Automobile apparatus for road lane and vehicle ahead detection and ranging
First Claim
1. An apparatus for recognizing road environment, comprising:
- road image recording means mounted on a car to pick up an image of a road;
edge imaging means for preparing an edge image showing contours of objects within said road image;
base line decision means for detecting probable base lines having long horizontal edges in the edge image by moving a search line in a predetermined range and for selecting one of the probable base lines as a baseline of a car running ahead, which baseline is a boundary between said car running ahead and the road, according to an arrangement of the detected horizontal edges, said base line decision means moving the search line at a predetermined sampling interval from a proximal end toward a distal end in the edge image, and determining the search lines containing at least a predetermined number of pixels, each pixel containing a horizontal edge component, as probable base lines by detecting pixel values along the search line;
search area decision means for determining horizontal positions of left and right edges of the base line and setting a search area including the base line and the horizontal positions of left and right edges of the base line; and
ahead car position determining means for determining a position in said search area of the car running ahead, the ahead car position determining means determining the horizontal positions of the car ahead based upon said horizontal edge components in the search area wherein said pixels are counted by count means.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus recognizes road traffic lines and a car running ahead without regard to obstacles and noise signals. A video image recording unit on a car provides an image of the road ahead. Horizontal edges in the image are detected for determining the presence of a car ahead. Successive lateral sweeps in both directions from a center line that advance at predetermined sampling intervals from a proximal portion of the image toward a distal portion of the image provide data by which horizontal edges are determined for comparison against predetermined standards. A base line on the road for the car ahead is determined as the most proximal horizontal edge. Lines marking road lanes are detected by similar two directional search lines from a center line. Lane lines are identified in right and left proximal portions of the image and extrapolated to the distal portion of the image. Missing portions of lines are interpolated. In determining the presence of marked road lanes, vertical edge detection provides basic data for establishing the thickness and distance between probable lines for comparison against predetermined standards. Comparison of successive road images determines relative motion between the vehicle bearing the apparatus and detected images and aids in updating the image and eliminating noise signals.
322 Citations
28 Claims
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1. An apparatus for recognizing road environment, comprising:
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road image recording means mounted on a car to pick up an image of a road; edge imaging means for preparing an edge image showing contours of objects within said road image; base line decision means for detecting probable base lines having long horizontal edges in the edge image by moving a search line in a predetermined range and for selecting one of the probable base lines as a baseline of a car running ahead, which baseline is a boundary between said car running ahead and the road, according to an arrangement of the detected horizontal edges, said base line decision means moving the search line at a predetermined sampling interval from a proximal end toward a distal end in the edge image, and determining the search lines containing at least a predetermined number of pixels, each pixel containing a horizontal edge component, as probable base lines by detecting pixel values along the search line; search area decision means for determining horizontal positions of left and right edges of the base line and setting a search area including the base line and the horizontal positions of left and right edges of the base line; and ahead car position determining means for determining a position in said search area of the car running ahead, the ahead car position determining means determining the horizontal positions of the car ahead based upon said horizontal edge components in the search area wherein said pixels are counted by count means. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. An apparatus for recognizing road environment, comprising:
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road image recording means mounted on a car to pick up an image of a road; edge imaging means for preparing an edge image showing contours of objects within said road image; base line decision means for detecting probable base lines having long horizontal edges in the edge image by moving a search line in a predetermined range and for selecting one of the probable base lines as a baseline of a car running ahead, which baseline is a boundary between said car running ahead and the road, according to an arrangement of the detected horizontal edges, said base line decision means moving the search line at a predetermined sampling interval from a proximal end toward a distal end in the edge image, and determining the search lines containing at least a predetermined number of pixels, each pixel containing a horizontal edge component, as probable base lines by detecting pixel values along the search line, said base line decision means determining that a car running ahead exists when a plurality of probable base lines exist and selecting the lowest probable base line in said road image as the base line of the car running ahead; search area decision means for determining horizontal positions of left and right edges of the base line and for setting a search area according to the base line and the horizontal positions of left and right edges of the base line; and position determining means for determining a position of the car running ahead, the ahead car position determining means determining the horizontal positions of the car ahead based upon said horizontal edge components in the search area counted by count means.
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12. An apparatus for recognizing road environment, comprising:
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road image recording means mounted on a car to pick up an image of a road; edge imaging means for preparing an edge image showing contours of objects according to the road image; proximal line recognition means for recognizing traffic lines in a proximal part of said edge image; and distal line recognition means for recognizing traffic lines in a distal part of the edge image, wherein the proximal line recognition means halves the proximal part of the edge image into a proximal left area and a proximal right area, leftwardly searches the proximal left area for probable points to determine as edge points of a left traffic line, rightwardly searches the proximal right area for probable points to determine as edge points of a right traffic line, recognizes traffic lines according to the probable points, and the distal line recognition means tracing the traffic lines recognized by the proximal line recognition means in a direction extended into the distal part, and completely constructs the traffic lines. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. An apparatus for recognizing road environment, comprising:
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road image recording means mounted on a car to pick up an image of a road; image smoothing means which obtains a first road image through the road image recording means, obtains a second road image through the road image recording means, compares the first and second road images with each other, leaves the first road image as it is when a difference between pixel values at the same coordinate position in the first and second road images is within a preset range, updates the pixel value of the first road image by bringing the pixel value of the first road image closer to the pixel value of the second road image by a preset value when the difference is out of the preset range, and repeats the updating process to form a smoothed image; edge imaging means for preparing an edge image showing contours of objects in the road image; and base line decision means for detecting horizontal edges in the edge image by moving a search line and determining a base line of a car running ahead, said base line being a boundary between a car running ahead and the road, according to an arrangement of the detected horizontal edges. - View Dependent Claims (28)
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Specification