JP2891601B2 - Vehicle width detection device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention automatically measures a vehicle width or a side mirror interval of a car entering a mechanical parking lot having a facility for automatically storing, storing and unloading a car such as a multi-story parking lot. The present invention relates to a vehicle width detecting device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a mechanical parking lot having a facility for automatically storing, storing, and taking out a car, such as a multi-story parking lot, the dimensions of the car to be stored are limited by the width of the vehicle, There are restrictions on vehicle height, etc. In particular, when the side mirror is opened, there is a risk of being damaged due to collision or contact with the parking lot building or the mechanical structure during the transportation and storage process. For this reason, the vehicle position, vehicle height, etc. are measured by an ultrasonic range finder or a photoelectric tube sensor when the vehicle is parked, but since these are point measurements at one point per sensor, the parking position is not always constant at the time of parking. The technique of automatically measuring the width of a vehicle and the distance between mirrors cannot be detected, and the vehicle width, particularly the mirror interval, can be automatically measured regardless of the position of the vehicle.

[0003]

Therefore, at present, at the time of parking, the manager of the parking lot determines the vehicle width based on the type of vehicle, the size of the vehicle, the presence or absence of folding of the mirror, and the like, and determines whether or not the vehicle can be stored in the facility. doing. However, this person's judgment involves human error, so prevent it, and automatically adjust the vehicle width, especially the mirror distance, from the needs of storage efficiency improvement from the viewpoint of effective land utilization or the need for labor saving. And the development of the technique which measures correctly is desired.

It is an object of the present invention to automatically measure the vehicle width and the mirror interval with low-cost equipment from such trends.

[0005]

The structure of the present invention for achieving the above object will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3 corresponding to the embodiment. And one C. measuring the distance between the side mirrors. C. D camera 4 and the C.D. C. An image processing device 5 having a calculation function of calculating a difference between two images that are delayed with respect to time by the D camera 4 and converting a detected image element position on the image into an actual target position from the difference; A distance measuring device 9 for measuring the height of the hood or the roof of the entering vehicle, and a controller 6 for correcting a position obtained by the image processing device 5 based on a measured value of the distance measuring device 9 and issuing an alarm. .

[0006]

SUMMARY OF] and the invention is a camera imaging a state in which the car is not Receipt by the above means as a reference image I _0, constantly captures an image with the same camera, when the image and I _j, the difference [Delta] I _j is the reference screen And a signal representing the instantaneous change. That is, when the car is parked, | ΔI _j | ≠ 0, and the state of the motion of the car (whether or not stopped) can be determined by comparing the difference ΔI _j−1 and ΔI _j before that. When the vehicle stops, the absolute value of the difference from the reference screen is calculated, and the calculated value is binarized (hereinafter, this screen is referred to as a difference binarization screen). An image element not present is set to 0. If the camera is fixed so that the camera image is substantially perpendicular or parallel to the car, the upper or lower end, or the right or left end picture element which becomes 1 on the difference calculation screen corresponds to the picture element at the mirror tip.

Accordingly, the distance between the mirrors can be determined by calculating the distance between these image element positions. Similarly, the vehicle width can be easily calculated from the image element position in the horizontal or right angle direction where 0 → 1 or 1 → 0 on the difference binary screen. By comparing the measurement result of the vehicle width or the mirror interval obtained in this way with a predetermined standard length, an alarm can be easily issued to a vehicle that is not properly accommodated or a vehicle that requires the mirror to be folded.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. C. is placed on the ceiling 3 above the storage rack 2. C. D camera 4 is arranged, and as shown in FIG.
-1 as a reference picture I _0. Take images B7-2 when the car 1 is stopped and receipts as shown in FIG. 2 (b), as shown in FIG. 3 when calculating the difference absolute value between the picture I ₁ and the reference picture I ₀ The difference absolute value screen ΔI is obtained. The pixels at the upper end A ₁ and the lower end A ₂ of this screen are respectively shown in FIG.
And the left and right mirrors 8-1 and 8-2 of the vehicle.
Therefore, by performing an appropriate calculation from the pixel coordinate information of the upper end A ₁ and the lower end A ₂ , the width X ₂ of the mirror can be measured as shown in FIG. Similarly, the vehicle width X ₁ is the point B ₁ on FIG.
And it can be easily calculated from the point B _2. The presence or absence of parking or the stop of the vehicle can be easily determined based on whether ΔI = 0 or whether the boundary position C on the horizontal line near the center of FIG. 3 on ΔI changes every moment. Alternatively, if there is a signal from another system such as parking or stopping the vehicle, these can be diverted. These calculations are performed by the image processing device 5.

Mirror spacing A on picture element₁A_Two(Fig. 3)
It is proportional to the actual mirror distance, but the mirror is riding
Since the height of the car from the floor is slightly different, the mirror distance A
₁A _TwoThis difference in height when calculating the actual interval from
Needs to be taken into account. 9 is the distance fixed to the ceiling
It is a separation measuring device that measures the bonnet position
Its height y as shown in FIG._BYou can know. Bo
Net height y_BAnd mirror height y_mGenerally has a strong correlation
Because of this, the correction based on the mirror height is
_BCan be performed.

In the figure, reference numeral 6 denotes a controller for correcting the measurement results of the vehicle width and the mirror interval with the output of the distance measuring device 9 and issuing an alarm based on the final measured value or setting the image pickup timing of the image processing device 5. is there. FIG. 4 shows a processing flow of the measurement.

[0011]

As described above, according to the present invention, the vehicle width and the distance between the side mirrors of a car are measured at the car parking place.
C. C. D camera and the C.D. C. By calculating the difference between two images that are delayed with respect to each other in time taken by the D camera,
An image processing apparatus having an arithmetic function for converting a detected image element position on an image from the difference into an actual target position, a distance measuring device for measuring a height of a hood or a roof of the entering vehicle, and the distance measuring device And a controller that corrects the position obtained by the image processing device according to the measured value and issues an alarm, so that the vehicle width and the side mirror interval can be reduced by a relatively simple processing algorithm from a relatively simple device configuration. Since the measurement can be performed with high accuracy, there is an effect that the merit for automation of the mechanical parking lot and improvement of safety can be realized at low cost.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an imaged screen.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a calculation screen of an image processing device difference absolute value.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a measurement process.

[Explanation of symbols]

 4 CCD camera 5 Image processing device 6 Controller 9 Distance measuring device

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Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] At least one C.I. measuring a vehicle width and a side mirror interval at a parking place of a car. C. D camera and the C.D. C. 2 which are mutually delayed in terms of time taken by the D camera
An image processing device having an arithmetic function of calculating a difference between the images and converting the detected image element position on the image from the difference into an actual target position, and measuring the height of the hood or roof of the entering vehicle. A vehicle width detecting device comprising: a distance measuring device; and a controller that corrects a position obtained by the image processing device based on a measurement value of the distance measuring device and issues an alarm.