US 7,925,050 B2 · Vehicle environment monitoring apparatus

Abstract

A vehicle environment monitoring apparatus capable of extracting an image of a monitored object in an environment around a vehicle by separating the same from the background image with a simple configuration having a single camera mounted on the vehicle is provided. The apparatus includes a first image portion extracting processing unit to extract first image portions (A1, A2) considered to be the head of a pedestrian from a currently picked up image and a previously picked up image by an infrared camera, a mask area setting processing unit to set mask areas (M1(0,0), M1(1,0), . . . , M1(5,8)) around the first image portion (A1) in the currently picked up image, and an object extracting processing unit to carry out pattern matching for the previously picked up image by a comparison pattern obtained through affine transformation of each mask area at a change rate (Rate) between the first image portions (A1, A2), and to set an area (Ar1) including the first image portion (A2) and a second image portion (M2(1,3), M2(2,3), . . . , M2(3,6)) where a displacement amount between the position (black point) corresponding to the centroid of the mask area and the matching position is smaller than a predetermined threshold value to be an image area of the monitored object.

Claims7

Dependent claims

A vehicle environment monitoring apparatus detecting a monitored object in an environment around a vehicle from an image picked up by a single imaging unit mounted on the vehicle, comprising:

a first image portion extracting unit to extract a first image portion having a predetermined feature value from each of a first picked-up image and a second picked-up image picked up by the imaging unit at different time points;
a change rate calculating unit to calculate a change rate in size of the first image portion extracted from the second picked-up image in respect to the first image portion extracted from the first picked-up image;
a second image portion extracting unit to extract, from each of the first and second picked-up images, a second image portion having a change rate of not greater than a predetermined level in relative positional relation with the first image portion between the first and second picked-up images;
an object detecting unit to detect an area including the first and second image portions in the first or second picked-up image as an image area of the same monitored object in the environment around the vehicle;
and
an object reaching time estimating unit to calculate a time until the vehicle reaches the monitored object based on the change rate in size.

3 more elements

A vehicle environment monitoring apparatus detecting a monitored object in an environment around a vehicle from an image picked up by a single imaging unit mounted on the vehicle, comprising:

a first image portion extracting unit to extract a first image portion having a predetermined feature value from each of a first picked-up image and a second picked-up image picked up by the imaging unit at different time points;
a change rate calculating unit to calculate a change rate in size of the first image portion extracted from the second picked-up image in respect to the first image portion extracted from the first picked-up image;
a mask area setting unit to set a mask area in the first picked-up image in a predetermined position around the first image portion;
a second image portion extracting unit to set a comparison pattern obtained by reducing or enlarging the mask area by the change rate in size, to extract an area having a highest degree of correlation in shape with the comparison pattern from the second picked-up image, and to extract the extracted area as a second image portion of the second picked-up image and also to extract the mask area as a second image portion of the first picked-up image, when a displacement amount between a relative position of a centroid of the extracted area in respect to the first image portion of the second picked-up image and a relative position of a centroid of the mask area in respect to the first image portion in which an area including the first image portion and the mask area in the first picked-up image is reduced or enlarged by the change rate in size, is not greater than a predetermined threshold value;
and
an object detecting unit to detect an area including the first and second image portions in the first or second picked-up image as an image area of the same monitored object in the environment around the vehicle.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Vehicle environment monitoring apparatus

Life of this patent

Vehicle environment monitoring apparatus

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims7