JP2005030968A - Device for calculating vehicle-mounted distance - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vehicle-mounted distance calculation device, capable of calculating the distance between a vehicle of one's own and an object, even if there is no difference in brightness in the contact point between the object and the road surface. <P>SOLUTION: The device includes a camera 1, disposed at a prescribed position of the vehicle of one's own and for imaging the vicinity of one's own vehicle and a microcomputer 4 for extracting a characteristic point, such that the brightness is considerably different from that of the neighboring region thereof from the image taken by the camera 1, in which a reference characteristic point existing on the road surface in the real space is extracted from the extracted characteristic points by the microcomputer 4, and in which the real spatial positions of the reference characteristic point and the characteristic point are calculated from the time variation in the image positions of the reference characteristic point and the characteristic point. Thus, the distance between the vehicle of one's own and the object is calculated, from the real spatial position of the reference characteristic point or the characteristic point. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an in-vehicle distance calculation device that calculates a distance between a host vehicle and an object.

Conventionally, techniques for mounting a sensor on a host vehicle and calculating the distance from the host vehicle to an object in front of the host vehicle have been studied, but the distance from an image captured by a single camera to the target object Compared with the method of calculating the distance using a stereo camera, the method of calculating is advantageous in that it is inexpensive and the system configuration is simple. Thus, in order to calculate the distance from the single camera to the object, the distance is calculated as follows. That is, one camera is installed in the vehicle at a height H and an angle θ with respect to the road surface. When the vertical coordinate of the object on the image captured by the camera is yt and the focal length of the camera is f, the distance L to the object is calculated by Expression (1).
L = H (yt · tan θ + f) / (f · tan θ−yt) (1)
JP 2001-116512 A JP-A-5-157557

However, in the conventional technology as described above, the position of the camera, the plane of the road surface, and the contact point between the object and the road surface are used for triangulation to determine the distance between the vehicle and the object. In order to calculate the distance, the contact between the object and the road surface cannot be detected due to the shadow of the object, such as when there is no luminance difference between the contact point of the object and the road surface. The distance could not be calculated.
The objective of this invention is providing the vehicle-mounted distance calculation apparatus which can calculate the distance of the own vehicle and a target object cheaply.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, an in-vehicle distance calculation device according to the present invention includes an imaging unit that captures an image of the vicinity of the host vehicle, a feature point extraction unit that extracts a feature point from an image captured by the imaging unit, From the reference feature point extraction means that extracts the reference feature points existing on the road surface in real space, and the reference feature points and the actual space positions of the feature points are calculated from temporal changes in the image positions of the reference feature points and feature points And a target distance calculation means for calculating a distance between the host vehicle and the target object from a reference feature point or a real space position of the feature point.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the vehicle-mounted distance calculation apparatus which can calculate the distance of the own vehicle and a target object at low cost can be provided.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the drawings described below, components having the same function are denoted by the same reference numerals, and repeated description thereof is omitted.
FIG. 1 is a configuration block of an embodiment of an in-vehicle distance calculation device according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, a camera 1, a vehicle sensor 2, an image memory 3, a microcomputer 4, and an alarm device 5 are connected.
The camera 1 is provided at a predetermined position of the host vehicle, for example, at the front of the vehicle, and images the front of the host vehicle. The vehicle sensor 2 measures the behavior and the steering angle of the host vehicle. The image memory 3 converts the signal input from the camera 1 into a digital value and holds it. The microcomputer 4 inputs the digital image stored in the image memory 3 and calculates the distance from the host vehicle to the front object (obstacle). Further, the microcomputer 4 predicts the position of the host vehicle after a predetermined time from the host vehicle speed and the steering angle input from the vehicle sensor 2, and determines whether or not to collide with a front object. When the microcomputer 4 determines that the microcomputer 4 collides with a front obstacle, the alarm device 5 sounds a buzzer, for example.

  2 and 3 are diagrams showing a basic principle for extracting a reference feature point existing on the road surface in the real space from the feature points extracted by the microcomputer 4 in the present embodiment. FIG. 2 shows the object 12 and its shadow 15 on the image captured by the camera 1. 3A shows a traveling scene on the traveling road surface of the host vehicle 10 and the preceding vehicle 11, and FIG. 3B shows a captured image captured by the camera 1 at that time. As shown in FIG. 2, a reference feature point determination window 16 having a predetermined size is disposed in the vicinity of the feature point 13 (in this case, a set of four pieces), and the image luminance value in the reference feature point determination window 16 The average value and variance value are calculated. Since the reference feature point determination window 16b is a shadow projected on the road surface, the average luminance value is offset and lowered by the shadow and the variance value is the same as the road surface surface compared to the reference feature point determination window 16a which is the road surface. Since they are the same texture, they are equal. In this way, by extracting the feature points having the same variance value of the reference feature point determination window 16 and the average luminance value being bipolar to the luminance value offset by the road surface luminance and the shadow, the object itself is extracted. Only the shadow feature points can be extracted from the included feature points. Further, as shown in FIG. 3, a pattern immediately before the host vehicle 10 is set as a reference road surface 17 and pattern data of the reference road surface 17 is stored from a captured image. Next, by extracting only those having a high degree of correlation between this pattern and the reference feature point determination window 16, only the shadow feature points on the road surface can be extracted from the extracted shadow feature points.

FIGS. 4 to 8 show reference features in real space from the reference feature points 14 which are feature points of the object 12 on the road surface and the coordinates of the feature points 13 of the object 12 in the present embodiment. The basic principle for calculating the positional relationship between the point 14 and the feature point 13 of the object 12 is shown.
FIGS. 4A and 4B show the real space positions and captured image coordinates of the reference feature point 14 and the feature point 13 at time T0 and time T1, respectively. FIGS. 5A and 5B are views from above. 6 (a) and 6 (b) show the relationship between the real space position and the captured image coordinates viewed from the side, respectively, and FIG. 7 shows the relationship between the actual space position and the captured image coordinates. FIG. 8 shows the real space positions of the reference feature point 14 and the feature point 13 in the real space as viewed from the side.
As shown in FIG. 4A, the image coordinates of the reference feature point 14 of the object 12 at time T0 are (x _bo , y _b0 ), the real space position is (X _bo , Y _b0 , 0), and the object 12 The image coordinates of the feature point 13 are (x _fo , y _f0 ), and the real space position is (X _f0 , Y _f0 , Z _fo ). Also, as shown in FIG. 4B, the image coordinates of the reference feature point 14 of the object 12 at time T1 are (x _b1 , y _b1 ), the real space position is (X _b1 , Y _b1 , 0), and the object The image coordinates of the feature point 13 of the object 12 are (x _f1 , y _f1 ), and the real space position is (X _f1 , Y _f1 , Z _f1 ). 5 and 6, the deviation angle from the visual axis in real space (hereinafter referred to as the viewing angle) (θx, θy) is geometrically expressed using the image position (x, y) as follows: It can be seen that
θx = f (x)
θy = g (y) (2)
That is, the relationship between the deviation pixel from the visual axis and the deviation angle from the visual axis is expressed by the following equation.
θx = 2 tan ⁻¹ (Cx / 2 · F) / Pix · Px
θy = 2tan ⁻¹ (Cy / 2 · F) / Pyy · Py
FIG. 7 shows the real space positions of the reference feature point 14 and the feature point 13 at time T0 and time T1. In this way, when the reference feature point 14 and the feature point 13 separated by dY at the real space position are imaged from the camera 1 mounted on the vehicle at the height H, the real space positions of the reference feature point 14 and the feature point 13 at time T0 are ,
θ _bT0 = H / L (3)
θ _fT0 = (H−Z) / (L + dY) (4)
It becomes.
Further, the spatial position when the reference feature point 14 and the feature point 13 are moved by the relative distance dY by the time T1 is:
θ _bT1 = H / (L + dL) (5)
θ _fT1 = (H−Z) / (L + dY + dL) (6)
It becomes.
Further, from the expression (2), all the viewing angles θ _bT0 , θ _fT0 , θ _bT1 , and θ _fT1 can be calculated from the captured image coordinates. Furthermore, since the installation height H of the camera is known, the real space position difference dY and the height Z between the reference feature point 14 and the feature point 13 are calculated using the equations (3), (4), (5), and (6).
dY = ([theta] _fT1 / [theta] _{bT1- [} theta _{] fT0} / [theta] _bT0 ) / ([theta] _{fT0- [} theta _{] fT1} ) _.H (7)
Z = (1− (θ _fT0 · θ _fT1 (θ _bT0 −θ _bT1 )) / (θ _bT0 · θ _bT1 (θ _fT0 −θ _fT1 ))) · H (8)
It becomes.
FIG. 8 shows the spatial positions of the reference feature point 14 and the feature point 13 in the horizontal direction when viewed from the visual axis of the camera 1. The reference feature point 14, the lateral positions X _b and X _{f of the} feature point 13, and the reference feature point 14 The positional difference dX of the feature point 13 is
X _b = L · tan θ _xb
X _f = (L + dY) · tan θ _xf
dX = X _b −X _f
And can be calculated by substituting equations (3) and (7).
That is, by measuring temporal changes of the reference feature point 14 on the road surface of the object 12 and the feature point 13 of the object 12, the real space position (arrangement) of these two points can be calculated.

FIG. 9 shows a processing flow for calculating the distance to the object in accordance with the basic principle described above.
In step S100, the signal output from the camera 1 is converted into a digital value and image luminance information is read from the stored image memory 2.
In step S101, vertical and horizontal edge images are calculated by applying vertical and horizontal sobel filters to the image luminance signal input in step S100.
S102 is a process of extracting the intersection of the vertical edge image and the horizontal edge image calculated in S101 as a feature point.
S103 is a clustering process for labeling each object based on the movement of the feature points extracted in S102 between frames.
S104 is a process of extracting a reference feature point that is an intersection of shadows projected on the road surface from the feature points extracted for each object clustered in S103.
In step S105, for each object clustered in step S103, the spatial position of the reference feature point in the real space is determined from the temporal change in the image feature coordinates of the reference feature point extracted in step S104 and other feature points extracted in step S102. This is a calculation process.
S106 is a triangulation using a known camera installation position, a reference road surface immediately before the host vehicle (17 in FIG. 3), and a reference feature point that is a contact point between the object and the road surface calculated in S105. This is a process for calculating the distance from the vehicle to the object (target object) by the law.
S107 is a process for inputting the speed and steering angle of the host vehicle from the vehicle sensor 2.
S108 is a process of calculating the own vehicle position after a predetermined time from the own vehicle behavior input in S107.
S109 is a process of determining whether or not the vehicle collides from the distance to the object calculated in SS106 and the position of the host vehicle calculated in S108 after a predetermined time.
If it is determined in S109 that the collision has occurred in S110, the S111 process is performed. In step S111, the driver is warned of a collision with an object with the buzzer of the alarm device 5.

As described above, the in-vehicle distance calculation apparatus according to the present embodiment is arranged at a predetermined position of the host vehicle, and captures the vicinity of the host vehicle from the camera 1 that captures the vicinity of the host vehicle. The microcomputer 4 that extracts feature points such as a large luminance difference and the microcomputer 4 that extracts the reference feature points existing on the road surface in real space from the feature points extracted by the microcomputer 4 The microcomputer 4 for calculating the reference feature point and the real space position of the feature point from the temporal change of the reference feature point and the image position of the feature point, and the reference feature point or feature point calculated by the microcomputer 4 The microcomputer 4 calculates the distance between the vehicle and the object from the real space position of the vehicle. Number and is). Note that the microcomputers 4 and S102 are feature point extraction means, the microcomputers 4 and S104 are reference feature point extraction means, the microcomputers 4 and S105 are real space position calculation means, and the microcomputers 4 and S106 are object distance calculations. Corresponds to means.
In this way, the feature points on the road surface among the feature points of the object are used as the reference feature points, and each feature point is measured using a single camera by paying attention to the temporal change of the reference feature points and feature points. Therefore, the distance from the host vehicle to the object can be calculated at a low cost, and the system configuration is simple.

  Moreover, this vehicle-mounted distance calculation apparatus extracts the shadow on the road surface of the target object as the reference feature point in the microcomputer 4 that extracts the reference feature point. Since the shadow on the road surface of the object is used as a reference feature point in this way, even if there is no luminance difference between the contact point of the object and the road surface, such as when a tire cannot be recognized due to a vehicle shadow, Even when the contact point on the road surface cannot be detected, the distance to the object can be calculated.

  The embodiment described above is described in order to facilitate understanding of the present invention, and is not described in order to limit the present invention. Therefore, each element disclosed in the above embodiment includes all design changes and equivalents belonging to the technical scope of the present invention.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the vehicle-mounted distance calculation apparatus of embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the basic principle of the vehicle-mounted distance calculation apparatus of embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the basic principle of the vehicle-mounted distance calculation apparatus of embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the basic principle of the vehicle-mounted distance calculation apparatus of embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the basic principle of the vehicle-mounted distance calculation apparatus of embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the basic principle of the vehicle-mounted distance calculation apparatus of embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the basic principle of the vehicle-mounted distance calculation apparatus of embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the basic principle of the vehicle-mounted distance calculation apparatus of embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart explaining the flow of operation | movement of the vehicle-mounted distance calculation apparatus of embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Camera 2 ... Vehicle sensor 3 ... Image memory 4 ... Microcomputer 5 ... Alarm apparatus 10 ... Own vehicle 11 ... Predecessor vehicle 12 ... Object 13 ... Feature point 14 ... Reference | standard feature point 15 ... Object shadow 16, 16a, 16b ... Reference feature point determination window 17 ... Reference runway surface

Claims (2)

An imaging means that is arranged at a predetermined position of the host vehicle and images the vicinity of the host vehicle;
Feature point extraction means for extracting feature points from the image captured by the imaging means;
Reference feature point extraction means for extracting a reference feature point existing on the road surface in real space from the feature points extracted by the feature point extraction means;
Real space position calculating means for calculating the reference feature point and the real space position of the feature point from the temporal change of the reference feature point and the image position of the feature point;
It has object distance calculation means for calculating the distance between the vehicle and the object from the reference feature point calculated by the real space position calculation means or the real space position of the feature point. In-vehicle distance calculation device.   The in-vehicle distance calculation device according to claim 1, wherein the reference feature point extracting means extracts a shadow of the object on the road surface as the reference feature point.

Images