Vision method of detecting lane boundaries and obstacles
First Claim
Patent Images
1. In an automotive vehicle having a computer vision system and an associated camera for viewing a scene ahead of the vehicle, a method of detecting lane markers on a roadway comprising the steps of:
- obtaining an image of the scene and digitizing the image,normalizing the image,defining a search area in the image,searching for lane markers in the search area of the image to locate lane marker positions,estimating the position of any missing lane marker from said located lane marker positions, anddefining lane boundaries from the said located lane marker positions and the estimated position of the missing lane marker.
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Abstract
An image processing method operates on an image from a ccd camera viewing a roadway scene in front of a vehicle to detect lane markers and determine the relationship of the vehicle to the lane. Obstacles in the lane near the vehicle are detected and a warning is given to the driver. The method uses template matching techniques or a Hough algorithm to detect the lane markers or road edges.
656 Citations
10 Claims
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1. In an automotive vehicle having a computer vision system and an associated camera for viewing a scene ahead of the vehicle, a method of detecting lane markers on a roadway comprising the steps of:
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obtaining an image of the scene and digitizing the image, normalizing the image, defining a search area in the image, searching for lane markers in the search area of the image to locate lane marker positions, estimating the position of any missing lane marker from said located lane marker positions, and defining lane boundaries from the said located lane marker positions and the estimated position of the missing lane marker. - View Dependent Claims (2, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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3. In an automotive vehicle having a computer vision system and an associated camera for viewing a scene ahead of the vehicle and obtaining a series of images of the scene, a method of locating lane boundaries on a roadway comprising for each image the steps of:
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digitizing the image and normalizing the image, dynamically defining a search area in the image based on the lane boundaries located in a previous image, searching for lane markers in the search area of the image to locate lane marker positions, estimating the position of any missing lane marker based on information selected from the current image and previous images, and defining lane boundaries from the said located lane marker positions and the estimated position of the missing lane marker. - View Dependent Claims (4)
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9. In an automotive vehicle having a computer vision system and an associated camera for viewing a scene ahead of the vehicle and obtaining a series of images of the scene, a method of locating lane boundaries and close obstacles on a roadway comprising for each image the steps of:
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digitizing the image and normalizing the image, generating edge data from the image, determining an edge pixel count by counting edge pixels between lane boundaries defined in the previous image ad in the image portion representing space close to the vehicle, comparing the edge pixel count to a threshold value and issuing an obstacle warning when the count is above the threshold value, when the edge pixel count is below the threshold value, dynamically defining a search area in the image based on the lane boundaries located in said previous image, searching for lane markers in the search area of the image to locate lane marker positions, estimating the position of any missing lane marker based on information selected from the current image and previous images, and defining lane boundaries from the said located lane marker positions and the estimated position of the missing lane marker. - View Dependent Claims (10)
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Specification