System and method for determining the distance to an energy emitting object
First Claim
1. A method for measuring distance between a first moving object and a second moving object, said second moving object emits infrared energy, comprising the steps of:
- operating an infrared energy-sensing device to detect an image of the infrared energy emitted by said second object;
determining a region in said image, said region having a size characteristic of said second object and said region corresponding to a region on said second object emitting infrared energy characteristic of the object;
characterizing said region by a plurality of feature points;
sensing said feature points in said image; and
ascertaining the distance between the sensing device and the moving object as a function of said feature points using perspective projection geometry.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system for range detection using a passive infrared sensing device (10) is disclosed. The method includes determining a region (35,38) on a moving object, such as an automobile (13, 36, 37), the region (35, 38) having a size characteristic of the object and emitting energy (14) characteristic of the object. The next step is to characterize the region by a plurality of feature points (31, 32, 33, 34) and sense the energy emitting from the feature points. The next step is to calculate the distance between the sensing device (10) and the moving object as a function of the feature points. The method has application in adaptive cruise control for automobiles (13, 36, 37). The method includes the use of perspective projection formulae to determine the distance between the sensing device (10) and the moving object 13, 36, 37). To smooth measurements to each other, one embodiment of the method includes the use of an Euler predictor to integrate measurements across measurement firmness.
-
Citations
34 Claims
-
1. A method for measuring distance between a first moving object and a second moving object, said second moving object emits infrared energy, comprising the steps of:
-
operating an infrared energy-sensing device to detect an image of the infrared energy emitted by said second object; determining a region in said image, said region having a size characteristic of said second object and said region corresponding to a region on said second object emitting infrared energy characteristic of the object; characterizing said region by a plurality of feature points; sensing said feature points in said image; and ascertaining the distance between the sensing device and the moving object as a function of said feature points using perspective projection geometry. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
-
-
12. A device for measuring distance between a first moving object and second moving object, said second moving object is an infrared energy emitting object, comprising:
-
an infrared energy sensing device operable to obtain images of the infrared energy emitted from said second object; circuitry for determining a region in said image, said region having a size characteristic of said second object and corresponding to a region of said second object emitting infrared energy characteristic of the object; circuitry for characterizing said region by a plurality of feature points; circuitry for sensing said feature points within said images; and circuitry for ascertaining the distance between said first object and said second object as a function of said feature points. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
-
-
23. A vehicle speed control system for adaptively responding to distances between a first moving object and a second moving object, wherein said second moving object is an infrared energy emitting object, comprising:
-
an infrared energy sensing device for obtaining images of the infrared energy emitted from said second moving object; an adaptive cruise control device; a range detecting device associated with said adaptive cruise control device, said range detecting device including; circuitry connected to said energy sensing device for determining a region in said images, said region having a size characteristic of the object and corresponding to a region of said second object emitting infrared energy characteristic of the object; circuitry for characterizing said region by a plurality of feature points; circuitry for sensing said feature points; circuitry for ascertaining the distance between the sensing device and the moving object as a function of said feature points; and circuitry for transmitting a signal representative of said distance from said range detecting device to said adaptive cruise control device. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
-
Specification