Imaging Apparatus and Vehicle Controller

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016005180-A1
Application number	US-201414770033-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 3, 2014
Priority date	Feb 27, 2013
Publication date	Jan 7, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

In order to provide an imaging apparatus which minimizes erroneous recognition of a moving body and prevent a braking operation from being erroneously performed, even if the moving body is likely to cross a road, the imaging apparatus includes a correlation value calculation unit that calculates a correlation value from two images captured by two imaging units, a three-dimensional object detection unit that detects a three-dimensional object from the two images, a region dividing unit that divides an image region including the three-dimensional object into multiple regions, a relative speed calculation unit that calculates relative speed for every region of the multiple regions, and a reliability calculation unit that calculates reliability of the three-dimensional object, based on the relative speed calculated for every region.

First claim

1 . An imaging apparatus which has two imaging units, comprising:
a correlation value calculation unit that calculates a correlation value from two images captured by the. two imaging units; a three-dimensional object detection unit that detects a three-dimensional object from the two images; a region dividing unit that divides an image region including the three-dimensional object into multiple regions; a relative speed calculation unit that calculates relative speed for every region of the multiple regions; and a reliability calculation unit that calculates reliability of the three-dimensional object, based on the relative speed calculated for every region.

2 . The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the region dividing unit vertically divides the image region including the three-dimensional object into two regions.

3 . The imaging apparatus according to claim 2 ,
wherein the region dividing unit divides the image region into two regions based on a shoulder position of a pedestrian, when the three-dimensional object detected by the three-dimensional object detection unit is the pedestrian.

4 . The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the correlation value calculation unit generates a parallax image based on a calculation result of the correlation value, and the three-dimensional object detection unit detects the three-dimensional object by using the parallax image.

5 . The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the reliability calculation unit calculates reliability of whether or not the three-dimensional object moves, based on a matching degree of the relative speed calculated for every region.

6 . The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a feature amount calculation unit that calculates a feature amount from an image including the three-dimensional object detected by the three-dimensional object detection unit; and a matching degree calculation unit that calculates a matching degree of the feature amount between a past feature amount which is stored and a current feature amount which is calculated, wherein the relative speed calculation unit calculates the relative speed, based on the calculated matching degree.

7 . The imaging apparatus according to claim 6 ,
wherein the reliability calculation unit calculates the reliability of the three-dimensional object, based on the matching degree of the feature amount.

8 . The imaging apparatus according to claim 6 ,
wherein the relative speed calculation unit calculates the relative speed by selecting a frame in which the matching degree of the feature amount is highest from the past frames which are stored.

9 . A vehicle controller comprising:
an imaging apparatus having a correlation value calculation unit that calculates a correlation value from two images captured by two imaging units, a three-dimensional object detection unit that detects a three-dimensional object from the two images, a region dividing unit that divides an image region including the three-dimensional object into multiple regions, a relative speed calculation unit that calculates relative speed for every region of the multiple regions, and a reliability calculation unit that calculates reliability of the three-dimensional object, based on the relative speed calculated for every region; and a control unit that controls deceleration and acceleration, based on the reliability calculated by the imaging apparatus.

10 . The vehicle controller according to claim 9 , wherein the control unit has a determination unit which determines whether to control the deceleration and the acceleration, or whether to output a warning signal, based on the reliability calculated by the imaging apparatus.

Assignees

• Hitachi Automotive Systems Ltd

Inventors

• Matono Haruki
• Higuchi Mirai
• Otsuka Yuji

Classifications

• H04N2013/0081

  Depth or disparity estimation from stereoscopic image signals · CPC title

• B60W30/18009

  related to particular drive situations · CPC title

• G06T2207/30196

  Human being; Person · CPC title

• G06T2207/10021

  Stereoscopic video; Stereoscopic image sequence · CPC title

• G06T7/2013

  Physics · mapped topic