Vanishing Point Determination Using Virtual Lines and Segmentation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing technologies for extracting vanishing points from images captured by cameras in vehicles incur high calculation costs to achieve accurate results.
Innovation Solution
An image processing device and method that detect objects, estimate distances, draw virtual lines, execute segmentation processing to extract road regions, and determine vanishing point positions based on these elements, optimizing calculation efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If block matching method or gradient method is used to calculate motion vector for each pixel, then accuracy of vanishing point is improved, but calculation cost increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The image is divided into multiple blocks, and motion vectors are calculated for each block rather than for every pixel individually. This segmentation approach reduces the total number of calculations required while still providing sufficient accuracy for vanishing point extraction.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts only the essential features needed for vanishing point calculation rather than processing all pixel data. By taking out and focusing on key motion information from blocks, the calculation complexity is reduced while maintaining the necessary precision.
2Measurement precision
If more processing is done to improve vanishing point accuracy, then measurement precision is improved, but processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the image into blocks and processing each block independently, the patent achieves efficient parallel processing capability. This reduces the sequential processing time while maintaining accuracy through block-level motion analysis.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies motion vector calculation to blocks rather than all pixels, representing a partial action approach. This partial processing of the image data is sufficient to extract vanishing points accurately without the excessive computational burden of full pixel-level processing.
Data Source
AI summary
An image processing device includes an object detection portion detecting an object in an image captured in a substantially horizontal direction by an image sensor; a distance estimation portion estimating, when the detected object is a vehicle, a distance between the vehicle and the image sensor; a virtual line drawing portion drawing a virtual line extending in a lateral direction of the image at a position at the same height as an upper end of the vehicle in the image; a segmentation execution portion executing segmentation processing of extracting a road region in which the vehicle is traveling from the image when the estimated distance is shorter than a threshold; and a vanishing point determination portion determining a height position of a vanishing point in the image on the basis of the virtual line when the estimated distance is equal to or longer than the threshold and determining the height position of the vanishing point on the basis of the extracted road region when the estimated distance is shorter than the threshold.