Rear obstruction detection
First Claim
1. An obstacle detection method for a system mountable in a vehicle, the system including a camera and a processor, the method comprising:
- capturing an image frame from a vicinity of the vehicle;
detecting imaged object edges of an object in the image frame;
illuminating the object positioned in a moving direction of the vehicle using a vehicle light;
detecting one or more shadow edges of a shadow of the object responsive to the illumination from the vehicle light and one or more object edges of the object;
generating a subset of pairs of the one or more imaged shadow edges and the one or more object edges, wherein each pair in the subset of pairs comprises a shadow edge and an object edge where;
at least one of the shadow edge and the object edge or a first extension of the shadow edge and a second extension of the object edge meet at a point;
an angle between the shadow edge and the object edge is less than 90 degrees; and
for each pair in the subset;
determining a location of the meeting point in three-dimensional space;
projecting an expected shadow edge based on the object edge; and
determining a distance between at least one point on the expected shadow edge and at least one point on the shadow edge; and
determining the object is at a three-dimensional location based on a comparison of the distance to a predetermined threshold.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method is provided using a system mounted in a vehicle. The system includes a rear-viewing camera and a processor attached to the rear-viewing camera. When the driver shifts the vehicle into reverse gear, and while the vehicle is still stationary, image frames from the immediate vicinity behind the vehicle are captured. The immediate vicinity behind the vehicle is in a field of view of the rear-viewing camera. The image frames are processed and thereby the object is detected which if present in the immediate vicinity behind the vehicle would obstruct the motion of the vehicle. The processing is preferably performed in parallel for a plurality of classes of obstructing objects using a single image frame of the image frames.
26 Citations
11 Claims
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1. An obstacle detection method for a system mountable in a vehicle, the system including a camera and a processor, the method comprising:
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capturing an image frame from a vicinity of the vehicle; detecting imaged object edges of an object in the image frame; illuminating the object positioned in a moving direction of the vehicle using a vehicle light; detecting one or more shadow edges of a shadow of the object responsive to the illumination from the vehicle light and one or more object edges of the object; generating a subset of pairs of the one or more imaged shadow edges and the one or more object edges, wherein each pair in the subset of pairs comprises a shadow edge and an object edge where; at least one of the shadow edge and the object edge or a first extension of the shadow edge and a second extension of the object edge meet at a point; an angle between the shadow edge and the object edge is less than 90 degrees; and for each pair in the subset; determining a location of the meeting point in three-dimensional space; projecting an expected shadow edge based on the object edge; and determining a distance between at least one point on the expected shadow edge and at least one point on the shadow edge; and determining the object is at a three-dimensional location based on a comparison of the distance to a predetermined threshold. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A system mountable in a vehicle for obstacle detection, the system including a camera and a processor attached to the camera, the processor configured to:
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capture an image frame from a vicinity of the vehicle; detect imaged object edges of an object in the image frame; illuminate the object positioned in a moving direction of the vehicle using a vehicle light; detect one or more shadow edges of a shadow of the object responsive to the illumination from the vehicle light and one or more object edges of the object; generate a subset of pairs of the one or more imaged shadow edges and the one or more object edges, wherein each pair in the subset of pairs comprises a shadow edge and an object edge where; at least one of the shadow edge and the object edge or a first extension of the shadow edge and a second extension of the object edge meet at a point; an angle between the shadow edge and the object edge is less than 90 degrees; and for each pair in the subset; determine a location of the meeting point in three-dimensional space; project an expected shadow edge based on the object edge; and determine a distance between at least one point on the expected shadow edge and at least one point on the shadow edge; and determine the object is at a three-dimensional location based on a comparison of the distance to a predetermined threshold. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11)
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Specification