| 摘要 |
PURPOSE: To recognize an object with high accuracy by expanding an edge point extracted from image pickup data for the unit of a small area divided on a grid. CONSTITUTION: The image pickup area of a CCD camera 12 is divided in the shape of grid and expansion processing of the longitudinal and lateral edge points is performed for the unit of each small area. When the longitudinal edge point exists inside, each small area divided like this is grasped as an area expressing the longitudinal edge of the object existent in the photographic data and when the lateral edge point exists inside, the small area is grasped as an area expressing the lateral edge of the object existent in the photographic data. Then, the linear longitudinal edge area corresponding to the longitudinal edge of a preceding vehicle and the linear lateral edge area corresponding to the lateral edge of the preceding vehicle are respectively continuously and sharply formed in a longitudinal edge area picture. Therefore, the angle point of the object is specified based on the area where these longitudinal edge area group and lateral edge area group cross, the presence/absence of the preceding vehicle is judged and the size or the like of the preceding vehicle is detected. |
