JP5440907B2 - Image recognition device and vehicle exterior monitoring device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an image recognition device that captures a three-dimensional image of a subject with a simple configuration and obtains distance information from the captured image, and an out-of-vehicle monitoring device that uses the image recognition device.

  Conventionally, a stereo camera is known as a technique for measuring the three-dimensional position of a subject. The stereo camera calculates the three-dimensional position information of the subject by analyzing the captured images of two cameras with different viewpoints. In a stereo camera, the distance between two cameras (the distance between the optical axes) is the baseline length, and the three-dimensional position information of the subject is taken by the two cameras, which is the difference in image coordinates due to the difference in the viewpoints of the two cameras. Can be easily calculated from the parallax and the baseline length. In this stereo camera, the three-dimensional position can be calculated only for a subject that is shown in common in the two cameras.

  In order to perform parallax detection with this stereo camera with high accuracy, as shown in Patent Document 1, it is substantially the same for installing the cameras at both ends of the stay so that the positions of the two cameras are not displaced. An installation surface included in the plane is provided, and a camera is installed on these two installation surfaces to improve the mounting accuracy of the two cameras.

  Further, for example, Patent Document 2 discloses a road surface state determination device that determines the road surface condition using two cameras. The road surface state discrimination device disclosed in Patent Document 2 includes a camera that shoots a horizontally polarized image by arranging a polarization filter at a position that transmits vertically polarized light, and a polarization filter that is disposed at a position that transmits horizontally polarized light. A camera that captures vertically polarized images, and corrects misalignment caused by parallax between the horizontally polarized image and the vertically polarized image obtained by simultaneously capturing the same scene. The road condition is determined.

  However, if two cameras are used, the apparatus becomes large and the cost increases. Further, as shown in Patent Document 2, if the positional deviation due to the parallax between the horizontally polarized image and the vertically polarized image captured by the two cameras is corrected, the processing becomes complicated.

  On the other hand, for example, Patent Document 3 discloses a road surface state determination device that determines the road surface state without using two cameras. The road surface wetness state detection apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 3 is provided with a linear polarizer on the front surface of an imaging device arranged so as to have a brute angle of water toward the road surface, and when photographing a road surface, the linear polarizer is moved by a motor. The polarization ratio between the vertically polarized image and the horizontally polarized image captured by rotating and switching the polarization plane between the vertical direction and the horizontal direction is calculated, and the road surface state is determined based on the calculated polarization ratio.

  The road surface wetness state detection device disclosed in Patent Document 3 rotates the polarizer and rotates the polarization surface in the vertical and horizontal directions when photographing the road surface, so that the imaging device is installed in a fixed place. If you are trying to determine the road surface condition while driving on the road instead of being mounted on a vehicle such as an automobile, take a place where the vertical polarization image and the horizontal polarization image are completely different depending on the time difference of rotating the polarizer. In other words, there is a disadvantage that the road surface state cannot be determined while traveling.

  In addition, since a motor and a drive transmission mechanism for rotating the polarizer are necessary, the road surface wetness state detection device itself is increased in size. When this road surface wetness detection device is mounted on, for example, an automobile, it is desirable that the road surface wetness detection device is built in the rearview mirror or attached to the rear surface of the rearview mirror. There is. Furthermore, it is necessary to periodically perform maintenance and inspection of the motor and the drive transmission mechanism.

An object of the present invention is to provide an image recognition apparatus that improves such disadvantages, captures a three-dimensional image of a subject with a simple configuration, obtains distance information from the captured image, and an out-of-vehicle monitoring apparatus using the image recognition apparatus. It is what.

The image recognition apparatus according to the present invention is an image recognition apparatus that captures a front image, and includes an imaging apparatus and an image signal processing apparatus. The imaging apparatus converts incident light into light having a horizontal polarization component and a vertical polarization component. The image signal processing apparatus includes: a polarization separating unit that separates the light into a light beam; and an image capturing unit that picks up a horizontally polarized image and a vertically polarized image by entering the light of the horizontally and vertically polarized components separated by the polarization separating unit. , the generate Henhikarihiga image by processing horizontal polarization image and the vertical polarization image captured by the imaging means, from the generated Henhikarihiga image wherein the distance information of the three-dimensional Mel determined.

A second image recognition apparatus according to the present invention is an image recognition apparatus that captures a front image, and includes an imaging apparatus and an image signal processing apparatus. The imaging apparatus includes a first imaging unit, a first imaging unit, and a first imaging unit. A second image pickup unit arranged close to the image pickup unit, wherein the first image pickup unit separates the light of the horizontal polarization component from the incident light by the polarization separation means; Image pickup means for picking up the horizontally polarized component light and picking up a horizontally polarized image, and the second image pickup unit is a polarization separation means for separating the vertically polarized light component from the incident light, Image pickup means for picking up a vertically polarized image by entering light of a vertically polarized component separated by the polarization separation means, and the image signal processing device includes the first image pickup unit and the second image pickup unit. Captured horizontal polarization image and vertical polarization Processing the image to generate a Henhikarihiga image, the generated Henhikarihiga distance information of the three-dimensional from image and wherein the mel determined.

A third image recognition apparatus according to the present invention is an image recognition apparatus that captures a front image, and includes an imaging apparatus and an image signal processing apparatus. The imaging apparatus includes an optical branching unit, a first imaging unit, and the like. A second imaging unit, and the light branching unit branches incident light in two directions, and the first imaging unit is configured to generate a horizontal polarization component from one of the lights branched by the light branching unit. A polarization separation unit that separates light; and an imaging unit that captures a horizontally polarized image by entering light of a horizontal polarization component separated by the polarization separation unit, and the second imaging unit includes the light branching unit. Polarization separation means for separating the light of the vertical polarization component from the other light branched in step (b), and imaging means for picking up the vertical polarization image by entering the light of the vertical polarization component separated by the polarization separation means. , The image signal processing device includes: Processing the horizontally polarized image and the vertical polarization image captured by the image unit and the second imaging unit generates Henhikarihiga image, and wherein the distance information of the three-dimensional Mel determined from the generated Henhikarihiga image .

A fourth image recognition apparatus according to the present invention is an image recognition apparatus that captures a front image, and includes an imaging apparatus and an image signal processing apparatus. The imaging apparatus includes an area division filter, a first imaging unit, and the like. A second image pickup unit, wherein the region dividing filter separates the incident light into light of a horizontal polarization component and light of a vertical polarization component, and branches in two directions; Imaging means for capturing a horizontally polarized image by entering the light of the horizontally polarized component separated by the division filter, and the second imaging unit receives the light of the vertically polarized component separated by the region dividing filter. Imaging means for capturing a vertically polarized image, and the image signal processing device processes a horizontally polarized image and a vertically polarized image captured by the first imaging unit and the second imaging unit to obtain a polarization ratio image. to generate the image, generation Distance information of the three-dimensional from Henhikarihiga image was characterized by Mel determined.

  It is preferable to provide an imaging optical system in the previous stage of the light branching means and the previous stage of the area dividing filter.

  A vehicle exterior monitoring device according to the present invention includes the image recognition device, a central processing device, and a display device, and is mounted on a vehicle. The central processing device is configured to detect a road shape and a plurality of information from images and distance information captured by the image recognition device. A three-dimensional position of a three-dimensional object is detected at high speed and displayed on the display device.

  The image recognition apparatus according to the present invention separates the light incident by one image pickup device into light of a horizontal polarization component and light of a vertical polarization component, and picks up a horizontal polarization image and a vertical polarization image. The parallax of the image can be made very small.

  The captured horizontal polarization image and vertical polarization image are processed to generate a polarization ratio image or a polarization difference image, and a distance image having three-dimensional distance information is obtained from the generated polarization ratio image or polarization difference image, so that parallax deviation correction is performed. It is possible to obtain three-dimensional distance information by simplifying the processing without the need for such processing.

  In addition, the vehicle outside monitoring device using the image recognition device according to the present invention can confirm whether a vehicle or a pedestrian approaches by recognizing three-dimensional distance information, and can improve safety. .

It is a block diagram of the image recognition apparatus of this invention. It is a block diagram of a monitoring apparatus outside a vehicle. It is a figure which shows a horizontal polarization image and a vertical polarization image. It is a figure which shows a polarization ratio image. It is a change characteristic figure of the polarization ratio with respect to distance. It is a figure which shows a polarization difference image. It is a block diagram of a 2nd imaging device. It is a block diagram of a 3rd imaging device. It is a block diagram of a 4th imaging device. It is a perspective view which shows the structure of the polarizer area | region of an area | region division filter. It is a perspective view which shows arrangement | positioning of the polarizer area | region of an area division filter.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an image recognition apparatus according to the present invention. As shown in the figure, the image recognition device 1 includes an imaging device 2 and an image signal processing device 3. The imaging device 2 includes a first imaging unit 4 and a second imaging unit 5 that is arranged close to and parallel to the first imaging unit 4. The first imaging unit 4 includes a first imaging unit 41 having an imaging optical system 411 and a solid-state imaging unit 412, and a linear polarizer 42 provided in the front stage of the first imaging unit 41. The second imaging unit 5 includes a second imaging unit 51 having an imaging optical system 511 and a solid-state imaging unit 512, and a linear polarizer 52 provided in the previous stage of the second imaging unit 51. The linear polarizer 42 of the first imaging unit 4 transmits the horizontal polarization component of the light incident from the front of the imaging device 2 and enters the first imaging means 41. The first imaging means 41 captures a horizontally polarized image with the incident horizontally polarized component. The linear polarizer 52 of the second imaging unit 5 transmits the vertically polarized component of the light incident from the front of the imaging device 2 and enters the second imaging unit 51. The second imaging means 51 captures a vertically polarized image with the incident vertically polarized component.

  The image signal processing device 3 includes an image processing unit 6 and an arithmetic processing unit 7. The image processing unit 6 processes the horizontally polarized image captured by the first imaging unit 41 and the vertically polarized image captured by the second imaging unit 51 to generate a polarization ratio image. The arithmetic processing unit 7 calculates a three-dimensional distance from the polarization ratio image generated by the image processing unit 4 to the subject.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the image recognition device 1 is used for a vehicle outside monitoring device 9 mounted on a vehicle 8 such as an automobile. The vehicle outside monitoring device 9 captures images of information on the front and left and right in the traveling direction of the vehicle 8 and recognizes and confirms cars and pedestrians on both the left and right with respect to the traveling direction from the captured images. It has a recognition device 1, a central processing device 10 and a display device 11. The image recognition device 1 is disposed at a position that does not block the driver's field of view, such as the rear stage of the rear mirror of the vehicle 8. The central processing unit 10 detects the road shape and the three-dimensional positions of a plurality of three-dimensional objects at high speed from the images captured by the image recognition device 1 and distance information, and identifies a preceding vehicle and an obstacle based on the detection result, thereby causing a collision. When an alarm judgment process or the like is performed and the recognized object is an obstacle of the host vehicle 8, an actuator (not shown) is displayed in addition to displaying the warning on the display device 11 installed in front of the driver. Automatic collision avoidance control of the vehicle body and the like are possible by connecting an external device for controlling the vehicle.

  A process when the vehicle outside monitoring device 9 having the image recognition device 1 captures an image of information ahead of the traveling direction of the vehicle 8 to recognize and confirm an automobile, a pedestrian, or the like will be described.

  When the imaging device 2 of the image recognition device 1 starts photographing in front of the vehicle 8 in the traveling direction, the linear polarizer 42 of the first imaging unit 4 transmits the light of the horizontal polarization component in the incident light and transmits the first light. 1 is incident on the image pickup means 41. The first imaging means 41 captures a horizontally polarized image 43 as shown in FIG. 3A, for example, by the incident horizontal polarization component, and the captured horizontal polarized image 43 is input to the image processing unit 6 of the image signal processing unit 3. Output. Further, the linear polarizer 52 of the second image pickup unit 5 transmits the light of the vertical polarization component in the incident light and enters the second image pickup means 51. The second imaging means 51 captures a vertical polarization image 53 as shown in FIG. 3B by the incident vertical polarization component, and outputs the captured vertical polarization image 53 to the image processing unit 6 of the image signal processing unit 3. To do. Since the first image pickup means 41 and the second image pickup means 51 are arranged close to one image pickup apparatus 1, the distance between the first image pickup means 41 and the second image pickup means 51 can be close. In addition, the parallax between the horizontally polarized image 43 and the vertically polarized image 53 can be made extremely small, and the process can be simplified by eliminating the need for a process such as a parallax shift correction. FIG. 3 is an image taken through a bandpass filter having a wavelength of 650 nm.

  The image processing unit 6 processes the input horizontal polarization image 43 and vertical polarization image 53 to generate a polarization ratio image 63 shown in FIG. 4 and outputs it to the arithmetic processing unit 7. The arithmetic processing unit 7 calculates a three-dimensional distance from the input polarization ratio image 63 to the subject.

When calculating the distance from the polarization ratio image 63, assuming that the luminance of the horizontal polarization is Ia (x, y) and the luminance of the vertical polarization is Ib (x, y), the polarization ratio of the horizontal polarization image 43 and the vertical polarization image 53 P (x, y) is
P (x, y) = Ib (x, y) / Ia (x, y)
It can be expressed as
Therefore, FIG. 5 shows a change in the polarization ratio P (x, y) with respect to the distance of the road surface region indicated by the broken line in the polarization ratio image 63 shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 5, the polarization ratio P (x, y) has a linear relationship with the three-dimensional distance of the road surface region, and the three-dimensional distance can be calculated from the polarization ratio image 63.

  The central processing unit 10 displays the polarization ratio image 63 and the calculated three-dimensional distance information on the display unit 11. The driver of the vehicle 8 can confirm whether a car or a pedestrian approaches by recognizing the polarization ratio image 63 displayed on the display device 11 and the three-dimensional distance information, thereby improving safety. Can do.

In the above description, the case where the polarization ratio image 63 is generated from the captured horizontal polarization image 43 and vertical polarization image 53 and the three-dimensional distance information of the information ahead of the vehicle 8 is calculated has been described, but as shown in FIG. Then, a polarization difference image 73 as shown in FIG. 6 is generated from the horizontal polarization image 43 and the vertical polarization image 53, and the three-dimensional polarization ratio P1 (x, y) shown in the following equation of the generated polarization degree image 73 is generated. The distance may be calculated.
P1 (x, y) = {Ib (x, y) -Ia (x, y)} / {Ib (x, y) + Ia (x, y)}

  In the above description, the imaging optical system 411 is provided in the first imaging means 41 of the first imaging unit 4 of the imaging apparatus 2, and the imaging optical system 511 is provided in the second imaging means 51 of the second imaging unit 5. As shown in FIG. 7, the imaging device 2 a is provided with the imaging optical system 12 having one or a plurality of single lenses and the half mirror 13, and the imaging optical system 12 is connected to the first imaging unit 4. The light that is shared by the second imaging unit 5 and that indicates the forward information transmitted through the imaging optical system 12 is separated into light in two directions orthogonal to each other by the half mirror 13, and the light that has passed through the half mirror 13 is separated into the first imaging. The light incident on the unit 4 and reflected by the half mirror 13 may be incident on the second imaging unit 5.

  In this imaging device 2 a, a part of the light collected by the imaging optical system 12 passes through the half mirror 13 and enters the first imaging unit 4, and the first imaging unit 4 captures the horizontally polarized image 43. . Further, part of the light collected by the imaging optical system 12 is reflected by the half mirror 13 and incident on the second imaging unit 5, and the vertically polarized image 53 is captured by the second imaging unit 5. A polarization ratio image 63 and a polarization degree image 73 are generated from the captured horizontal polarization image 43 and vertical polarization image 53.

  As described above, the horizontally polarized image 43 and the vertically polarized image 53 can be captured by the light incident on one imaging optical system 12, and no parallax occurs between the captured horizontally polarized image 43 and the vertically polarized image 53. The detection areas of the image pickup unit 4 and the second image pickup unit 5 can be small, so that the image pickup apparatus 2a can be reduced in size, and processing such as parallax deviation correction can be omitted, thereby simplifying the processing.

  Further, instead of the half mirror 13, as shown in the configuration diagram of FIG. 8, a polarization beam splitter 14 that transmits a horizontal polarization component and reflects a vertical polarization component may be provided. Thus, the imaging device 2b provided with the polarization beam splitter 14 does not need to use the linear polarizer 43 and the linear polarizer 53, so that the optical system can be simplified and the light utilization rate can be improved.

  In the above description, the case where the imaging devices 2, 2 a, 2 b are provided with two solid-state imaging units 412, 512 has been described. Next, imaging with which one solid-state imaging unit captures the horizontally polarized image 43 and the vertically polarized image 53. The device 2c will be described.

  As shown in the exploded perspective view of FIG. 9, the imaging device 2 c is formed by laminating a lens array 21, a light shielding spacer 22, a polarizing filter 23, a spacer 24, and a solid-state imaging unit 25.

  The lens array 21 has two lenses 211a and 211b. The two lenses 211a and 211b are formed of a single lens made of, for example, an aspheric lens having the same shape independent from each other, and are arranged on the same plane with the optical axes 26a and 26b being parallel to each other. Here, assuming that the direction parallel to the optical axes 26a and 26b of the lenses 211a and 211b is the Z axis, the direction perpendicular to the Z axis is the X axis, and the direction perpendicular to the Z axis and the X axis is the Y axis, the lenses 211a and 211b. Are arranged on the same XY plane. The light shielding spacer 22 has two openings 221a and 221b, and is provided on the side opposite to the subject side with respect to the lens array 21. The two openings 221a and 221b are penetrated with a predetermined size centered on the optical axes 26a and 26b, respectively, and the inner wall surface is subjected to light reflection prevention processing by blackening, roughening or matting.

  The polarizing filter 23 includes two polarizer regions 231a and 231b having different polarization planes by 90 degrees, and is provided on the side opposite to the lens array 21 with respect to the light shielding spacer 22. The two polarizer regions 231a and 231b are provided in parallel with the XY plane around the optical axes 26a and 26b, respectively. The polarizer regions 231a and 231b convert non-polarized light whose electromagnetic field vibrates in an unspecified direction into linearly polarized light by transmitting only vibration components in the direction along the polarization plane. The spacer 24 is formed in a rectangular frame shape having an opening 241 through which regions corresponding to the polarizer regions 231a and 231b of the polarizing filter 23 pass, and is provided on the opposite side to the light shielding space 22 with respect to the polarizing filter 23. Yes. The solid-state imaging unit 25 has two solid-state imaging element regions 252 a and 252 b mounted on a substrate 251 having the image signal processing device 3, and is provided on the side opposite to the polarizing filter 23 with respect to the spacer 24. . The two solid-state image sensor regions 252a and 252b are provided on the same plane parallel to the XY plane with the optical axes 26a and 26b as the centers.

  The polarizer regions 231a and 231b of the polarization filter 23 of the imaging device 2c will be described with reference to the perspective view of FIG. The polarizer regions 231a and 231b are made of, for example, a polarizer made of a photonic crystal, and, as shown in FIG. 10, a transparent high refractive index medium layer 233 and a transparent substrate 232 on which periodic groove arrays are formed. The medium layers 234 having a low refractive index are alternately stacked while preserving the shape of the interface. The high refractive index medium layer 233 and the low refractive index medium layer 234 have periodicity in the X direction perpendicular to the groove rows of the transparent substrate 232, but are uniform in the Y direction parallel to the groove rows. There may be a periodic or aperiodic structure having a length larger than the X direction. Such a fine periodic structure (photonic crystal) can be produced with high reproducibility and high uniformity by using a method called a self-cloning technique described in JP-A-10-335758. it can.

As shown in the perspective view of FIG. 11A, the polarizer regions 231a and 231b made of photonic crystals are orthogonal coordinates having a Z axis parallel to the optical axes 26a and 26b and an XY axis orthogonal to the Z axis. The system comprises a multilayer structure in which two or more transparent materials are alternately laminated in the Z-axis direction on a single substrate 232 parallel to the XY plane, for example, an alternating multilayer film of Ta ₂ O ₅ and SiO ₂ , In the child regions 231a and 231b, each film has a concavo-convex shape, and this concavo-convex shape is formed by being periodically repeated in one direction in the XY plane. As shown in FIG. 11B, the polarizer region 231a has a groove direction parallel to the Y-axis direction, and the polarizer region 231b has a groove direction parallel to the X-axis direction. The direction of the grooves is different by 90 degrees between the polarizer region 231a and the polarizer region 231b. That is, from the input light incident on the XY plane, polarized components having different polarization directions are transmitted by the polarizer region 231a and the polarizer region 231b, and equal amounts of unpolarized components are respectively transmitted by the polarizer region 231a and the polarizer region 231b. It is designed to be transparent.

  The opening areas and transmission axes of the polarizer regions 231a and 231b can be freely designed according to the size and direction of the groove pattern to be processed on the transparent substrate 232 first. The groove pattern can be formed by various methods such as electron beam lithography, photolithography, interference exposure, and nanoprinting. In any case, the direction of the groove can be determined with high accuracy for each minute region. Therefore, it is possible to form a polarizer region in which micropolarizers having different transmission axes are combined, and a polarizer in which a plurality of polarizer regions are arranged. In addition, since only a specific region having a concavo-convex pattern operates as a polarizer, if the peripheral region is flat or isotropic concavo-convex pattern in the plane, light can be used as a medium having no polarization dependency. To Penetrate. Therefore, a polarizer can be formed only in a specific region.

  The light incident on the lenses 211a and 211b of the lens array 21 is separated into horizontal polarization components and vertical polarization components by the polarizer regions 231a and 231b of the polarization filter 23, and is separated into two solid-state imaging device regions 252a and 252b of the solid-state imaging unit 25. Incident light is picked up by the solid-state imaging unit 25 to pick up a horizontally polarized image and a vertically polarized image.

  Since the incident light is separated into the horizontal polarization component and the vertical polarization component by the polarization filter 23 and the horizontal polarization image and the vertical polarization image are captured by the solid-state imaging unit 25, the imaging device 1c can be reduced in size. At the same time, it is possible to simplify processing by eliminating processing such as parallax deviation correction.

  In the above description, the case where the polarizer regions 231a and 231b of the polarizing filter 23 are formed of, for example, a photonic crystal has been described. However, wire grid polarizers may be used as the polarizer regions 231a and 231b. This wire grid type polarizer is a polarizer formed by periodically arranging thin metal wires, and has been conventionally used in the millimeter wave region of electromagnetic waves. The structure of the wire grid polarizer has a structure in which fine metal wires that are sufficiently thin compared to the wavelength of the input light are arranged at intervals that are sufficiently short compared to the wavelength. It is already known that when light is incident on such a structure, polarized light parallel to the metal thin wire is reflected and polarized light orthogonal thereto is transmitted. With respect to the direction of the fine metal wire, since it can be produced by changing each region independently in one substrate, the characteristics of the wire grid polarizer can be changed for each region. If this is utilized, it can be set as the structure which changed the direction of the transmission axis for every polarizer area | region 231a, 231b.

  As a method for manufacturing this wire grid, a thin metal can be left by forming a metal film on a substrate and performing patterning by lithography. As another manufacturing method, a groove is formed on the substrate by lithography, and a metal is formed by vacuum deposition from a direction perpendicular to the direction of the groove and inclined from the normal line of the substrate (a direction oblique to the substrate surface). It can produce by doing. In vacuum deposition, particles flying from the deposition source hardly collide with other molecules or atoms in the middle of the deposition, and the particles travel linearly from the deposition source to the substrate. On the other hand, at the bottom part (concave part) of the groove, the film is shielded by the convex part and hardly formed. Therefore, by controlling the amount of film formation, a metal film can be formed only on the convex portion of the groove formed on the substrate, and a thin metal wire can be produced. The wire metal used in the wire grid polarizer is preferably aluminum or silver, but the same phenomenon can be realized even with other metals such as tungsten. In addition, as lithography, optical lithography, electron beam lithography, X-ray lithography, and the like can be given. However, when an operation with visible light is assumed, the interval between thin lines is about 100 nm, and thus electron beam lithography or X-ray lithography is more preferable. . Also, vacuum deposition is desirable for metal film formation. However, since the directionality of particles incident on the substrate is important, sputtering in a high vacuum atmosphere or collimation sputtering using a collimator is also possible.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1; Image recognition apparatus, 2; Imaging apparatus, 3; Image signal processing apparatus,
4; first imaging unit, 5; second imaging unit, 6; image processing unit,
7; arithmetic processing unit, 8; vehicle, 9; outside monitoring device, 10; central processing unit,
11: Display device, 12: Imaging optical system, 13: Half mirror,
14; polarizing beam splitter, 23; polarizing filter, 41; first imaging means,
42; linear polarizer; 51; second imaging means; 52; linear polarizer;
411, 511; imaging optical system, 412, 512; solid-state imaging unit.

International Publication WO2006 / 052024 JP 2006-58122 A JP-A-10-332576

Claims (7)

An image recognition device that captures a front image,
Having an imaging device and an image signal processing device;
The imaging apparatus includes: a polarization separation unit that separates incident light into horizontal polarization component light and vertical polarization component light; and a horizontal polarization image obtained by entering the horizontal polarization component light and the vertical polarization component light separated by the polarization separation unit. Imaging means for capturing a vertically polarized image,
The image signal processing apparatus, a feature of the horizontal polarization image and the vertical polarization image processes to generate a Henhikarihiga image, it from the generated Henhikarihiga image mel calculated distance information of the three-dimensional imaged by the imaging unit Image recognition device. An image recognition device that captures a front image,
Having an imaging device and an image signal processing device;
The imaging apparatus includes a first imaging unit and a second imaging unit arranged in proximity to the first imaging unit,
The first imaging unit captures a horizontally polarized image by injecting a horizontally polarized light separated by the polarization separating means and a polarization separating means for separating horizontally polarized light from the incident light. Means,
The second image pickup unit picks up a vertically polarized image by applying a polarization separating unit that separates light of a vertical polarization component from incident light and light of a vertical polarization component separated by the polarization separation unit. Means,
The image signal processing apparatus processes the first image pickup unit and the horizontal polarization image and the vertical polarization image captured by the second imaging unit generates Henhikarihiga image, resulting from Henhikarihiga image of a three-dimensional it distance information Mel determined image recognition apparatus according to claim. An image recognition device that captures a front image,
Having an imaging device and an image signal processing device;
The imaging apparatus includes a light branching unit, a first imaging unit, and a second imaging unit,
The light branching means branches incident light in two directions,
The first imaging unit is configured to receive a polarization separation unit that separates light of a horizontal polarization component from one of the lights branched by the light branching unit, and light of a horizontal polarization component separated by the polarization separation unit. Imaging means for capturing a horizontally polarized image,
The second imaging unit is configured to receive a polarization separation unit that separates light of a vertical polarization component from the other light branched by the light branching unit, and light of a vertical polarization component separated by the polarization separation unit. Imaging means for capturing a vertically polarized image,
The image signal processing apparatus processes the first image pickup unit and the horizontal polarization image and the vertical polarization image captured by the second imaging unit generates Henhikarihiga image, resulting from Henhikarihiga image of a three-dimensional it distance information Mel determined image recognition apparatus according to claim.   4. The image recognition apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising an imaging optical system in front of the light branching unit. An image recognition apparatus that obtains a distance image by capturing a front image,
Having an imaging device and an image signal processing device;
The imaging apparatus includes a region dividing filter, a first imaging unit, and a second imaging unit,
The region dividing filter separates incident light into light of a horizontal polarization component and light of a vertical polarization component and branches in two directions,
The first imaging unit includes imaging means for capturing a horizontally polarized image by entering light of a horizontally polarized component separated by the region dividing filter,
The second imaging unit includes an imaging unit that captures a vertically polarized image by entering light of a vertically polarized component separated by the region dividing filter,
The image signal processing apparatus processes the first image pickup unit and the horizontal polarization image and the vertical polarization image captured by the second imaging unit generates Henhikarihiga image, resulting from Henhikarihiga image of a three-dimensional it distance information Mel determined image recognition apparatus according to claim.   6. The image recognition apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising an imaging optical system in front of the area dividing filter.   An image recognition device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, a central processing unit, and a display device, wherein the central processing unit is mounted on a vehicle. A vehicle exterior monitoring device characterized in that a three-dimensional position of a plurality of three-dimensional objects is detected at high speed and displayed on the display device.

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