Fuji Jukogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Keiji Hanawa

Keiji Saneyoshi

Yutaka Hiwatashi

Itaru Seta

Hideaki Tsuchiya

A distance correcting apparatus of a surroundings monitoring system includes a stereo imaging means for stereoscopically taking a pair of images of a frontal scenery, a parallax calculating means for calculating a parallax based on the pair of images, a distance calculating means for calculating a distance to an object based on the parallax and a parameter for correcting distance, an approximation line calculating means for calculating a plurality of approximation lines extending in the distance direction in parallel with each other based on the images, a vanishing point calculating means for calculating a vanishing point of the images from a point of intersection of the approximation lines and a parameter correcting means for correcting the parameter based on the calculated vanishing point.

Distance correcting apparatus of surroundings monitoring system and vanishing point correcting apparatus thereof

Distance image outputted from an image processor is read by a recognition/judgment computer, in which the distance image is divided into strips having a specified interval and a histogram is prepared for each strip. Based on the histogram, the position of solid objects and the distance thereto are obtained and these positional data of the solid objects are classified into groups of solid object and groups of side wall. Further, the position of a wall surface forming a boundary of a road is detected from the data of the groups of side wall. On the other hand, assuming a wall surface model composed of a series of nodes, respective nodes are determined and corrected by the data of side wall. Thus obtained nodes form a successive wall surface along a curved road.

Vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus

An easy-to-use vehicular active drive assist system is provided, which can continue to give a warning against the presence of a possibility of deviation of own vehicle from a traffic lane to such an extent that a driver would not find the warning noisy or annoying. A control unit makes a judgment on the possibility of deviation from a traffic lane based on the location of lane marker lines detected from a pair of camera images and the location of own vehicle, and generates a warning if the own vehicle is supposed to deviate from to the left or right of the traffic lane. This warning is produced at preset time intervals. When the direction of potential lane deviation has changed (from right to left or from left to right), a lane deviation warning of the current side of lane deviation is started immediately.

Vehicular active drive assist system

A vehicular active drive assist system including a lane deviation judgment unit which judges the possibility of deviation of own vehicle from a traffic lane on a roadway ahead and a warning control unit which controls a warning based on judgment results fed from the lane deviation judgment unit, wherein the lane deviation judgment unit sets a first judgment line approximately parallel to a lateral direction of the own vehicle at a first distance ahead of the own vehicle, sets a second judgment line approximately parallel to the lateral direction of the own vehicle at a second distance ahead of the own vehicle, makes a judgment on the possibility of deviation from the traffic lane based on the location of the own vehicle and the location of lane markings on the first judgment line, makes another judgment on the possibility of deviation from the traffic lane based on the location of the own vehicle and the location of the lane markings on the second judgment line, and finally judges the possibility of deviation from the traffic lane based on the results of these two judgments.

A vehicle monitoring apparatus for obtaining a distance image including an image data and three-dimensional distance information and for monitoring surrounding conditions on the basis of the distance image, comprises: means for dividing the distance image into a plurality of blocks composed of picture elements, means for collecting the blocks having a similar distance data and for grouping the blocks into an independent group, means for calculating an area size of the independent group, means for extracting the image data as an object data if the area size of the group is larger than a predetermined value and for discarding the image data as a false data if the area size is smaller than the predetermined value, means for preparing a histogram having a lateral axis representing a deviation amount and a longitudinal axis representing a frequency corresponding to a number of the image data, and means for detecting an object and a distance to the object by deleting the frequency having a smaller number of the image data than a threshold value along the lateral axis on the histogram. Thereby, false data can be removed from the image data and a mismatching can be prevented.

Vehicle monitoring apparatus

A running guide apparatus for a vehicle includes stereoscopic picture processing element for processing a pair of stereoscopic pictures of an object outside a vehicle imaged by a imaging system mounted on the vehicle, construction detection element for detecting a plurality of various constructions by using three dimensional position data calculated with each portion of the object corresponding to the distance distribution data from the stereoscopic picture processing element; gap distance calculation element for respectively calculating the nearest distance as right and left gap distances each between an extended line of right or left side of the vehicle and each of ends on the vehicle side of the plurality of various constructions detected by the construction detection element; and information element for informing the driver of data related to the right and left gap data calculated by the gap distance calculation element; so as to obtain a distance distribution of an entire picture in dependency upon a discrepancy amount positions corresponding to of the pair of the stereoscopic pictures in accordance with a principle of a triangulation.

Running guide apparatus for vehicle capable of keeping safety at passing

A distance between a running vehicle and an object is determined over an imaged picture with high reliability. Three-dimensional objects or a road shape along with accurate position or dimension are also detected. An object within a set region outside a vehicle is imaged by a stereoscopic optical system to input the imaged picture of the object into a stereoscopic picture processing apparatus. The stereoscopic picture processing apparatus processes the picture imaged by the stereoscopic optical system to calculate a distance distribution over the entire picture. A road/three-dimensional object detecting apparatus calculates three-dimensional positions of respective portions of objects corresponding to information of the distance distribution to detect the shape of the road and a plurality of three-dimensional objects by using information of these three-dimensional positions securely and with high reliability.

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Tokyo, Japan

Keiji Hanawa