Stereo camera device

• US 8,384,781 B2
• Filed: 12/12/2008
• Issued: 02/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Astemo Ltd. (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Higuchi, Mirai, Muramatsu, Shoji, Yokota, Soichiro, Monji, Tatsuhiko
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan, Wing F
• Assistant Examiner(s): KATSIKIS, KOSTAS J
• Application Number:
  US12/333,853
• Publication Number:
  US 20090153664A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,537 Days
• Field of Search: 348/148, 382/154
• US Class Current: 348/148
• 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 stereo camera device includes: plural picture image taking sections, an image correction section which makes correction of picture images taken, a parallax calculating section which calculates parallax, an amount of dislocation between the left and right images, and an image recognition section which carries out image recognition processing using both the image taken and the calculated parallax, or either of them. The stereo camera device further includes: a processing area setting up section which sets up the image area to be processed and reduction ratio differently depending on the driving environment of the vehicle on which the stereo camera device is mounted, wherein, by using the image area and the reduction ratio set up by the processing area setting up section, the image correction section makes correction to the picture image, the parallax calculating section calculates parallax, and the image recognition section carries out processing of image recognition.

Claims

1. A stereo camera device comprising:

a plurality of picture image taking sections; and

at least one processor comprising;

a processing area setting up section which sets up a plurality of image areas to be processed and a reduction ratio of an image based on a driving environment of a vehicle on which the stereo camera device is mounted;

an image correction section which makes a correction of picture images taken;

a parallax calculating section which calculates parallax, an amount of dislocation between a left image and a right image, based on the corrected picture images; and

an image recognition section which carries out image recognition processing for each image area in order to recognize objects;

wherein;

when the plurality of image areas are set up, the image recognition section is adapted to perform the image recognition processing according to a first mode for at least one of the image areas and a second mode for the remaining image areas;

in the first mode, the image recognition processing is based on left and right images of the corrected picture images and the calculated parallax in order to recognize objects and to calculate a three-dimensional position of the recognized objects; and

in the second mode, the image recognition processing is based on the left and the right images of the corrected picture images in order to only recognize objects.

2. The stereo camera device according to claim 1, wherein:

the driving environment shows, at least, the advancing direction of the vehicle, steering wheel angle, speed of the vehicle, existence or non-existence of objects, turning speed of the vehicle, turning radius of the vehicle, daytime or nighttime, road configuration, and driving on expressway or ordinary road.

3. The stereo camera device according to claim 1, wherein:

the image taking sections transfer only data of image elements included in the image areas set up by the processing area setting up section to the image correction section.

4. The stereo camera device according to claim 1, wherein:

the processing area setting up section sets up different image areas for each of the plurality of picture image taking sections.

5. The stereo camera device according to claim 1, wherein:

the processing area setting up section sets up different reduction ratios respectively for the plurality of image areas.

6. The stereo camera device according to claim 1, wherein:

the plurality of picture image taking sections comprises a right camera placed on a right side of the vehicle and a left camera placed on a left side of the vehicle; and

the processing area setting up section functions to slide a window position of the left camera toward farther right than a window position of the right camera.