Apparatus and Method for Detecting Precipitation for a Motor Vehicle

• US 20150332099A1
• Filed: 05/13/2015
• Published: 11/19/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Conti Temic Microelectronic GmbH (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Conti Temic Microelectronic GmbH (Continental AG)
• Inventors: KOSUBEK, Christopher, KROEKEL, Dieter, MEIS, Urban
• Granted Patent: US 10,106,126 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60S 1/0844 including a camera
• CPC Class Codes: G01W 1/14 Rainfall or precipitation gauges measuring volume in general G01F
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/22 Matching criteria, e.g. proximity measures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/24 Classification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30252 Vehicle exterior; Vicinity of vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0002 Inspection of images, e.g. flaw detection
• 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: G06T 7/254 involving subtraction of images
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/50 Depth or shape recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/56 exterior to a vehicle by using sensors mounted on the vehicle

Abstract

The invention relates to an apparatus and a method for detecting precipitation on a windscreen for a motor vehicle, the apparatus comprising a camera device, which is designed such that it records a first image at a first moment and a second image at a second moment following the first moment, a comparison device, which is designed such that it produces a first comparison image by comparing the first image with the second image, and an image detection device, which is designed such that it identifies objects on the first comparison image.

Claims

1. An apparatus (100) for detecting precipitation on a windscreen (20) for a motor vehicle, the apparatus comprising

a camera device (101), which is designed such that it records a first image at a first moment and a second image at a second moment following the first moment;

a comparison device (102), which is designed such that it produces a first comparison image by comparing the first image with the second image; and

an image detection device (103), which is designed such that it identifies objects on the first comparison image.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image detection device (103) is designed such that it determines a movement of at least one object among the plurality of identified objects.

3. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the comparison device (102) is designed such that it produces a difference image as the first comparison image.

4. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the camera device (101) is designed such that it records, subsequent to the second image, one or more images as a third image or as further images.

5. An apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the comparison device (102) is designed such that it produces a second comparison image by comparing the second image with the third image.

6. An apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the image detection device (103) is designed such that it determines a movement of an object among the plurality of identified objects by comparing the first comparison image with the second comparison image.

7. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image detection device (103) is designed such that it determines a movement of an object among the plurality of identified objects by comparing the first image with the second image.

8. An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the image detection device (103) is designed such that it assigns a motion direction to the detected motion of the at least one identified object and that it classifies the at least one object while considering the associated motion direction.

9. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image detection device (103) is designed such that it classifies the identified objects on the first comparison image.

10. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image detection device (103) is designed such that it classifies the identified objects on the first comparison image on the basis of the form of the identified objects.

11. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image detection device (103) is designed such that it classifies the identified objects on the first comparison image on the basis of a local frequency of the identified objects.

12. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the camera device (101) is designed such that it records the images with a predefined depth of field and that the image detection device (103) is designed such that it identifies the objects within and outside the predefined depth of field.

13. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the camera device (101) is designed such that it records the first image and the second image without any lighting.

14. A method for detecting precipitation on a windscreen (20) for a motor vehicle, the method comprising the following steps:

recording (S1) of a first image at a first moment and recording of a second image at a second moment following the first moment;

producing (S2) a comparison image from the first image a and the second image; and

identifying (S3) of objects on the comparison image.