Distance measuring apparatus and method

A distance measuring method in a distance measuring apparatus, the distance measuring apparatus including:

• an imaging device that captures images in which a subject is captured;
• and
• a processing device that acquires the image from the imaging device and processes the image, the distance measuring method comprising:
• a characteristic matching image generation step of, by the processing device, inputting two or more images including a first image obtained by photographing the subject from a first viewpoint and a second image obtained by photographing the subject from a second viewpoint different from the first viewpoint among the images, and generating two or more images as characteristic matching images in which a characteristic of the first image and a characteristic of the second image are matched;
• and
• a distance measurement step of, by the processing device, calculating a distance to the subject by calculating a parallax based on the two or more images as the characteristic matching images, and
• wherein the characteristic matching image generation step generates the characteristic matching images by projecting a pixel of interest in at least one of the first image and the second image to a corresponding pixel position in the other image,
• wherein the processing device is configured to perform image processing of converting a one-point perspective coordinate system of the characteristic matching images into a cylindrical coordinate system for distance calculation, and
• wherein the processing device applies a filter having a constant cutoff frequency to the characteristic matching images.

A distance measuring apparatus comprising:

• an imaging device that captures images in which a subject is captured;
• and
• a processing device configured to acquire the images from the imaging device and process the images, input two or more images including a first image obtained by photographing the subject from a first viewpoint and a second image obtained by photographing the subject from a second viewpoint different from the first viewpoint among the images, and generate two or more images as characteristic matching images in which a characteristic of the first image and a characteristic of the second image are matched,
• calculate a distance to the subject by calculating a parallax based on the two or more images as the characteristic matching images, and
• generate the characteristic matching images by projecting a pixel of interest in at least one of the first image and the second image to a corresponding pixel position in the other image, wherein the processing device is configured to perform image processing of converting a one-point perspective coordinate system of the characteristic matching images into a cylindrical coordinate system for distance calculation, and
• wherein the imaging device includes:
• a first lens and a first image sensor as a first optical system that captures the first image;
• and
• a second lens and a second image sensor as a second optical system that captures the second image, and
• the first optical system and the second optical system are arranged to face back or opposite to each other on a same axis.