Position measuring apparatus using a pair of electronic cameras
First Claim
1. A position measuring apparatus, comprising:
- a pair of electronic cameras mounted on a mobile body, optical axes of both of the cameras being mutually parallel to each other and being directed toward a forward direction of the mobile body or toward a rearward direction thereof and horizontal axes of their photograph planes being aligned to the same line;
an image split region setting section to split one image photographed by one of the pair of cameras into a plurality of image split regions, each image split region having a predetermined dimension;
a parallax calculating section to determine, for each image split region, a similarity in image between an image present within one of the image split regions and another image photographed by the other of the pair of cameras and present on each position corresponding to one of the image split regions and to calculate, for each image split region, a difference in position between a position of each of the image split regions and any one of the positions of the other image at which the similarity in image to the image on the position of each image split region is highest, the parallax calculating section deriving a parallax for each image split region from the calculated difference in position therebetween;
a voting section, the voting section including a table whose lateral axis is made correspondence to a horizontal position for each image split region and whose longitudinal axis is made correspondence to a value of the parallax for each image split region and accumulatively adding a predetermined numerical value to each position in the table corresponding to both of the horizontal position of each image split region and a value of the parallax at the corresponding image split region of the same horizontal position so as to vote to each position in the table;
a distance calculating section to calculate a distance from a camera setting position of the pair of cameras to a target object to be detected present in either the forward direction or the rearward direction on the basis of the value of the parallax at any one of the horizontal positions in the table at which a result of voting by the voting section indicates a value higher than a first threshold value;
a horizontal range calculating section to derive a horizontal range on the one image over which the target object to be detected is photographed on the basis of the horizontal positions of the respective image split regions corresponding to any positions in the table at each of which the result of voting by the voting section indicates the value higher than the first threshold value;
a vertical range calculating section to derive first histograms on horizontal edges for each vertical coordinate value on the whole image within the horizontal range derived by the horizontal range calculating section and to derive a vertical range at each end of which a histogram value of the first histograms indicates a value higher than a second threshold value;
an edge selecting section to derive second histograms on vertical edge components for each horizontal coordinate value on the whole image within the vertical range derived by the vertical range calculating section, to search for longitudinal edges present on the one image determined from the second histograms, and to select any one of the longitudinal edges which is located in the vicinity of each end of the horizontal range derived by the horizontal range calculating section from among the searched longitudinal edges; and
an actual position calculating section to derive an actual spatial position on each lateral end of the target object present in either the forward or rearward direction with respect to the camera setting position, each lateral end thereof corresponding to the selected longitudinal edge on the one image, on the basis of the distance from the camera setting position to the target object derived by the distance calculating section and the coordinate value of each longitudinal edge selected by the edge selecting section.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A distance measuring apparatus applicable to a mobile body such as an automotive vehicle which detects a position of an obstacle (a target object) without influence of an ambient environment such as a white line and determines positions of lateral ends of the obstacle is disclosed. In the distance measuring apparatus, a pair of electronic cameras are mounted on the mobile body, optical axes of both of the cameras being mutually parallel to each other and being directed toward a forward direction or toward a rearward direction and horizontal axes of their photograph planes being aligned to the same line. Using a new stereophotographic image processing, deriving a parallax for each window from a calculated difference in position between one image and another image, voting to each position in a table of parallax x lateral position, calculating a distance to the obstacle on the basis of the value of the parallax at any one of horizontal positions in the table at which a result of voting indicates a higher value, deriving a horizontal range on the one image on the basis of the horizontal positions of respective windows corresponding to any positions in the table at each of which the result of voting indicates the higher value, deriving a vertical range at each end of which a histogram value of histograms indicates a higher value, and, selecting any one of present longitudinal edges located in the vicinity of each end of the horizontal range from among searched longitudinal edges.
384 Citations
10 Claims
-
1. A position measuring apparatus, comprising:
-
a pair of electronic cameras mounted on a mobile body, optical axes of both of the cameras being mutually parallel to each other and being directed toward a forward direction of the mobile body or toward a rearward direction thereof and horizontal axes of their photograph planes being aligned to the same line;
an image split region setting section to split one image photographed by one of the pair of cameras into a plurality of image split regions, each image split region having a predetermined dimension;
a parallax calculating section to determine, for each image split region, a similarity in image between an image present within one of the image split regions and another image photographed by the other of the pair of cameras and present on each position corresponding to one of the image split regions and to calculate, for each image split region, a difference in position between a position of each of the image split regions and any one of the positions of the other image at which the similarity in image to the image on the position of each image split region is highest, the parallax calculating section deriving a parallax for each image split region from the calculated difference in position therebetween;
a voting section, the voting section including a table whose lateral axis is made correspondence to a horizontal position for each image split region and whose longitudinal axis is made correspondence to a value of the parallax for each image split region and accumulatively adding a predetermined numerical value to each position in the table corresponding to both of the horizontal position of each image split region and a value of the parallax at the corresponding image split region of the same horizontal position so as to vote to each position in the table;
a distance calculating section to calculate a distance from a camera setting position of the pair of cameras to a target object to be detected present in either the forward direction or the rearward direction on the basis of the value of the parallax at any one of the horizontal positions in the table at which a result of voting by the voting section indicates a value higher than a first threshold value;
a horizontal range calculating section to derive a horizontal range on the one image over which the target object to be detected is photographed on the basis of the horizontal positions of the respective image split regions corresponding to any positions in the table at each of which the result of voting by the voting section indicates the value higher than the first threshold value;
a vertical range calculating section to derive first histograms on horizontal edges for each vertical coordinate value on the whole image within the horizontal range derived by the horizontal range calculating section and to derive a vertical range at each end of which a histogram value of the first histograms indicates a value higher than a second threshold value;
an edge selecting section to derive second histograms on vertical edge components for each horizontal coordinate value on the whole image within the vertical range derived by the vertical range calculating section, to search for longitudinal edges present on the one image determined from the second histograms, and to select any one of the longitudinal edges which is located in the vicinity of each end of the horizontal range derived by the horizontal range calculating section from among the searched longitudinal edges; and
an actual position calculating section to derive an actual spatial position on each lateral end of the target object present in either the forward or rearward direction with respect to the camera setting position, each lateral end thereof corresponding to the selected longitudinal edge on the one image, on the basis of the distance from the camera setting position to the target object derived by the distance calculating section and the coordinate value of each longitudinal edge selected by the edge selecting section. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
Specification