초록 ▼

Based on left and right images that have been taken by image pickup devices, a correlation processing section obtains parallax data as three-dimensional data of objects. At processing start time, a plane estimating section estimates the position of a planar object such as a road or a floor by utiliz

Based on left and right images that have been taken by image pickup devices, a correlation processing section obtains parallax data as three-dimensional data of objects. At processing start time, a plane estimating section estimates the position of a planar object such as a road or a floor by utilizing the Hough transform based on the parallax data that have been obtained successfully for part of rectangular segments of the images, and interpolates the parallax data by using the position of the planar object. At a time point after the processing start time, a parallax variation detecting section detects an object by comparing current parallax data with the parallax data at the processing start time.

대표청구항 ▼

[ What is claimed is:] [1.] A plane estimating method comprising the steps of:receiving a plurality of images that are produced by a plurality of image pickup means disposed at a predetermined interval;calculating three-dimensional data S(X, Y); 1.ltoreq.X.ltoreq.M, 1.ltoreq.Y.ltoreq.N for each of r

[ What is claimed is:] [1.] A plane estimating method comprising the steps of:receiving a plurality of images that are produced by a plurality of image pickup means disposed at a predetermined interval;calculating three-dimensional data S(X, Y); 1.ltoreq.X.ltoreq.M, 1.ltoreq.Y.ltoreq.N for each of rectangular segments obtained by dividing the received images into a plurality of M parts in a horizontal direction and into a plurality of N parts in a vertical direction through correlation between the received images;determining a plane passage straight line L(Y) by performing Hough transform on M three-dimensional data corresponding to rectangular segments belonging to a horizontal area GL(Y) of the received images;performing the determining step on all horizontal areas GL(Y), 1.ltoreq.Y.ltoreq.N, to thereby determine N plane passage straight lines L(Y), 1.ltoreq.Y.ltoreq.N; andestimating a position of a planar object in a three-dimensional space based on the N plane passage straight lines L(Y), 1.ltoreq.Y.ltoreq.N.