Vehicular image processing apparatus and related method

• US 7,171,027 B2
• Filed: 02/13/2003
• Issued: 01/30/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Satoh, Hiroshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu; Jingge
• Assistant Examiner(s): TABATABAI, ABOLFAZL
• Application Number:
  US10/365,526
• Publication Number:
  US 20030169902A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,447 Days
• Field of Search: 382/104, 340/937, 340901-904, 340/933, 340/935, 340/938, 701/3, 701 19- 23, 701/29, 701/32, 701/36, 701/45, 701/49, 701/50, 701/53, 701/69, 701/72, 701/81, 701/89, 701/91, 701/93, 701/98, 701/124, 348/118, 348/120, 348/148, 348/837
• US Class Current: 382/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/00 General purpose image data processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/58 Recognition of moving objects or obstacles, e.g. vehicles or pedestrians; Recognition of traffic objects, e.g. traffic signs, traffic lights or roads
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/167 Driving aids for lane monitoring, lane changing, e.g. blind spot detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

A vehicular image processing apparatus and related method are disclosed as having a high speed camera 2 that picks up an image of a surrounding of a vehicle, a low speed image extracting unit 6 extracting an image calculated with a low speed area calculating unit 4, a high speed image extracting unit 5 extracting other image than that calculated with the low speed area calculating unit 4, and an image outputting unit 9 synthesizing image information extracted with the high image extracting unit 5 and image information related to the image of the low speed area to provide an output which is applied to an image recognition device 11 to detect an obstacle around the vehicle or a road shape. A frame rate adjusting unit 8 enables the output image of the low speed image extracting unit 6 to be applied to the image outputting unit 9.

Claims

1. A vehicular image-processing apparatus, comprising:

an imaging device picking up an image of a surrounding of a vehicle;

a dividing unit dividing an area of the image picked up with the imaging device into a first image area to be outputted at a low frame rate and a second image area to be outputted at a higher frame rate than the low frame rate;

an output unit synthesizing image information of the first image area and image information of the second image area; and

a processing device detecting an object to be detected of the surrounding of the vehicle from the image synthesized with the output unit.

2. The vehicular image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a vehicle information detecting device detecting a traveling status of the vehicle; and

a first image area calculating unit calculating the first image area to be outputted at the low frame rate in dependence on the traveling state of the vehicle detected with the vehicle information detecting device,

wherein the dividing unit comprises;

a first image area extracting unit extracting the first image area calculated with the first image area calculating unit from the image picked up with the image device; and

a second image extracting unit extracting an image area other than the first image area as a second image area from the image picked up with the image device,

wherein the output unit comprises;

an image outputting unit synthesizing the image information of the second image area extracted from the second image area extracting unit and the image information of the first image area extracted from the first image area extracting unit, to provide the synthesized image to the processing device as an input image.

3. The vehicular image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a vehicle information detecting device detecting a traveling status of the vehicle; and

a first image area calculating unit calculating the first image area to be outputted at the low frame rate in dependence on the traveling state of the vehicle detected with the vehicle information detecting device,

wherein the dividing unit comprises;

a frame rate calculating unit calculating a frame rate of the first image area in dependence on the traveling state of the vehicle detected with the vehicle information detecting device;

a first image area extracting unit extracting the first image area calculated with the first image area calculating unit from the image picked up with the image device;

a second image area extracting unit extracting an image area other than the first image area as the second image area from the image picked up with the image device; and

a frame rate adjusting unit outputting the image information of the first image area at the frame rate calculated with the frame rate calculating unit,

wherein the output unit comprises;

an image outputting unit synthesizing the image information of the second image area extracted with the second image extracting unit and the image information of the first image area outputted from the frame rate adjusting unit, to provide the synthesized image to the processing device as an input image.

4. The vehicular image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a vehicle information detecting device detecting a traveling status of the vehicle, and

wherein the imaging device comprises;

a high speed imaging device picking up an image of the surrounding of the vehicle at a high frame rate; and

a low speed imaging device picking up an image of the surrounding of the vehicle at a frame rate lower than the high frame rate of the high speed imaging device,

wherein the dividing unit comprises;

a frame rate calculating unit calculating the frame rate of the low speed imaging device in dependence on the traveling state of the vehicle detected with the vehicle information detecting device;

a first image area extracting unit extracting the first image area calculated with the first image area calculating unit from the image picked up with the low speed imaging device; and

a second image area extracting unit extracting an image other than the first image area as the second image area from the image picked up with the high speed imaging device; and

wherein the output unit comprises;

an image outputting unit synthesizing the image information of the second image area extracted with the second image area extracting unit and the image information of the first image area extracted from the first image extracting unit, to provide the synthesized image to the processing device as an input image.

5. The vehicular image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

when the image picked up with the imaging device is an image of a forward area of the vehicle, right and left areas of the image is set up as the second image area outputted at the higher frame rate and a central area of the image outputted at the low frame rate.

6. The vehicular image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

when the image picked up with the imaging device is an image of a forward area of the vehicle, an area within a traffic lane of the vehicle of the image is set up as the first image area at the low frame rate.

7. The vehicular image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

when the image picked up with the imaging device is an image of a forward area of the vehicle, an area in which a preceding vehicle is detected is set up as the first image area at the low frame rate.

8. A method of processing an image for a vehicle, comprising:

picking up an image of a surrounding of a vehicle;

dividing an area of the picked-up image into a first image area to be outputted at a low frame rate and a second image area to be outputted at a higher frame rate than the low frame rate;

synthesizing image information of the first image area and image information of the second image area; and

detecting an object to be detected of the surrounding of the vehicle from the synthesized image.

9. A vehicular image processing apparatus, comprising:

image means for picking up an image a surrounding of a vehicle;

dividing means for dividing an area of the image picked up with the image pickup means into a first image area to be outputted at a low frame rate and a second image area to be outputted at a higher frame rate than the low frame rate;

output means for synthesizing image information of the first image area and image information of the second image area; and

processing means for detecting an object to be detected of the surrounding of the vehicle from the image synthesized with the output means.