Image recognition apparatus and image recognition method
First Claim
1. An image recognition apparatus comprising:
- image information acquisition means for capturing image information of an image of an area taken on a road;
road feature information acquisition means for acquiring, from map information stored in a map information database, road feature information associated with features in the neighborhood of the imaged area; and
image information recognition means for using the road feature information to recognize, in the image information, images of recognition targets corresponding to the features associated with the acquired road feature information,wherein the image information recognition means detects in the image information, based on the road feature information, portions of the imaged area likely to include the image of a recognition target, and adjusts, based on the detection result, a recognition algorithm such that a criterion used to determine whether an image of interest is an image of the recognition target becomes lower for the portions of the imaged area likely to include the image of the recognition target than for the remainder of the imaged area.
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Abstract
An image recognition apparatus is capable of recognizing an image of an object of interest with high recognition accuracy even when the object is difficult to recognize only from image information acquired by an image pickup apparatus. The image recognition apparatus includes image information acquisition means for capturing image information of an image taken on a road, road feature information acquisition means for acquiring, from map information, road feature information C associated with a feature in the neighborhood of a position where the image information is taken, and image information recognition means for recognizing the image information using the road feature information C to recognize an image of an object to be recognized corresponding to the feature included in the image information.
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Citations
24 Claims
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1. An image recognition apparatus comprising:
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image information acquisition means for capturing image information of an image of an area taken on a road; road feature information acquisition means for acquiring, from map information stored in a map information database, road feature information associated with features in the neighborhood of the imaged area; and image information recognition means for using the road feature information to recognize, in the image information, images of recognition targets corresponding to the features associated with the acquired road feature information, wherein the image information recognition means detects in the image information, based on the road feature information, portions of the imaged area likely to include the image of a recognition target, and adjusts, based on the detection result, a recognition algorithm such that a criterion used to determine whether an image of interest is an image of the recognition target becomes lower for the portions of the imaged area likely to include the image of the recognition target than for the remainder of the imaged area. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. An image recognition apparatus comprising:
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image information acquisition means for capturing image information of an image of an area taken on a road; road feature information acquisition means for acquiring, from map information stored in a map information database, road feature information associated with a first feature and a second feature in the neighborhood of the capturing position of the image information; first target recognition means for recognizing an image of the first recognition target corresponding to the first feature that can be relatively easily recognized and that is included in the image information; road feature information comparison means for comparing the image of the first recognition target recognized by the first target recognition means with the road feature information associated with the first feature acquired by the road feature information acquisition means to detect the correspondence between the image information and the road feature information; likely area detection means for, based on the result of the comparison made by the road feature information comparison means, detecting from the image information a portion of the imaged area likely to include an image of a second recognition target corresponding to the second feature that is more difficult to recognize than the first recognition target; and second target recognition means for recognizing an image of the second recognition target included in the image information for the detected portion of the imaged area, by adjusting a recognition algorithm based on the result of the detection made by the likely area detection means such that a criterion used to determine whether an image is of the second recognition target becomes lower for the area likely to include the image of the second recognition target than for the remainder of the imaged area. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A vehicle control apparatus comprising:
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image information acquisition means for capturing image information of an image of an area taken on a road; road feature information acquisition means for acquiring, from map information stored in a map information database, road feature information associated with features in the neighborhood of the imaged area; image information recognition means for using the road feature information to recognize, in the image information, images of recognition targets corresponding to the features associated with the acquired road feature information; and running control means for controlling the running of the vehicle based on a result of recognition performed by the image information recognition means; and wherein the image information recognition means detects, based on the road feature information, portions of the imaged area likely to include the image of a recognition target from the image information, and adjusts, based on the detection result, a recognition algorithm such that a criterion used to determine whether an image of interest is an image of the recognition target becomes lower for the portions of the imaged area likely to include the image of the recognition target than for the remainder of the imaged area. - View Dependent Claims (16)
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17. A navigation apparatus comprising:
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a map information database in which map information is stored; image information acquisition means for capturing image information of an image of an area taken on a road; road feature information acquisition means for acquiring, from the map information, road feature information associated with features in the neighborhood of the imaged area; image information recognition means for using the road feature information to recognize, in the image information, images of recognition targets corresponding to the features associated with the acquired road feature information; and wherein the image information recognition means detects, based on the road feature information, portions of the imaged area likely to include the image of a recognition target from the image information, and adjusts, based on the detection result, a recognition algorithm such that a criterion used to determine whether an image of interest is an image of the recognition target becomes lower for the portions of the imaged area likely to include the image of the recognition target than for the remainder of the imaged area. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
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20. An image recognition method, executed by a navigation apparatus installed in a vehicle, comprising the steps of:
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capturing image information of an image taken of an area on a road traveled by the vehicle using an image pickup apparatus installed in the vehicle; acquiring, from map information stored in a map information database, road feature information associated with features in the neighborhood of the imaged area; and recognizing the image information, using the road feature information to recognize, in the image information, images of recognition targets corresponding to the features associated with the acquired road feature information; wherein the step of recognizing the image information comprises the steps of detecting in the image information, based on the road feature information, portions of the imaged area likely to include the image of a recognition target, and adjusting, based on the detection result, a recognition algorithm such that a criterion used to determine whether an image of interest is an image of the recognition target becomes lower for the portions of the imaged area likely to include the image of the recognition target than for the remainder of the imaged area. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22)
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23. An image recognition method, executed by a navigation apparatus installed in a vehicle, comprising the steps of:
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capturing image information of an image taken of an area on a road traveled by the vehicle using an image pickup apparatus installed in the vehicle; acquiring, from map information, road feature information associated with a first feature and a second feature in the neighborhood of the imaged area; recognizing an image of a first recognition target corresponding to the first feature that can be relatively easily recognized and that is included in the image information; comparing the image of the first recognition target recognized in the first target recognition step with the road feature information associated with the first feature acquired in the road feature information acquisition step to detect the correspondence between the image information and the road feature information; based on the result of the comparison made in the road feature information comparison step, detecting from the image information portions of the imaged area likely to include an image of a second recognition target corresponding to the second feature that is more difficult to recognize than the first recognition target; and recognizing an image of the second recognition target included in the image information, by adjusting a recognition algorithm based on the result of the detection made in the likely area detection step such that a criterion, used to determine whether an image is of the second recognition target, becomes lower for the portions of the imaged area likely to include the image of the second recognition target than a criterion for the remainder of the imaged area. - View Dependent Claims (24)
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Specification