Local positioning apparatus, and a method therefor
First Claim
1. A local positioning apparatus for use in detecting a local position of a subject, capable of advancing in a direction relating to a lane in a local area, based on a digital image signal representing a local image of an area in an advancing direction of the subject, said apparatus comprising:
- a first image signal generator operable to extract a high spatial frequency component from the digital image signal, and to produce an edge signal based on the high spatial frequency component;
a contour extractor operable to extract a contour of a lane based on the edge signal, and to generate road contour data indicative of the contour of the lane;
a second image signal generator operable to extract a low spatial frequency component from the digital image signal, and to produce a luminance signal based on the low spatial frequency component;
a lane area extractor operable to extract an area of the lane based on the luminance signal, and to generate road region data indicative of the area of the lane; and
a lane detector operable to detect a position of the lane based on the road contour data and the road region data, and to produce a lane detection signal indicative of the position of the lane.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus and method for correctly determining the position of a vehicle in a traffic lane by obtaining correct information about the position of the traffic lane without being affected by variations in the road surface, weather, time of day, or such imaging conditions as fixed or moving lighting, are provided. An edge signal of a high spatial frequency component and a luminance signal of a low spatial frequency component of a digital image signal representing the view of the local area to the front of a vehicle are extracted. A road contour signal is then extracted from the edge signal, and a road region signal is extracted from the luminance signal. The position of the lane Sre is then detected with high precision by evaluating the lane contour Sre based on the road region signal Srr and lane contour data Sre.
221 Citations
12 Claims
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1. A local positioning apparatus for use in detecting a local position of a subject, capable of advancing in a direction relating to a lane in a local area, based on a digital image signal representing a local image of an area in an advancing direction of the subject, said apparatus comprising:
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a first image signal generator operable to extract a high spatial frequency component from the digital image signal, and to produce an edge signal based on the high spatial frequency component; a contour extractor operable to extract a contour of a lane based on the edge signal, and to generate road contour data indicative of the contour of the lane; a second image signal generator operable to extract a low spatial frequency component from the digital image signal, and to produce a luminance signal based on the low spatial frequency component; a lane area extractor operable to extract an area of the lane based on the luminance signal, and to generate road region data indicative of the area of the lane; and a lane detector operable to detect a position of the lane based on the road contour data and the road region data, and to produce a lane detection signal indicative of the position of the lane. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A local positioning method for use in detecting a local position of a subject, capable of advancing in a direction relating to a lane in a local area, based on a digital image signal representing a local image of an area in an advancing direction of the subject, said method comprising:
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extracting a high spatial frequency component from the digital image signal, and producing an edge signal based on the high spatial frequency component; extracting a contour of a lane based on the edge signal, and generating road contour data indicative of the contour of the lane; extracting a low spatial frequency component from the digital image signal, and producing a luminance signal based on the low frequency component; extracting an area of the lane based on the luminance signal, and generating road region data indicative of the area of the lane; and detecting a position of the lane based on the road contour data and the road region data, and producing a lane detection signal indicative of the position of the lane.
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Specification