Method and device for determining the three-dimension position of passengers of a motor car

• US 20060018518A1
• Filed: 12/04/2003
• Published: 01/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Daimler AG (Mercedes-Benz Group AG)
• Original Assignee: Daimler AG (Mercedes-Benz Group AG)
• Inventors: Schwarz, Tilo, Fritzsche, Martin
• Application Number:
  US10/534,245
• Publication Number:
  US 20060018518A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/116
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/01538 for image processing, e.g. cameras or sensor arrays
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/01552 detecting position of specific human body parts, e.g. face, eyes or hands
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/593 from stereo images

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for determining a three-dimensional position of passengers of a motor vehicle. The inventive method consists in observing the passengers of the vehicle with the aid of at least two cameras (1, 2, 1′, 2′) which are disposed in such a way that they can operate in non-stereo mode, extracting the appropriate characteristics of the passengers from video data, initialising tracking by means of a head model, verifying said extracted characteristics by pattern recognition and in tracking said verified characteristics by means of said head model. The inventive device based on a store controller which is used for carrying out said method is also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method for determining the three-dimensional position of vehicle passengers which comprises the following steps:

observing the vehicle passengers by means of at least two cameras (1, 2, 1′

, 2′

) which are disposed in such a way that they can operate in non-stereo mode;

extracting appropriate characteristics from the recorded video data of the vehicle passengers;

initializing a tracking method by means of a head model;

verifying the extracted characteristics by means of pattern recognition; and

tracking the verified characteristics by means of the head model.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the characteristics are selected from a group which consists of facial or shape characteristics of the passengers.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the facial or shape characteristics comprise eyes, nostrils, corners of the mouth, eyebrows or hairline.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cameras (1, 2, 1′

, 2′

) do not need to be synchronized.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cameras (1, 2, 1′

, 2′

), having different fields of view, are positioned in such a manner that one eye of a driver (4) is always visible.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, which furthermore comprises the step of determining the head attitude of passengers.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, which also comprises the step of determining the direction of view of passengers.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1, which also comprises the step of determining the state of the eyelids of the passengers.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the tracking step is based on the Kalman filtering of all recorded characteristics of the cameras (1, 2;

1′

, 2′

), wherein the cameras can be operated asynchronously.

10. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the head model is an anthropometric model.

11. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the pattern recognition is a statistical pattern recognition.

12. A device for determining the three-dimensional position of vehicle passengers, comprising:

at least two cameras (1, 2, 1′

, 2′

) for observing the vehicle passengers, which are disposed in such a way that they can operate in non-stereo mode; and

a controller (3) comprising the following;

means for extracting appropriate characteristics from the recorded video data of the vehicle passengers;

means for initializing a tracking step by means of a head model;

means for verifying the extracted characteristics by means of pattern recognition; and

means for tracking the verified characteristics by means of the head model.

13. The device as claimed in claim 12, wherein the characteristics are selected from a group which consists of facial or shape characteristics of the passengers.

14. The device as claimed in claim 13, wherein the facial or shape characteristics comprise eyes, nostrils, corners of the mouth, eyebrows or hairline.

15. The device as claimed in claim 12, wherein the cameras (1, 2, 1′

, 2′

) do not need to be synchronized.

16. The device as claimed in claim 12, wherein the cameras (1, 2, 1′

, 2), having different fields of view, are positioned in such a manner that one eye of a driver (4) is always visible.

17. The device as claimed in claim 12, which also comprises means for determining the head attitude of passengers.

18. The device as claimed in claim 12, which also comprises means for determining the state of the eyelids of the passengers.

19. The device as claimed in claim 12, wherein the means for tracking are constructed for carrying out the Kalman filtering of all recorded characteristics of the cameras (1, 2;

1′

, 2′

), wherein the cameras can be operated asynchronously.

20. The device as claimed in claim 12 wherein the cameras (1, 2) are arranged in the front area of the vehicle (10).

21. The device as claimed in claim 12, wherein one camera (1′

) is arranged in the front area and the other camera is arranged in the side area of the vehicle (10).

22. The device as claimed in claim 12, wherein the controller (3) also comprises means for controlling the release of an airbag and/or the adjustment of a head rest (5) and/or the adjustment of a seat of the vehicle by means of the detected head position.