uses a template for each of a plurality of countries corresponding to the content of the traffic sign having the traffic sign integration points to integrate total points by country based on overall evaluation values of the content of the recognized traffic sign, and conclusively determines a currently-traveling country.

2. The vehicle exterior environment recognition device of claim 1, wherein the traffic sign content determining module applies weighting to the overall evaluation values for a currently-recognized country and a country adjacent to the currently-recognized country so that the currently-recognized country and the country adjacent to the currently-recognized country are easily selected.

3. The vehicle exterior environment recognition device of claim 1, wherein the traffic sign content determining module stores images of traffic signs having the traffic sign integration points in an image memory, integrates the total points by country based on correlation evaluation values of the content of the recognized traffic sign, and executes the processing that conclusively determines the currently-traveling country, during an idle time of the processing that integrates the traffic sign integration points based on the correlation evaluation values of the content of the recognized traffic sign using the at least one template of the one certain country.

4. The vehicle exterior environment recognition device of claim 2, wherein the traffic sign content determining module stores images of traffic signs having the traffic sign integration points in an image memory, integrates the total points by country based on correlation evaluation values of the content of the recognized traffic sign, and executes the processing that conclusively determines the currently-traveling country, during an idle time of the processing that integrates the traffic sign integration points based on the correlation evaluation values of the content of the recognized traffic sign using the at least one template of the one certain country.