Method and apparatus for processing pictures of mobile object

• US 7,420,589 B2
• Filed: 08/09/2005
• Issued: 09/02/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Socionext Inc., The Foundation for the Promotion of Industrial Science
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited, The Foundation for the Promotion of Industrial Science
• Inventors: Ikeuchi, Katsushi, Kamijo, Shunsuke, Sakauchi, Masao
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo; Tung
• Assistant Examiner(s): SENFI, BEHROOZ M
• Application Number:
  US11/199,282
• Publication Number:
  US 20050285940A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,120 Days
• Field of Search: 348/148, 348/149, 348/135, 348/118, 348/113, 348/119, 348/699, 348/143, 382/209, 382/30, 382/31, 382/32, 382/104, 382/106, 382/372, 382/162, 382/163, 382/164, 382/168, 382/171, 382/172, 382/276, 382/282, 382/107, 701/117, 701/301, 701/300, 701/118, 701/119, 701/120, 701/121, 701/122, 701/302
• US Class Current: 348/149
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30236 Traffic on road, railway or crossing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/231 using full search
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/40 in video content extracting overlay text G06V20/62; video retrieval G06F16/70; processing of video elementary streams in video servers H04N21/234; processing of video elementary streams in video clients H04N21/44
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/54 of traffic, e.g. cars on the road, trains or boats
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/20 Movements or behaviour, e.g. gesture recognition recognition of facial expressions G06V40/16
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/04 using optical or ultrasonic detectors
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/164 Centralised systems, e.g. external to vehicles

Abstract

A feature amount of an inter-mobile unit relative movement are detected as an observation amount by an observation amount detecting section 26, time series of the observation amounts are stored as an observation series into a storage section 27 to calculate a similarity of the observation series to a predetermined collision observation series by a classification section 28. A determination section 29 determines to be a collision accident if, in a case where the similarity is larger than a predetermined value, a mobile unit associated with the similarity is at rest in a stoppage prohibition area set in a storage section 30 and another mobile unit is moving, and to be a mobile unit failure if collision determination conditions except for the similarity are met. By consisting of not only a first scalar obtained by quantizing a relative velocity vector between mobile units but also a second scalar obtained by quantizing a relative position vector between mobile units as the observation amount, a relative movement between mobile units is classified in more detail. A mobile unit is tracked in units of block by a mobile unit tracking section 25 to discriminate overlapped mobile units in pictures.

Claims

1. A mobile unit identification method dividing each of time series pictures to blocks each including a plurality of pixels to process said pictures, wherein said method assigns identification codes of a plurality of mobile units included in a frame picture at a time t in units of the block, and obtains motion vectors of said plurality of mobile units in units of the block, in a case where identification codes of said plurality of mobile units included in a frame picture at a time (t−

1) have been assigned in units of the block, and motion vectors of said plurality of mobile units have been obtained in units of the block, said method comprises;

(a) moving a block j at the time (t−

1), whose identification code is IDj and whose motion vector is Vj, by the vector Vj to obtain a substantially corresponding block i at the time t and moving said block i by a vector −

Vj to obtain a first box at the time (t−

1), to calculate an evaluation value associated with a correlation between an image in said first box at the time (t−

1) and an image of said block i at the time t;

(b) moving a block k at the time (t−

1), whose identification code is IDk and whose motion vector is Vk, by the vector Vk to obtain a substantially corresponding block which is said block i at the time t and moving said block i by a vector −

Vk to obtain a second box at the time (t−

1), to calculate an evaluation value associated with a correlation between an image in said second box at the time (t−

1) and said image of said block i at the time t; and

(c) assigning said IDj or said IDk to said block i at the time t on the basis of magnitudes of said evaluation values calculated in the steps (a) and (b).

2. The mobile unit identification method according to claim 1,

wherein said evaluation value of said step (a) includes a sum over p=1 to Na of a value associated with a value |VCm(t−

1)−

VBp(t−

1)| on the assumption that an identification code of said block i at the time t is IDj, where VCm(t−

1) denotes a motion vector of a block m at the time (t−

1), said block m at the time (t−

1) corresponds to said block i at the time t, and VBp(t−

1) denotes a motion vector of a block whose identification code is IDj and which is adjacent to said block m at the time (t−

1),

wherein said evaluation value of said step (b) includes a sum over q=1 to Nb of a value associated with a value |VCn(t−

1)−

VBq(t−

1)| on the assumption that an identification code of said block i at the time t is IDk, where VCn(t−

1) denotes a motion vector of a block n at the time (t−

1), said block n at the time (t−

1) corresponds to said block i at the time t, and VBq(t−

1) denotes a motion vector of a block whose identification code is IDk and which is adjacent to said block n at the time (t−

1).

3. The mobile unit identification method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of:

prior to processing on said frame picture at the time t, in said frame picture at the time (t−

1), replacing a motion vector of each block having an assigned identification code IDx with a mean motion vector obtained by averaging motion vectors of this block and blocks adjacent to this block and having said identification code IDx.

4. A mobile unit identification apparatus comprising:

a picture storage device storing time series pictures; and

a picture processing device, dividing each of said time series pictures stored to blocks each including a plurality of pixels to process said pictures, assigning identification code of a plurality of mobile units included in a frame picture at a time t in units of the block, and obtaining motion vectors of said plurality of mobile units in units of the block, in a case where identification code of said plurality of mobile units included in a frame picture at a time (t−

1) have been assigned in units of the block, and motion vectors of said plurality of mobile units have been obtained in units of the block,

wherein said picture processing device performs processing of;

(a) moving a block j at the time (t−

1), whose identification code is IDj and whose motion vector is Vj, by the vector Vj to obtain a substantially corresponding block i at the time t and moving said block i by a vector −

Vj to obtain a first box at the time (t−

1), to calculate an evaluation value associated with a correlation between an image in said first box at the time (t−

1) and an image of said block i at the time t;

(b) moving a block k at the time (t−

1), whose identification code is IDk and whose motion vector is Vk, by the vector Vk to obtain a substantially corresponding block which is said block i at the time t and moving said block i by a vector −

Vk to obtain a second box at the time (t−

1), to calculate an evaluation value associated with a correlation between an image in said second box at the time (t−

1) and said image of said block i at the time t; and

(c) assigning said IDj or said IDk to said block i at the time t on the basis of magnitudes of said evaluation values calculated in the processing (a) and (b).

5. The mobile unit identification apparatus of claim 4,

wherein said evaluation value of said processing (a) includes a value associated with an absolute value of a difference between a motion vector of said block i at the time t on the assumption that an identification code of said block i at the time t is IDj,

wherein said evaluation value of said processing (b) includes a value associated with an absolute value of a difference between a motion vector of said block i at the time t on the assumption that an identification code of said block i at the time t is IDk and a motion vector of a block adjacent to said block i.