Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Hiroshi Hattori

Nobuharu Nagaoka

Masahito Watanabe

Takayuki Tsuji

Masakazu Saka

Izumi Takatsudo

Kouzou Simamura

Makoto Aimura

Yoshitaka Katashima

Yasuaki Miyazaki

Hideki Hashimoto

Akio Takahashi

Fuminori Taniguchi

Kodai Matsuda

Masashi Satomura

Ken Asami

Hiromichi Tsushima

Kazuhiko Iwaizako

Takayui Tsuji

Osamu Ohkawara

Category determination is performed on an object candidate extracted from a captured image after an exclusion process is performed in advance. In the exclusion process, a distance from a vehicle to the object candidate is calculated based on a size of the object candidate in a current image, a moved distance of the vehicle occurring in a time interval from a time a previous image was captured to a time the current image is captured is calculated, the size of the object candidate in the current image is decreased at a change ratio based on the distance to the object candidate and the moved distance, and a size of the object candidate in the previous image and a size of the object candidate decreased at the change ratio are compared. The object candidate with difference between them being determined to be larger than a predetermined value is removed.

Apparatus for monitoring vicinity of a vehicle

A vehicle periphery monitoring device is operable to recognize with high accuracy whether or not an object is a designated quadruped animal. According to the vehicle periphery monitoring device, for determining whether or not a first object region and a second object region correspond to the designated quadruped animal according to whether or not the aspect ratio of the first object region is equal to or greater 1, a plurality of the second object regions are extracted, and it is determined whether the ratio of the vertical dimension of the second object region to the vertical dimension of the first object region lies within the range of the ratio of the leg vertical dimension to the torso vertical dimension of a common designated quadruped animal.

Vehicle periphery monitoring device

A vehicle zone monitoring apparatus that detects physical bodies present in the vicinity of the vehicle from infrared images photographed by infrared cameras provided on the vehicle includes an object extracting device that extracts object images that emit infrared radiation from the infrared image and an artificial structure identifying device that identifies whether or not an object is an artificial structure by comparing an image of a search zone in proximity to the object extracted by the object extraction device, to a reference image of a pre-registered artificial structure which serves as an element that defines an artificial structure, and that identifies the object as an artificial structure if: within the search zone in proximity to the object, a section having a high correlation with the reference image exists; and a distance between the vehicle and the object is equal to a distance between the vehicle and the section having the high correlation with said reference image.

Vehicle zone monitoring apparatus

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

An apparatus for testing infrared cameras includes: a cover plate which has a plurality of holes formed therethrough and arranged in line in a horizontal direction at a regular interval, the cover plate being adapted to emit an amount of infrared light; and an emission source which is disposed in parallel to and behind the cover plate as viewed from infrared cameras to be tested, the emission source being adapted to emit a different amount of infrared light when compared with the cover plate.

Apparatus and method for testing infrared camera

An object such as a person is extracted from images captured by cameras (R,L) to determine the degree of vertical symmetry of the object (step). In the case where the degree of vertical symmetry is determined to be high, the object is determined to be other than a living body (step). In the case where the degree of vertical symmetry is determined to be low, the object is determined likely to be a living body (step). In the case where determined likely to be a living body, the object is further determined to be a predetermined kind of living body (for example, a person) or not based on the image of the object (stepsand). This allows an extremely reliable and simple determination of whether the type of the object extracted from the image captured by the camera is a living body such as a person.

Vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus, vehicle, vehicle surroundings monitoring method, and vehicle surroundings monitoring program

A vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus having an infrared imaging device including a binarized object extraction device that extracts binarized object from image data obtained by binarizing gray scale image; a region setting device that sets a region including the binarized object on the gray scale image; a luminance status quantity calculation device that calculates a luminance status quantity of the region; a luminance distribution status quantity calculation device that calculates luminance distribution status quantity relating to the luminance distribution in the region based on the luminance status quantity, in which the luminance status quantity is equal to or greater than a predetermined value; a luminance distribution status quantity determination device that determines whether or not the luminance distribution quantity exceeds a predetermined value; and an object type determination device that determines the type of the object based on the determination result of the luminance distribution status quantity determination device.

A structure for attaching a stereoscopic camera in a vehicle allows a plurality of cameras to be attached to a vehicle body frame, in order to stereoscopically capture images surrounding the vehicle. The structure includes: a lateral stay for coupling the plurality of cameras with each other; and brackets for fixing the lateral stay or the plurality of cameras at a cross member having both ends folded upward, having the terminals connected to the front end parts of the side frames at both sides of the engine room, and having a radiator supported at the middle part thereof, wherein at least a part of the plurality of cameras is disposed between both the ends of the cross member and the radiator.

Structure for attaching stereoscopic camera in vehicle

An image processing unit determines the size of a circumscribed quadrangle of the target object, and predicts the overlap of the two different objects. If overlap is predicted, the target object is divided into two divided regions L_b and R_b containing the left and right edges of the target object respectively, and by performing a correlation calculation between the left image and the right image captured by a stereo camera for each of the divided regions, the parallaxes of the respective divided regions L_b and R_b can be determined. Then, if the absolute value of the difference between the parallaxes of the respective divided regions L_b and R_b is greater than a predetermined value, a determination is made that different objects are overlapping within the target object, and the target object is divided for recognition, and the distance to the respective objects is calculated independently.

Image recognition apparatus

An apparatus for testing infrared cameras includes: a front plate which has holes arranged in line, and which is adapted to emit an amount of infrared light; and a back plate which is disposed in parallel to and behind the front plate as viewed from infrared cameras to be tested, and which is adapted to emit a different amount of infrared light when compared with the front plate. The back plate is disposed at lower portions of pillars. On the other hand, the front plate is made vertically movable in front of the back plate and along the pillars. By being controlled by a controller, the front plate is movable from the ground height to a level corresponding to approximately two times the height of the back plate.

Apparatus for testing infrared camera

A structure for attaching a stereoscopic camera to a vehicle, by which a plurality of cameras are attached to a body frame of the vehicle in order to stereoscopically capture images surrounding the vehicle; and the same structure includes a lateral stay for coupling the plurality of cameras with each other; and brackets for fixing the lateral stay or the plurality of cameras on the body frame, which are provided at a plurality of points, spaced from each other, of the lateral stay, or at the plurality of cameras fixed on the lateral stay; wherein the rigidity of at least a part of the brackets is lower than the bending rigidity of the lateral stay.

An image analysis device installed on a vehicle for detecting objects that are likely to affect the vehicle. An image processing unit included in the image analysis device sets a seeking area in a left-hand image of the field, and calculates a moving increment for seeking 'Step' using a variable 'n'. A correlation calculation process is sequentially executed in the seeking area set in the left-hand image of the field while moving a reference image stepwise at the moving increment &#x201c;Step&#x201d; so as to obtain a correlation area that gives the highest degree of correlation, and then a new seeking area is set, which consists of the correlation area and horizontally arranged two areas that sandwich the correlation area, and the moving increment &#x201c;Step&#x201d; is decreased in order to reduce the amount of calculation.

Image analysis device

A vehicle information providing apparatus determines and displays the range of presence of a person or other object based on the characteristics of images recorded by infrared cameras. An image processing unit carries out brightness change search processing in the infrared camera image zone represented by a gray scale using a search area wherein the size of a first detected area detected by binarization and correlation operation serves as the reference. In addition, the parallax between the first detected area and the searched area having a change in brightness is compared, a search area having a parallax that differs from that of the first searched area is eliminated, and a search area having a parallax identical to that of the first searched area is provided a highlighted display as an object identical to that of the first detected area.

Vehicle information providing apparatus

A device for monitoring around a vehicle capable of detecting objects present around the vehicle based on an image captured by at least one infrared camera member provided with the vehicle. The device includes a binary object extraction unit which subjects a gray scale image of the image captured by the infrared camera member to a binary thresholding method, and extracts a binary object from the gray scale image; a gray scale object extraction unit which extracts a gray scale object, a range of the gray scale object including the binary object, from the gray scale image based on change in luminance of the gray scale image, and a pedestrian determination unit which sets a search area in an area including the gray scale object, and recognizes a pedestrian in the gray scale image based on a luminance variance in the search area.

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Utsunomiya, Japan

Hiroshi Hattori