Vehicle vicinity monitoring apparatus

• US 20060204037A1
• Filed: 11/23/2005
• Published: 09/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arriver Software AB (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Saka, Masakazu, Nagaoka, Nobuharu, Watanabe, Masahito
• Granted Patent: US 7,599,521 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/104
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2420/40 Photo, light or radio wave sensitive means, e.g. infrared sensors
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/12 Brake pedal position
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/58 Recognition of moving objects or obstacles, e.g. vehicles or pedestrians; Recognition of traffic objects, e.g. traffic signs, traffic lights or roads

Abstract

A right infrared camera produces a right gray-scale image by imaging aiming targets disposed in a right position, and a left infrared camera produces a left gray-scale image by imaging aiming targets disposed in a left position. An average value of coordinates of the aiming targets in a preset clipping area is determined, and an average value of coordinates of the aiming targets in a preset clipping area is determined. A difference between the average value and the average value is determined, and the clipping area is moved depending on the difference.

Claims

1. A vehicle vicinity monitoring apparatus for extracting an object in the vicinity of a vehicle from images obtained by a plurality of imaging units mounted on said vehicle, comprising:

an image area setting unit for setting an image area used to detect an object therefrom in each of the images obtained by said imaging units;

an object extracting unit for detecting an object in the image area set by said image area setting unit; and

an image area correcting unit for correcting the image area set by said image area setting unit based on information with respect to the object detected by said object extracting unit.

2. A vehicle vicinity monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said object extracting unit detects an object in each of image areas set by said image area setting unit.

3. A vehicle vicinity monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said imaging units comprise:

a first imaging unit for obtaining a first image of said object and a second imaging unit for obtaining a second image of said object;

said object extracting unit extracts said object from each of said first image and said second image; and

said image area setting unit sets a first image area and a second image area respectively in said first image and said second image as areas for detecting said object obtained by said first imaging unit and said second imaging unit according to a pattern matching process, and sets said first image area and said second image area based on the position of said object extracted by said object extracting unit so as to equalize coordinates of the said object in a direction perpendicular to a hypothetical plane including optical axes of said first imaging unit and said second imaging unit.

4. A vehicle vicinity monitoring apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said first imaging unit obtains a first target as the first image of said object and said second imaging unit obtains a second target as the second image of said object at the same height as said first target, and said image area setting unit sets said first image area and said second image area based on the difference between coordinates, in said direction perpendicular to said hypothetical plane, of said first target as said first image and said second target as said second image.

5. A vehicle vicinity monitoring apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said imaging units comprise at least three imaging units, one of said imaging units serving as said first imaging unit, and the remaining imaging units as said second imaging units.

6. A vehicle vicinity monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an optical axis shift detecting unit for detecting a shift of optical axes of said imaging units; and

a mounted state detecting unit for detecting mounted states of said imaging units on the vehicle;

wherein said image area correcting unit corrects the image area set by said image area setting unit based on the shift of the optical axes detected by said optical axis shift detecting unit and the mounted states detected by said mounted state detecting unit.

7. A vehicle vicinity monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an image guarantee area determining unit for determining whether said image area corrected by said image area correcting unit exceeds a predetermined image guarantee area of said imaging units or not; and

an informing unit for outputting an alarm if it is judged by said image guarantee area determining unit that said image area corrected by said image area correcting unit exceeds said predetermined image guarantee area.