Maneuverless passive range estimation using monocular image sequences
First Claim
1. In a computerized system including a camera mounted on a moving vehicle, a maneuverless, passive method for determining a range of a foreign moving object from said moving vehicle, wherein said foreign moving object is not part of said computerized system, the method comprising the steps of:
- acquiring with said camera, consecutively in real time, a plurality of images of said foreign moving object wherein no positional data is received from said foreign moving object;
detecting said foreign moving object within each of said plurality of images;
identifying two feature points p1 and p2 on said detected object within each of said plurality images, where p1 and p2 are utilized to determine a direction of travel of said detected object and where p1 and p2 satisfy a predetermined geometric relationship with a velocity vector of said detected object; and
recursively calculating the range of said detected object based on changes in the positions of the feature points p1 and p2 in the sequential images and further based on said predetermined geometric relationship without any positional data being received from said detected object and without any assumptions of position or movement of the detected object based on background references.
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Abstract
A method to estimate range to a moving rigid body from a moving platform using a monocular camera. The method does not require the camera platform to maneuver in order to estimate range. The method relies on identification and tracking of certain principal features of the object. The method extracts a silhouette of an object from an obtained image and identifies two principal linear components of the silhouette. A normalized distance between the point of intersection of the two linear components and a centroid of the silhouette is computed, compared to a data set and used to determine a direction of movement of the object.
12 Citations
22 Claims
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1. In a computerized system including a camera mounted on a moving vehicle, a maneuverless, passive method for determining a range of a foreign moving object from said moving vehicle, wherein said foreign moving object is not part of said computerized system, the method comprising the steps of:
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acquiring with said camera, consecutively in real time, a plurality of images of said foreign moving object wherein no positional data is received from said foreign moving object; detecting said foreign moving object within each of said plurality of images; identifying two feature points p1 and p2 on said detected object within each of said plurality images, where p1 and p2 are utilized to determine a direction of travel of said detected object and where p1 and p2 satisfy a predetermined geometric relationship with a velocity vector of said detected object; and recursively calculating the range of said detected object based on changes in the positions of the feature points p1 and p2 in the sequential images and further based on said predetermined geometric relationship without any positional data being received from said detected object and without any assumptions of position or movement of the detected object based on background references. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. In a computerized system including a camera mounted on a moving vehicle, wherein the camera acquires consecutively in real time a plurality of images of a moving object within a field of view of the camera, a method for determining a range of said moving object from said moving vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:
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detecting said moving object within each of said plurality of images; identifying two feature points p1 and p2 on said detected object where p1 and p2 satisfy a predetermined geometric relationship with a velocity vector of said detected object, said step of identifying said feature points p1 and p2 further comprising the step of determining pixel locations (i1,j1) and (i2,j2) of said feature points p1 and p2 within said image; and recursively calculating the range of said object based on changes in the positions of the feature points p1 and p2 in the sequential images and further based on said predetermined geometric relationship, said step of recursively calculating said range further comprising the step of converting said pixel locations to relative azimuth and elevation angles denoted by β
1, β
2, γ
1, γ
2, andwherein the step of recursively calculating said range comprises recursively calculating said range where a rotation matrix R is known and the following conditions are defined; (x1, y1, z1) and (x2, y2, z2) represent 3D locations of said feature points (i1,j1) and (i2,j2); [u, v, w] represents a 3D velocity vector of the object; and rotation matrix Rε
S0(3) is such that (1/∥
[u v w]∥
)[u v w]T=(1/∥
[x1−
x2 y1−
y2 z1−
z2]∥
)R[x1−
x2 y1−
y2 z1−
z2]T.
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9. In a computerized system including a camera mounted on a moving vehicle, wherein the camera acquires consecutively in real time a plurality of images of a moving object within a field of view of the camera, a method for determining a range of said moving object from said moving vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:
-
detecting said moving object within each of said plurality of images; identifying two feature points p1 and p2 on said detected object where p1 and p2 satisfy a predetermined geometric relationship with a velocity vector of said detected object, said step of identifying said feature points p1 and p2 further comprising the step of determining pixel locations (i1,j1) and (i2,j2) of said feature points p1 and p2 within said image; and recursively calculating the range of said object based on changes in the positions of the feature points p1 and p2 in the sequential images and further based on said predetermined geometric relationship, said step of recursively calculating said range further comprising the step of converting said pixel locations to relative azimuth and elevation angles denoted by β
1, β
2, γ
1, γ
2, andwherein the step of recursively calculating said range comprises recursively calculating said range where an angle α
is known and is equal to either 0 or π
/2 radians, and the following conditions are defined;(x1, y1, z1) and (x2, y2, z2) represent 3D locations of said feature points (i1,j1) and (i2,j2); [u, v, w] represents a 3D velocity vector of the object; and angle α
is the angle between the vectors [u v w] and [x1−
x2 y1−
y2 z1−
z2]. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12)
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13. In a computerized system including a camera mounted on a moving vehicle, wherein the camera acquires consecutively in real time a plurality of images of a moving object within a field of view of the camera, a method for determining a range of said moving object from said moving vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:
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detecting said moving object within each of said plurality of images; identifying two feature points p1 and p2 on said detected object where p1 and p2 satisfy a predetermined geometric relationship with a velocity vector of said detected object, said predetermined geometric relationship comprising an assumption that the detected object is traveling in a direction along a line connecting feature points p1 and p2, said step of identifying said feature points p1 and p2 further comprising the step of determining pixel locations (i1,j1) and (i2,j2) of said feature points p1 and p2 within said image; and recursively calculating the range of said object based on changes in the positions of the feature points p1 and p2 in the sequential images and further based on said predetermined geometric relationship, said step of recursively calculating said range further comprising the step of converting said pixel locations to relative azimuth and elevation angles denoted by β
1, β
2, γ
1, γ
2, andwherein the step of recursively calculating said range comprises recursively calculating said range where a rotation matrix R is known and the following conditions are defined; (x1, y1, z1) and (x2, y2, z2) represent 3D locations of said feature points (i1,j1) and (i2,j2); [u, v, w] represents a 3D velocity vector of the object; and rotation matrix Rε
S0(3) is such that (1/∥
[u v w]∥
)[u v w]T=(1/∥
[x1−
x2 y1−
y2 z1−
z2]∥
)R[x1−
x2 y1−
y2 z1−
z2]T. - View Dependent Claims (15)
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14. In a computerized system including a camera mounted on a moving vehicle, wherein the camera acquires consecutively in real time a plurality of images of a moving object within a field of view of the camera, a method for determining a range of said moving object from said moving vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:
-
detecting said moving object within each of said plurality of images; identifying two feature points p1 and p2 on said detected object where p1 and p2 satisfy a predetermined geometric relationship with a velocity vector of said detected object, said predetermined geometric relationship comprising an assumption that the detected object is traveling in a direction along a line connecting feature points p1 and p2, said step of identifying said feature points p1 and p2 further comprising the step of determining pixel locations (i1,j1) and (i2,j2) of said feature points p1 and p2 within said image; and recursively calculating the range of said object based on changes in the positions of the feature points p1 and p2 in the sequential images and further based on said predetermined geometric relationship, said step of recursively calculating said range further comprising the step of converting said pixel locations to relative azimuth and elevation angles denoted by β
1, β
2, γ
1, γ
2, andwherein the step of recursively calculating said range comprises recursively calculating said range where an angle α
is known and is equal to either 0 or π
/2 radians, and the following conditions are defined;(x1, y1, z1) and (x2, y2, z2) represent 3D locations of said feature points (i1,j1) and (i2,j2); [u, v, w] represents a 3D velocity vector of the object; and angle α
is the angle between the vectors [u v w] and [x1−
x2 y1−
y2 z1−
z2]. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17)
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18. In a computerized system including a camera mounted on a moving vehicle, wherein the camera acquires consecutively in real time a plurality of images of a moving object within a field of view of the camera, a method for determining a range of said moving object from said moving vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:
-
detecting said moving object within each of said plurality of images; identifying two feature points p1 and p2 on said detected object where p1 and p2 satisfy a predetermined geometric relationship with a velocity vector of said detected object, said predetermined geometric relationship comprising an assumption that the two feature points represent a leading point of the detected object and a trailing point of the detected object, said step of identifying said feature points p1 and p2 further comprising the step of determining pixel locations (i1,j1) and (i2,j2) of said feature points p1 and p2 within said image; and recursively calculating the range of said object based on changes in the positions of the feature points p1 and p2 in the sequential images and further based on said predetermined geometric relationship, said step of recursively calculating said range further comprising the step of converting said pixel locations to relative azimuth and elevation angles denoted by β
1, β
2, γ
1, γ
2, andwherein the step of recursively calculating said range comprises recursively calculating said range where a rotation matrix R is known and the following conditions are defined; (x1, y1, z1) and (x2, y2, z2) represent 3D locations of said feature points (i1,j1) and (i2,j2); [u, v, w] represents a 3D velocity vector of the object; and rotation matrix Rε
S0(3) is such that (1/∥
[u v w]∥
) [u v w]T=(1/∥
[x1 x2 y1−
y2 z1 z2]∥
)R[x1 x2 y1−
y2 z1−
z2]T.
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19. In a computerized system including a camera mounted on a moving vehicle, wherein the camera acquires consecutively in real time a plurality of images of a moving object within a field of view of the camera, a method for determining a range of said moving object from said moving vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:
-
detecting said moving object within each of said plurality of images; identifying two feature points p1 and p2 on said detected object where p1 and p2 satisfy a predetermined geometric relationship with a velocity vector of said detected object, said predetermined geometric relationship comprising an assumption that the two feature points represent a leading point of the detected object and a trailing point of the detected object, said step of identifying said feature points p1 and p2 further comprising the step of determining pixel locations (i1,j1) and (i2,j2) of said feature points p1 and p2 within said image; and recursively calculating the range of said object based on changes in the positions of the feature points p1 and p2 in the sequential images and further based on said predetermined geometric relationship, said step of recursively calculating said range further comprising the step of converting said pixel locations to relative azimuth and elevation angles denoted by β
1, β
2, γ
1, γ
2, andwherein the step of recursively calculating said range comprises recursively calculating said range where an angle α
is known and is equal to either 0 or π
/2 radians, and the following conditions are defined;(x1, y1, z1) and (x2, y2, z2) represent 3D locations of said feature points (i1,j1) and (i2,j2); [u, v, w] represents a 3D velocity vector of the object; and angle α
is the angle between the vectors [u v w] and [x1−
x2 y1−
y2 z1−
z2]. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22)
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Specification