Image processing apparatus for vehicle
First Claim
1. An image processing apparatus for use with a vehicle, which is to be carried on the vehicle, said apparatus comprising:
- an image pick-up device operable to photograph a foreground in a vehicle-moving direction to generate an original image data which corresponds to the foreground;
an outline extracting device operable to extract an outline image data from the original image data generated by said image pick-up device, the outline image data corresponding to outlines of two lane-indicating lines formed respectively at both end portions of a width of a traffic lane on a road, on which the vehicle is moving;
a coordinate transforming device operable to perform a coordinate-transforming processing to the outline image data generated by said outline extracting device to generate coordinate-transforming image data which represents a plan view of the outlines of the lane-indicating lines in a predetermined plane coordinate system; and
an attitude change detecting device operable to detect a change of a pitch angle of the vehicle based on the two lane-indicating lines being parallel to each other, by using the coordinate-transforming image data generated by said coordinate transforming device, wherein;
said attitude change detecting device is operable to plot a plurality of points onto the plane coordinate system based on the coordinate-transforming image data, a position of each of the points in the first coordinate axis corresponding to a size in width of the traffic lane, and a position of the point in the second coordinate axis corresponding to a position in a longitudinal direction of the traffic lane; and
said attitude change detecting device is further operable to decide one straight line which matches the points.
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Abstract
An image processing device for a vehicle according to the present invention has an edge extractor for emphasizing edges of a traffic lane in a front road image signal generated by a digital image pick-up device, a threshold setter for setting a threshold to extract the edges of the traffic lane based on the result detected by the edge extractor, an outline extractor for extracting an outline of the traffic lane to generate an outline data based on the result detected by the edge extractor and the threshold set by the threshold setter, a noise eliminator for eliminating noise components from the outline data, a white line detector for detecting lane-indicating lines based on the outline data from which the noise components have been eliminated, an attitude change detector for estimating the attitude of the vehicle based on the detected lane-indicating lines, and a target advance direction detector for detecting a target direction to advance the vehicle based on the result obtained by the white line detector and the estimated attitude of the vehicle. According to the image processing apparatus, the target direction to advance the vehicle can be exactly measured, even if the helix angle (i.e. pitch angle) changes.
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Citations
16 Claims
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1. An image processing apparatus for use with a vehicle, which is to be carried on the vehicle, said apparatus comprising:
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an image pick-up device operable to photograph a foreground in a vehicle-moving direction to generate an original image data which corresponds to the foreground;
an outline extracting device operable to extract an outline image data from the original image data generated by said image pick-up device, the outline image data corresponding to outlines of two lane-indicating lines formed respectively at both end portions of a width of a traffic lane on a road, on which the vehicle is moving;
a coordinate transforming device operable to perform a coordinate-transforming processing to the outline image data generated by said outline extracting device to generate coordinate-transforming image data which represents a plan view of the outlines of the lane-indicating lines in a predetermined plane coordinate system; and
an attitude change detecting device operable to detect a change of a pitch angle of the vehicle based on the two lane-indicating lines being parallel to each other, by using the coordinate-transforming image data generated by said coordinate transforming device, wherein;
said attitude change detecting device is operable to plot a plurality of points onto the plane coordinate system based on the coordinate-transforming image data, a position of each of the points in the first coordinate axis corresponding to a size in width of the traffic lane, and a position of the point in the second coordinate axis corresponding to a position in a longitudinal direction of the traffic lane; and
said attitude change detecting device is further operable to decide one straight line which matches the points. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
said plane coordinate system used by said coordinate transforming device is a plane coordinate in which a position of said image pick-up device is defined as an origin in a view point of plane, a width direction of the vehicle is defined as a first coordinate axis, and a front-rear direction of the vehicle is defined as a second coordinate axis; and
said attitude change detecting device is further operable to detect the change of the pitch angle based on the inclination angle of the straight line against the second coordinate axis.
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3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said attitude change detecting device is operable to detect an amount of movement of the vehicle in an upper-lower direction based on the straight line.
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4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a target direction detecting device operable to detect a target direction to advance the vehicle in consideration of the change of the pitch angle.
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5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a target direction detecting device operable to detect a target direction to advance the vehicle in consideration of the change of the pitch angle.
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6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising a target direction detecting device operable to detect a target direction to advance the vehicle in consideration of both of the change of the pitch angle and the amount of movement in the upper-lower direction.
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7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said attitude change detecting device is operable to judge outline points deviating from the straight line to be noises.
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8. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said attitude change detecting device is operable to judge outline points deviating from the straight line to be noises.
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9. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said outline extracting device includes:
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an edge extracting device operable to emphasize edges of the traffic lane in the original image data generated by said image pick-up device;
a threshold setting device operable to set a threshold to extract the edges of the traffic lane based on the result detected by said edge extracting device;
an outline point extracting device operable to extract a pixel, whose intensity is a peak value, from pixels of the edges of the traffic lane, as an outline point data of the lane-indicating lines, based on both the result detected by said edge extracting device and the threshold set by said threshold setting device; and
a lane-indicating line detecting device operable to perform an interpolation processing to the outline point data extracted by said outline point extracting device to generate the outline image data which corresponds to the outline of the lane-indicating lines.
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10. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said outline extracting device includes:
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an edge extracting device operable to emphasize edges of the traffic lane in the original image data generated by said image pick-up device;
a threshold setting device operable to set a threshold to extract the edges of the traffic lane based on the result detected by said edge extracting device;
an outline point extracting device operable to extract a pixel, whose intensity is a peak value, from pixels of the edges of the traffic lane, as an outline point data of the lane-indicating lines, based on both the result detected by said edge extracting device and the threshold set by said threshold setting device; and
a lane-indicating line detecting device operable to perform an interpolation processing to the outline point data extracted by said outline point extracting device to generate the outline image data which corresponds to the outline of the lane-indicating lines.
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11. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said outline extracting device includes:
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an edge extracting device operable to emphasize edges of the traffic lane in the original image data generated by said pick-up device;
a threshold setting device operable to set a threshold to extract the edges of the traffic lane based on the result detected by said edge extracting device;
an outline point extracting device operable to extract a pixel, whose intensity is a peak value, from pixels of the edges of the traffic lane, as an outline point data of the lane-indicating lines, based on both the result detected by said edge extracting device and the threshold set by said threshold setting device; and
a lane-indicating line detected device operable to perform an interpolation processing to the outline point data extracted by said outline point extracting device to generate the outline image data which corresponds to the outline of the lane-indicating lines.
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12. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said outline extracting device includes:
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an edge extracting device operable to emphasize edges of the traffic lane in the original image data generated by said image pick-up device;
a threshold setting device operable to set a threshold to extract the edges of the traffic lane based on the result detected by said edge extracting device;
an outline point extracting device operable to extract a pixel, whose intensity is a peak value, from pixels of the edges of the traffic lane, as an outline point data of the lane-indicating lines, based on both the result detected by said edge extracting device and the threshold set by said threshold setting device; and
a lane-indicating line detecting device operable to perform an interpolation processing to the outline point data extracted by said outline point extracting device to generate the outline image data which corresponds to the outline of the lane-indicating lines.
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13. The image processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said outline extracting device includes:
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an edge extracting device operable to emphasize edges of the traffic lane in the original image data generated by said image pick-up device;
a threshold setting device operable to set a threshold to extract the edges of the traffic lane based on the result detected by said edge extracting device;
an outline point extracting device operable to extract a pixel, whose intensity is a peak value, from pixels of the edges of the traffic lane, a an outline point data of the lane-indicating lines, based on both the result detected by said edge extracting device and the threshold set by said threshold setting device; and
a lane-indicating line detecting device operable to perform an interpolation processing to the outline point data extracted by said outline point extracting device to generate the outline image data which corresponds to the outline of the lane-indicating lines.
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14. The image processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said outline extracting device includes:
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an edge extracting device operable to emphasize edges of the traffic lane in the original image data generated by said image pick-up device;
a threshold setting device operable to set a threshold to extract the edges of the traffic lane based on the result detected by said edge extracting device;
an outline point extracting device operable to extract a pixel, whose intensity is a peak value, from pixels of the edges of the traffic lane, as an outline point data of the lane-indicating lines, based on both the result detected by said edge extracting device and the threshold set by said threshold setting device; and
a lane-indicating line detecting device operable to perform an interpolation processing to the outline point data extracted by said outline point extracting device to generate the outline image data which corresponds to the outline of the lane-indicating lines.
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15. The image processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said outline extracting device includes:
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an edge extracting device operable to emphasize edges of the traffic lane in the original image data generated by said image pick-up device;
a threshold setting device operable to set a threshold to extract the edges of the traffic lane based on the result detected by said edge extracting device;
an outline point extracting device operable to extract a pixel, whose intensity is a peak value, from pixels of the edges of the traffic lane, as an outline point data of the lane-indicating lines, based on both the result detected by said edge extracting device and the threshold set by said threshold setting device; and
a lane-indicating line detecting device operable to perform an interpolation processing to the outline point data extracted by said outline point extracting device to generate the outline image data which corresponds to the outline of the lane-indicating lines.
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16. The image processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said outline extracting device includes:
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an edge extracting device operable to emphasize edges of the traffic lane in the original image data generated by said image pick-up device;
a threshold setting device operable to set a threshold to extract the edges of the traffic lane based on the result detected by said edge extracting device;
an outline point extracting device operable to extract a pixel, whose intensity is a peak value, from pixels of the edges of the traffic lane, as an outline point data of the lane-indicating lines, based on both the result detected by said edge extracting device and the threshold set by said threshold setting device; and
a lane-indicating line detecting device operable to perform an interpolation processing to the outline point data extracted by said outline point extracting device to generate the outline image data which corresponds to the outline of the lane-indicating lines.
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Specification