Image analysis – Applications – Vehicle or traffic control
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-09
2004-07-13
Johnson, Timothy M. (Department: 2625)
Image analysis
Applications
Vehicle or traffic control
30, 30, 30, 30, 30, 30, C340S907000, C340S933000, C701S117000, C701S200000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06763125
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image recognition apparatus for recognizing objects using the image processing technology and an image processing apparatus for recognizing road surface indications in an image of a road surface.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are vehicles such as automobiles that are equipped with a drive assisting apparatus or an automatic driving apparatus. In many cases, drive assisting apparatuses and automatic driving apparatuses have an image recognition apparatus for recognizing objects ahead of the vehicle. Where an image recognition apparatus performs double-eye ranging using the image processing technology, the image recognition apparatus is equipped with a right camera and a left camera. Provided so that a parallax occurs between images taken, the right camera and the left camera shoot objects in the space ahead of the vehicle. In the image recognition apparatuses, when the left camera and right camera produce a left input image and a right input image shown in FIGS.
15
A and
15
B, respectively, the position and strength of each longitudinal edge in the right input image and those of each longitudinal edge in the left input image are determined first. As a result, a left edge image shown in
FIG. 15C and a
right edge image shown in
FIG. 15D
are obtained. Then, based on the determined position and strength of each longitudinal edge, the left edge image and the right edge image are matched with each other. Parallaxes between images in the left input image and the right input image are obtained as a matching result. The distances between the objects and the vehicle are determined.
In the above conventional double-eye image recognition apparatus having two cameras, longitudinal edges in a left input image and those in a right input image are matched with each other to calculate parallaxes. The matching between the edges often produces errors. Furthermore, since only the longitudinal edges are used, it is difficult to determine a corresponding relationship between lines in a left input image and a right input image that extend obliquely with respect to the longitudinal direction.
Where a left input image and a right input image are obtained by shooting the space ahead of a vehicle that is equipped with the image recognition apparatus, if input images contain a motorcycle or another vehicle that is cutting in ahead, many of the edges of such a vehicle or motorcycle in the input images are oblique lines. Since the conventional double-eye image recognition apparatus has difficulty recognizing a corresponding relationship between oblique lines, it is difficult for the image recognition apparatus to recognize a motorcycle or vehicle that is cutting in ahead of the vehicle that is equipped with the image recognition apparatus.
Where a left input image and a right input image are obtained by shooting the space ahead of a vehicle that is running on a road, the left input image and the right input image contain the surface of the road and road surface indications that are drawn on the road. If there is no object ahead of the left and right cameras, edges of road surface indications are determined in detecting edges in left and right images. The edges of the road surface indications may be recognized erroneously as edges of objects, whereupon object recognition and double-eye ranging are performed. That is, in the conventional double-eye image recognition apparatus, errors frequently occur in object recognition and double-eye ranging when there is no object ahead of the left and right cameras.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide an image recognition apparatus capable of stably recognizing an object with a less number of errors as well as recognizing an object having many oblique edges. Another object of the invention is to provide an image processing apparatus capable of reliably recognizing road surface indications in a displayed image of a road surface.
The invention provides an image recognition apparatus comprising:
first and second cameras provided so as to produce a parallax, for shooting in respective visual fields;
edge detecting means for detecting edges in a first input image that is supplied from the first camera;
matching means for extracting, as a reference pattern, a portion in the first input image that includes at least part of a detected edge and for conducting matching of the reference pattern with a second input image that is supplied from the second camera using a pattern matching method; and
object recognizing means for recognizing an object in the visual fields of the first and second cameras, based on a matching result.
According to the invention, the image recognition apparatus recognizes an object in the visual fields of the first and second cameras, based on a parallax that is indicated by a result of matching between a reference pattern and a second input image. To calculate the parallax of the object, the reference pattern including at least part of an edge of the object in the first input image that is supplied from the first camera is matched with the second input image that is supplied from the second camera by using the pattern matching method. This reduces the possibility of occurrence of errors in the object recognition based on a matching result and enables the object recognition to be performed stably.
The image recognition apparatus of the invention is characterized by further comprising road surface indication recognizing means for recognizing road surface indications contained in at least one input image of the first input image and the second input image, and characterized in that the edge detecting means detects remaining edges other than edges of the road surface indications among all the edges in the first input image, from the first input image, based on a road surface indication recognition result.
According to the invention, road surface indications contained in at least one of the first input image and the second input image are recognized and only remaining edges other than the edges of the road surface indications among all the edges in the first input image are detected. The matching means conducts matching between a reference pattern which is a portion in the first input image that includes at least part of a remaining edge, and the second input image. This prevents the object recognizing means from recognizing road surface indications in recognizing objects in the visual fields. Since the edges of road surface indications in the first input image are removed from the edge detection result of the first input image, the recognition accuracy of objects other than road surface indications in the visual fields is increased.
The image recognition apparatus of the invention is characterized in that the road surface indication recognizing means recognizes only the road surface indications in the first input image.
According to the invention, only the road surface indications in the first input image are recognized prior to the edge detection. Therefore, the image recognition apparatus of the invention can reduce the load of processing of the road surface indication recognizing means as compared with an image recognition apparatus in which road surface indications in both the first input image and the second input image are recognized.
The image recognition apparatus of the invention is characterized in that:
the first camera and the second camera are disposed on a mounting axial line that is parallel with a road surface in the visual field so as to be separated from each other by a predetermined distance,
the road surface indication recognizing means:
(1) divides the at least one input image into a plurality of band-like regions extending in a reference direction corresponding to a direction parallel with the mounting axial line in the at least one input image,
(2) on the band-like region basis, carries out a search of density variation pattern in the reference direction to determine as a candidate portion for a
Choobin Barry
Fujitsu Ten Limited
Johnson Timothy M.
Wenderoth , Lind & Ponack, L.L.P.
LandOfFree
Image recognition apparatus and image processing apparatus does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Image recognition apparatus and image processing apparatus, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Image recognition apparatus and image processing apparatus will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3220433