JP2004028874A - Range finder device, and device and method for detecting object - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To surely suppress the measurement error of a range finder device using a light source array section even to an oject having a projecting shape like the nose of a human being. <P>SOLUTION: Two kinds of light patterns are projected upon a person PP respectively from illuminators 101a and 101b positioned above and below a camera 102. Part of the light pattern from the illuminator 101a is not projected upon the area under the nose NS of the person PP, but the light pattern from the other illuminator 101b is surely projected upon the area. The original distance images regarding each light source array sections 101a and 101b are respectively obtained from luminance images photographed by means of the camera 102 and a distance image is generated finally by synthesizing the original distance images. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention belongs to a technique relating to a range finder device capable of acquiring three-dimensional information of a subject, and a technique of detecting a position of an object from the three-dimensional information.
[0002]
[Prior art]
A general range finder device projects two types of light patterns onto a subject from a light source unit, and calculates a luminance ratio for each pixel from a luminance image obtained by capturing the reflected light. The distance is measured by a previously calculated conversion formula from the luminance ratio to the distance.
[0003]
In order to realize a range finder device capable of performing stable measurement for a long period of time, a method has been proposed in which a light source array in which light sources such as LEDs are arranged is adopted as a light source unit (see Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-286646). The LED has a longer life and a more stable light emission intensity than a xenon flash lamp or the like. However, since the amount of light emission per unit is small, a plurality of units are arranged and used.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In the configuration of the range finder device described above, since the light source array in which the light sources such as the LEDs are arranged in an array is used, the light source unit itself has a surface area that cannot be regarded as a point light source. Therefore, for example, as shown in FIG. 17, when trying to measure the nose NS of the person PP relatively close to the light source unit, the following problem occurs. That is, at the measurement point A in the lower area of the nose NS, the light emitted from the light source B in the light source array installed on the camera hits, but the light emitted from the light source A does not hit. In other words, a shadow is formed under the nose NS. For this reason, at the measurement point A, the optical pattern intended for the distance measurement is not irradiated, and the error of the measured distance increases.
[0005]
Further, when detecting the position of the object from the distance image generated by the range finder device, there is a possibility that the detection accuracy is reduced due to such a measurement error.
[0006]
In view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a range finder device using a light source array unit that can reliably suppress measurement errors even when a subject has a convex shape.
[0007]
Another object of the present invention is to suppress a decrease in detection accuracy in detecting the position of an object using a light source array unit.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Invention]
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a solution taken by the invention of claim 1 is a range finder device that projects light on a subject and receives reflected light to measure a three-dimensional position of the subject. A plurality of light source array units in which the light sources are arranged, and a light source control unit for projecting at least two types of light patterns from the plurality of light source array units by controlling the light emission state of each light source of the light source array unit. A camera unit that captures, as a luminance image, reflected light from the subject with respect to each light pattern projected from each of the light source array units, and the light source array unit captured by the camera unit for each of the light source array units And an image processing unit that obtains an original distance image from the luminance image corresponding to the original image and generates a distance image using the original distance image.
[0009]
According to the first aspect of the invention, at least two types of light patterns are respectively projected onto the subject from the plurality of light source array units. Then, the image processing unit obtains original distance images from the luminance images photographed for each light source array unit, and generates a distance image from these original distance images. For this reason, even if the subject has a convex shape, it is possible to greatly reduce the area where the distance is not accurately measured because the optical pattern is not properly projected due to the shadow. Therefore, measurement errors can be reliably suppressed.
[0010]
In the invention according to claim 2, the image processing unit according to claim 1 selects a distance value at each coordinate of the generated distance image from the distance values at the coordinates of each of the original distance images. I do.
[0011]
According to the second aspect of the present invention, a range image having a small error as a whole can be easily synthesized.
[0012]
According to a third aspect of the present invention, the image processing unit according to the second aspect is configured such that, of the distance values at the coordinates of each of the original distance images, the luminance values at the coordinates of the luminance image based on the original distance image are calculated. The one with the largest average value is selected.
[0013]
Further, in the invention according to claim 4, the image processing unit according to claim 2 includes, among the distance values at the coordinates of each of the original distance images, a luminance value at the coordinates of the luminance image based on the original distance image. The one with the largest maximum value is selected.
[0014]
According to the third and fourth aspects of the present invention, since the distance value can be selected with reference to the luminance value in the luminance image that has already been obtained, the distance image with few errors can be synthesized very easily.
[0015]
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the plurality of light source array units in the first aspect are configured such that regions for irradiating an optical pattern are divided into a plurality of sets spatially separated from each other.
[0016]
According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, even when there are a plurality of convex shapes of the subject, distance measurement with few errors can be performed.
[0017]
Further, a solution means adopted in the invention of claim 6 is to project light on a subject, measure the three-dimensional position of the subject by receiving the reflected light, and detect the position of the object using the three-dimensional information. A light source array unit in which a plurality of light sources are arranged, and a light source control for projecting at least two types of light patterns from the light source array unit by controlling a light emitting state of each light source of the light source array unit. Unit, a camera unit that captures, as a luminance image, reflected light from the subject with respect to each light pattern projected from the light source array unit, and obtains a distance image from the luminance image captured by the camera unit. And an image processing unit that searches for the position of the object by performing matching between the distance template and the distance template configured from the distance values of the object. Shall region distance measurement error is estimated to be greater from the positional relationship between the and the object light source array and camera portion is masked.
[0018]
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, as a method of detecting a position of an object, at least two types of light patterns are projected onto a subject from a light source array unit in which a plurality of light sources are arranged, and A reflected light from the subject with respect to the light pattern is captured as a luminance image by a camera unit, a distance image is obtained from the luminance image captured by the camera unit, and a distance template including the distance image and the distance value of the object is obtained. By performing matching with the above, the position of the object is searched for, and the distance template includes an area where a distance measurement error is estimated to be large from a positional relationship between the object, the light source array unit, and the camera unit. It is assumed that masking has been performed.
[0019]
According to the sixth or seventh aspect of the present invention, the distance template masks an area where it is estimated that the light pattern does not appropriately hit from the positional relationship between the object, the light source array unit, and the camera unit. For this reason, the area is excluded from the target of the matching, and therefore, even if the range image includes an error in the area, the position of the object can be detected with high accuracy.
[0020]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[0021]
(1st Embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a front view of an iris authentication device incorporating a range finder device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is an iris of a person PP as a subject located in front of the iris authentication device 10 of FIG. It is a figure showing signs that authentication is performed. In the present embodiment, the position of the nose NS is searched from the distance image of the face of the person PP obtained by the range finder device, and the three-dimensional position of the eye EY is obtained with reference to the position of the nose NS to perform iris authentication. Assumed to be performed.
[0022]
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the iris authentication device 10 includes wide-angle camera illuminations 101 a and 101 b, a wide-angle camera 102, and an iris imaging unit 105. The iris imaging unit 105 is movable, and the telephoto camera illumination 103 and the telephoto camera 104 are fixed inside. The iris imaging unit 105 can change the direction of illumination (photographing) without changing the relative positional relationship between the telephoto camera illumination 103 and the telephoto camera 104.
[0023]
In the present embodiment, the illuminations 101a and 101b for the wide-angle cameras, the wide-angle camera 102, and a portion related to these controls function as a range finder device that measures the three-dimensional position of the subject. FIG. 3 is a block diagram functionally showing the configuration of the range finder device according to the present embodiment.
[0024]
Each of the wide-angle camera illuminations 101a and 101b is configured by a light source array unit in which a plurality of LEDs 11 as light sources are arranged. In FIG. 1, each LED 11 is represented by a circle, and each of the wide-angle camera illuminations 101a and 101b is composed of 11 × 11 LEDs 11. The wide-angle camera 102 has VGA pixels (480 horizontal pixels × 640 vertical pixels), and is installed so as to obtain a vertically long field of view. The wide-angle camera 102 captures an upper body image including the face of the person PP as shown in FIG.
[0025]
The light source control unit 106 can control the light emission time of the wide-angle camera illuminations 101a and 101b by PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) for each LED (for example, for each column or row of the array). Within the exposure time of the wide-angle camera 102, the longer the light emission time is, the larger the total light amount becomes. Therefore, by controlling the light emission time, an arbitrary light pattern can be generated.
[0026]
Here, the light emission time is controlled for each row (horizontal direction). In this case, the light pattern is modulated in the vertical direction in FIG. Further, the light source control unit 106 switches between two types of light patterns in accordance with the exposure timing (exposure time) of the camera. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing two types of light patterns generated by controlling the light emission time. In the figure, (a) is an optical pattern A for monotonically increasing the LED emission time according to the row number, and (b) is an optical pattern B for monotonically decreasing the LED emission time according to the row number. The light source control unit 106 irradiates two types of patterns as shown in FIG. 5 at different timings from the illuminations 101a and 101b.
[0027]
Here, first, the outline of the operation of the iris authentication device 10 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS.
[0028]
First, in step S10, the wide-angle camera illumination 101a emits two types of light patterns as shown in FIG. 5, and the wide-angle camera 102 captures reflected light images for the two types of light patterns as luminance images. Similarly, the wide-angle camera illumination 101b irradiates the two types of light patterns shown in FIG. 5, and the wide-angle camera 102 captures reflected light images corresponding to the two types of light patterns as luminance images. From these four luminance images, a distance image of 480 horizontal pixels × 640 vertical pixels for the person PP is obtained. Details of the processing here will be described later.
[0029]
Next, in step S20, the three-dimensional position of the eye is calculated. FIG. 7 shows details of step S20. First, in step S21, a depth value of a person is estimated. That is, the distance value histogram of all pixels is calculated from the distance image obtained in step S10, and the distance from the wide-angle camera 102 when the person is regarded as a plane perpendicular to the optical axis of the camera is estimated.
[0030]
Next, in step S22, the face area of the person is estimated. The estimation of the face area is performed by generating a depth binarized image obtained by binarizing the distance image obtained in step S10 with a predetermined threshold value and referring to the distribution of pixel components in the binarized image. Here, the face area is defined as an area including at least both eyes and a nose. Also, assuming that the size of the face is constant regardless of the person, and if the angle of view of the camera 102 is known, the size of the face in the image can be estimated from the depth value of the person.
[0031]
FIG. 8 is an example of a depth binarized image in which a face area is estimated. In FIG. 8, in the binarization, the area of “1” is represented by white, and the area of “0” is represented by black. In areas where the reflectance is low, such as head hair, black eyeglass frames, eyes, eyebrows, or in areas where shadows occur, such as wrinkles in the neck or clothing, the distance cannot be measured properly. That is, it is determined to be '0'.
[0032]
Next, in step S23, the three-dimensional position of the eye is estimated from within the face area estimated in step S22. Here, it is assumed that the nose position is searched from the distance image of the face region, the eye region is narrowed down with reference to the nose position, and the eye position is detected from the luminance image of the eye region.
[0033]
Here, a nose-shaped template is used for searching for the nose position. FIG. 9 is an example of a nose-shaped template. The nose template in FIG. 9 is obtained by manually cutting out the nose region from the three-dimensional data of N (N = 20) faces measured from the front, normalizing the vertical and horizontal sizes, and performing positioning, and then averaging. . In FIG. 9, the distance value is represented by the shade of gray. The darker the gray, the lower the luminance, the closer to the camera, and the lighter the gray, the higher the luminance, the farther from the camera. The template in FIG. 9 has a trapezoidal shape having a base Tx and a height Ty, and the upper left and upper right portions of the circumscribed rectangle are employed as templates because the distance image may be affected by glasses or the like. Absent.
[0034]
Then, the position of the nose is detected by matching the distance image of the face area with the nose template of FIG.
[0035]
Next, an eye position is searched from the luminance image of the face area. At this time, the search area is limited by referring to the position of the detected nose. The search for the eye position from the luminance image may be performed by an arbitrary method, for example, by using the method described in JP-A-2002-56394. After detecting the position of the eye from the luminance image, the three-dimensional eye position is determined.
[0036]
Next, in step S30, the iris image is photographed by pointing the telephoto camera 104 at the three-dimensional position of the eye. Then, in step S40, iris authentication is performed from the captured eye image. The iris authentication may be performed, for example, by the method described in Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 8-504979.
[0037]
Here, the process in step S10, that is, a method of obtaining a distance image according to the present embodiment will be described.
[0038]
Basically, the distance measurement can be executed by one light source array (two types of light patterns) and one camera. The principle of distance measurement of a range finder using a light source array is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-286646, and description thereof is omitted here.
[0039]
On the other hand, in the iris authentication device according to the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1 or 2, two wide-angle camera lights 101 a and 101 b are installed at opposite positions with the wide-angle camera 102 interposed therebetween. . Then, as described above, at the time of photographing, light patterns as shown in FIG. 5 are projected onto the person PP at different timings from each of the illuminations 101a and 101b.
[0040]
FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the relationship between the exposure timing of the wide-angle camera 102 and the light patterns projected from the wide-angle camera illuminations 101a and 101b. Then, a total of four reflected light images when two light patterns A and B are projected from the illumination 101a and two reflected light images when light patterns A and B are respectively projected from the illumination 101b. Is obtained. The image processing unit 107 generates a distance image from the four luminance images.
[0041]
FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining the operation and effect of the present embodiment. In the range finder according to the present embodiment, the illuminations 101a and 101b are configured by a light source array in which LED light sources are arranged in an array, and the illuminations 101a and 101b themselves have a certain surface area. At this time, as shown in FIG. 11, when an object including a convex shape such as the nose NS of the person PP in front of the camera 102 is to be measured, at a measurement point A below the nose NS, each of the illumination points 101a Among the light sources, light from the light source B hits, but light from the light source A does not hit. In such a case, the measurement point A is not irradiated with the intended light pattern, and therefore, there is a problem that an error in the measured distance increases.
[0042]
With respect to such a problem, in the present embodiment, another illumination 101b is arranged at a position symmetrical with respect to the camera 102. Then, the light from all the light sources constituting the illumination 101b reaches the measurement point A without being interrupted. Therefore, for the measurement point A, an error can be suppressed by adopting the distance value of the distance image measured by the illumination 101b.
[0043]
Thus, for example, by illuminating from both sides of the convex shape of the subject, it is possible to suppress an increase in measurement error due to the shape of the subject. In other words, by providing a plurality of light source array units, it is possible to greatly reduce the area in which the distance is not accurately measured because the optical pattern is not properly projected due to shadows.
[0044]
The image processing unit 107 generates a distance image from the four luminance images by the following processing.
[0045]
First, a distance image is obtained as an original distance image from two luminance images corresponding to the light patterns A and B emitted from the illumination 101a. Similarly, a distance image is obtained as an original distance image from two luminance images corresponding to the light patterns A and B emitted from the illumination 101b. The method of acquiring these original distance images is as described in Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-286646.
[0046]
Then, the obtained two original distance images are combined to generate one distance image.
[0047]
Now, since two original distance images have been obtained, two distance values are given for each coordinate of the distance image to be generated. Therefore, by selecting a distance value at each coordinate of the distance image from the distance values at the coordinates of each of the original distance images, the distance image can be generated by a simple method.
[0048]
Here, each of the original distance images is obtained from two luminance images, and the distance value at each coordinate of the original distance image is calculated from the two luminance values. That is, the distance value of each coordinate of the original distance image corresponds to one luminance value pair.
[0049]
In FIG. 11, at the measurement point A, it is considered that the luminance value due to the projection light from the illumination 101b is larger than the luminance value due to the projection light from the illumination 101a because it is not blocked by the nose NS. Therefore, for each coordinate of the distance image to be generated, of the distance values at the coordinates of each original distance image, the distance of the greater average value of the luminance values at the coordinates of the luminance image on which the original distance image is based Adopt the value. Then, the distance values having the larger average of the luminance values are collected, and one distance image is synthesized.
[0050]
Thus, a distance image with a small measurement error can be generated by an extremely simple method. Note that, instead of the average luminance value, for example, a distance value having a larger maximum luminance value may be adopted. Further, the generation of the distance image may be performed by a method other than selecting the distance value of each coordinate from the distance value of the coordinate of each original distance image. For example, for the distance value of the original distance image, an average value is obtained for each coordinate, and this is used as the distance value of the distance image, or the distance value of the original distance image is weighted and added for each coordinate. Or you may.
[0051]
As described above, according to the present embodiment, even when illumination having a certain surface area that cannot be regarded as a point light source is used, distance measurement with a small error can be performed. Therefore, for example, the nose position can be detected from the distance image satisfactorily.
[0052]
In the present embodiment, the light source array units are arranged vertically, but may be arranged at other positions, for example, on the left and right sides of the camera. Further, the number of light source array units may be larger than two. For example, four light source array units may be arranged on the top, bottom, left and right of the camera.
[0053]
Also, when the distance between each light source array unit and the camera is different from each other, the amount of reflected light of the projection light from each light source array unit may be different even when there is no occlusion due to the convex shape of the subject. In such a case, in order to correct the amount of reflected light, the light emission time of the farther light source array unit may be set relatively long (the amount of light is increased).
[0054]
In addition, as shown in FIG. 12, the area assigned to each set of the light source array units may be spatially separated. That is, the area A is irradiated with the light pattern by the set of the light source array units 110a and 110b, and similarly, the area B is handled by the set of the light source array units 110c and 110d, and the area C is handled by the set of the light source array units 110e and 110f. I do. By adopting such a configuration, distance measurement with a small error can be performed even for a subject having a plurality of convex shapes.
[0055]
(Second embodiment)
FIG. 13 is a front view of an iris authentication device incorporating a range finder device according to the second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 14 is an iris of a person PP as a subject located in front of the iris authentication device 20 of FIG. It is a figure showing signs that authentication is performed. The operation of the iris authentication device in the present embodiment is basically the same as in the first embodiment.
[0056]
Here, the difference from the first embodiment is that only one wide-angle camera illumination 101 is provided in the iris authentication device 20. In this embodiment, the illumination 101 for the wide-angle camera, the wide-angle camera 102, and a portion related to the control thereof function as a range finder device, and the functional configuration thereof is the same as that of FIG. 3 except that only one illumination is provided. It is. Also, an object detection device configured to detect the position of the nose NS of the person PP as an object is configured by the wide-angle camera illumination 101 as the light source array unit, the wide-angle camera 102 as the camera unit, the light source control unit 106, and the image processing unit 107. Have been.
[0057]
The operation of the iris authentication device 20 shown in FIGS. 13 and 14 will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS.
[0058]
First, in step S10, the wide-angle camera illumination 101 irradiates two types of light patterns as shown in FIG. 5, and the wide-angle camera 102 captures reflected light images corresponding to the two types of light patterns as luminance images. FIG. 15 is a diagram showing the relationship between the exposure timing of the wide-angle camera 102 and the light pattern projected from the wide-angle camera illumination 101. The image processing unit 107 generates a distance image from two luminance images when the light patterns A and B are projected from the illumination 101, respectively.
[0059]
Next, in step S20, the three-dimensional position of the eye is calculated. Here, the estimation of the depth value of the person (S21) and the estimation of the face area of the person (S22) are the same as in the first embodiment. The estimation of the three-dimensional position of the eyes (S23) is substantially the same as that of the first embodiment, except that the process of searching for the position of the nose NS from the distance image is different. This will be described.
[0060]
In the present embodiment, only one illumination 101 for the wide-angle camera including the light source array unit is provided. Therefore, unlike the first embodiment, in the nose NS of the person PP, a region on the opposite side of the illumination 101, that is, In the lower part of the nose NS, the projection light from some light sources does not reach. For this reason, there remains a problem that a distance measurement error at that portion increases.
[0061]
Therefore, as shown in FIG. 16, in the nose template as the distance template, an area where it is estimated that the light pattern does not properly hit from the positional relationship between the nose NS and the illumination 101 and the camera 102, in other words, the distance measurement error The lower region estimated to be large is masked so as not to be used for matching with the range image. Thereby, even if the distance image includes a measurement error, it is possible to estimate the nose position with high accuracy.
[0062]
In the example of FIG. 16, the lower region of the nose template is masked. This is because the wide-angle camera illumination 101 is arranged on the wide-angle camera 102. From the positional relationship between the object whose position is to be detected (here, the nose), the light source array unit, and the camera unit, it may be set to an area where the distance measurement error is estimated to be large.
[0063]
For example, in the case where the person PP is located in front of the camera and the light source array unit is disposed on the camera as in the present embodiment, the person PP is located below the most convex portion (nose) of the shape of the object. The region may be masked. Similarly, when the light source array section is below the camera, the area above the nose is located. When the light source array section is on the right side of the apparatus, the light source array section is located on the left side of the nose. When it is on the left side, the area on the right side of the nose may be masked.
[0064]
In each of the above embodiments, the configuration in which the range finder device and the object detection device according to the present invention are used for the iris authentication device has been described, but it goes without saying that the configuration can be used for other purposes. Also, a case has been described where a person is a subject and the position of the nose is detected, but the present invention is also applicable to the case where another object is detected. For example, by using the present invention to detect a door handle (knob), a switch lever, and the like, it is possible to realize an operation in which a robot opens and closes a door and turns a switch on and off.
[0065]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, by using a plurality of light source array units, even for a subject having a convex shape, an area in which a distance cannot be accurately measured because the light pattern is not properly projected and is not properly projected. It can be greatly reduced, and the measurement error can be reliably suppressed.
[0066]
In addition, in the distance template for matching, the region where the light pattern is estimated not to hit properly is excluded from the matching target. Therefore, even if the distance image includes an error in the region, the position of the object can be accurately determined. Can be detected.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a front view of an iris authentication device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a side view of the iris authentication device of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a block diagram functionally showing a configuration of a range finder device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a person image captured by the iris authentication device of FIG. 1;
FIG. 5 is an example of an optical pattern projected by a range finder device.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the iris authentication device of FIG. 1;
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing details of step S20 in FIG. 6;
FIG. 8 is an example of a depth binarized image in which a face area is estimated.
FIG. 9 is an example of a nose-shaped template.
FIG. 10 is a diagram showing switching timings of four types of optical patterns in the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining the operation and effect of the present invention, and is a diagram showing a state where an optical pattern hits a measurement point A;
FIG. 12 is a diagram showing that regions irradiated by a plurality of light source arrays are spatially separated.
FIG. 13 is a front view of an iris authentication device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 14 is a side view of an iris authentication device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 15 is a diagram showing switching timings of two types of optical patterns in the second embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 16 shows a nose template with a masked area.
FIG. 17 is a diagram for explaining the problem of the present invention, showing a case where distance measurement is difficult due to the shape of a subject.
[Explanation of symbols]
PP person (subject)
NS nose (object)
11 LED (light source)
101, 101a, 101b Lighting for wide-angle camera (light source array)
102 Wide-angle camera (camera part)
106 light source control unit
107 Image processing unit
110a to 110f Light source array unit

Claims (7)

A range finder device for projecting light onto a subject and receiving the reflected light to measure a three-dimensional position of the subject,
A plurality of light source array units, in each of which a plurality of light sources are arranged,
A light source control unit configured to control at least two types of light patterns by controlling a light emission state of each light source of the light source array unit from the plurality of light source array units;
A camera unit that captures, as a luminance image, reflected light from the subject with respect to each light pattern projected from each of the light source array units,
For each of the light source array units, an image processing for obtaining an original distance image from a luminance image corresponding to the light source array unit photographed by the camera unit and generating a distance image using these original distance images And a range finder. In claim 1,
The image processing unit,
A range finder device for selecting a distance value at each coordinate of a generated distance image from distance values at the coordinates of each of the original distance images. In claim 2,
The image processing unit,
A range finder device which selects, from the distance values at the coordinates of each of the original distance images, the one having the largest average value of the luminance values at the coordinates of the luminance image that is the basis of the original distance image. In claim 2,
The image processing unit,
A range finder device which selects, from the distance values at the coordinates of each of the original distance images, the one having the largest luminance value at the coordinates of the luminance image that is the basis of the original distance image. In claim 1,
The range finder device, wherein the plurality of light source array units are configured so as to be divided into a plurality of sets in which regions for irradiating an optical pattern are spatially separated from each other. An object detection device that projects light on a subject, receives reflected light thereof, measures a three-dimensional position of the subject, and detects a position of the object using the three-dimensional information,
A light source array unit in which a plurality of light sources are arranged,
A light source control unit that projects at least two types of light patterns from the light source array unit by controlling a light emission mode of each light source of the light source array unit;
A camera unit that captures, as a luminance image, reflected light from the subject for each light pattern projected from the light source array unit,
An image processing unit that obtains a distance image from a luminance image captured by the camera unit, and performs matching between the distance image and a distance template configured from distance values of the object, thereby searching for the position of the object. With
The object detection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the distance template masks an area in which each of the light patterns is presumed not to appropriately hit based on a positional relationship between the object, the light source array unit, and the camera unit. A method for detecting a position of an object, comprising:
At least two types of light patterns are projected onto the subject from a light source array in which a plurality of light sources are arranged,
The reflected light from the subject with respect to each projected light pattern is photographed by the camera unit as a luminance image,
From a luminance image captured by the camera unit, a distance image is obtained,
This distance image is searched for the position of the object by performing matching between a distance template formed from the distance values of the object,
The object detection method according to claim 1, wherein the distance template masks an area where the respective light patterns are estimated not to appropriately strike from the positional relationship between the object, the light source array unit, and the camera unit.

Images