Positioning information forming device, detection device, and positioning information forming method

• US 8,983,130 B2
• Filed: 01/11/2012
• Issued: 03/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Yasugi, Makoto, Nishimura, Hirofumi
• Primary Examiner(s): Krasnic, Bernard
• Assistant Examiner(s): PATEL, PINALBEN V
• Application Number:
  US13/817,488
• Publication Number:
  US 20130148855A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,161 Days
• Field of Search: 382/103, 382/104, 382/243, 382/146, 342/174, 342/146, 342/70, 701/41, 348/159, 345/419
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 3/18 with one observation point at each end of the base G01C3/20 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/58 Velocity or trajectory determination systems; Sense-of-movement determination systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/867 Combination of radar systems with cameras
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/89 for mapping or imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 35/08 by simultaneous recording
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10021 Stereoscopic video; Stereoscopic image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10028 Range image; Depth image; 3D point clouds
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20221 Image fusion; Image merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30261 Obstacle
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/70 Denoising; Smoothing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/70 Determining position or orientation of objects or cameras camera calibration G06T7/80

Abstract

Provided is a positioning information forming device which improves object detection accuracy. This device comprises a synthesis unit (103) which synthesizes camera distance map information and radar distance map information and generates “synthesized map information”. This synthesized map information is used for object detection processing by a detection device (200). In this way it is possible to improve object detection accuracy by being able to detect objects based on information in which the camera distance map information and radar distance map information have been synthesized. In other words, by synthesizing the camera distance map information and radar distance map information, it is possible to remove unnecessary noise due to reflection from the ground and walls, etc. and therefore set object detection thresholds to low values. It is therefore possible to detect even objects the detection of which was judged to be impossible in the past.

Claims

1. A positioning information forming apparatus that forms positioning information used for detection of an object on the basis of an image based on information detected by a radar, and on an image taken by a stereo camera, comprising;

a first coordinate transforming section that transforms a coordinate system of radar distance map information associating a coordinate group of the image based on the information with distance information, into a reference coordinate system defined by a parallax-axis and one of the coordinate axes of an image plane coordinate system at a virtual position of installation of the positioning information forming apparatus;

a first smoothing section that smooths the transformed radar distance map information by applying a first smoothing filter only in the one of the coordinate axes direction;

a second coordinate transforming section that transforms a coordinate system of camera distance map information associating a coordinate group of the taken image with distance information, into a reference coordinate system;

a second smoothing section that smooths the transformed camera distance map information by applying a second smoothing filter only in the parallax-axis direction; and

a combination section that forms combined map information by combining the smoothed radar distance map information and the smoothed camera distance map information.

2. The positioning information forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a first level adjusting section that adjusts a level of the smoothed radar distance map information by multiplying the smoothed radar distance map information by a first level filter;

a second level adjusting section that adjusts a level of the smoothed camera distance map information by multiplying the smoothed camera distance map information by a second level filter;

wherein the first level filter and the second level filter have a shape indicating a monotonous decrease of a level value of filter with an increase of a parallax value, and

the level value of the first level filter is larger than the level value of the second level filter.

3. The positioning information forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first smoothing section and the second smoothing section receive area designation information indicating a vehicle subregion where a vehicle is mainly detected and a pedestrian subregion where a pedestrian is mainly detected within a region defined by the one of the coordinate axes and the parallax, and adjust a length of the filter in the vehicle subregion to be larger than a length of the filter in the pedestrian subregion.

4. The positioning information forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the second smoothing section adjusts a weight of the filter such that maximum weight is attained at a central portion of the region and the weight monotonously decreases toward the boundaries in the vehicle subregion.

5. The positioning information forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reference coordinate system is a coordinate system of the camera map information.

6. An objection detection apparatus, comprising the positioning information forming apparatus according to claim 1.

7. The positioning information forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an image plane coordinate system in the reference coordinate system is an image plane coordinate system at a virtual position of installation of the positioning information forming apparatus installed on a road surface.

9. The positioning information forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information detected by the radar is different from the information of the image taken by the stereo camera.

10. The positioning information forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the radar is different from the stereo camera.

8. A method for forming positioning information used for detection of an object on the basis of an image based on information detected by a radar, and on an image taken by a stereo camera, comprising;

transforming a coordinate system of radar distance map information associating a coordinate group of the image based on the information with distance information, into a reference coordinate system defined by a parallax-axis and one of the coordinate axes of an image plane coordinate system at a virtual position of installation of a positioning information forming apparatus in a first coordinate transforming section;

smoothing the transformed radar distance map information by applying a first smoothing filter only in the one of the coordinate axes direction in a first smoothing section;

transforming a coordinate system of camera distance map information associating a coordinate group of the taken image with distance information, into a reference coordinate system in a second coordinate transforming section;

smoothing the transformed camera distance map information by applying a second smoothing filter only in the parallax-axis direction in a second smoothing section; and

forming combined map information by combining the smoothed radar distance map information and the smoothed camera distance map information in a combination section.

11. The positioning information forming method according to claim 8, wherein the information detected by the radar is different from the information of the image taken by the stereo camera.

12. The positioning information forming method according to claim 8, wherein the radar is different from the stereo camera.