VEHICLE DETECTION APPARATUS AND VEHICLE DETECTION METHOD

• US 20140147008A1
• Filed: 01/31/2014
• Published: 05/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: AOKI, Yasuhiro, SATO, Toshio, TAKAHASHI, Yusuke
• Granted Patent: US 9,196,160 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/104
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/002 for measuring two or more coordinates
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 11/06 by comparison of two or more pictures of the same area
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10012 Stereo images
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30236 Traffic on road, railway or crossing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/593 from stereo images
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/75 involving models
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/243 by compensating for image skew or non-uniform image deformations
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/10 Terrestrial scenes scenes under surveillance with static cameras G06V20/52; scenes perceived from the exterior of a vehicle G06V20/56; scenes perceived from the interior of a vehicle G06V20/59
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/64 Three-dimensional objects
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/08 Detecting or categorising vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0175 by photographing vehicles, e.g. when violating traffic rules
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/123 indicating the position of vehicles, e.g. scheduled vehicles; Managing passenger vehicles circulating according to a fixed timetable, e.g. buses, trains, tramstransmission of navigation instructions to vehicles G08G1/0968

Abstract

A vehicle detection apparatus according to an embodiment comprises a controller detecting a vehicle from an image obtained by photographing the vehicle. The controller extracts a plurality of line-segment components indicating a boundary between a specific region of the vehicle and a vehicle body and included in the image. The controller measures a position of the vehicle based on coordinate information between the extracted line-segment components and photographing position information of the image.

Claims

1. A vehicle detection apparatus comprising:

a detecting module detecting a vehicle from an image obtained by photographing the vehicle, the image including a left image and a right image that are photographed from left and right directions with respect to the vehicle;

an extracting module extracting a plurality of line-segment components indicating a boundary between a specific region of the vehicle and a vehicle body and included in the image for each of the left and right images; and

a measuring module aligning at least one line-segment component between the left and right images among the line-segment components forming a closed loop for each of the left and right images, and measuring a position of the closed loop as the position of the vehicle based on coordinate information between the aligned line-segment components and photographing position information where the left and right images have been photographed.

2. The vehicle detection apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a polygon approximation module executing approximation with a polygon forming the closed loop using some of the line-segment components extracted from the image, for each of the left and right images.

3. The vehicle detection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the measuring module aligns all the line-segment components forming the closed loop.

4. The vehicle detection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

left and right photographing positions of the photographing module are placed to include a windshield of the vehicle and side surfaces of the vehicle, and arranged along a direction almost parallel with a longitudinal direction of an upper side and a lower side of the windshield.

5. The vehicle detection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the extracting module includes:

a re-executing module classifying the extracted line-segment components according to directions, changing parameters used in extraction of the line-segment components based on number and length of the line-segment components for each of the directions to increase the number of the line-segment components and reduce the length of the line-segment components, and re-executing processing of extracting the line-segment components based on the changed parameters.

6. The vehicle detection apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the extracting module includes:

a first line-segment extracting module extracting a plurality of line-segment components forming the windshield region of the vehicle; and

a second line-segment extracting module extracting a plurality of line-segment components forming a rectangular region of a number plate frame of the vehicle,

and the polygon approximation module executes the polygon approximation using the line-segment components extracted by the second line-segment component extracting module, when the closed loop cannot be formed based on the line-segment components extracted by the first line-segment component extracting module.

7. The vehicle detection apparatus according to claim 5, wherein

the re-executing module changes the parameters used in extraction of the line-segment components to reduce the number of the line-segment components and increase the length of the line-segment components when the windshield region has a size greater than a reference size, and increase the number of the line-segment components and reduce the length of the line-segment components when the windshield region has a size equal to or less than the reference size.

8. The vehicle detection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the measuring module includes a vehicle width calculating module calculating a length of a bottom side of the windshield region of the vehicle as a width of the vehicle, based on the coordinate information.

9. The vehicle detection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the measuring module includes a vehicle height calculating module calculating a height of an upper side of the windshield region of the vehicle as a height of the vehicle, based on the coordinate information.

10. A vehicle detection method applied to a vehicle detection apparatus detecting a vehicle from an image obtained by photographing the vehicle, the image including a left image and a right image that are photographed from left and right directions with respect to the vehicle, comprising:

extracting a plurality of line-segment components indicating a boundary between a specific region of the vehicle and a vehicle body and included in the image for each of the left and right images; and

aligning at least one line-segment component between the left and right images among the line-segment components forming a closed loop for each of the left and right images, and measuring a position of the closed loop as the position of the vehicle based on coordinate information between the aligned line-segment components and photographing position information where the left and right images have been photographed.