Image processing apparatus, imaging device, moving body device control system, image processing method, and program product

A moving body device control system comprising:

• a plurality of imaging sensors installed in a moving body and configured to image a view ahead of the moving body;
• one or more processors;
• and
• a memory, the memory storing instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
• generate a range image having distance values according to parallax of a road surface in a plurality of captured images, from the plurality of captured images captured by the plurality of imaging sensors;
• generate vertical direction distribution data indicating a frequency distribution of the distance values with respect to a vertical direction of the range image;
• set a search range corresponding to a predetermined reference point in the vertical direction distribution data, and extract a plurality of pixels from the search range;
• detect the road surface, based on the plurality of extracted pixels;
• detect an object in the plurality of captured images, based on the detected road surface and the range image;
• and
• control the moving body, based on data on the detected object,
• wherein to set the search range, the instructions further cause the one or more processors to:
• divide the vertical direction distribution data into a first segment and a second segment according to the distance values,
• determine the predetermined reference point in the second segment according to the road surface detected in the first segment, and
• set the search range of the second segment to be a rectangular region having a height corresponding to a y coordinate of the predetermine reference point.

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

• generate vertical direction distribution data indicating a frequency distribution of distance values with respect to a vertical direction of a range image, from the range image having distance values according to distance of a road surface in a plurality of captured images captured by a plurality of imaging sensors;
• set a search range corresponding to a predetermined reference point in the vertical direction distribution data and extract a plurality of pixels from the search range;
• and
• detect the road surface, based on the plurality of extracted pixels,
• wherein the set of the search range further cause the computer to:
• divide the vertical direction distribution data into a first segment and a second segment according to the distance values,
• determine the predetermined reference point in the second segment according to the road surface detected in the first segment, and
• set the search range of the second segment to be a rectangular region having a height corresponding to a y coordinate of the predetermine reference point.