Patent ID: 7659835

Claim:
An apparatus for recognizing a parking slot by using a bird's-eye view, the apparatus comprising: a camera for photographing a parking space at a vehicle and creating and transferring an input image; a user interface unit for receiving an input of a seed point as a desired parking location in the parking space from a driver and transferring the seed point; and a parking slot recognition unit for receiving the input image from the camera and the seed point from the user interface unit, converting the input image into the bird's-eye view, estimating a number of marking line segments and a direction of the marking line segments by using a directional intensity gradient regarding a distance on the bird's-eye view, recognizing the marking line segment closer to the camera as a guideline among at least one marking line segment intersecting with a direction of view from the camera to the seed point, and recognizing a number of separating line segments in a direction of the guideline so as to recognize the guideline and the separating line segments as the parking slot.