Method and apparatus for detecting road partition

• US 9,373,043 B2
• Filed: 12/07/2012
• Issued: 06/21/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Lu, Yaojie, You, Ganmei, Zheng, Jichuan
• Primary Examiner(s): Thirugnanam, Gandhi
• Application Number:
  US13/708,013
• Publication Number:
  US 20130148856A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,292 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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

Abstract

A method and an apparatus are used for detecting a road partition, the method comprising: a step of obtaining a disparity top view having a road area; and a step of detecting parallel lines as the road partitions from the disparity top view.

Claims

1. A method for detecting road partitions, comprising:

obtaining a disparity top view of a road area; and

detecting parallel lines as the road partitions by,

determining a plurality of reference points, the plurality of reference points being points in the disparity top view having a zero disparity value,

determining each of a plurality of angles as an angle between a horizontal line, on which the plurality of reference points lie, and a plurality of lines, each of the plurality of lines connecting one of the plurality of reference points and one of a plurality of measurement points, each of the plurality of measurement points having a non-zero disparity value, and

detecting the parallel lines according to distributions of the plurality of determined angles.

2. The method for detecting road partitions according to claim 1, further comprising:

determining a distribution of each of the plurality of angles by determining a ratio between a number of the plurality of measurement points and a number of the plurality of lines that form one of the plurality of angles with the horizontal line.

3. The method for detecting road partitions according to claim 1, wherein a distribution of each of the plurality of angles is determined according to the following equation:

4. The method for detecting road partitions according to claim 1, further comprising:

identifying the road partitions according to at least one of height features, location features and area features of the detected road partitions in a corresponding disparity map.

5. The method for detecting road partitions according to claim 1, wherein the obtaining obtains the disparity top view by converting a disparity map, wherein

an abscissa of the disparity top view is represented by u,

an ordinate of the disparity top view is represented by d,

d presents disparity,

a value of each point P_ui(u_i,d_i)ε

U is a number of points of the disparity map for which a corresponding abscissa is u_i and disparity is d_i, and

the value of each point P_ui(u_i,d_i) that is less than a threshold is set to zero.

6. The method for detecting road partitions according to claim 1, wherein the obtaining obtains the disparity top view by,

obtaining a disparity map having the road area;

estimating the road area and removing a non-road area from the disparity map; and

obtaining the disparity top view of the road area by converting the disparity map where the non-road area has been removed.

9. The method for detecting road partitions according to claim 1, further comprising:

arranging the plurality of reference points in a descending order of collectivity of one or more of the plurality of lines at each of the plurality of reference points;

selecting a top number of the arranged plurality of reference points as vanishing points, the top number being an integer equal to or greater than 1, and

determining ones of the plurality of lines that terminate at the selected reference points as the road partitions.

7. An apparatus for detecting road partitions, comprising:

a memory configured to store computer-readable instructions; and

a processor configured execute the computer-readable instructions to,

obtain a disparity top view of a road area; and

detect parallel lines as the road partitions by,

determining a plurality of reference points, the plurality of reference points being points in the disparity top view having a zero disparity value,

determining each of a plurality of angles as an angle between a horizontal line, on which the plurality of reference points lie, and a plurality of lines, each of the plurality of lines connecting one of the plurality of reference points and one of a plurality of measurement points, each of the plurality of measurement points having a non-zero disparity value, and

detecting the parallel lines according to distributions of the plurality of determined angles.

8. The apparatus for detecting road partitions according to claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to,

determine a distribution of each of the plurality of angles by determining a ratio between a number of the plurality of measurement points and a number of the plurality of lines that form one of the plurality of angles with the horizontal line.

10. The apparatus for detecting road partitions according to claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to,

arrange the plurality of reference points in a descending order of collectivity of one or more of the plurality of lines at each of the plurality of reference points;

select a top number of the arranged plurality of reference points as vanishing points, the top number being an integer equal to or greater than 1, and

determine ones of the plurality of lines that terminate at the selected reference points as the road partitions.

11. The apparatus for detecting road partitions according to claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to identify the road partitions according to at least one of height features, location features and area features of the detected road partitions in a corresponding disparity map.

12. The apparatus for detecting road partitions according to claim 7, wherein the processor is configured to obtain the disparity top view by converting a disparity map, wherein

an abscissa of the disparity top view is represented by u,

an ordinate of the disparity top view is represented by d,

d presents disparity,

a value of each point P_ui(u_i,d_i)ε

U is a number of points of the disparity map for which a corresponding abscissa is u_i and disparity is d_i, and

the value of each point P_ui(u_i,d_i) that is less than a threshold is set to zero.

13. The apparatus for detecting road partitions according to claim 7, wherein the processor is configured to obtain the disparity top view by,

obtaining a disparity map having the road area;

estimating the road area and removing a non-road area from the disparity map; and

obtaining the disparity top view of the road area by converting the disparity map where the non-road area has been removed.

14. The apparatus for detecting road partitions according to claim 7, wherein a distribution of each of the plurality of angles is determined according to the following equation: