Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Fuminori Taniguchi

Nobuharu Nagaoka

Masakazu Saka

Hiroyuki Koike

Yuji Yokochi

Masahito Watanabe

Takayuki Tsuji

Hideki Hashimoto

Morimichi Nishigaki

Hiroshi Hattori

Kenichi Sawada

Masaki Negoro

Naoto Akutsu

Nobuhiko Fujii

Hobuharu Nagaoka

Tomokazu Takagi

A surrounding area monitoring apparatus for vehicle includes an infrared camera mounted on a vehicle for capturing images of surrounding area around the vehicle, a unit for generating and displaying images based on image data captured by the camera, and a controller for calibrating output of the camera with respect to a relation between pixels, based on image data produced by imaging a surface of a shutter that opens and closes an aperture introducing a light to the camera, The controller estimates whether a temperature of the camera is stable, based on an operation state of the vehicle, and determines a possibility that a driver is looking at the unit, based on a behavior of the vehicle. When the temperature of the camera is estimated stable and the possibility that the driver is looking at the unit is determined to be low, the means for calibrating executes the calibration.

Surrounding area monitoring apparatus for vehicle

A vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus which includes: an imaging device that captures a surroundings of a vehicle; a temperature measuring device that measures a temperature of the imaging device; and an OFF signal output device that outputs a command signal to set a power supply of the imaging device to the OFF state in accordance with the temperature of the imaging device measured by the temperature measuring device.

Vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus

A vehicle periphery monitoring device comprising a distance detecting unit which detects the distance between cameras and an object, an object image extracting unit which extracts a first image portion of the object from the acquired image, a filtering unit which performs a filtering process to the acquired image, in which a target edge width is set to be narrower as the assumed value of the width is smaller and the distance is longer, and in which a target edge direction is set to a direction orthogonal to the predetermined direction, and an object type identifying unit which identifies, on the basis of a shape of a second image portion extracted by the filtering process, whether or not the type of the object in real space corresponding to the second image portion is the specific type.

Vehicle periphery monitoring device, vehicle, vehicle periphery monitoring program, and vehicle periphery monitoring method

A vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus capable of recognizing the type of object existing around a vehicle with accuracy. The vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus includes a process unit, which extracts a first image portion HPlikely to be the head of an object and sets a reference mask area MASK_C including HP, a left-hand mask area MASK_L near the left side of the reference mask area MASK_C, and a right-hand mask area MASK_R near the right side of the reference mask area MASK_C, and a process unit which searches for a second image portion presumed to be a leg image within a lower search area AREAwhen a difference between an average luminance AVE_C of the reference mask area MASK_C and an average luminance AVE_L of the left-hand mask area MASK_L or a difference between the average luminance AVE_C and an average luminance AVE_R of the right-hand mask area MASK_R is equal to or greater than a predetermined level and which recognizes that the object type is 'pedestrian' in the case where a plurality of second image portions are detected.

A vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus is provided herein which is capable of determining an object type, particularly capable of determining an animal other than a human being among objects. The vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus which monitors the surroundings of a vehicle by using an image captured by a camera (R,L) mounted on the vehicle, including an object extraction process unit which extracts an image area of the object from the captured image (stepsto) and an object type determination process unit which determines the object type according to whether the image area of the object extracted by the object extraction process unit includes a first object area of an inverse triangular shape and a second object area located below the first object area and within a predetermined range from the first object area (stepsto).

A vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus is provided herein which is capable of determining an object type, particularly capable of determining an animal other than a human being among objects. The vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus which monitors the surroundings of a vehicle by using an image captured by a camera (R,L) mounted on the vehicle, including an object extraction process unit which extracts an image area of the object from the captured image (stepsto) and an object type determination process unit which determines the object type according to whether the image area of the object extracted by the object extraction process unit includes a first object area in which the ratio of widths in different directions is within a predetermined range and a plurality of second object areas located below the first object area and smaller in area than the first object area (stepsto).

The luminance signal of a reference image obtained by an infrared camera is adjusted such that the luminance signal of the reference image obtained is greater at all times than the luminance signal of a searching image obtained by an infrared camera. Correlative calculations are performed on the reference image and the searching image to detect one object in the reference image and the searching image without detecting the background of the images in error.

Apparatus for and method of extracting image

A vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus, includes: an infrared imaging device that captures an image; a binarized object extraction device that extracts a binarized object by binarizing the image; an extraction region setting device that sets, as an extraction region, a region adjacent to one of an upper end and a lower end of the binarized object extracted by the binarized object extraction device; a search region setting device that sets a search region around the extraction region; a similar object extraction device that, when an object having a shape similar to that of the object in the extraction region is present in the search region, extracts the object in the search region as a similar object; and an identical object determination device that determines whether or not the object in the extraction region and the similar object in the search region are identical.

An image processing apparatus which includes: an imaging device; a reference luminance property storage device that stores a predetermined reference luminance property; a luminance property calculating device that calculates a luminance property of the imaging device from an image obtained by the imaging device; a comparing device that compares the reference luminance property and the luminance property; a displacement determining device that determines whether or not the luminance property has relative displacement with respect to the reference luminance property based on a comparison result of the comparing device; and a luminance property correcting device that corrects the luminance property, wherein, when the luminance property is determined by the displacement determining device to have relative displacement with respect to the reference luminance property, the luminance property correcting device corrects the luminance property so as to become equivalent to the reference luminance property.

Image processing apparatus

A vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus recognizes a pedestrian from existence of a leg, in the case in which a width in real space of a binarized object is suitable as a pedestrian's leg, the binarized object has longwise shape, the lower end position of the binarized object exists in the lower part (lower half) of a gray scale object region, and a serial luminance transition exists in the binarized object. The vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus also recognizes a pedestrian from existence of an umbrella held up by the pedestrian, in the case in which an umbrella region with a low temperature exists above the binarized object, the width of the umbrella region is suitable as a pedestrian's umbrella, and, the spatial correlation between the centroid position of the umbrella region and the centroid position of the binarized object is suitable as a spatial relationship between a pedestrian and his/her umbrella.

Growing community of inventors

Saitama, Japan

Fuminori Taniguchi