Vehicle Detecting Apparatus Using Luminance Extraction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional vehicle detecting apparatuses for detecting preceding or oncoming vehicles at night face challenges due to the deterioration of filtering lenses in harsh environments and the complexity of optical systems, as well as the difficulty in distinguishing taillight or headlight from ambient light, especially from roadside reflectors.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle detecting apparatus using an image sensor to extract light source areas with higher luminance, employing likelihood calculations to differentiate between headlight, taillight, and roadside reflector based on luminance and distance, and adjusting these calculations based on the headlight's beam position to reduce misidentification of reflectors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If two lenses with filtering function are used to extract red or blue component from incident light, then detection accuracy of taillight or headlight is improved, but device complexity and production cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the necessary information (luminance intensity) from the incident light without using complex filtering lenses. The image sensor captures the entire spectrum, and the processing device extracts luminance information directly, eliminating the need for red and blue filtering lenses while maintaining detection accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical/optical filtering system (two lenses with filtering function) with an electronic processing system. The image sensor captures light information, and the processing device electronically separates and analyzes luminance components, substituting physical filtering with digital signal processing.
2Measurement precision
If two lenses with filtering function are used to extract red or blue component from incident light, then detection accuracy of taillight or headlight is improved, but production cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the necessary information (luminance intensity) from the incident light without using complex filtering lenses. The image sensor captures the entire spectrum, and the processing device extracts luminance information directly, eliminating the need for red and blue filtering lenses while maintaining detection accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses a standard image sensor that can be mass-produced at low cost, replacing expensive specialized filtering lenses. The processing device uses software algorithms that can be updated without hardware changes, making the system more cost-effective for manufacturing and maintenance.
3Measurement precision
If filtering function is used to extract red or blue component from incident light, then detection accuracy is improved, but reliability deteriorates due to harsh vehicle environment
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the necessary information (luminance intensity) from the incident light without using complex filtering lenses. The image sensor captures the entire spectrum, and the processing device extracts luminance information directly, eliminating the need for red and blue filtering lenses while maintaining detection accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical/optical filtering system (two lenses with filtering function) with an electronic processing system. The image sensor captures light information, and the processing device electronically separates and analyzes luminance components, substituting physical filtering with digital signal processing.
4Device complexity
If monochrome (luminous) information only is used for detection, then device complexity is reduced, but ability to distinguish vehicle light from ambient light deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent adds the dimension of luminance intensity analysis to the monochrome image data. By calculating the luminance value of each pixel and comparing it against threshold values, the system can distinguish bright vehicle lights from dimmer ambient light sources, maintaining simplicity while improving accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter used for detection from simple color filtering to luminance intensity measurement. By focusing on the brightness parameter rather than color, the system can effectively distinguish vehicle lights (which are typically brighter) from ambient light sources using a simpler monochrome sensor.
Data Source
AI summary
The vehicle detecting apparatus includes an image sensor mounted on a host vehicle so as to be able to take an image ahead of the host vehicle, a light source area extracting function of extracting, from image data outputted from the image sensor, an area having luminance higher than a predetermined value as a light source area, a vehicle detecting function of detecting existence of at least one of an oncoming vehicle and a preceding vehicle by recognizing which of a headlight of the oncoming vehicle, a taillight of the preceding vehicle, and a roadside reflector causes the light source area in the image data. The vehicle detecting function is configured to lower a probability that the vehicle detecting function recognizes that the light source area is caused by the roadside reflector when the headlight of the host vehicle is in a low-beam position.