Vehicle periphery monitoring device, vehicle, vehicle periphery monitoring program, and vehicle periphery monitoring method

• US 8,077,204 B2
• Filed: 11/18/2008
• Issued: 12/13/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arriver Software AB (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Yokochi, Yuji, Nagaoka, Nobuharu, Taniguchi, Fuminori
• Primary Examiner(s): Czekaj, David
• Application Number:
  US12/812,080
• Publication Number:
  US 20100283845A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,120 Days
• Field of Search: 348148-149
• US Class Current: 348/148
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 1/00 Optical viewing arrangements; Real-time viewing arrangements for drivers or passengers using optical image capturing systems, e.g. cameras or video systems specially adapted for use in or on vehicles
• 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

Abstract

A vehicle periphery monitoring device comprising a distance detecting unit which detects the distance between cameras and an object, an object image extracting unit which extracts a first image portion of the object from the acquired image, a filtering unit which performs a filtering process to the acquired image, in which a target edge width is set to be narrower as the assumed value of the width is smaller and the distance is longer, and in which a target edge direction is set to a direction orthogonal to the predetermined direction, and an object type identifying unit which identifies, on the basis of a shape of a second image portion extracted by the filtering process, whether or not the type of the object in real space corresponding to the second image portion is the specific type.

Claims

1. A vehicle periphery monitoring device which monitors a periphery of a vehicle on the basis of acquired images by a camera mounted on the vehicle and acquiring images of the periphery of the vehicle, comprising:

a distance detecting unit which detects a distance between the camera and an object;

an object image extracting unit which extracts a first image portion of the object from the acquired image by the camera;

a local processing region setting unit which sets, on the basis of an assumed value of a size of a pedestrian, and the distance between the object in real space corresponding to the first image portion and the camera detected by the distance detecting unit, a surrounding region of the first image portion including the first image portion as a local processing region,

a filtering unit which performs only to the local processing region, on the basis of an assumed value of a width in a horizontal direction of the pedestrian, and the distance between the camera and the object in real space corresponding to the first image portion detected by the distance detecting unit, a filtering process to the acquired image with a Gabor filter, in which a target edge width is set to be narrower as the assumed value of the width is smaller and the distance is longer, and in which a target edge direction is set to a direction orthogonal to the horizontal direction; and

an object type identifying unit which identifies the type of the object in real space corresponding to the second image portion as a pedestrian, when a lower end of the second image portion extracted by the filtering process performed to the local processing region is included in a lower half region of the local processing region in the local processing region.

2. The vehicle periphery monitoring device according to claim 1,

wherein the distance detecting unit detects the distance between the object and the camera from a change in a size of the image portion of the identical object in the acquired images taken by one camera at different points in time.