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US 10,650,256 B2Granted
Automatically perceiving travel signals
AssigneenuTonomy Inc.
InventorsBaoxing Qin, Aravindkumar Vijayalingam
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Among other things, one or more travel signals are identified by analyzing one or more images and data from sensors, classifying candidate travel signals into zero, one or more true and relevant travel signals, and estimating a signal state of the classified travel signals.
Claims33
An apparatus comprising:
- (a) an image processor configured to receive an image derived from signals of a sensor and to apply signal processing to the image to identify a representation of a travel signal in the image as a candidate travel signal,
- (b) a classifier configured to receive information from the image processor that identifies the candidate travel signal and to determine whether the candidate travel signal is relevant to a driving decision to be made for a vehicle at a current moment, wherein determining that the candidate travel signal is relevant to the driving decision to be made for the vehicle at the current moment comprises using prior information associated with the candidate travel signal to generate a prior image of a true travel signal during a prior traversal of a route corresponding to the candidate travel signal, wherein generating the prior image of the true travel signal comprises:
- accessing a road map representing a neighborhood of the vehicle,
- accessing information about travel signals in the neighborhood, the travel signals including the true travel signal, and
- transforming the road map into the prior image in a field of view of the sensor, including synthesizing the true travel signal in the prior image,
- (c) an estimator configured to estimate a signal state of the candidate travel signal in accordance with a determination that the candidate travel signal is relevant to the driving decision to be made for the vehicle at the current moment, and
- (d) an output module to generate an alert or control a maneuver of the vehicle or both based on the estimated signal state.
4 more elements
A vehicle comprising:
- (a) an image processor configured to receive an image derived from signals of a sensor and to apply signal processing to the image to identify a representation of a travel signal in the image as a candidate travel signal,
- (b) a classifier configured to receive information from the image processor that identifies the candidate travel signal and to determine whether the candidate travel signal is relevant to a driving decision to be made for the vehicle at a current moment, wherein determining that the candidate travel signal is relevant to the driving decision to be made for the vehicle at the current moment comprises using prior information associated with the candidate travel signal to generate a prior image of a true travel signal during a prior traversal of a route corresponding to the candidate travel signal, wherein generating the prior image of the true travel signal comprises:
- accessing a road map representing a neighborhood of the vehicle,
- accessing information about travel signals in the neighborhood, the travel signals including the true travel signal, and
- transforming the road map into the prior image in a field of view of the sensor, including synthesizing the true travel signal in the prior image,
- (c) an estimator configured to estimate a signal state of the candidate travel signal in accordance with a determination that the candidate travel signal is relevant to the driving decision to be made for the vehicle at the current moment, and
- (d) an output module to generate an alert or control a maneuver of the vehicle or both based on the estimated signal state.
4 more elements
An apparatus comprising:
- (a) an image processor configured to receive an image derived from signals of a sensor and to apply signal processing to the image to identify a representation of a travel signal in the image as a candidate travel signal,
- (b) a classifier configured to receive information from the image processor that identifies the candidate travel signal and to determine whether the candidate travel signal is relevant to a driving decision to be made for a vehicle at a current moment, wherein determining that the candidate travel signal is relevant to the driving decision to be made for the vehicle at the current moment comprises using prior information associated with the candidate travel signal to generate a prior image of a true travel signal during a prior traversal of a route corresponding to the candidate travel signal, wherein the prior image comprises a transformation between a field of view of the sensor associated with the vehicle and a bird's eye view corresponding to the vehicle,
- (c) an estimator configured to estimate a signal state of the candidate travel signal in accordance with a determination that the candidate travel signal is relevant to the driving decision to be made for the vehicle at the current moment, and
- (d) an output module to generate an alert or control a maneuver of the vehicle or both based on the estimated signal state.
1 more element
A vehicle comprising:
- (a) an image processor configured to receive an image derived from signals of a sensor and to apply signal processing to the image to identify a representation of a travel signal in the image as a candidate travel signal,
- (b) a classifier configured to receive information from the image processor that identifies the candidate travel signal and to determine whether the candidate travel signal is relevant to a driving decision to be made for a vehicle at a current moment, wherein determining that the candidate travel signal is relevant to the driving decision to be made for the vehicle at the current moment comprises using prior information associated with the candidate travel signal to generate a prior image of a true travel signal during a prior traversal of a route corresponding to the candidate travel signal, wherein the prior image comprises a transformation between a field of view of the sensor associated with the vehicle and a bird's eye view corresponding to the vehicle,
- (c) an estimator configured to estimate a signal state of the candidate travel signal in accordance with a determination that the candidate travel signal is relevant to the driving decision to be made for the vehicle at the current moment, and
- (d) an output module to generate an alert or control a maneuver of the vehicle or both based on the estimated signal state.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.