Method To Determine Distance Of An Object From An Automated Vehicle With A Monocular Device
First Claim
1. A method of determining the distance of an object from an automated vehicle,said method comprising:
- equipping an automated vehicle with a monocular image acquiring device, said device located on the automated vehicle at a predefined height above a plane of a road on which the automated vehicle travels;
capturing images of an environment proximate to the vehicle, wherein the images of the environment are taken at time intervals by the device;
classifying, by an image processing system, an object in the images;
associating, by the image processing system, the object with an object-class;
determining, by the image processing system, respective position data from the images using a pinhole camera model and based on the object-class, said position data indicative of a position of a reference point of the object with respect to the plane of the road in world coordinates;
estimating a scaling factor of the pinhole camera model using a Bayes estimator on the position data as observations and under the assumption that the reference point of the object is located on the plane of the road with a predefined probability; and
calculating a distance of the object from the automated vehicle based on the scaling factor using the pinhole camera model.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method of determining the distance of an object from an automated vehicle based on images taken by a monocular image acquiring device. The object is recognized with an object-class by means of an image processing system. Respective position data are determined from the images using a pinhole camera model based on the object-class. Position data indicating in world coordinates the position of a reference point of the object with respect to the plane of the road is used with a scaling factor of the pinhole camera model estimated by means of a Bayes estimator using the position data as observations and under the assumption that the reference point of the object is located on the plane of the road with a predefined probability. The distance of the object from the automated vehicle is calculated from the estimated scaling factor using the pinhole camera model.
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Citations
15 Claims
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1. A method of determining the distance of an object from an automated vehicle,
said method comprising: -
equipping an automated vehicle with a monocular image acquiring device, said device located on the automated vehicle at a predefined height above a plane of a road on which the automated vehicle travels; capturing images of an environment proximate to the vehicle, wherein the images of the environment are taken at time intervals by the device; classifying, by an image processing system, an object in the images; associating, by the image processing system, the object with an object-class; determining, by the image processing system, respective position data from the images using a pinhole camera model and based on the object-class, said position data indicative of a position of a reference point of the object with respect to the plane of the road in world coordinates; estimating a scaling factor of the pinhole camera model using a Bayes estimator on the position data as observations and under the assumption that the reference point of the object is located on the plane of the road with a predefined probability; and calculating a distance of the object from the automated vehicle based on the scaling factor using the pinhole camera model. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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5. A method in accordance with claim 5, wherein the scaling factor (p) of the pinhole camera is estimated by determining a modal value of a posteriori distribution of the observations.
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13. An apparatus to recognize and track an object from an automated vehicle, said apparatus comprising:
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a monocular image acquiring device arranged on an automated vehicle at a predefined height (h) above a plane of a road, said device configured for taking images of an environment about the automated vehicle at time intervals; and an image processing system operable to classify an object in the images; associate the object with an object-class; determine respective position data from the images using a pinhole camera model and based on the object-class, said position data indicative of a position of a reference point of the object with respect to the plane of the road in world coordinates; estimate a scaling factor of the pinhole camera model using a Bayes estimator on the position data as observations and under the assumption that the reference point of the object is located on the plane of the road with a predefined probability; and calculate a distance of the object from the automated vehicle based on the scaling factor using the pinhole camera model.
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14. A method of determining the distance of an object from a motor vehicle by means of a monocular image acquiring device which is arranged at the motor vehicle at a predefined height above the plane of the road, wherein
images of the vehicle environment are taken at time intervals by means of the monocular image acquiring device; -
at least one object of interest is recognized in the taken images and is associated with an object class by means of an image processing system; respective position data are determined from the taken images using a pinhole camera model on the basis of the object class, said position data indicating the position of a reference point of the object with respect to the plane of the road in world coordinates; a scaling factor of the pinhole camera model is estimated by means of a Bayes estimator using the position data as observations and under the assumption that the reference point of the object is located on the plane of the road (21) with a predefined probability; and the distance of the object from the motor vehicle is calculated from the estimated scaling factor using the pinhole camera model.
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15-28. -28. (canceled)
Specification