ROAD SHAPE ESTIMATING DEVICE

• US 20090085913A1
• Filed: 09/18/2008
• Published: 04/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: UNOURA, Kiyozumi, SAKAMOTO, Yosuke
• Application Number:
  US12/233,247
• Publication Number:
  US 20090085913A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/420
• 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

Roadside three-dimensional objects arranged along the road at irregular intervals are used to accurately estimate a shape of the road. A three-dimensional object extractor extracts a three-dimensional object existing in an image captured by an image pickup device. A feature point extractor extracts a feature point from the three-dimensional object and a feature point corrector corrects a displacement of the feature point according to a detected running state of the vehicle. A residual image generator generates a residual image of the feature point whose displacement is corrected and the running state of the subject vehicle. A vanishing point calculator calculates a vanishing point and a road shape estimator estimates a road shape based on a straight line closest to both right and left sides of the subject vehicle from the straight lines passing through the vanishing point.

Claims

1. A road shape estimating device comprising:

an image pickup device for capturing an image of an area in front of a subject vehicle at predetermined time intervals;

a three-dimensional object extractor for extracting a three-dimensional object from the captured image;

a road shape estimator for estimating a road shape based on the three-dimensional object;

a running state detector for detecting a running state of the subject vehicle;

a feature point extractor for extracting a feature point of the three-dimensional object;

a feature point corrector for correcting a displacement of the feature point according to the running state of the subject vehicle;

a residual image generator for generating a residual image of the feature point from the feature point which is extracted from a previously captured image and whose displacement is corrected and the running state of the subject vehicle; and

a vanishing point calculator for calculating a vanishing point at which straight lines passing through the feature point and the residual image cross each other,

wherein the road shape estimator estimates a road shape based on a straight line closest to both right and left sides of the subject vehicle from the straight lines passing through the vanishing point.

2. The road shape estimating device according to claim 1, wherein the feature point extractor extracts a position where the three-dimensional object contacts a ground surface as the feature point.