Apparatus and method for detecting objects

• US 7,840,026 B2
• Filed: 12/02/2005
• Issued: 11/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Nishiuchi, Hidekazu
• Primary Examiner(s): Tucker; Wesley
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bitar; Nancy
• Application Number:
  US10/575,216
• Publication Number:
  US 20080247596A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,817 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 382/154, 382/105, 382/106, 382/104, 348/211.99, 348/149, 348/148, 348/114, 701/3, 701/96, 701/301, 340/435
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30252 Vehicle exterior; Vicinity of vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/73 using feature-based methods

Abstract

An apparatus for detecting an object is provided which detects the pitching of a vehicle, and detects the presence of an object the front of the vehicle itself with the pitching being taken into consideration. The apparatus includes a microcomputer that performs image processing for the image of the object to compute the velocity and acceleration of the object present in the picked-up image, and based on the computed acceleration of the object, to determine whether the image was captured when the vehicle itself was balanced. If the image is judged to be an image captured when the vehicle itself was not balanced, then the position of the object present in the picked-up image is computed based on another picked-up image that was captured when the vehicle itself was balanced.

Claims

1. An apparatus for detecting a position of an object in one or more images captured by an image pickup device mounted on a vehicle, comprising:

(a) a memory configured to store a plurality of images captured by the image pickup device, wherein the image pickup device is a single camera, including a first image of an object taken at a first time by the single camera and a second image of the object captured at a second time by the single camera; and

(b) a controller operatively coupled to the memory and configured to determine from the first image taken at the first time the position of the object and a first pitch angle of the vehicle relative to a y-coordinate in a horizontal direction is zero, and to determine from the second image whether a second pitch angle of the vehicle relative to the y-coordinate in the horizontal direction at the second time is zero, and to determine the position of the object in the second image based on the position of the object in the first image if the second pitch angle is not zero.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to compute an image acceleration of the second image;

and to determine that the second image was captured when the second pitch angle of the vehicle was zero if the image acceleration of the second image is zero.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the controller is further configured to compute a vertical image velocity of the second image, and to determine that the second image was captured when the second pitch angle of the vehicle was zero if the second image has a zero image acceleration and a non-zero vertical image velocity.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the memory includes a third image of the object captured at a third time when a third pitch angle of the vehicle is zero, and wherein the controller is further configured to determine the position of the object in the second image based on the position of the object in the first image and the position of the object in the third image.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to compute a size of the object in the second image based on a size of the object in the first image if the second image was captured when the second pitch angle of the vehicle was not zero, and to compute a distance between the image pickup device and the object in the second image based on the computed sizes of the object in the first and second images.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the controller is further configured to compute a vision axis of the image pickup device based on the computed distance if the second image was captured when the second pitch angle of the vehicle was not zero, and to compute the position of the object in the second image based on the computed vision axis.

7. A vehicle, comprising:

(a) an image pickup device mounted on the vehicle to capture a plurality of images of at least one object;

(b) a memory on which is stored the plurality of images captured by the image pickup device, wherein the image pickup device is a single camera, including a first image of the at least one object taken by the single camera at a first time when a first pitch angle of the vehicle relative to a y-coordinate in a horizontal direction is zero and an image acceleration is zero and a second image of the at least one object captured by the single camera at a second time; and

(c) a controller operatively coupled to the memory and configured to determine a position of the at least one object in the first image and to determine from the first image whether a second pitch angle of the vehicle in the second image at the second time is zero, and to determine a position of the at least one object in the second image based on the position of the at least one object in the first image if the second pitch angle is not zero.

8. The vehicle of claim 7, wherein the controller is further configured to compute an image acceleration of the second image;

and to determine that the second image was captured when the second pitch angle of the vehicle was zero if the image acceleration of the second image is zero.

9. The vehicle of claim 8, wherein the controller is further configured to compute a vertical image velocity of the second image, and to determine that the second image was captured when the second pitch angle of the vehicle was zero if the second image has a zero image acceleration and a non-zero vertical image velocity.

10. The vehicle of claim 7, wherein the memory includes a third image of the at least one object captured at a third time when a third pitch angle of the vehicle is zero, and wherein the controller is further configured to determine the position of the at least one object in the second image based on the position of the at least one object in the first image and the position of the at least one object in the third image.

11. The vehicle of claim 7, wherein the controller is further configured to compute a size of the at least one object in the second image based on a size of the at least one object in the first image if the second image was captured when the second pitch angle of the vehicle is not zero, and to compute a distance between the single camera and the at least one object in the second image based on the computed sizes of the at least one object in the first and second images.

12. The vehicle of claim 11, wherein the controller is further configured to compute a vision axis of the single camera based on the computed distance if the second image was captured when the second pitch angle of the vehicle was not zero, and to compute the position of the at least one object in the second image based on the computed vision axis.

13. An apparatus for detecting a position of an object in one or more images captured by a single camera in a vehicle, comprising:

image judgment means for determining whether an image of the object captured by the single camera was captured when a pitch angle of the vehicle relative to a y-coordinate in a horizontal direction was zero and an image acceleration was zero; and

object position computing means for determining a position of the object hi a first image captured by the single camera if the first image was captured when the first pitch angle of the vehicle was not zero, which determination is based on a position in a second image of the same object that was captured by the single camera when a pitch angle of the vehicle was zero and an image acceleration of the second image was zero.

14. A method for detecting a position of an object in an image captured by an image pickup device in a vehicle, comprising:

storing a plurality of images captured by the image pickup device, wherein the image pickup device is a single camera;

determining a pitch angle of the vehicle in each of the plurality of images, an image captured by the single camera and having a first pitch angle of zero being a first image;

determining a position of the object in the first image;

determining whether a second image of the object captured by the single camera was captured when a second pitch angle of the vehicle relative to a y-coordinate in a horizontal direction was zero; and

determining the position of the object in the second image if the second image was captured when the second pitch angle of the vehicle was not zero, which determination is based on the first image of the same object that was captured when the pitch angle of the vehicle was zero.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein determining a pitch angle comprises determining an image acceleration of the image;

wherein the pitch angle of the vehicle is determined to be zero if the image acceleration is zero.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising determining a vertical image velocity of each of the plurality of images;

wherein the pitch angle of the vehicle is determined to be zero if an image has a zero image acceleration and a non-zero vertical image velocity.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising providing a third image of the object captured when a third pitch angle of the vehicle was zero, and wherein the position of the object in the second image is determined based on the positions of the object in the first image and in the third image.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising computing a size of the object in the first image and computing a size of the object in the second image based on the size of the object in the first image if the second image was captured when the second pitch angle of the vehicle was not zero, and computing the distance between the single image pickup device and the object based on the computed sizes of the object in the first and second images.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising computing a vision axis of the single image pickup device based on the computed distance of the object, if the second image was captured when the second pitch angle of the vehicle was not zero, and computing the position of the object in the second image based on the computed vision axis.