Object identification device, moving object controlling apparatus having object identification device, information presenting apparatus having object identification device, and spectroscopic image capturing apparatus

A method of identifying an object, comprising the steps of:

• receiving light polarized in two different polarization directions included in light reflected from an object in an image capturing area using an image capturing device and capturing a polarized image for each of the two types of polarized light using the image capturing device;
• dividing each of the two polarized images captured by the image capturing device into identification processing areas to compute an object identification index value for each of the identification processing areas using an index value computing unit using light intensity data of each of the two polarized images from which the noise component has been removed by the noise removal unit;
• determining identification processing areas corresponding to an identification target object using an object identification processing unit based on the object identification index value of each of the identification processing areas computed by the index value computing unit;
• conducting an object identification process in which the object identification processing unit identifies a plurality of adjacent identification processing areas determined as the identification processing areas corresponding to the identification target object as an image area of the identification target object;
• obtaining environment information to determine an environmental condition of an object in the image capturing area using an environment information obtaining unit;
• determining an environmental condition of the object existing in the image capturing area based on the environment information obtained by the environment information obtaining unit;
• storing a plurality of noise removing parameters in a parameter storage unit, each of the noise removing parameters being prepared and stored for a plurality of mutually exclusive environmental conditions;
• reading out one noise removing parameter from among the plurality of noise removing parameters stored in the parameter storage unit for the environmental condition determined by the environmental condition determination unit to remove a noise component included in the two polarized images captured under the environmental condition;
• and
• removing the noise component included in the two polarized images captured under the environmental condition determined by the environmental condition determination unit using the noise removing parameter read from the parameter storage unit.

A spectroscopic image capturing apparatus for obtaining a two-dimensional spectroscopic image correlating each point in an image capturing area with wavelength information measured at each point, the spectroscopic image capturing apparatus comprising:

• an optical filter;
• an image sensor having a two-dimensionally arranged pixel array to receive and detect light from an image capturing area via the optical filter and output a detection result,
• wherein the optical filter includes a diffraction grating having a grid pattern, in which one grid area corresponds to one unit area defined on the image sensor, the one unit area being composed of one or more pixels;
• an image generator to generate a difference-value-based image based on a difference value between received light intensity of one unit area and received light intensity of another adjacent unit area, the difference value computable based on the detection result of the image sensor, in which an interference level on the image sensor changes at each point depending on a diffraction angle of light passing the diffraction grating;
• and
• a noise removal unit to remove a noise component included in the difference-value-based image generated by the image generator using a noise removing parameter.