Patent ID: 6493458
Filing Date: 2002-12-10
Classification: B60T,G05D,G06K,G06T,G08G

Abstract:
A road area extraction apparatus for use with a vehicle, said apparatus comprising:a road imaging device to capture an image including a road before the vehicle; a brightness histogram generating means for creating a brightness histogram of the image data captured by said road imaging device, said brightness histogram indicating number of pixels with respect to brightness of the image captured by said road imaging device, said brightness histogram including a peak between two valleys; a road brightness separating means for separating areas containing luminance values immediately before the vehicle and contained between the valleys in the brightness histogram; and a road area detecting means for detecting a road area, including a point directly before the vehicle in an image plane, in the areas separated by said road brightness separating means, wherein the road area is extracted as one continuous area in the image plane.