The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 15, 1993
Filed:
Dec. 27, 1990
Yoshiki Ninomiya, Nagoya, JP;
Yuzo Yamamoto, Aichi, JP;
Gunji Sugimoto, Kariya, JP;
Koichi Tange, Nagoya, JP;
Kabushiki Kaisha Toyota Chuo Kenkusho, Aichi, JP;
Abstract
An outer environment of the vehicle is inputted as an image. Image processing is performed to the input image, and many edge segments are extracted. The edge segments which are colinear are clustered in order to perform a matching operation. Matching is performed in a respective set of plural longer edge segments representing plural clusters in correspondence with a set of plural guide signs as standards of guide of the vehicle mapped on the image input surface, and a set of longer edge segments being most matched each other is extracted. From position and headings of the extracted longer edge segments on the image input surface, the position and heading in the outer environment are calculated. The position and heading of the vehicle are detected from these values. The position and heading of the vehicle obtained in the above-mentioned image processing and the position and heading of the vehicle measured by other techniques and are evaluated synthetically. When the guide signs are mapped on the image input surface, the forecast values of position and heading of the vehicle at the image input time are used. In this manner, the detecting accuracy of the position and heading of the vehicle is improved.