CAMERA DISTANCE MEASUREMENT DEVICE

• US 20130002861A1
• Filed: 06/07/2010
• Published: 01/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Inventors: Mitsugi, Tatsuya
• Application Number:
  US13/634,271
• Publication Number:
  US 20130002861A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/135
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 3/00 Measuring distances in line of sight; Optical rangefinders tapes, chains or wheels for measuring length G01B3/00; active triangulation systems, i.e. using the transmission and reflection of electromagnetic waves other than radio waves, G01S17/48
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/20 in augmented reality scenes
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/56 exterior to a vehicle by using sensors mounted on the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/586 of parking space
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00251 with an apparatus for taking photographic images, e.g. a camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/0044 for image preview or review, e.g. to help the user position a sheet
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2101/00 Still video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3253 Position information, e.g. geographical position at time of capture, GPS data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3254 Orientation, e.g. landscape or portrait; Location or order of the image data, e.g. in memory

Abstract

A camera distance measurement device displays an image in which a plurality of graduation lines which are arranged in the form of a grid with respect to a vehicle is superimposed on a camera image which is captured by a camera mounted to the vehicle on a display unit, and estimates a distance in a direction of the width of the vehicle, and a distance in a direction of the capturing by the camera from a unit distance defined for each grid side of the graduation lines.

Claims

1. A camera distance measurement device for displaying an image in which a plurality of graduation lines which are arranged in a form of a grid with respect to a vehicle are superimposed on a camera image which is captured by a camera mounted to the vehicle on a display unit to measure a distance in a direction of a width of said vehicle and a distance in a direction of the capturing by said camera from a unit distance defined for each grid side of said graduation lines, said camera distance measurement device comprising:

a parameter storage unit for storing mounting information showing a mounting position and a mounting angle at and with which said camera is mounted to said vehicle, angle of view information showing an angle of view of said camera, projection method information showing a projection method for use in a lens of said camera, and screen size information showing a screen size of said display unit as parameter information;

a distance measurement arithmetic operation unit for performing a process of correcting distortion of the lens of said camera on position coordinates in real space of each of grid points defined by said plurality of graduation lines which are arranged in the form of a grid and at intervals of said unit distance, and for transforming the position coordinates of each of the grid points in which the distortion of said lens has been corrected into position coordinates in said camera image on a basis of said mounting information, said angle of view information, said projection method information, and said screen size information which are read from said parameter storage unit to create graduation line information;

a line drawing unit for arranging said plurality of graduation lines on a basis of said graduation line information in such a way that they are intersecting at right angles in a form of a grid to create a graduation line image;

an image correcting unit for performing a correcting process of removing the distortion of the lens of said camera in said camera image and distortion caused by said projection method; and

an image superimposing unit for superimposing said graduation line image created by said line drawing unit on said camera image corrected by said image correcting unit to output said camera image on which said graduation line image is superimposed to said display unit.

3. The camera distance measurement device according to claim 1, wherein said camera distance measurement device includes an in-screen position determining unit for determining a position in said camera image displayed on said display unit, and wherein said distance measurement arithmetic operation unit performs the process of correcting the distortion of the lens of said camera on coordinates of the position in space of the camera image determined by said in-screen position determining unit, and transforms the position coordinates in which the distortion of said lens has been corrected into position coordinates at a predetermined height from a ground surface in real space on a basis of said mounting information, said angle of view information, said projection method information, and said screen size information which are read from said parameter storage unit to create said position information, and said display unit outputs a distance from the position in said camera image determined by said in-screen position determining unit to said vehicle on a basis of said position information.

2. A camera distance measurement device for displaying a camera image which is captured by a camera mounted to a vehicle on a display unit to measure a distance from a position in said camera image to said vehicle, said camera distance measurement device comprising:

a parameter storage unit for storing mounting information showing a mounting position and a mounting angle at and with which said camera is mounted to said vehicle, angle of view information showing an angle of view of said camera, projection method information showing a projection method for use in a lens of said camera, and screen size information showing a screen size of said display unit as parameter information;

an in-screen position determining unit for determining a position in said camera image displayed on said display unit;

a distance measurement arithmetic operation unit for performing a process of correcting distortion of the lens of said camera on coordinates of the position in space of the camera image determined by said in-screen position determining unit, and for transforming the position coordinates in which the distortion of said lens has been corrected into position coordinates at a predetermined height from a ground surface in real space on a basis of said mounting information, said angle of view information, said projection method information, and said screen size information which are read from said parameter storage unit to create position information; and

an output unit for outputting a distance from the position in said camera image determined by said in-screen position determining unit to said vehicle on a basis of said position information.

4. The camera distance measurement device according to claim 2, wherein said in-screen position determining unit is an image recognizing unit for detecting a position of an object in said camera image by carrying out image recognition on said camera image.