Lane boundary detector
First Claim
1. A lane boundary detector comprising:
- a vehicle mounted camera that obtains an input image to detect, in real time while a vehicle is running, a right and a left boundary position of a lane defined by a lane sign drawn on a road surface on which the vehicle runs;
an edge point extracting unit that extracts a plurality of edge points of the lane sign from the input image;
an edge line extracting unit that extracts a plurality of edge lines constituting a contour of the lane sign from the edge points extracted by the edge point extracting unit to formulate a position and a direction of each of the edge lines as a straight line on the road surface, using a parameter set of real numbers including at least a first variable p and a second variable q;
a branch point detecting unit that (1) verifies, based on the input image obtained by the vehicle mounted camera, whether a characteristic difference vector (pi-pj, qi-qj) defined with the first variable p and the second variable q, with respect to a first edge line i and a second edge line j, which are extracted, and a position and a direction of each of which are formulated by the edge line extracting unit falls within a predetermined appropriate range, (2) judges that a crossing point of the first edge line i and the second edge line j out of the edge lines can be a branch point of the lane when the characteristic difference vector (pi-pj, qi-qj) falls within a predetermined range, and (3) generates branch point data; and
a lane boundary determining unit that determines the left and the right boundary positions of the lane based on a determination result by the branch point detecting unit.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A lane boundary detector includes an edge point extracting unit that extracts a plurality of edge points of a lane sign from the input image, and an edge line extracting unit that extracts a plurality of edge lines of the lane sign from the edge points to formulate a position and a direction of each of the edge lines as a straight line on the road surface, using a parameter set consisting of at least two variables. The detector further includes a branch point detecting unit that determines whether a crossing point of two of the edge lines can be a branch point of the lane, based on whether a characteristic difference vector defined with the variables with respect to the two edge lines falls within a predetermined appropriate range, and a lane boundary determining unit that determines the left and the right boundary positions of the lane.
23 Citations
11 Claims
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1. A lane boundary detector comprising:
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a vehicle mounted camera that obtains an input image to detect, in real time while a vehicle is running, a right and a left boundary position of a lane defined by a lane sign drawn on a road surface on which the vehicle runs; an edge point extracting unit that extracts a plurality of edge points of the lane sign from the input image; an edge line extracting unit that extracts a plurality of edge lines constituting a contour of the lane sign from the edge points extracted by the edge point extracting unit to formulate a position and a direction of each of the edge lines as a straight line on the road surface, using a parameter set of real numbers including at least a first variable p and a second variable q; a branch point detecting unit that (1) verifies, based on the input image obtained by the vehicle mounted camera, whether a characteristic difference vector (pi-pj, qi-qj) defined with the first variable p and the second variable q, with respect to a first edge line i and a second edge line j, which are extracted, and a position and a direction of each of which are formulated by the edge line extracting unit falls within a predetermined appropriate range, (2) judges that a crossing point of the first edge line i and the second edge line j out of the edge lines can be a branch point of the lane when the characteristic difference vector (pi-pj, qi-qj) falls within a predetermined range, and (3) generates branch point data; and a lane boundary determining unit that determines the left and the right boundary positions of the lane based on a determination result by the branch point detecting unit. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A lane boundary detector comprising:
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a vehicle mounted camera that obtains an input image to detect, in real time while a vehicle is running, a right and a left boundary position of a lane defined by a lane sign drawn on a road surface on which a vehicle runs; an edge point extracting unit that extracts a plurality of edge points of the lane sign from the input image; an edge line extracting unit that extracts a plurality of edge lines constituting a contour of the lane sign from the edge points extracted by the edge point extracting unit to formulate a position and a direction of each of the edge lines as a straight line on the road surface, using a parameter set of real numbers including at least a first variable p and a second variable q; and a validity verifying unit that (1) verifies, based on the input image obtained by the vehicle mounted camera, whether a characteristic difference vector (pi-pk, qi-qk) defined with the first variable p and the second variable q falls within a predetermined appropriate range or not with respect to a first edge line i, which is extracted, and a position and a direction of each of which are formulated by the edge line extracting unit and a reference edge line k(pk, qk) that is a predetermined object of comparison, (2) judges a validity of the first edge line i out of the edge lines as the boundary position of the lane when the characteristic difference vector (pi-pk, qi-qk) falls within a predetermined range, (3) judges that a crossing point of the first edge line i and the reference edge line k(pk, qk) out of the edge lines can be a branch point of the lane, and (4) generates branch point data. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11)
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Specification