Branching Road Detection via Vanishing Point Orientation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing automatic control systems in vehicles cannot rapidly detect the existence of a branching road until the adjacent lane appears next to the traveling lane, leading to delayed recognition of branching situations.
Innovation Solution
An information processing device that detects vanishing points in front images, determines the moving direction of the vehicle, and identifies branching roads by assessing the orientation difference between detected moving directions, allowing for early detection of branching roads based on lane marking lines.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If the system waits for the adjacent lane to appear next to the traveling lane before detecting a branching road, then the detection accuracy is improved, but the detection timing is delayed
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary detection of lane marking lines and calculation of vanishing points before the adjacent lane fully appears next to the traveling lane. By detecting lane marking lines earlier and calculating vanishing points from these early detections, the system can determine branching road existence before traditional methods would allow, thus resolving the contradiction between detection accuracy and timing.
Solution Approach 2:
The vanishing point serves as an intermediary element that enables indirect detection of branching roads. Instead of directly detecting the adjacent lane, the system uses vanishing points derived from lane marking lines as an intermediate indicator to infer the presence and orientation of branching roads, allowing early detection while maintaining accuracy.
2Reliability
If the system detects lane marking lines of both traveling road and branching road, then the branching situation recognition is improved, but the complexity of processing increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts and focuses only on the essential features needed for branching detection - specifically, lane marking lines and their vanishing points. By filtering out unnecessary information and concentrating processing on these key elements, the system achieves reliable branching recognition without excessive processing complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameter of detection focus from detecting all lane marking lines and performing comprehensive path analysis to detecting only the orientation characteristics of vanishing points. This parameter change simplifies the processing while maintaining the ability to reliably recognize branching situations through orientation comparison.
Data Source
AI summary
An information processing device has a processor configured to detect a vanishing point where two lane marking lines in a front image representing environment ahead of a vehicle intersect, to detect a moving direction of the vehicle from a predetermined reference location to the vanishing point in the front image, to determine whether or not each of two moving directions has a different orientation in excess of a predetermined reference range with respect to the previously detected moving direction when the two moving directions have been detected, and to determine that a branching road that branches from a road in which the vehicle is traveling has appeared in the front image, when it has been determined that either of the two moving directions has a different orientation.