APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DETECTING OBJECT FOR VEHICLE

• US 20160132734A1
• Filed: 10/16/2015
• Published: 05/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hyundai Mobis Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hyundai Mobis Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: LEE, Sung Joo
• Granted Patent: US 9,904,857 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 11/04 Mounting of cameras operative during drive; Arrangement of controls thereof relative to the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30261 Obstacle
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/11 Region-based segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/56 exterior to a vehicle by using sensors mounted on the vehicle
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/584 of vehicle lights or traffic lights

Abstract

Disclosed are an apparatus and a method for detecting an object for a vehicle, the apparatus including: a camera unit configured to output a surrounding image of a vehicle; an object candidate extracting unit configured to extract an object candidate from the output surrounding image of the vehicle; a height reference filtering unit configured to output a filtered image by excluding an object having a height equal to or smaller than a threshold value from the extracted object candidate; and an object recognizing unit configured to detect a specific object from the output filtered image.

Claims

1. An apparatus for detecting an object for a vehicle, the apparatus comprising:

a camera unit configured to output a surrounding image of a vehicle;

an object candidate extracting unit configured to extract an object candidate from the output surrounding image of the vehicle;

a height reference filtering unit configured to output a filtered image by excluding an object having a height equal to or smaller than a threshold value from the extracted object candidate; and

an object recognizing unit configured to detect a specific object from the output filtered image.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the object candidate extracting unit calculates center coordinates of a lower end of an object square surrounding the object candidate.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the height reference filtering unit calculates a threshold value of a height corresponding to the center coordinates of the lower end of the object square surrounding the object candidate.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the height reference filtering unit calculates coordinates of the object square having a minimum height and a minimum width while changing a position of the object square based on the threshold value of the height in the surrounding image of the vehicle.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the height reference filtering unit calculates the coordinates of the object square for each region of the surrounding image of the vehicle and stores the calculated coordinates in a look-up table.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the height reference filtering unit calculates the threshold value of the height corresponding to the center coordinates of the lower end of the object square with reference to the look-up table.

7. A method for detecting an object for a vehicle, the method comprising:

outputting a surrounding image of a vehicle;

extracting an object candidate from the surrounding image of the vehicle;

outputting a filtered image by excluding an object having a height equal to or smaller than a threshold value from the extracted object candidate; and

detecting a specific object from the filtered image.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the extracting of the object candidate includes calculating center coordinates of a lower end of an object square surrounding the object candidate.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the outputting of the filtered image includes calculating a threshold value of a height corresponding to the center coordinates of the lower end of the object square surrounding the object candidate.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the outputting of the filtered image includes calculating coordinates of the object square having a minimum height and a minimum width while changing a position of the object square based on the threshold value of the height in the surrounding image of the vehicle.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the outputting of the filtered image includes calculating the coordinates of the object square for each region of the surrounding image of the vehicle and storing the calculated coordinates in a look-up table.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the outputting of the filtered image includes calculating the threshold value of the height corresponding to the center coordinates of the lower end of the object square with reference to the look-up table.