Patent ID: 11887336
Assignee: ARGO AI, LLC
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 13:
14. An electronic control unit for a vehicle, comprising:
a memory configured to store instructions; and
a processor configured to execute the instructions to:
determine an object contour of the object from a two-dimensional (2D) camera image taken by a camera of the vehicle,
back-project the object contour into a three-dimensional virtual space that represents the surroundings, the back-projected object contour describing a virtual three-dimensional (3D) frustum reaching from the camera into the surroundings,
determine at least one digital object template that represents the object,
position the at least one digital object template at a plurality of predefined positions inside the frustum, the plurality of predefined positions being determined according to a predefined positioning rule,
forward project the at least one digital object template from the plurality of predefined positions onto an image plane of the camera image, each forward-projected digital object template yielding a respective 2D contour proposal,
compare the 2D contour proposals with the object contour of the object;
select, based on the comparison, at least one 2D contour proposal among the 2D contour proposals that fulfills a predefined matching criterion with respect to the object contour, as a respective best-fit contour proposal, and
determine a relative position of the object based on the respective predefined position of each corresponding digital object template that leads to the at least one 2D contour proposal selected as the respective best-fit contour proposal.