Object detection apparatus, motion control apparatus and pattern recognition apparatus

• US 6,456,728 B1
• Filed: 01/26/1999
• Issued: 09/24/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Morishita, Akira, Numazaki, Shunichi, Doi, Miwako, Umeki, Naoko
• Primary Examiner(s): Boudreau, Leo
• Assistant Examiner(s): Choobin, Barry
• Application Number:
  US09/236,574
• Publication Number:
  US 20020028001A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,337 Days
• Field of Search: 382/103, 382/107, 382/165, 382/190, 382/106, 382/169, 382/274, 382/100, 348/169
• US Class Current: 382/103
• 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: G06T 7/70 Determining position or orientation of objects or cameras camera calibration G06T7/80

Abstract

The present invention provides an object detection apparatus which includes an image capture section for capturing a distance image indicating distance information to a subject and representing intensity distribution of light reflected by the subject and a detection section for detecting one of a target object and/or a motion of the target object from the distance image captured by the image capture section. The present invention also provides a motion control apparatus for controlling a motion of an object such as a toy. The motion control apparatus includes an image capture section for capturing a distance image indicating distance information to a subject and representing intensity distribution of light reflected by the subject, a detection section for detecting one of a target object and/or a motion of the target object from the distance image captured by the image capture section, and a control section for controlling a motion of an object based on a result of detection of the detection section. The present invention also provides a pattern recognition apparatus which is capable of robustly recognizing a pattern at high speed and which can easily be miniaturized.

Claims

1. An object detection apparatus, comprising:

an image capture device configured to capture a distance image of an object in a single image capture direction, said distance image being configured by a plurality of pixel data indicative of a distance to and a three-dimensional shape of the object,

the image capture device including a light-emitting device emitting light, a light-receiving device receiving a first amount of light not including light reflected by the object when the light-emitting device emits light, receiving a second amount of light when the light-emitting device does not emit light, and receiving a third amount of light when the light-emitting device emits light onto the object, a first subtracting device subtracting the second amount of light from the first amount of light ahead of capturing the distance image to obtain a fourth amount of light and a second subtracting device subtracting the fourth amount of light from the third amount of light to obtain the distance image;

an object extraction device configured to extract the shape of the object based on the pixel data from the distance image thereby obtaining an extracted object; and

a detection device configured to detect at least one of the object and a motion of the object from the shape of the extracted object.

18. The object detection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image capture device is provided so as to prevent the object from falling within a limited image capture range and to prevent the image capture device from colliding with the object.

2. An object detection apparatus, comprising:

at least one first image capture device configured to capture a distance image of an object in a single image capture direction, the distance image being configured by a plurality of pixel data indicative of a distance to and a three-dimensional shape of the object,

the image capture device including a light-emitting device emitting light, a light-receiving device receiving a first amount of light not including light reflected by the object when the light-emitting device emits light receiving a second amount of light when the light-emitting device does not emit light and receiving a third amount of light when the light-emitting device emits light onto the object, a first subtracting device subtracting the second amount of light from the first amount of light ahead of capturing the distance image to obtain a fourth amount of light, and a second subtracting device subtracting the fourth amount of light from the third amount of light to obtain the distance image;

an object extraction device configured to extract the shape of the object based on the pixel data from the distance image captured by said at least one first image capture device thereby obtaining an extracted object;

at least one second image capture device configured to capture an image which differs in property from the distance image; and

a detection device configure to detect at least one of the object and a motion of the object based on at least one of the shape of the extracted object and the image captured by the at least one second image capture device.

3. The object detection apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the at least one first image capture device and the at least one second image capture device vary from each other in image capture range.

4. The object detection apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the image captured by the at least one second image capture device is a two-dimensional image.

5. An object detection apparatus, comprising:

a plurality of image capture devices each configured to capture a distance image of an object in a single image capture direction, the distance image being configured by a plurality of pixel data indicative of a distance to and a three-dimensional shape of the object,

each of the plurality of image capture devices including a light-emitting device emitting light, a light-receiving device receiving a first amount of light not including light reflected by the object when the light-emitting device emits light, receiving a second amount of light when the light-emitting device does not emit light, and receiving a third amount of light when the light-emitting device emits light onto the object, a first subtracting device subtracting the second amount of light from the first amount of light ahead of capturing the distance image to obtain a fourth amount of light, and a second subtracting device subtracting the fourth amount of light from the third amount of light to obtain the distance image;

an object extraction device configured to extract the shape of the object based on the pixel data from the distance image captured by at least one of the plurality of the image capture devices thereby obtaining an extracted object; and

a detection device configured to detect at least one of the object and a motion of the object from the shape of the extracted object.

6. The object detection apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the plurality of image capture devices vary from one another in image capture range.

7. The object detection apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the plurality of image capture devices vary from one another in image capture direction.

8. An object detection apparatus, comprising:

an image capture device configured to capture a distance image of an object in a single image capture direction, the distance image being configured by a plurality of pixel data indicative of a distance to and a three-dimensional shape of the object,

the image capture device including a light-emitting device emitting light, a light-receiving device receiving a first amount of light not including light reflected by the object when the light-emitting device emits light receiving a second amount of light when the light-emitting does not emit light, and receiving a third amount of light when the light-emitting device emits light onto the object, a first subtracting device subtracting the second amount of light from the first amount of light ahead of capturing the distance image to obtain a fourth amount of light, and a second subtracting device subtracting the fourth amount of light from the third amount of light to obtain the distance image;

an object extraction device configured to extract the shape of the object based on the pixel data from the distance image thereby obtaining an extracted object;

a detection device configured to detect at least one of the object and a motion of the object from the shape of the extracted object; and

an alarm generation device configured to generate an alarm when the detection device detects the at least one of the object and the motion of the object.

9. The object detection apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the apparatus is wearable.

10. A motion control apparatus applied to another apparatus, comprising:

an image capture device configured to capture a distance image of an object in a single image capture direction, the distance image being configured by a plurality of pixel data indicative of a distance to and a three-dimensional shape of the object,

the image capture device including a light-emitting device emitting light, a light-receiving device receiving a first amount of light not including light reflected by the object when the light-emitting device emits light, receiving a second amount of light when the light-emitting device emits light onto the object, a first subtracting device subtracting the second amount of light from the first amount of light ahead of capturing the distance image to obtain a fourth amount of light and a second subtracting device subtracting the fourth amount of light from the third amount of light to obtain the distance image;

an object extraction device configured to extract the shape of the object based on the pixel data from the distance image to obtain an extracted object;

a detection device configured to detect at least one of the object and a motion of the object from the shape of the extracted object; and

a control device configured to control the motion of the another apparatus based on a result of detection of the detection device.

11. A motion control apparatus applied to another apparatus, comprising:

at least one first image capture device configured to capture a distance image of an object in a single image capture direction, the distance image being configured by a plurality of pixel data indicative of a distance to and a three-dimensional shape of the object,

the at least one image capture device including a light-emitting device emitting light, a light-receiving device receiving a first amount of light not including light reflected by the object when the light-emitting device emits light, receiving a second amount of light when the light-emitting device does not emit light, and receiving a third amount of light when the light-emitting device emits light onto the object, a first subtracting device subtracting the second amount of light from the first amount of light ahead of capturing the distance image to obtain a fourth amount of light, and a second subtracting device subtracting the fourth amount of light from the third amount of light to obtain the distance image;

an object extraction device configured to extract the shape of the object based on the pixel data from the distance image captured by at least one first image capture device thereby obtaining an extracted object;

at least one second image capture device configured to capture an image which differs in property from the distance image;

a detection device configured to detect at least one of the object and a motion of the object based on at least one of the shape of the extracted object and the image captured by the at least one second image capture device; and

a control device configured to control the motion of the another apparatus based on the result of detection of the detection device.

12. The motion control apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the at least one first image capture device and the at least one second image capture device vary from each other in image capture range.

13. The motion control apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the image captured by the at least one second image capture device is a two-dimensional image.

14. A motion control apparatus applied to another apparatus, comprising:

a plurality of image capture devices each configured to capture a distance image of an object in single image capture direction, the distance image being configured by a plurality of pixel data indicative of a distance to and a three-dimensional shape of the object,

each of the plurality of image capture devices including a light-emitting device emitting light, a light-receiving device receiving a first amount of light not including light reflected by the object when the light-emitting device emits light receiving a second amount of light when the light-emitting device emits light, and receiving a third amount of light when the light-emitting device emits light onto the object, a first subtracting device subtracting the second amount of light from the first amount of light ahead of capturing the distance image to obtain a fourth amount of light, and a second subtracting device subtracting the fourth amount of light from the third amount of light to obtain the distance image and providing a plurality of pixel data indicative of a three-dimensional shape of the object;

an object extraction device configured to extract the shape of the object based on the pixel data from the distance image captured by at least one of the plurality of image capture device thereby obtaining an a extracted object;

a detection device configured to detect at least one of the object and a motion of the object based on the shape of the extracted object; and

a control device configured to control the motion of the another apparatus based on the result of detection of the detection device.

15. The motion control apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the plurality of image capture devices vary from one another in image capture range.

16. The motion control apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the plurality of image capture devices vary from one another in image capture direction.

17. A pattern recognition apparatus, comprising:

an image capture device configured to capture a distance image of an object in a single image capture direction, the distance image being configured by a plurality of pixel data indicative of a distance to and a three-dimensional shape of the object,

the image capture device including a light-emitting device emitting light, a light-receiving device receiving a first amount of light not including light reflected by the object when the light-emitting device emits light, receiving a second amount of light when the light-emitting device does not emit light, and receiving a third amount of light when the light-emitting device emits light onto the object, a first subtracting device subtracting the second amount of light from the first amount of light ahead of capturing the distance image to obtain a fourth amount of light, and a second subtracting device subtracting the fourth amount of light from the third amount of light to obtain the distance image;

an object extraction device configured to extract the shape of the object based on the pixel data and reflectivity of the object from the distance image thereby obtaining an extracted object; and

a recognition device configured to recognize a predetermined pattern from the shape of the extracted object.