Patent ID: 9729861
Date: 2017-08-08
CPC Classifications: G06T,H04N

Claim:
1. A method for estimating a distance between a first target and a second target in an image, the method to be implemented using a distance estimation system that includes a processor, an image capturing subsystem for capturing the image where the image capturing subsystem includes a lens and an image sensor, and a tilt angle sensor subsystem for detecting a tilt angle of the image sensor with respect to an imaginary vertical line, the method comprising: a) generating, by the processor, an image depth map associated with the image; b) generating, by the processor, first position information associated with a first position which corresponds to the first target in the image, and second position information associated with a second position which corresponds to the second target in the image; and c) computing, by the processor, an estimate of a distance between the first target and the second target based on at least the image depth map, the first position information and the second position information, wherein computing the estimate of a distance between the first target and the second target further includes: c-1) estimating, by the processor, a first target distance between the first target and the lens based on the first position information, the image depth map, a focus length of the lens for capturing the image, and a pixel size of the image sensor; c-2) computing, by the processor, the estimate of the distance between the first target and the second target, based on at least the first target distance, the first position information, the second position information, and the focus length of the lens; c-3) obtaining a first pixel position and a second pixel position on the image sensor based respectively on the first position information and the second position information, the first and second pixel positions corresponding to the first and second positions in the image, respectively; c-4) calculating a distance between the first pixel position and the second pixel position on the image sensor; and c-5) computing the estimate of the distance (h where (h