Apparatus, method for detecting critical areas and pedestrian detection apparatus using the same

A critical area detection method in a pedestrian detection apparatus for detecting pedestrians about a vehicle comprising:

• (a) correcting a distance data upon receiving the same from a sensor according to positional changes of the vehicle;
• (b) clustering the distance data as chains of segments by connecting between corrected distance data in a close proximity;
• (c) merging the segments by connecting the clustered distance data segments and merging the segments in parallel and in a close proximity into a polyline;
• (d) merging lines by integrating polylines in a close proximity into a single merged line;
• (e) classifying obstacles through classification of polylines according to their size and shape into multiple categories in order to detect multiple categories of obstacles;
• (f) classifying the obstacles through correcting the polylines according to the vehicle positional changes and classifying the polylines into multiple categories according to the degree of overlap between the polylines before correction and the polylines after correction in order to detect multiple categories of obstacles;
• and
• (g) identifying critical areas through identifying the environment and the moving obstacles by using the multiple categories of obstacles detected in steps (e) and (f) of classifying the obstacles in order to detect the critical areas.