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:
Dec. 07, 1999
Filed:
Apr. 30, 1997
Kazuya Takahashi, Hitachi, JP;
Tadaaki Kitamura, Nishiibaraki-gun, JP;
Yoshiyuki Satoh, Hitachi, JP;
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A traffic flow monitor apparatus which can monitor a traffic flow at high precision over a wide range from the position near a TV camera to the distant position regardless of traffic conditions. An image analysis area crossing a road of an overlooked road image received every predetermined cycle is analyzed, the characteristic portion of the front (rear) portion of the vehicle is registered as a template, the vehicle is tracked by a pattern-matching process while updating the template, and the size of the template is reduced (enlarge) depending on a change in apparent width of a lane during template updating. Since the characteristic portion of the front (rear) portion of the vehicle is registered, and the vehicle is tracked by the pattern-matching process, no reference image of a road portion on which no vehicle exists is required, and influence of approaching or overlapping of another vehicle can be reduced. A traffic flow can be monitored at high precision regardless of deserted traffic or crowded traffic. Since the size is reduced (enlarged) during template updating, a vehicle can be stably tracked by using a template having an appropriate size in the range from the near position to the distant position.