METHOD FOR MEASURING THE HEIGHT PROFILE OF A VEHICLE PASSING ON A ROAD

• US 20140204205A1
• Filed: 01/20/2014
• Published: 07/24/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kapsch TrafficCom AG (Datax Handelsgmbh)
• Original Assignee: Kapsch TrafficCom AG (Datax Handelsgmbh)
• Inventors: Janner, Christian, Kotz, Christian, Rafelsberger, Oliver
• Granted Patent: US 9,547,912 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/142
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/0608 Height gauges
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/04 using optical or ultrasonic detectors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast

Abstract

A method for measuring a height profile of a vehicle passing on a road, said method comprising the following steps: directing a monocular camera from a point above the road onto the road with an angle of aperture that captures a section of the road from above, recording at least a first image of the passing vehicle by the camera at a first moment in time, recording at least a second image of the passing vehicle by the camera at a second moment in time, generating a movement vector image of the vehicle from an analysis of the optical flow between the first and the second image, and creating the height profile of the vehicle from the movement vector image.

Claims

1. A method for measuring a height profile of a vehicle passing on a road, comprising:

directing a monocular camera from a point above the road onto the road with an angle of aperture that captures a section of the road from above;

recording at least a first image of the passing vehicle by the camera at a first moment in time;

recording at least a second image of the passing vehicle by the camera at a second moment in time;

generating a movement vector image of the vehicle from an analysis of an optical flow between the first and the second image; and

creating the height profile of the vehicle from the movement vector image.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the camera is directed substantially vertically downwardly onto the road.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the height profile is a 2.5D height profile.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the height profile is a 2D height profile, which runs parallel to a longitudinal direction of the road.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the height profile is scaled on the basis of a speed of a lowest recorded point of the vehicle or on the basis of a shadow of the vehicle on the road.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first moment in time is a moment in time at which the vehicle is detected in a first position on the road, and the second moment in time is a moment in time at which the vehicle is detected in a second position on the road.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the vehicle is detected in the first and the second position with the aid of sensors arranged at the road or by an evaluation of images of the camera.

8. The method according to claim 1, comprising rectifying the movement vector image for compensation of the angle of aperture, before the height profile is created therefrom.

9. The method according to claim 1, comprising rectifying the height profile for compensation of the angle of aperture.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein a total variation optical flow method is used for the analysis of the optical flow.

11. The method according to claim 1, comprising classifying the vehicle on the basis of a comparison of the created height profile with reference height profiles of known vehicle classes.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein a traffic monitoring camera mounted above the road is used as the camera.