Patent ID: 8896689
Filing Date: 2014-11-25
Classification: G06T,H04N

Abstract:
1. An environment recognition apparatus which estimates a position and a posture of a surface of a subject by using: a range image sensor configured to measure a distance up to the subject; a standard image sensor configured to acquire a standard image composed of a plurality of pixels each having a specified physical quantity of the subject as a pixel value by imaging the subject; and a reference image sensor configured to acquire a reference image composed of a plurality of pixels each having the specified physical quantity of the subject as a pixel value by imaging the subject, the environment recognition apparatus comprising: a first processing element configured to calculate first cost using a first cost function defined as a multivariate function which is an increasing function with respect to a first deviation and a decreasing function with respect to an object point distance, for each pixel belonging to the object region which is at least a part of the standard image, on the basis of the first deviation, which is determined according to the length of an interval between a real point whose position is measured by the range image sensor as a distance measured value and a virtual point as a result of projecting the real point onto a virtual surface with respect to an eye direction of the standard image sensor, and the object point distance, which is a distance between the standard image sensor and an object point which is one of the real point and the virtual point with respect to an optical axis direction of the standard image sensor; a second processing element configured to calculate second cost using a second cost function which is an increasing function with respect to a second deviation, for each pixel belonging to the object region of the standard image, on the basis of the second deviation as a deviation between the pixel value of the pixel in the standard image and the pixel value of the pixel in the reference image and the pixel value of the pixel of the reference image corresponding to the pixel of the standard image according to the position and posture of the virtual surface; and a third processing element configured to estimate the position and posture of the surface of the subject by exploring the virtual surface so that total cost which is a total sum of the first cost and the second cost with respect to each pixel belonging to the object region of the standard image is brought close to the minimum value of the total cost.