System and method for detecting obstacles to vehicle motion and determining time to contact therewith using sequences of images

• US 7,113,867 B1
• Filed: 11/26/2000
• Issued: 09/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: MobilEye Vision Technologies Ltd. (Intel Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mobileye Technologies Limited (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Stein, Gideon P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Thu V.
• Time in patent office: 2130 Days
• Field of Search: 701/36, 701/45, 701300-302, 701/28, 701/117, 340435-437, 340/901, 340/903, 340/905, 340/937, 340/933, 382/104, 382/106, 382/107, 342454-455
• US Class Current: 701/301
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 9/00805 Detecting potential obstacles recognising people G06K9/00362
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51

Abstract

A time-to-contact estimate determination system is disclosed for generating an estimate as to the time-to-contact of a vehicle moving along a roadway with an obstacle. The time-to-contact estimate determination system comprises an image receiver and a processor. The image receiver is configured to receive image information relating to a series of at least two images recorded as the vehicle moves along a roadway. The processor is configured to process the image information received by the image receiver to generate a time-to-contact estimate of the vehicle with the obstacle.

Claims

1. A time-to-contact estimate determination system for generating an estimate as to the time-to-contact of a vehicle moving along a roadway with an obstacle comprising:

A. an image receiver configured to receive image information relating to a series of at least two images as the vehicle moves along a roadway; and

characterized by

B. a processor configured to determine a scaling factor that defines a ratio between a dimension length associated with two features of the obstacle in a first one of the at least two images and the same length between the same two features of the obstacle in a second one of the at least two images and uses the ratio to generate a time-to-contact estimate of the vehicle with the obstacle.

2. A system according to claim 1 wherein the scaling factor defines a ratio between vertical dimensions of the obstacle in the images and uses the ratio to estimate the time-to-contact.

3. A system according to claim 1 wherein the scaling factor defines a ratio between horizontal dimensions of the obstacle in the images and uses the ratio to estimate the time-to-contact.

4. A system according to claim 1 wherein the at least two images comprises more than two images.

5. A system according to claim 4 wherein the processor processes the image information to determine a lateral displacement of the object relative to a position of the vehicle.

6. A system according to claim 5 wherein the processor determines a likelihood of collision responsive to whether or not the lateral displacement substantially uniformly approaches zero.

7. A system according to claim 1 wherein the processor generates a time-to-contact T in accordance with the expression T=[1/(S−

1)]Δ

T where S is the sealing factor and Δ

T is a time lapse between two images of the at least two images.