Parking assistance system and parking assistance method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9727796-B2
Application number	US-201414652300-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 27, 2014
Priority date	Mar 29, 2013
Publication date	Aug 8, 2017
Grant date	Aug 8, 2017

Abstract

A parking assistance system includes: a color/IR detector which detects, from a camera image captured with a camera, marker candidates that are areas in each of which an intensity of a color component or an infrared (IR) component exceeds a threshold; a marker position calculator which calculates positions of the marker candidates in the camera image; and a validity verifier which determines whether the marker candidates are valid as the markers, based on the positions of the marker candidates and a predetermined positional relationship of the markers.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A parking assistance system to assist parking a vehicle in a parking area, the parking assistance system comprising:
a camera; and
a parking assistance device comprising a processor configured to execute instructions to:
detect, from a camera image captured with the camera, marker candidates that are areas in each of which an intensity of a color component or an infrared (IR) component exceeds a threshold;
calculate positions of the marker candidates in the camera image;
determine whether the marker candidates are valid as the markers, based on the positions of the marker candidates and a predetermined positional relationship of the markers indicating the parking area;
calculate a path along which the vehicle is to move, based on positions of the marker candidates which is determined to be valid as the markers and a current position of a vehicle; and
indicate a steering angle for the vehicle to move along the path.

2. The parking assistance system according to claim 1 , wherein whether the marker candidates are valid as the markers is determined by:
selecting a first marker candidate from the marker candidates;
calculating an area in which a second marker candidate paired with the first marker candidate is likely to be present, based on a position of the first marker candidate and the predetermined positional relationship of the markers;
determining a marker candidate present in the calculated area to be the second marker candidate; and
determining the first marker candidate and the second marker candidate paired to be valid as the markers.

3. The parking assistance system according to claim 2 , wherein the parking assistance device further comprises
a marker combination storage which stores a learned marker combination that is a marker combination accepted by a user, and wherein:

the processor is further configured to present a marker combination among the marker combinations to the user, if the marker candidates form marker combinations and the marker combinations are determined to be each valid as the markers, and
wherein the marker combinations are compared with the learned marker combination, and a marker combination among the marker combinations which is shown to match the learned marker combination by a result of the comparison is presented to the user.

4. The parking assistance system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the parking assistance device further comprises:
a marker combination storage which stores a learned marker combination that is a marker combination accepted by a user, and
the processor is further configured to:
present, if the marker candidates form marker combinations and the marker combinations are determined to be each valid as the markers, a marker combination among the marker combinations to the user;
compare the marker combinations with the learned marker combination; and
present, to the user, a marker combination among the marker combinations which is shown to match the learned marker combination by a result of the comparison.

5. The parking assistance system according to claim 4 ,
wherein the marker combination among the marker combinations is presented to the user if the result of the comparison shows that none of the marker combinations matches the learned marker combination.

6. The parking assistance system according to claim 5 ,
wherein if the user accepts the presented marker combination, the presented marker combination is stored into the marker combination storage as the learned marker combination.

7. The parking assistance system according to claim 5 ,
wherein if the user does not accept the presented marker combination, another marker combination among the marker combinations is presented to the user.

8. The parking assistance system according to claim 4 ,
wherein if the user does not accept the presented marker combination, another marker combination among the marker combinations is presented to the user.

9. A parking assistance method to assist parking a vehicle in a parking area, the parking assistance method comprising:
detecting, from a camera image captured with a camera mounted to the vehicle, marker candidates that are areas in each of which an intensity of a color component or an infrared (IR) component exceeds a threshold;
calculating positions of the marker candidates in the camera image;
determining whether the marker candidates are valid as the markers, based on the positions of the marker candidates and a predetermined positional relationship of the markers indicating the parking area;
calculating a path along which the vehicle is to move, based on positions of the marker candidates which is determined to be valid as the markers and a current position of a vehicle; and
indicating a steering angle for the vehicle to move along the path.

10. The parking assistance method according to claim 9 further comprising:
presenting, if the marker candidates form marker combinations and the marker combinations are determined to be each valid as the markers, a marker combination among the marker combinations to a user;
comparing the marker combinations with a learned marker combination that is a marker combination accepted by the user and stored in advance; and
presenting, to the user, a marker combination among the marker combinations which is shown to match the learned marker combination by a result of the comparison.

11. A parking assistance system for capturing an image that includes markers indicating a parking area, calculating a path based on positions of the markers and a current position of a vehicle, and indicating a steering angle for the vehicle to move along the path, to assist parking the vehicle in the parking area, the parking assistance system comprising:
a camera;
a parking assistance device comprising a processor; and
a marker combination storage which stores a learned marker combination that is a marker combination accepted by a user,
wherein the processor is configured to:
detect, from a camera image captured with the camera, marker candidates that are areas in each of which an intensity of a color component or an infrared (IR) component exceeds a threshold;
calculate positions of the marker candidates in the camera image;
determine whether the marker candidates are valid as the markers, based on the positions of the marker candidates and a predetermined positional relationship of the markers;
present, if the marker candidates form marker combinations and the marker combinations are determined to be each valid as the markers, a marker combination among the marker combinations to the user;
compare the marker combinations with the learned marker combination; and
present, to the user, a marker combination among the marker combinations which is shown to match the learned marker combination by a result of the comparison.

12. The parking assistance system according to claim 11 ,
wherein the marker combination among the marker combinations is presented to the user if the result of the comparison shows that none of the marker combinations matches the learned marker combination.

13. The parking assistance system according to claim 12 ,
wherein if the user accepts the presented marker combination, the presented marker combination is stored into the marker combination storage as the learned marker combination.

14. The parking assistance system according to claim 12 ,
wherein if the user does not accept the presented marker combination, another marker combination among the marker combinations is presented to the user.

15. The parking assistance system accord

Assignees

• Panasonic Corp
• Panasonic Ip Man Co Ltd

Inventors

• Kawasaki Akihisa
• Fujii Koji
• Ryugo Tatsuto

Classifications

• B62D15/028 Primary

  Guided parking by providing commands to the driver, e.g. acoustically or optically · CPC title

• G06V20/586

  of parking space · CPC title

• G06F18/22

  Matching criteria, e.g. proximity measures · CPC title

• G06V10/751

  Comparing pixel values or logical combinations thereof, or feature values having positional relevance, e.g. template matching · CPC title

• G06V10/56

  relating to colour · CPC title