Vehicle detection apparatus and vehicle detection method
First Claim
1. A vehicle detection apparatus comprising a sound collection means placed in the vicinity of a road and comprising a plurality of microphones;
- a direction estimation means for sampling the input signals from the sound collection means periodically with time windows and estimating the direction of a sound source in each time window; and
a similarity calculation means for calculating the degree of similarity between the estimation results by the direction estimation means and a plurality of templates which indicate a change in the direction of the sound source with time while the vehicle is traveling.
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Abstract
There are provided a vehicle detection apparatus and a vehicle detection method which are capable of detecting a sound source even when a plurality of vehicles are traveling simultaneously or when there are noises produced from something other than the desired vehicle and calculating the location in the vehicle traveling direction and the lane direction of the sound source and the number of passing vehicles. In the vehicle detection apparatus and the vehicle detection method, noises are collected by a microphone array (402) comprising a plurality of microphones arranged in the form of a matrix in the same plane, the outputs thereof are sampled periodically with time windows in a noise component matrix calculation section (122), the direction in the vehicle traveling direction and the lane direction of the sound source in each window is estimated in an α-direction calculation section (410) and a β-direction calculation section (417), the vehicle is detected by the degree of similarity between the estimated directions in the vehicle traveling direction and traveling sound templates in a vehicle detection section (124), and the estimated directions in the lane direction are counted for each lane and the location in the lane direction of the sound source is detected in a lane detection section (312).
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Citations
27 Claims
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1. A vehicle detection apparatus comprising a sound collection means placed in the vicinity of a road and comprising a plurality of microphones;
- a direction estimation means for sampling the input signals from the sound collection means periodically with time windows and estimating the direction of a sound source in each time window; and
a similarity calculation means for calculating the degree of similarity between the estimation results by the direction estimation means and a plurality of templates which indicate a change in the direction of the sound source with time while the vehicle is traveling. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
- a direction estimation means for sampling the input signals from the sound collection means periodically with time windows and estimating the direction of a sound source in each time window; and
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15. A vehicle detection method comprising a sound collection step in which the noises produced by a traveling vehicle are collected by a plurality of microphones placed in the vicinity of a road;
- a direction estimation step in which the input signals from the plurality of microphones are sampled periodically with time windows and the direction of a sound source is estimated in each time window; and
a similarity calculation step in which the degree of similarity between the estimation results by the direction estimation step and templates which indicate a change in the direction of the sound source with time while the vehicle is traveling is calculated. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
- a direction estimation step in which the input signals from the plurality of microphones are sampled periodically with time windows and the direction of a sound source is estimated in each time window; and
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16. A vehicle detection method comprising a sound collection step in which the noises produced by a traveling vehicle are collected by a plurality of microphones aligned on a line parallel to the vehicle traveling direction and placed in the vicinity of a road;
- a direction estimation step in which the input signals from the plurality of microphones are sampled periodically with time windows and the direction of a sound source is estimated in each time window; and
a vehicle detection step in which the degree of similarity between the estimation results by the direction estimation step and a plurality of templates which indicate a change in the direction of the sound source with time while the vehicle is traveling is calculated and the vehicle is detected based on the result of the calculation.
- a direction estimation step in which the input signals from the plurality of microphones are sampled periodically with time windows and the direction of a sound source is estimated in each time window; and
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17. A vehicle detection method comprising a sound collection step in which the noises produced by a traveling vehicle are collected by a plurality of microphones aligned on a line parallel to the vehicle traveling direction and on a line perpendicular to the vehicle traveling direction and placed in the vicinity of a multi-lane road;
- a direction estimation step in which the input signals from the plurality of microphones are sampled periodically with time windows and the direction in the vehicle traveling direction and the lane direction of a sound source is estimated in each time window;
a vehicle detection step in which the degree of similarity between the estimation results in the vehicle traveling direction by the direction estimation step and a plurality of templates which indicate a change in the direction of the sound source with time while the vehicle is traveling is calculated and the vehicle is detected based on the result of the calculation; and
a lane detection step in which the estimation results in the lane direction by the direction estimation step are counted for each lane and the location in the lanes of the sound source is detected based on the counting values.
- a direction estimation step in which the input signals from the plurality of microphones are sampled periodically with time windows and the direction in the vehicle traveling direction and the lane direction of a sound source is estimated in each time window;
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18. A vehicle detection method comprising a sound collection step in which the noises produced by a traveling vehicle are collected by a plurality of microphones arranged in the form of a matrix in the same plane and placed in the vicinity of a multi-lane road;
- a direction estimation step in which the input signals from the plurality of microphones are sampled periodically with time windows and the direction in the vehicle traveling direction and the lane direction of a sound source is estimated in each time window;
a vehicle detection step in which the degree of similarity between the estimation results in the vehicle traveling direction by the direction estimation step and a plurality of templates which indicate a change in the direction of the sound source with time while the vehicle is traveling is calculated and the vehicle is detected based on the result of the calculation; and
a lane detection step in which the estimation results in the lane direction by the direction estimation step are counted for each lane and the location in the lanes of the sound source is detected based on the counting values. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22)
- a direction estimation step in which the input signals from the plurality of microphones are sampled periodically with time windows and the direction in the vehicle traveling direction and the lane direction of a sound source is estimated in each time window;
Specification