INTER-VEHICLE DISTANCE MEASUREMENT APPARATUS, INTER-VEHICLE DISTANCE MEASUREMENT METHOD, AND PROGRAM

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide inter-vehicle distance measurement apparatus and method, which enable calculation of an inter-vehicle distance appropriately even if a road feature is non-planar.SOLUTION: An inter-vehicle distance measurement apparatus includes: a camera incorporated in a vehicle; and a control part for calculating an inter-vehicle distance relative to a preceding vehicle on the basis of an image sequentially picked up by the camera during travelling to the vehicle. The control part performs: identifying a lower end of the preceding vehicle from the image; calculating a line connecting the lower end to an optical center of the camera; storing data of the calculated line in a storage part; calculating a kinetic parameter of the camera on the basis of the sequentially picked up images; calculating an undulation of a road passed by the vehicle on the basis of the kinetic parameter of the camera; calculating a position where the line and the road intersect on the data of the undulation and that of the line; and calculating an inter-vehicle distance relative to the preceding vehicle on the basis of the intersecting position and the camera position when the line has been calculated.