Adhered Substance Detection on Vehicle Camera Lenses
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle systems equipped with in-vehicle cameras struggle to detect adhered substances like water droplets, mud, and dust on lenses, especially when they have ambiguous outlines, leading to potential failures in ambient sensing and incorrect detection of scenery as adhered substances.
Innovation Solution
An adhered-substance detecting apparatus that extracts both the outline and inside areas of adhered substances from captured images, using edge processing and accumulation techniques to accurately identify and mask the adhered substance areas, thereby improving detection precision and preventing ambient sensing defects.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If edge processing and brightness extraction methods are used to detect adhered substances, then detection precision is improved, but detection accuracy degrades for large adhered substances and substances with ambiguous outlines
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the detection task into two distinct parts: outline detection (using edge processing) and inside area detection (using brightness extraction). By dividing the detection process, the system can apply appropriate methods for each part, improving overall reliability for both small and large adhered substances including those with ambiguous outlines
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses the outline area as an intermediary to guide the inside area detection. The outline detection results serve as a reference for determining the inside area, creating a multi-stage detection process that improves accuracy for various sizes and types of adhered substances
2Productivity
If the inside area of adhered substances is not detected, then detection speed is maintained, but detection performance degrades for large adhered substances
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary outline detection before inside area detection. By first identifying the outline area, the system establishes a foundation for subsequent inside area detection, ensuring that large adhered substances are comprehensively detected while maintaining an efficient two-stage process
Data Source
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AI summary
An adhered-substance detecting apparatus capable of detecting adhered substances such as and water droplets, mud, and dust, including those with ambiguous outlines, which adhere to, for example, a lens for an imaging apparatus, and a vehicle system equipped with the adhered-substance detecting apparatus are provided. An adhered-substance detecting apparatus 320 for detecting an adhered substance appearing in a captured image photographed by an imaging apparatus 200 installed at a moving body includes: an outline extraction unit 321 that extracts an area of an outline of the adhered substance from the captured image as an outline area; an inside extraction unit 322 that extracts an area inside the outline of the adhered substance from the captured image as an inside area; an adhered-substance-detected area judgment unit that compares the outline area with the outline of the adhered substance and detects the outline area with either one of matching shape and matching luminance as an adhered substance outline area, compares the inside area with the area inside the outline of the adhered substance and detects the inside area with either one of matching shape and matching luminance as an adhered substance inside area, and detects an area of the adhered substance on the lens, which is composed of either one of the outline of the adhered substance and the area inside the outline of the adhered substance, as an adhered-substance-detected area from either one of the adhered substance outline area and the adhered substance inside area.