Hitachi Automotive Systems, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi Astemo Ltd.

Hiroto Mitoma

Haruki Matono

Ryo Ota

Yuji Otsuka

Akira Oshima

Seiya Kato

Takeshi Shima

Shinya Ohtsuji

Shinji Kakegawa

Mitsutoshi Morinaga

In order to provide a small, stereo camera with stable errors of distance measurement, there are provided: an image acquisition unit that acquires plural images imaged by plural imaging units; a first region processing unit that divides each of the plural images acquired by the image acquisition unit into first regions composed of predetermined plural pixels, and measures a distance for each of the divided first regions to generate a first distance image; a target object extraction unit that extracts a target object from the distance image or the image, and extracts a second region composed of the plural first regions including the extracted target object; an error factor identification unit that extracts a predetermined representative value from the inside of the second region, compares the brightness value of an arbitrary pixel in the second region with that in a correspondence region up to the position moved from the arbitrary pixel by a disparity represented by the representative value, and determines an error factor on the basis of the comparison result; and a second region processing unit that determines a weight value on the basis of the error factor, and measures a distance for each second region using the weight value to generate a second distance image.

Stereo camera

An object detection system including multiple detecting means identifies other-vehicle information data acquired by using the multiple detecting means, determines whether or not the other-vehicle information data acquired by using the multiple detecting meansandare of the same vehicle to output the other-vehicle information data that can be applied to various control applications when the other-vehicle information data determined to be of the same vehicle are switched, selects either of the multiple other-vehicle information data determined to be of the same vehicle according to the other-vehicle information detecting accuracies of the detecting meansand, and switches the selected other-vehicle information data to another other-vehicle information in a transition period based on the relative speed and the relative position from the other vehicle.

Object detection system

In order to provide a stereoscopic camera apparatus capable of rapidly and accurately detecting a three-dimensional object even when the three-dimensional object abruptly appears in an angle of view, a stereoscopic camera apparatusincludes: three-dimensional object detecting means; to-be-covered object detecting meansfor detecting a to-be-covered object having a known shape; and to-be-covered object covering-detecting meansandfor detecting whether or not the three-dimensional object detected by the three-dimensional object detecting means covers the to-be-covered object when the to-be-covered object is detected by the to-be-covered object detecting means. When it is detected that the three-dimensional object covers the to-be-covered object, the to-be-covered object covering-detecting meansanddetect the three-dimensional object which covers the to-be-covered object by performing a process for determining whether or not the three-dimensional object is present in a simpler way, as compared to a case where the to-be-covered object covering-detecting meansanddetect that the three-dimensional object does not cover the to-be-covered object.

Stereoscopic camera apparatus

In order to be able to measure a distance with disparity resolution of a stereo camera or less and precisely measure a relative distance to a target even in the event of degradation of the imaging condition, a distance calculator includes a monocular distance calculation section, a stereo distance calculation section, a blurriness level calculation section, a distance estimation section, and an output distance calculation section. The monocular distance calculation sectioncalculates the distance to a target based on image information captured by a cameraor. The stereo distance calculation sectioncalculates the distance to the target based on image information captured by the two camerasand. The blurriness level calculation sectioncalculates the blurriness level of the image information captured by the image information captured by the camerasand. The distance estimation sectionestimates the distance to the target at the time of capturing of images by the camerasand. The output distance calculation sectioncalculates the distance to the target to be output. The output distance calculation sectionselects, as the distance to be output, the distance calculated by the monocular distance calculation sectionor the distance calculated by the stereo distance calculation sectionbased on the blurriness level and the estimated distance.

Distance calculator and distance calculation method

To provide an object detection device and an object detection method in which incorrect grouping based on a range image can be prevented, processing is implemented including: generating a range image based on a pair of gray-scaled images (S); grouping adjacent regions having range data representing close distances in the range image (S); calculating differences between the luminance values of pixels in a vertical line below a ground plane above which objects are imaged and the luminance values of pixels in a vertical line above the ground plane in the gray-scaled images and dividing the group region into laterally separated sub-regions (S); and determining whether or not there is a section without vertical edge in either of the left and right areas of each of sub-regions made based on the gray-scaled images and merging sub-regions whose areas including a section without vertical edge are next to each other (S).

Object detection device and object detection method

Another detection device reduces the time needed for travel motion information about another vehicle obtained by an accurate detector device, and to continues supplement for the other vehicle in the event that detection is lost. All onboard controller is connected to a communication device as a first detector device for outputting the travel motion information about another vehicle, and a sensor as a second detector device. When the difference between first travel motion information from the first detection device and second travel motion information from the second detection device is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold value, and the period of continuous detection of the second travel motion information from the second detection device is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value, the controller determines the first travel motion information and the second travel motion information to be travel motion information for the same vehicle.

Onboard device and control method

To obtain an image processing device and a method of processing an image that improve distance accuracy and is capable of performing accurate distance even about an object at a greater distance than before, when a distance to an object is measured, one image object regionincluding an image of an object is extracted from one image of a pair of images imaged by a pair of imaging elements at the same time in the same direction. The degree of background that is likelihood of whether either an object image configuration partor a background image configuration partis calculated for each of a plurality of image configuration parts that configures the one image object region. Then, the other image object regionhaving an image similar to the one image object regionis extracted from the other imageusing the degree of background, and a parallax between the one image object regionand the other image object regionis calculated.

Image processing device and method of processing image

A radar apparatus capable of determining the position of targets at a high accuracy even when plural objects of an identical relative velocity are present in a detection view field of the radar, using signal processing of obtaining an effect which is similar with that of virtually increasing the number of antennas along the moving direction of the radar by determining the change of intensity of reception signals using data in the past in which an identical antenna was positioned at a slightly different place (T) and data at present (T+&#x394;T) as a unit data set.

Growing community of inventors

Hitachinaka, Japan

Hiroto Mitoma