Bundling of driver assistance systems

• US 8,254,635 B2
• Filed: 10/05/2009
• Issued: 08/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MobilEye Vision Technologies Ltd. (Intel Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mobileye Technologies Limited (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Stein, Gideon, Hayon, Gaby, Gat, Itay, Shachar, Ori, Belman, Efim
• Primary Examiner(s): Park, Chan S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bitar, Nancy
• Application Number:
  US12/573,836
• Publication Number:
  US 20100172542A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,058 Days
• Field of Search: 382/103, 382/104, 382/107, 382/181, 712/3, 340/468, 348/148, 701/96
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 37/04 with cameras or projectors providing touching or overlapping fields of view
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 43/00 Testing correct operation of photographic apparatus or parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10004 Still image; Photographic image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10144 Varying exposure
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20164 Salient point detection; Corner detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30204 Marker
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30252 Vehicle exterior; Vicinity of vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/12 Edge-based segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/80 Analysis of captured images to determine intrinsic or extrinsic camera parameters, i.e. camera calibration
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/147 Details of sensors, e.g. sensor lenses fingerprint or palmprint sensors G06V40/13; vascular sensors G06V40/145; eye sensors G06V40/19
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/582 of traffic signs
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/588 Recognition of the road, e.g. of lane markings; Recognition of the vehicle driving pattern in relation to the road
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0967 Systems involving transmission of highway information, e.g. weather, speed limits transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968

Abstract

A traffic sign recognition system including a detection mechanism adapted for detecting a candidate traffic sign and a recognition mechanism adapted for recognizing the candidate traffic sign as being an electronic traffic sign. A partitioning mechanism may be adapted for partitioning the image frames into a first partition and a second partition. The detection mechanism may use the first portion of the image frames and the recognition mechanism may use the second portion of the image frames. When the candidate traffic sign is detected as an electronic traffic sign, the recognition mechanism may use both the first partition of the image frames and the second portion of the image frames.

Claims

1. A method for performing at least one driver assistance function, the method comprising:

using a computerized system mounted on a moving vehicle, the computerized system including a camera and an image processor, wherein under control of the image processor the camera captures in real time a plurality of image frames of the environment in the field of view of the camera,

partitioning a first portion of the image frames and a second portion of the image frames;

for said first portion of the image frames,

controlling a camera parameter based on ambient lighting conditions in the environment in the field of view of the camera;

based on said camera parameter of said first portion of the image frames, setting a camera parameter of said second portion of the image frames;

capturing the image frames; and

transferring the image frames to the processor for processing of the at least one driver assistance function.

2. The method, according to claim 1, wherein said camera parameters of said first and second portions are selected from the group consisting of gain and exposure time.

3. The method, according to claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a traffic sign using said first portion of the image frames; and

recognizing said traffic sign using said second portion of the image frames;

wherein the at least one driver assistance function includes said detecting and said recognizing of electronic traffic signs.

4. The method, according to claim 3, wherein said traffic sign is an electronic traffic sign and wherein both said first portion of the image frames and said second portion of the image frames are used during said recognizing.

5. The method, according to claim 4, wherein said electronic traffic sign is a pulsed electronic traffic sign.

6. The method, according to claim 4, wherein said electronic traffic sign is a variable message traffic sign.

7. The method, according to claim 4, wherein said electronic traffic sign is a back-lit traffic sign.

8. The method, according to claim 3, the method further comprising:

for said second portion of the image frames, said setting a short exposure time substantially shorter than the exposure time of said first portion.

9. The method, according to claim 8, wherein said camera parameter of said second portion is set substantially differently between day-mode operation during the day and night-mode operation during the night.

10. The method, according to claim 9, further setting said camera parameter of said second portion of the image frames substantially differently during dusk for a dusk-mode operation than during said day-mode operation.

11. The method, according to claim 9, further setting said camera parameter of said second portion of the image frames substantially differently during dusk for a dusk-mode operation than during said night-mode operation.

12. The method, according to claim 8, further comprising:

partitioning a third portion of the image frames and setting for said third portion a yet shorter exposure time substantially shorter than said short exposure time of said second portion.

13. The method, according to claim 12, wherein said traffic sign is an electronic traffic sign;

wherein during the day said recognizing of said electronic traffic sign is performed using all three portions of the image frames each with the substantially different exposure times.

14. The method, according to claim 12, wherein at night, said third portion is used for automatic headlight control.

15. The method, according to claim 14, wherein at night, exposure of said second portion of the image frames is toggled between values selected to be complementary to exposure of image frames of the third portion.

16. The method, according to claim 1, wherein the at least one driver assistance function includes said detecting traffic signs, the method further comprising:

controlling gain based on a portion of the image frames including an image of the road and not on an a portion of the image frames image where traffic signs are likely to be imaged.