Patent ID: 7965871

Claim:
A moving-state determining device, comprising: a camera mounted on a moving body for obtaining a bird's-eye image by picking up a road surface on which the moving body moves from diagonally upward; coordinate converting means for coordinate-converting the bird's-eye image to acquire an overhead image viewing the road surface from right above; bird's-eye image obtaining means for obtaining a first bird's-eye image picked up by the camera at a first image pickup timing and a second bird's-eye image picked up by the camera at a second image pickup timing different from the first image pickup timing by a predetermined time period; overhead image obtaining means which obtains a first overhead image from the first bird's-eye image using the coordinate converting means, assumes a plurality of changes in the moving state of the moving body on the road surface during the predetermined time period and obtains a plurality of second overhead images that can be regarded as the same road surface area as that of the first overhead image based on the assumed changes in the moving state of the moving body and the second bird's-eye image; and moving-state change calculating means which calculates a degree of similarity between the first overhead image and each of the plurality of second overhead images, and compares the degrees of similarity to each other to obtain most probable change in the moving state of the moving body from the assumed change based on which the second overhead image with the largest degree of similarity is obtained.