Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America

Matushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Matsushita Institute Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Masamichi Nakagawa

Kunio Nobori

Shusaku Okamoto

Atsushi Morimura

Hirofumi Ishii

Yoshiyasu Kado

Satoshi Sato

Kenya Uomori

Atsushi Iisaka

Takashi Yoshida

Fumio Maehara

Mikiya Nakata

Junichi Sato

Yasunao Okazaki

Yoshihiko Matsukawa

Kazufumi Mizusawa

Tamao Okamoto

Takashi Anezaki

Shusasku Okamoto

Takeo Azuma

Kenji Kondo

Taro Imagawa

Akira Ishida

Katsuji Aoki

Osamu Yamada

Nobuhiko Yasui

Toshihiko Munetsugu

Tomonobu Naruoka

Kazuhiko Inada

Yasuhiro Morinaka

Kunino Nobori

A vehicle-operation assist includes a circumferential-state imager for imaging a circumferential state of a vehicle with a camera and generating a circumferential-state image; a synthetic-image generator for generating a synthetic image by superimposing on the circumferential-state image, an assumed-movement pattern of the vehicle performing a predetermined series of driving operations; and a display for displaying the synthetic image. The circumferential-state imager has at least one camera and a camera parameter table for storing characteristics of the camera and generating the circumferential-state image on the basis of the camera characteristics.

Driving-operation assist and recording medium

A camera for taking a state behind a vehicle is installed in a position laterally shifted from the rear center of the vehicle. An image processing unit generates a rear image from a camera image by shifting merely a rectangular area of the camera image so that a vertical center line thereof can substantially accord with the center line along the lengthwise direction of the vehicle. Furthermore, processing for correcting lens distortion may be performed. As a result, when the vehicle is moved straight backward, an object present on the center line of the vehicle moves vertically in substantially the center of the screen, so that a user can be prevented from having an odd feeling to see the image.

Monitoring system

A robot arm is provided with an end effecter for grasping an object and a force sensor for detecting a force acted upon the end effecter. In the state in which end effecter grasps an object, when there is a change in the force acting on the end effecter detected by the force sensor, outputted is a signal for releasing the force of the end effecter grasping the object. The object grasped by the end effecter can be taken out as if the object were handed from person over to person.

Apparatus and method for robot handling control

The image processor of the present invention generates a more natural synthesized image from camera images taken with a plurality of cameras capturing the surroundings of a vehicle. A parameter storage section stores a plurality of image synthesis parameter groups representing the correspondence between the camera images and the synthesized image and having different spatial or temporal resolution relations. A parameter selection section selects the image synthesis parameter group according to the output of a vehicle motion detection section for detecting the motion of the vehicle such as the driving speed and direction. An image synthesis section generates the synthesized image from the camera images according to the selected image synthesis parameter group.

Image processor and monitoring system

An article holding system includes a recognizing device for recognizing the state of the holding object, a holding method specifying means for specifying the holding method according to the state recognized by the recognizing device, and a holding device for holding the holding object according to the holding method specified by the holding method specifying means.

Article holding system, robot, and method of controlling robot

The system includes a sensor for detecting a state of a space; a robot for executing a handling job for an article; an article identifying part for identifying, when an article is handled by a movable body, the article in response to a detection result obtained by the sensor; and an article handling subject identifying part for identifying an article handling subject that handles the article. When the movable body that handles the article is the robot, the article handling subject identifying part identifies a subject having issued a job instruction to the robot as the article handling subject.

Article control system, article control server, article control method

The invention provides a vehicle surroundings monitoring system for synthesizing and displaying images captured by a plurality of cameras to provide images that, near the border between partial images, are more accurate and more readily understood by the user than has been the case conventionally. In the synthesized image, a partial image captured by a first camera and a partial image captured by a second camera are adjacent to one another at their border. Near this border, the capturing directions of the first and the second cameras both substantially match the direction of the border. Consequently, images of objects near the border extend along the border, and thus do not disappear on the synthesized image.

Method for arranging cameras in a vehicle surroundings monitoring system

An image generating apparatus comprising: a camera or a plurality of cameras; space reconstructing means for mapping the input image from said camera, into a predetermined space model of a predetermined three-dimensional space; point-of-view converting means of synthesizing an image viewed from an arbitrary virtual point of view in said predetermined three-dimensional space by referencing to said space data mapped by said space reconstructing means; and displaying means of displaying the image converted by said point-of-view converting means.

Method and apparatus for displaying a synthesized image viewed from a virtual point of view

In a monitoring device for vehicles, an optical flow detection section determines an optical flow from an image taken with a camera. A background flow estimation section determines a background flow, which is a flow for the camera image under the assumption that the image is a background, based on the motion of the vehicle. An approaching object detection section detects motion of an object in the surroundings of the vehicle by comparing the optical flow with the background flow.

Monitoring device, monitoring method and program for monitoring

For supporting a complicated driving operation, a synthesized image is presented to the driver. The driver can view this image and thus drive with a sense of security. The synthesized image may include an image of at least one tire and may have an enlargement/reduction ratio that is relatively higher in a nearby area of the vehicle, including a grounding portion of at least one tire of the vehicle, as compared with a peripheral area of the vehicle.

A tag communication section () receives tag information transmitted from an information tag () attached to a person (P) to be detected. An attribute lookup section () looks up an attribute storage section () using ID included in the tag information to obtain attribute information such as the height of the person (P). A target detection section () specifies the position, posture and the like of the person (P) in an image obtained from an imaging section () using the attribute information.

Object detection device, object detection server, and object detection method

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Osaka, Japan

Masamichi Nakagawa