Vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus

• US 7,949,151 B2
• Filed: 05/03/2007
• Issued: 05/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arriver Software AB (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Saka, Masakazu, Koike, Hiroyuki, Taniguchi, Fuminori
• Primary Examiner(s): Ahmed; Samir A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Li; Ruiping
• Application Number:
  US11/799,963
• Publication Number:
  US 20080130954A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,482 Days
• Field of Search: 382/104
• US Class Current: 382/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/58 Recognition of moving objects or obstacles, e.g. vehicles or pedestrians; Recognition of traffic objects, e.g. traffic signs, traffic lights or roads
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/103 Static body considered as a whole, e.g. static pedestrian or occupant recognition

Abstract

A vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus is provided herein which is capable of determining an object type, particularly capable of determining an animal other than a human being among objects. The vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus which monitors the surroundings of a vehicle by using an image captured by a camera (2R, 2L) mounted on the vehicle, including an object extraction process unit which extracts an image area of the object from the captured image (steps 1 to 6) and an object type determination process unit which determines the object type according to whether the image area of the object extracted by the object extraction process unit includes a first object area in which the ratio of widths in different directions is within a predetermined range and a plurality of second object areas located below the first object area and smaller in area than the first object area (steps 31 to 37).

Claims

1. A vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus which monitors the surroundings of a vehicle by using an image captured by a camera mounted on the vehicle, comprising:

an object extraction process unit which extracts an image area of an object from the image captured by the camera;

a pedestrian determination process unit which determines whether or not the object is a pedestrian based on the image area of the object extracted by the object extraction process unit; and

an object type determination process unit for determining an object type when the object is determined not to be a pedestrian by the pedestrian determination process unit and when the image area of the object extracted by the object extraction process unit includes a horizontally long first object area in which the ratio of a horizontal width and a vertical width is within a predetermined range and a plurality of second object areas located below the first object area and smaller in area than the first object area, wherein the object type determination process unit determines that the object type is an animal other than a human being in a case where a second area width is greater than one half of a first area width and determines the object type is an artificial structure in the case where the second area width is equal to or less than one half of the first area width, wherein the first area width is the horizontal width of the first object area and the second area width is the horizontal width between the left end on the left side and the right end on the right side of the two or more second object areas.

2. A vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a distance calculation process unit which calculates a distance of a real space position corresponding to the image area included in the image captured by the camera from the vehicle, wherein the object type determination process unit determines the object type as an animal other than a human being under the condition that the image area of the object has a feature located within a predetermined range from the first object area in the image captured by the camera and satisfying a preset feature condition and that the distance of the real space position corresponding to the feature from the vehicle is equal to the distance of the real space position corresponding to the first object area from the vehicle.

4. A vehicle equipped with the vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus according to claim 1.

6. A vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a distance calculation process unit which calculates a distance of a real space position corresponding to the image area included in the image captured by the camera from the vehicle, wherein the object type determination process unit detects as the first object area a portion of the image having a horizontal width and a vertical width within a predetermined range and having an elliptical shape with a predetermined size depending on the distance of the corresponding real space position from the vehicle.

3. A vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus which monitors the surroundings of a vehicle by using a computer which is provided in the apparatus and includes an interface circuit for use in accessing an image captured by a camera mounted on the vehicle,

wherein the computer performs:

an object extraction process for extracting an image area of an object from the image captured by the camera;

a pedestrian determination process which determines whether or not the object is a pedestrian based on the image area of the object extracted by the object extraction process; and

an object type determination process for determining an object type when the object is determined not to be a pedestrian by the pedestrian determination process and when the image area of the object extracted in the object extraction process includes a horizontally long first object area in which the ratio of a horizontal width and a vertical width is within a predetermined range and a plurality of second object areas located below the first object area and smaller in area than the first object area, wherein the object type determination process determines that the object type is an animal other than a human being in a case where a second area width is greater than one half of a first area width and determines the object type is an artificial structure in the case where the second area width is equal to or less than one half of the first area width, wherein the first area width is the horizontal width of the first object area and the second area width is the horizontal width between the left end on the left side and the right end on the right side of the two or more second object areas.

5. A vehicle surroundings monitoring method of monitoring the surroundings of a vehicle by using an in-vehicle computer including a processing unit which accesses data of an image captured by a camera mounted on the vehicle, the method comprising:

an object extraction step of causing the computer to extract the image area of an object from the image captured by the camera;

a pedestrian determination step which determines whether or not the object is a pedestrian based on the image area of the object extracted by the object extraction step; and

an object type determination step of causing the computer to determine an object type when the object is determined not to be a pedestrian by the pedestrian determination process step and when the image area of the object extracted in the object extraction step includes a horizontally long first object area in which the ratio of a horizontal width and a vertical width is within a predetermined range and a plurality of second object areas located below the first object area and smaller in area than the first object area, wherein the object type determination step determines that the object type is an animal other than a human being in a case where a second area width is greater than one half of a first area width and determines the object type is an artificial structure in the case where the second area width is equal to or less than one half of the first area width, wherein the first area width is the horizontal width of the first object area and the second area width is the horizontal width between the left end on the left side and the right end on the right side of the two or more second object areas.