APPARATUS AND METHOD OF ESTIMATING CENTER LINE OF INTERSECTION

• US 20080123902A1
• Filed: 09/20/2007
• Published: 05/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Carrum Technologies, LLC (Pratima Instruments, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: PARK, Jeong-Ho, CHO, Seong Ik, CHAE, Gee Ju
• Granted Patent: US 7,894,632 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/104
• 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

Provided are a method and apparatus for estimating a center line of an intersection by recognizing a crosswalk on a road input through a camera installed in a vehicle. The apparatus includes a road information providing unit which provides information about a road being traveled based on location information of a traveling vehicle; a crosswalk recognizing unit which recognizes a crosswalk based on an input image of the intersection and the information about the road and obtains a distance from the traveling vehicle to the crosswalk; and an intersection center line estimating unit which estimates the center line of the intersection based on the information about the road and the distance from the traveling vehicle to the crosswalk. Since the center line of the intersection is estimated, the apparatus and method of estimating a center line of an intersection according to the present invention can prevent traffic accidents occurring frequently at an intersection and helps indicate direction information of ‘real vehicle navigation.’

Claims

1. An apparatus for estimating a center line of an intersection, the apparatus comprising:

a road information providing unit which provides information about a road being traveled based on location information of a traveling vehicle;

a crosswalk recognizing unit which recognizes a crosswalk based on an input image of the intersection and the information about the road and obtains a distance from the traveling vehicle to the crosswalk; and

an intersection center line estimating unit which estimates the center line of the intersection based on the information about the road and the distance from the traveling vehicle to the crosswalk.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an image input unit which obtains an image of the intersection in real-time,

wherein the crosswalk recognizing unit comprises:

an extracting unit which extracts an image of the crosswalk based on the obtained image of the intersection and the information about the road;

a determining unit which recognizes the crosswalk based on pixel change of a boundary of the crosswalk; and

an estimating unit which estimates the distance from the traveling vehicle to the crosswalk.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the road information providing unit comprises a location estimating unit which obtains location information of the traveling vehicle.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the information about the road provided from the road information providing unit comprises a width and number of lanes of the road being traveled, a width and form of the intersection, and a width of the crosswalk.

5. A method of estimating a center line of an intersection, the method comprising:

obtaining information about a road being traveled based on location information of a traveling vehicle;

recognizing a crosswalk based on an input image of the intersection and the information about the road;

obtaining a distance from the traveling vehicle to the crosswalk; and

estimating the center line of the intersection based on the information about the road and the distance from the traveling vehicle to the crosswalk.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein in the recognizing of the crosswalk, the crosswalk is recognized based on pixel change of a boundary of the crosswalk.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein in the information about the road comprises a number of lanes of the road being traveled, a width and form of the intersection, and a width of the crosswalk.

8. A computer readable recording medium having embodied thereon a computer program for executing the method of any one of claims 5 through 7.