Method and apparatus for detecting continuous road partition

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9311542-B2
Application number	US-201314025008-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 12, 2013
Priority date	Sep 24, 2012
Publication date	Apr 12, 2016
Grant date	Apr 12, 2016

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for detecting a continuous road partition with a height that includes obtaining disparity maps having the continuous road partition, and U-disparity maps corresponding to the disparity maps; obtaining an intermediate detection result of the continuous road partition detected from the U-disparity maps of first N frames; and detecting the continuous road partition from the U-disparity map of a current frame, based on the obtained intermediate detection result.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for detecting a continuous road partition with a height, comprising the steps of:
obtaining disparity maps having the continuous road partition, and obtaining U-disparity maps derived from the disparity maps;
obtaining an intermediate detection result of the continuous road partition detected from the U-disparity maps of a first frame; and
detecting the continuous road partition from the U-disparity map of a current frame, based on the obtained intermediate detection result, wherein the step of detecting the continuous road partition from the U-disparity map of the current frame based on the obtained intermediate detection result further comprises the step of detecting a curved continuous road partition by detecting a plurality of continuous line segments with different slopes from the U-disparity map.

2. The method for detecting a continuous road partition with a height according to claim 1 ,
wherein the U-disparity map is a U-disparity map consisting of disparity points within the disparity map that are located in a section parallel to a road within an original three-dimensional scene.

3. The method for detecting a continuous road partition with a height according to claim 1 ,
wherein the step of detecting the continuous road partition from the U-disparity map of the current frame based on the obtained intermediate detection result further comprises the step of determining a region of interest having the continuous road partition from the U-disparity map of the current frame.

4. The method for detecting a continuous road partition according to claim 1 , wherein a straight line representing the continuous road partition is detected from the U-disparity map by a Hough transform so that the continuous road partition is detected, and the intermediate detection result is a value θ that indicates the angle between the straight line representing the continuous road partition and the X axis.

5. The method for detecting a continuous road partition according to claim 1 , wherein the step of detecting the continuous road partition from the U-disparity map of the current frame based on the obtained intermediate detection result further comprises the steps of
narrowing down a scope for detecting the continuous road partition from the U-disparity map of the current frame, based on the intermediate detection result;
detecting a continuous road partition candidate from the narrowed down scope; and
determining whether the continuous road partition candidate meets a condition of a threshold of a predetermined detection parameter or not, and extracting the detected continuous road partition candidate as a detection result if the threshold condition is met.

6. A method for detecting a continuous road partition with a height, comprising the steps of:
obtaining disparity maps having the continuous road partition, and obtaining U-disparity maps derived from the disparity maps;
obtaining an intermediate detection result of the continuous road partition detected from the U-disparity maps of a first frame; and
detecting the continuous road partition from the U-disparity map of a current frame, based on the obtained intermediate detection result, wherein the step of detecting the continuous road partition from the U-disparity map of the current frame based on the obtained intermediate detection result further comprises the steps of
narrowing down a scope for detecting the continuous road partition from the U-disparity map of the current frame, based on the intermediate detection result;
detecting a continuous road partition candidate from the narrowed down scope; and
determining whether the continuous road partition candidate meets a condition of a threshold of a predetermined detection parameter or not, and extracting the detected continuous road partition candidate as a detection result if the threshold condition is met, and

wherein the step of detecting a continuous road partition candidate from the narrowed down scope further comprises the step of adjusting the threshold of the detection parameter if the number of pixels that are capable of forming the continuous road partition in the narrowed down scope is too low.

7. A method for detecting a continuous road partition with a height, comprising the steps of:
obtaining disparity maps having the continuous road partition, and obtaining U-disparity maps derived from the disparity maps;
obtaining an intermediate detection result of the continuous road partition detected from the U-disparity maps of a first frame; and
detecting the continuous road partition from the U-disparity map of a current frame, based on the obtained intermediate detection result, wherein the step of detecting the continuous road partition from the U-disparity map of the current frame based on the obtained intermediate detection result further comprises the steps of
narrowing down a scope for detecting the continuous road partition from the U-disparity map of the current frame, based on the intermediate detection result;
detecting a continuous road partition candidate from the narrowed down scope; and
determining whether the continuous road partition candidate meets a condition of a threshold of a predetermined detection parameter or not, and extracting the detected continuous road partition candidate as a detection result if the threshold condition is met,

wherein the step of detecting a continuous road partition candidate from the narrowed down scope further comprises the step of adjusting the threshold of the detection parameter if the number of pixels that are capable of forming the continuous road partition in the narrowed down scope is too low, and
tracking the thresholds of the detection parameters applied to the U-disparity map of the current frame and at least the U-disparity map of the previous frame, and adjusting the threshold of the detection parameter to be applied to the U-disparity map of the next frame.

8. A method for detecting a continuous road partition with a height, comprising the steps of:
obtaining disparity maps having the continuous road partition, and obtaining U-disparity maps derived from the disparity maps;
obtaining an intermediate detection result of the continuous road partition detected from the U-disparity maps of a first frame; and
detecting the continuous road partition from the U-disparity map of a current frame, based on the obtained intermediate detection result, wherein the step of detecting the continuous road partition from the U-disparity map of the current frame based on the obtained intermediate detection result further comprises the steps of
narrowing down a scope for detecting the continuous road partition from the U-disparity map of the current frame, based on the intermediate detection result;
detecting a continuous road partition candidate from the narrowed down scope; and

determining whether the continuous road partition candidate meets a condition of a threshold of a predetermined detection parameter or not, and extracting the detected continuous road partition candidate as a detection result if the threshold condition is met, and
wherein the predetermined detection parameter comprises at least one of a minimum line length of a line representing the continuous road partition, a maximum interval length on the line, the number of pixels on the line, the density of pixels on the line and the permissible error of pixels on the line.

9. An apparatus for detecting a continuous road partition with a height, comprising:
an image obtaining unit configured to obtain disparity maps having the continuous road partition, and obtain U-disparity maps derived from the disparity maps;
an intermediate detection result obtaining unit config

Assignees

• Liu Dianchao
• Liu Yuan
• Liu Tong
• Shi Zhongchao
• Wang Gang
• Ricoh Co Ltd

Inventors

• Liu Dianchao
• Liu Yuan
• Liu Tong
• Shi Zhongchao
• Wang Gang

Classifications

• G06K9/00791

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06K9/00798 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06V20/58

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• G06V20/56

  exterior to a vehicle by using sensors mounted on the vehicle · CPC title

• G06V20/588 Primary

  Recognition of the road, e.g. of lane markings; Recognition of the vehicle driving pattern in relation to the road · CPC title