Apparatus and Method for Lane Marking Analysis

• US 20120121183A1
• Filed: 12/31/2009
• Published: 05/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tomtom Global Content B.V (TomTom NV)
• Original Assignee: Tomtom North America Incorporated (TomTom NV)
• Inventors: Joshi, Maneesha
• Granted Patent: US 8,929,660 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/191
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3492 employing speed data or traffic data, e.g. real-time or historical traffic control systems for road vehicles involving transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/26 Segmentation of patterns in the image field; Cutting or merging of image elements to establish the pattern region, e.g. clustering-based techniques; Detection of occlusion
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0104 Measuring and analyzing of parameters relative to traffic conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0129 for creating historical data or processing based on historical data
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/052 with provision for determining speed or overspeed speed measuring in general G01P
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096844 where the complete route is dynamically recomputed based on new data

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method of determining a location at which a lane divider marking changes type, comprising determining (350) a first type of lane divider (120) marking based upon a frequency spectrum determined by Fourier analysis of first image data (431) corresponding to a first area, determining (350) a second type of lane divider (130) marking based upon a frequency spectrum determined by Fourier analysis of second image data (432) corresponding to a second area, and determining (360) a geographic location at which the lane divider marking changes type according to a comparison of the first and second types (120, 130) of lane divider marking.

Claims

1. A method of determining a location at which a lane divider marking changes type, characterised by:

determining a first type of lane divider marking based upon a frequency spectrum determined by Fourier analysis of first image data corresponding to a first area;

determining a second type of lane divider marking based upon a frequency spectrum determined by Fourier analysis of second image data corresponding to a second area; and

determining a geographic location at which the lane divider marking changes type according to a comparison of the first and second types of lane divider marking.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the Fourier analysis is based upon an intensity signal determined from the first and/or second image data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determination of the intensity signal from the first and/or second image data comprises determining an intensity of a plurality of regions in the image data.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein each of the plurality of regions are elongate regions having a lengthwise axis generally perpendicular to a lengthwise axis of the image data.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the lengthwise axis of the image data is generally parallel to an axis of the lane divider marking.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising receiving road image data corresponding to at least a portion of a road and determining portions of the road image data corresponding to the first and second image data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second areas partially overlap.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and/or second types of lane divider marking are determined with respect to a reference frequency spectrums corresponding to a plurality of different types of lane divider marking.

9. The method of claim 1, comprising storing in a map database an indication of one or more of the geographical locations at which the lane divider marking changes type.

10. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor;

characterised in that the processor has a lane divider analysis module executing thereon, wherein the lane divider analysis module is arranged to determine a first type of lane divider marking based upon a frequency spectrum of image data corresponding to a first area of a road, to determine a second type of lane divider marking based upon a frequency spectrum of image data corresponding to a second area of the road, and to determining a location at which the lane divider marking changes type according to a comparison of the first and second types of lane divider marking.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the apparatus is communicably coupled to a map database and the lane divider analysis module is arranged to store in the map database information indicating one or more geographic locations at which the lane divider marking changes type.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the information indicating the one or more geographic locations at which the lane divider marking changes type is associated with image data corresponding to each geographic location.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, comprising a storage device for storing image data obtained from one or more cameras of a survey vehicle.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the apparatus is arranged to receive the image data from one or more cameras mounted on a vehicle.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the lane divider analysis module is arranged to output a signal to one or more other modules executing on the processor indicative of the change in lane divider marking type.