Patent ID: 7729512
Filing Date: 2010-06-01
Classification: G06K,G06T

Abstract:
1. An image processing apparatus comprising: an image acquiring device which acquires a first image and a second image obtained on a frame basis by sensing an image of a moving object from two different viewpoints using a first imaging device and a second imaging device; a first detecting device configured to detect a plurality of feature points from the first image; a stereo image processing device configured to obtain a disparity distribution representing a disparity for said each feature point by performing stereo image processing using the first image and the second image; a first determining device configured to determine a threshold for the disparities in the disparity distribution; a matching device configured to obtain a pair of corresponding feature points from each feature point detected at a first frame time and each feature point detected at a second frame time by the first detecting device; a measuring device configured to measure a moving velocity represented by a moving amount and moving direction between the pair of feature points to obtain a moving velocity distribution representing a moving velocity for each feature point by measuring; a second determining device configured to determine an identification boundary for identifying a moving object area or an area other than the moving object area with respect to the moving velocity distribution; a classifying device configured to classify, as intra-moving-object feature points, a feature point having a disparity exceeding the threshold in the disparity distribution and a feature point corresponding to a moving object area identified by the identification boundary; and a second detecting device configured to detect an image area of the moving object in the first image by using the intra-moving-object feature points, wherein the first determining device determines a threshold for the disparity on the basis of a ratio between a variance of disparities in two classes into which said plurality of feature points are classified, and a variance of disparities between the classes.