Patent ID: 7925050
Filing Date: 2011-04-12
Classification: G06K,G06T

Abstract:
1. A vehicle environment monitoring apparatus detecting a monitored object in an environment around a vehicle from an image picked up by a single imaging unit mounted on the vehicle, comprising: a first image portion extracting unit to extract a first image portion having a predetermined feature value from each of a first picked-up image and a second picked-up image picked up by the imaging unit at different time points; a change rate calculating unit to calculate a change rate in size of the first image portion extracted from the second picked-up image in respect to the first image portion extracted from the first picked-up image; a second image portion extracting unit to extract, from each of the first and second picked-up images, a second image portion having a change rate of not greater than a predetermined level in relative positional relation with the first image portion between the first and second picked-up images; an object detecting unit to detect an area including the first and second image portions in the first or second picked-up image as an image area of the same monitored object in the environment around the vehicle; and an object reaching time estimating unit to calculate a time until the vehicle reaches the monitored object based on the change rate in size.