Obstacle detection apparatus and a method therefor

• US 7,437,244 B2
• Filed: 01/21/2005
• Issued: 10/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation (Toshiba Corporation), Toshiba Infrastructure Systems & Solutions Corporation (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Okada, Ryuzo
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Cuong H
• Application Number:
  US11/038,239
• Publication Number:
  US 20050165550A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,362 Days
• Field of Search: 701/301, 348/699, 348/155, 348/E5.065, 382/103, 382/236
• US Class Current: 701/301
• 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

Abstract

An obstacle detection apparatus includes an image input unit inputting a image sequence captured by an image sensor, a velocity detector deriving velocity vectors representing motions of a to-be-detected point and a to-be-compared point on each image of the image sequence, a predictive velocity vector calculator calculating a predictive velocity vector of the to-be-detected point using a detected velocity vector of the to-be-compared point, an obstacle detector detecting the to-be-detected point as a point on the obstacle when a horizontal component of a detected velocity vector of the to-be-detected point is larger than a horizontal component of the predictive velocity vector by a given threshold, and an obstacle information output unit outputting information on the to-be-detected point detected as the obstacle.

Claims

1. An obstacle detection apparatus using an image sensor installed on a movable object, comprising:

an image input unit configured to input an image sequence captured by the image sensor;

a velocity detector to derive a plurality of velocity vectors representing motions of at least one to-be-detected point and at least one to-be-compared point on each picture of the image sequence;

a predictive velocity vector calculator to calculate a predictive velocity vector of the to-be-detected point using a detected velocity vector of the to-be-compared point;

an obstacle detector to detect the to-be-detected point as a point on an obstacle when a horizontal component of a detected velocity vector of the to-be-detected point is larger than a horizontal component of the predictive velocity vector by a given threshold; and

an obstacle information output unit to output information on the to-be-detected point detected as the point of the obstacle.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the velocity detector is configured to detect a velocity vector of a point of a movable obstacle that corresponds to the to-be-detected point and a velocity vector of a point of a non-movable object that corresponds to the to-be-compared point.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the movable object includes a vehicle running a road.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, which further comprises a predictive course calculator to calculate a predictive course of the movable object on the picture, and

the obstacle detector includes an obstacle point detector to detect the to-be-detected point as the point on the obstacle when the horizontal component of the to-be-detected velocity vector is larger than the horizontal component of the predictive velocity vector by the threshold in a direction approaching the predictive course from a position of the to-be-detected point.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the predictive velocity vector calculator is configured to calculate the predictive velocity vector, using the velocity vector of the to-be-compared point that is upward the to-be-detected point on the picture and has a horizontal position difference less than another threshold with respect to the to-be-detected point.

6. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the predictive velocity vector calculator is configured to calculate the predictive velocity vector, using the velocity vector of the to-be-compared point that is on a side of the predictive course other than the to-be-detected point on the picture and has a vertical position difference less than a further threshold with respect to the to-be-detected point.

7. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the velocity detector includes a pitching motion detector to detect a pitching motion of the movable object from the image sequence, and a pitching motion compensator to compensate affect of the pitching motion for each picture.

8. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the velocity detector includes a detection region setting unit configured to set on the picture a detection region from which the to-be-detected point is selected, and a feature point deriving unit configured to derive a feature point in the detection region to determine the feature point as the to-be-detected point.

9. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the predictive course calculator is configured to calculate another predictive course including time information of the movable object on a plane on which the movable object moves, and the obstacle information output unit includes means for calculating a position and a time that a distance between the movable object and the obstacle becomes not more than a threshold, using the velocity vector of the obstacle detected by the obstacle detector and the another predictive course.

10. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the obstacle information output unit comprises a grouping unit configured to group to-be-detected points that are determined as the obstacle by using positions of the points and to-be-detected velocity vectors corresponding thereto, and means for calculating a position of the obstacle viewed from the movable object, using a geometric relation between the image sensor and a plane on which the movable object moves and a position of the to-be-detected point which is located at the lowest position on the picture in the to-be-detected points belonging to the same group.

11. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the velocity detector is configured to detect a velocity vector of a point of a movable obstacle that corresponds to the to-be-detected point and a velocity vector of a point of a non-movable object that corresponds to the to-be-compared point.

12. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the movable object includes a vehicle running a road.

13. An obstacle detection apparatus using an image sensor installed on a movable object, comprising:

an image input unit configured to input a image sequence captured by the image sensor;

a velocity detector to derive a plurality of velocity vectors representing motions of a plurality of to-be-detected points and a plurality of to-be-compared points on each picture of the image sequence;

a predictive velocity vector calculator to calculate a predictive velocity vector of each of the to-be-detected points using a detected velocity vector of each of the to-be-compared points;

an obstacle detector to detect each of the to-be-detected point as a point on a corresponding obstacle when a horizontal component of a detected velocity vector of each of the to-be-detected points is larger than a horizontal component of the predictive velocity vector by a given threshold; and

an obstacle information output unit to output information on the to-be-detected points each detected as the point of the corresponding obstacle.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the velocity detector is configured to detect a velocity vector of a point of a movable obstacle that corresponds to the to-be-detected point and a velocity vector of a given point of a non-movable object that corresponds to the to-be-compared point.

15. The apparatus according to claim 13, which further comprises a predictive course calculator to calculate a predictive course of the movable object on the picture, and the obstacle detector includes an obstacle point detector to detect the to-be-detected point as the point on the obstacle when the horizontal component of each of the to-be-detected velocity vectors is larger than the horizontal component of the predictive velocity vector by the threshold in a direction approaching the predictive course from a position of the to-be-detected point.

16. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the predictive velocity vector calculator is configured to calculate the predictive velocity vector, using the velocity vector of the to-be-compared point that is upward the to-be-detected point on the picture and has a horizontal position difference less than another threshold with respect to the to-be-detected point.