Method and apparatus for tracking head candidate locations in an actuatable occupant restraining system
First Claim
1. An apparatus for tracking at least one head candidate, said apparatus comprising:
- an image analyzer for analyzing an image signal to identify at least one of a plurality of possible new head candidates within an area of interest and for providing data related to the identified at least one head candidate;
a tracking system that stores location information for at least one tracked head candidate; and
a candidate matcher that predicts the current position of a given tracked head candidate, selects a subset of the at least one of the plurality of possible new head candidates according to their distance from the predicted position, and evaluates the similarity of each member of the selected subset to the tracked candidate to determine if a new head candidate within the selected subset represents a current position of the tracked head candidate.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus (100) for tracking at least one head candidate comprises an image analyzer (104) for analyzing an image signal to identify at least one of a possible plurality of new head candidates within an area of interest. The image analyzer (104) provides data regarding the identified head candidates. A tracking system (108) stores location information for at least one tracked head candidate. A candidate matcher (106) predicts the current position of a given tracked head candidate and selects a subset of the at least one of a plurality of new head candidates according to their distance from the predicted position. The similarity of each member of the selected subset to the tracked candidate is evaluated to determine if a member of the selected subset represents a current position of the tracked candidate.
97 Citations
33 Claims
-
1. An apparatus for tracking at least one head candidate, said apparatus comprising:
-
an image analyzer for analyzing an image signal to identify at least one of a plurality of possible new head candidates within an area of interest and for providing data related to the identified at least one head candidate;
a tracking system that stores location information for at least one tracked head candidate; and
a candidate matcher that predicts the current position of a given tracked head candidate, selects a subset of the at least one of the plurality of possible new head candidates according to their distance from the predicted position, and evaluates the similarity of each member of the selected subset to the tracked candidate to determine if a new head candidate within the selected subset represents a current position of the tracked head candidate. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
-
-
19. An air bag restraining system for helping to protect an occupant of a vehicle upon the occurrence of a vehicle crash event, said apparatus comprising:
-
an air bag restraining device for, when actuated, helping to protect the vehicle occupant;
crash sensor for sensing a vehicle crash event and, when a crash event occurs, providing a crash signal;
an air bag controller for monitoring the crash sensor and controlling actuation of the air bag restraining device;
a stereo vision system for imaging an interior area of the vehicle and providing an image signal of the area of interest;
an image analyzer for analyzing the image signal to identify at least one of a plurality of possible new head candidates within an area of interest and for providing data related to the identified at least one head candidate;
a tracking system that stores location information for at least one tracked head candidate; and
a candidate matcher that predicts the current position of a given tracked head candidate, selects a subset of the identified at least one of a plurality of possible new head candidates according to their distance from the predicted position, evaluates the similarity of each member of the selected subset to the tracked candidate to determine if a new head candidate within the selected subset represents a current position of the tracked head candidate, and provides a signal to the air bag controller indicating the current position of each of the at least one tracked head candidates;
the air bag controller controlling actuation of the air bag restraining device in response to both the crash signal and the current position of the at least one tracked head candidate.
-
-
20. A head candidate matching method for determining a current location of a previous head candidate, the method comprising the steps of:
-
imaging a class object and providing an image signal of an area of interest;
identifying at least one of a plurality of possible new head candidates and associated location data from the image signal;
predicting the current location of the previous head candidate according to its previous location and motion;
selecting a subset of the identified at least one of the plurality of possible new head candidates based on the distance of each of the identified at least one of the plurality of possible new head candidates from the predicted location; and
comparing each of the selected subset of new head candidates to the previous head candidate across at least one desired feature. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
-
-
30. A method for tracking a previously identified head candidate, comprising:
-
imaging a class object and providing an image signal of an area of interest;
identifying at least one of a plurality of possible new head candidates and associated location data from the image signal;
predicting the current location of the previous head candidate according to its previous location and motion;
defining at least one threshold distance around the predicted location; and
updating a tracking confidence value associated with the previously identified head candidate according to respective positions of the identified at least one of the plurality of new head candidates relative to the at least one defined threshold distance. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33)
-
Specification