METHOD AND DEVICE FOR LOCATING OBJECTS FOR MOTOR VEHICLES

摘要

Disclosed is a method for locating and tracking objects (14) by electronically evaluating a sequence of video images on board a motor vehicle. Said method comprises the following steps: a) a search field (24) is determined in the video image (10-1) based on locating data obtained by means of another locating system (50); b) the search field (24) is searched for a given visual characteristic (28) of the object (14) by moving a blurred mask (26) which corresponds to the visual characteristic and has a given basic shape across the search field until the visual characteristic and the mask are congruent in an optimal manner; c) the mask (26) is tracked in the subsequent images (10-2, 10-3) of the sequence of video images according to the movement of the object (14), the visual characteristics (28; 32, 34) identified in the successive video images being accumulated at a higher spatial resolution; d) the shape of the mask (26; 36) is adjusted so as to optimize the congruence with the accumulated visual characteristics; and e) step c) is repeated with the adjusted mask (36).