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EP0697641A2 Expired / Lapsed EP ⏱️ 0.0 years remaining

Lane image processing system for vehicle

Assignee: Honda Motor Co Ltd
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Filing: 1995-07-11
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2015-07-11
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Abstract

Abstract A lane image processing system for a vehicle to recognize the lane on which the vehicle travels. The system has a CCD camera mounted on the vehicle for viewing a roadway scene ahead of the vehicle to output image data of the roadway scene including the lane on which the vehicle travels. Obstacles such as preceding vehicle are detected and a region for image data processing is determined (S18) so as to avoid the position of the obstacle and the lane on which the vehicle travels is recognized based on the processed result. More specifically, lane boundary positions estimated up to a preceding cycle are stored as historical information (S14) and in the region Hough transformation is limited in areas determined based on the historical information and the horizon in the roadway scene.

Inventors

  • 👤 Shigeto Nakayama

Bibliographic Details

Application Number —
Jurisdiction EP
Data Source google_patents
Last Synchronized 2026-10-24 17:00
CPC Classifications
G; G05; G05D; G05D1/00; G05D1/02; G05D1/021; G05D1/0231; G05D1/0246; G05D1/0268; G05D1/0272; G06; G06V; G06V10/00; G06V10/40; G06V10/48; G06V20/00; G06V20/50; G06V20/56; G06V20/58; G06V20/588; B; B60; B60T; B60T2201/00; B60T2201/08; B60T2201/089; G05D1/0251

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 8
Claim 1
Independent Claim 135 words
A system for processing lane images for a vehicle, including: an image sensor (10) mounted on the vehicle for viewing a roadway scene ahead of the vehicle to output image data of the roadway scene including a lane on which the vehicle travels; image data processing means (30) for processing the image data to output lane information; and lane recognition means (36) for recognizing the lane on which the vehicle travels based on the output lane information; characterized in that: obstacle position determining means (12,40,42) is provided for determining the position of an obstacle present in the roadway scene; and processing region determining means (30) is provided for determining a region of the data image to be processed at least based on the detected obstacle position such that the region excludes the detected obstacle position.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim 37 words
A system according to claim 1, wherein said processing region determining means (30) determines the region such that the region is made up of a left half and a right half that overlap partially with each other.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim 53 words
A system according to claim 1 or 2, further including: lane boundary position storing means (34) for storing a lane boundary position estimated up to a preceding image data processing as historical information; and said processing region determining means (30) determines the region based on the detected obstacle position and the historical information.
Claim 4
Independent Claim 94 words
A system according to any of preceding claims 1 to 3, wherein said image data processing means (30) includes: area determining means for determining an area in the image; edge image extracting means (30b) for extracting edge images in the image data of the area; Hough transforming means (30c) for carrying out Hough transformation on the edge images; straight line detecting means for detecting from one from among straight lines obtained from the Hough transformation; and said lane recognition means recognizes the lane on which the vehicle travels based on the detected straight line.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim 62 words
A system according to claim 4, further including: lane boundary position storing means for storing a lane boundary position estimated up to a preceding image data processing as historical information; and said area determining means determines a first area based on the historical information and a second area based on a position where a new lane boundary can be expected to appear.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim 27 words
A system according to claim 5, wherein said area determining means determines the second area based on a position corresponding to a horizon in the roadway scene.
Claim 7
Independent Claim 70 words
A system according to any of preceding claims 4 to 6, wherein said straight line detecting means includes; setting means initially setting centers of clusters of the straight lines obtained from the Hough transformation; clustering means for clustering the straight lines obtained from the Hough transformation; defining means for defining an average in each cluster as new centers; and uniting means for uniting proximate clusters to detect said straight line.
Claim 8
Independent Claim 20 words
A system according to any of preceding claims 1 to 6, wherein said image sensor is a CCD camera (10).

References Cited (Backward Citations)

JPS62155140A Cited
JPH01161403A Cited
US4970653A Cited
JPH03139706A Cited
JPH03158976A Cited
JPH0436878A Cited

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