ROAD ENVIRONMENT RECOGNIZING APPARATUS

摘要

A road environment recognizing apparatus includes an edge image generator, a first area extractor, and an object recognizer. The edge image generating unit generates an edge image by extracting edge points from an image of a road captured by a camera. The edge points have amounts of change in luminance from surroundings, which are higher than or equal to a predetermined value. The first area extractor extracts a first area from the edge image. The first area is partitioned by the edge points and has a luminance higher than the luminances of the surroundings. If a second area having a luminance lower than the luminances of the surroundings exists around the first area in the edge image, the object recognizer recognizes a projection on the road on the basis of a third area resulting from joining of the first area and the second area.

主权项

1. A road environment recognizing apparatus comprising:
a camera that captures an image of a road environment along which the camera moves, the road environment containing a projecting object and surroundings thereof; an edge image generator that generates an edge image of the projecting object by extracting edge points from the image of the road environment captured by the camera, the edge points defining a border across which a luminance intensity changes from a luminance intensity of the surroundings to be a luminance intensity higher than or equal to a predetermined value; an area extractor that extracts a first area from the edge image, the first area being partitioned by the edge points and having a luminance intensity higher than the luminance intensity of the surroundings, the area extractor being capable of extracting a second area adjacent to the first area and having a luminance intensity lower than the luminance intensity of the surroundings; and an object recognizer that is configured to recognize an area in which the projecting object is considered to exist, based on a third area formed of the first area and the second area.