Vison-Based Object Detection Using a Polar Grid

A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon executable instructions that, upon execution by a computing device of a first vehicle, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

• receiving a first image of a second vehicle captured by an image-capture device coupled to the first vehicle and a second image captured by the image-capture device subsequent to capturing the first image, wherein the second vehicle has one or more flashing light signals;
• determining a polar grid that partitions an image region in the first image and the second image into a plurality of polar bins, wherein each polar bin of the plurality of polar bins is defined by two lines extending from a center portion of the image region to about a boundary of the image region;
• identifying, based on a comparison of image content of polar bins in the first image to image content of corresponding polar bins in the second image, one or more portions of image data exhibiting a change in brightness between the first image and the second image;
• determining a type of the one or more flashing light signals of the second vehicle based on the one or more portions exhibiting the change in brightness;
• and
• controlling the first vehicle based on the type of the one or more flashing light signals.

A system comprising:

• an image-capture device coupled to a first vehicle;
• at least one processor in communication with the image-capture device;
• and
• a memory having stored thereon executable instructions that, upon execution by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising:
• receiving a first image of a second vehicle captured by the image-capture device and a second image captured by the image-capture device subsequent to capturing the first image, wherein the second vehicle has one or more flashing light signals,
• determining a polar grid that partitions an image region in the first image and the second image into a plurality of polar bins, wherein each polar bin of the plurality of polar bins is defined by two lines extending from a center portion of the image region to about a boundary of the image region,
• identifying, based on a comparison of image content of polar bins in the first image to image content of corresponding polar bins in the second image, one or more portions of image data exhibiting a change in brightness between the first image and the second image,
• determining a type of the one or more flashing light signals of the second vehicle based on the one or more portions exhibiting the change in brightness, and
• controlling the first vehicle based on the type of the one or more flashing light signals.