Distance measuring apparatus, distance measuring method, and computer program product

• US 7,656,508 B2
• Filed: 11/19/2007
• Issued: 02/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Original Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Inventors: Miyoshi, Takashi, Iwaki, Hidekazu, Kosaka, Akio
• Primary Examiner(s): Tarcza; Thomas H
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ratcliffe; Luke D
• Application Number:
  US11/985,991
• Publication Number:
  US 20080079954A1
• Time in Patent Office: 806 Days
• Field of Search: 356 301- 285
• US Class Current: 356/4.03
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 3/08 Use of electric radiation detectors
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 11/12 using electromagnetic waves other than radio waves
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/867 Combination of radar systems with cameras
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/86 Combinations of lidar systems with systems other than lidar, radar or sonar, e.g. with direction finders

Abstract

A distance measuring apparatus includes a detecting unit which detects a distance to an object located in a predetermined detection range; an imaging unit which generates an image signal group corresponding to a predetermined imaging field; a calculating unit which calculates the distance to the object located in the imaging field based on the image signal group; and an interpolating unit which either interpolates a detection result by the detecting unit by using a calculation result by the calculating unit, or interpolates the calculation result by the calculating unit by using the detection result by the detecting unit.

Claims

1. A distance measuring apparatus comprising:

a detecting unit which detects first distance information to an object located in a predetermined detection range based on a difference between an outgoing wave sent to the object and a reflected wave from the object;

an imaging unit which generates an image signal group corresponding to a predetermined imaging field including the predetermined detection range;

a calculating unit which calculates second distance information to the object located in the imaging field based on the image signal group;

an interpolating unit which either interpolates the second distance information by using the first distance information, or interpolates the first distance information by using the second distance information; and

a calculation range setting unit which sequentially sets a calculation range in the calculating unit based on the detected value or the calculated value located in a vicinity of an image signal which is to be a calculation target,

wherein the interpolating unit interpolates between detected values by the detecting unit with calculated values by the calculating unit, and

wherein the calculating unit detects an image signal satisfying a predetermined condition out of the image signal group corresponding to the calculation range, and calculates the second distance information to the object located in the imaging field.

2. A distance measuring apparatus comprising:

a detecting unit which detects first distance information to an object located in a predetermined detection range based on a difference between an outgoing wave sent to the object and a reflected wave from the object;

an imaging unit which generates an image signal group corresponding to a predetermined imaging field including the predetermined detection range;

a calculating unit which calculates second distance information to the object located in the imaging field based on the image signal group;

an interpolating unit which either interpolates the second distance information by using the first distance information, or interpolates the first distance information by using the second distance information; and

a reliability obtaining unit which obtains a reliability of a calculated value by the calculating unit,

wherein the interpolating unit outputs distance information in which the calculated value, whose reliability obtained by the reliability obtaining unit does not satisfy evaluation criterion, is replaced with a detected value by the detecting unit corresponding to the calculated value, and

wherein the interpolating unit sets as the detection range of the detecting unit a range corresponding to the calculated value whose reliability does not satisfy the evaluation criterion, and the detecting unit detects the first distance information to the object located in the detection range.

3. A distance measuring apparatus comprising:

a detecting unit which detects first distance information to an object located in a predetermined detection range based on a difference between an outgoing wave sent to the object and a reflected wave from the object;

an imaging unit which generates an image signal group corresponding to a predetermined imaging field including the predetermined detection range;

a calculating unit which calculates second distance information to the object located in the imaging field based on the image signal group;

an interpolating unit which either interpolates the second distance information by using the first distance information, or interpolates the first distance information by using the second distance information,

wherein the interpolating unit generates distance information in which information in the detection range obtained by interpolating between detected values by the detecting unit with calculated values by the calculating unit and information outside the detection range including the calculated values corresponding to the outside of the detection range are combined, and

wherein the distance measuring apparatus further comprises a detection range searching unit which searches for a detection range of the detecting unit, wherein the interpolating unit obtains the information in the detection range and the information outside the detection range based on a search result by the detection range searching unit.

4. A distance measuring apparatus comprising:

a detecting unit which detects first distance information to an object located in a predetermined detection range based on a difference between an outgoing wave sent to the object and a reflected wave from the object;

an imaging unit which generates an image signal group corresponding to a predetermined imaging field including the predetermined detection range;

a calculating unit which calculates second distance information to the object located in the imaging field based on the image signal group; and

an interpolating unit which either interpolates the second distance information by using the first distance information, or interpolates the first distance information by using the second distance information,

wherein;

the imaging unit generates as the image signal group a first image signal group picked up through a first optical path and a second image signal group picked up through a second optical path, and

the calculating unit detects the image signal matched with an arbitrary image signal of the first image signal group from the second image signal group, and calculates the second distance information to the object located in the imaging field based on an amount of movement of the detected image signal from the arbitrary image signal.