EP0626655A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
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Vehicle recognition apparatus
Assignee: Panasonic Holdings Corp
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Filing: 1994-05-25
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2014-05-25
Abstract
Abstract An apparatus for recognizing contours of a preceding vehicle from road images inputted by the use of vehicle-mounted cameras for picking up an object in front of the apparatus-mounted vehicle and measuring a distance to the recognized preceding vehicle, comprising image inputting video cameras, A/D converters, image memories, image processing MPU, a display, an output interface, and the like. <IMAGE> <IMAGE>
Inventors
- 👤 Nobuyuki Nakano
- 👤 Nobuhiko Yasui
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-08 04:31
CPC Classifications
G; G06; G06T; G06T7/00; G06T7/50; G06T7/55; G06T7/564; G06T7/593; G06V; G06V10/00; G06V10/70; G06V10/74; G06V10/75; G06V10/755; G06V20/00; G06V20/50; G06V20/56; G06V20/58; G06V20/588
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 8
Claim 1
Independent Claim
282 words
A vehicle recognition apparatus which recognizes a preceding vehicle from road images inputted by a use of vehicle-mounted video cameras and measures a distance to the recognized vehicle, comprising : stereo image input means mounted on a vehicle for picking up stereo road scenes in front of the vehicle; image storage means for storing the road scenes information inputted from said stereo image input means; edge extraction means for applying a differential processing to the road scenes information stored in said image storage means to extract edge ; traffic lane region extraction means for extracting a traffic lane region from the road scenes information stored in said image storage means; vehicle edge searching means for searching a distribution of the edges extracted by said edge extraction means within the traffic lane region extracted by said traffic lane region extraction means , to extract the preceding vehicle existing region candidate from the road scenes information stored in said image storage means; symmetric region extraction means for extracting a symmetric region within the preceding vehicle existing region candidate defined by said vehicle edge searching means and for limiting further the preceding vehicle existing region candidate ; initial model setting means for setting an initial contour model for the preceding vehicle existing region candidate defined by said symmetric region extraction means; contour extraction means for extracting contours of the preceding vehicle from the road scenes information stored in said image storage means on the basis of the initial values set by said initial model setting means; and intervehicle distance measuring means for measuring a distance to the preceding vehicle on the basis of the contour of the preceding vehicle extracted by said contour extraction means.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
72 words
A vehicle recognition apparatus as set forth in claim 1, comprising; traffic lane region extraction means for extracting a self traffic lane region in which self vehicle cruises from the road scenes information stored in said image storage means, and then extending double rightward/leftward a traffic lane width indicated at a lower end of the road scenes by the extracted traffic lane region , to obtain right/left approximately adjacent traffic lane regions.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
58 words
A vehicle recognition apparatus as set forth in claim 2, comprising; vehicle edge extraction means for extracting a lower end of the preceding vehicle region candidate within the self traffic lane region extracted by said traffic lane region extraction means, and then extracting right/left side ends of the preceding vehicle region candidate within the adjacent traffic lane regions.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
44 words
A vehicle recognition apparatus as set forth in claim 3, wherein; the vehicle edge extraction means extracts region ends of the vehicle region candidate on the basis of dispersion values of a number of edges extracted from a inside of the traffic lane region.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
40 words
A vehicle recognition apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein ; the symmetric region extraction means adds up mid-point positions of between edges which is present on the same scanning line ,to extract symmetric axes of a whole region.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
53 words
A vehicle recognition apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein ; the initial model setting means determines shape and size of model adapted to the preceding vehicle existing region candidate defined by said symmetric region extraction means on the basis of region width and height of the preceding vehicle existing region candidate.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
46 words
A vehicle recognition apparatus as set forth in claim 6, wherein; the initial model setting means matches a gravity center position of the preceding vehicle existing region candidate to a gravity center position of the model , to set automatically the model to a proper position.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
103 words
A vehicle recognition apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein; the intervehicle distance measuring means for performing a shift operation in such a manner that among the vehicle contours extracted from the right/left stereo road scenes, the contour of one road scene is reversed with respect to its symmetric axis and is made a shift pattern, and that of the other road scene is made a reference pattern ,and for extracting a shift amount by which a correlation value of both the patterns becomes minimum , as a disparity between both road scenes , thereby calculating the distance to the preceding vehicle.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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