Patent ID: 7548634

Claim:
A pedestrian detection system comprising: imaging means for image picking up a front region to generate an image; solid-body recognition means for recognizing a solid body from the image; solid-body determination means for determining whether or not a first condition in which a solid body a first end of which in the width direction is detected and a second condition in which a second end is not detected shifts to a third condition in which the second end is detected, the first condition occurring only when part of the solid body falls within the image, the third condition occurring when the entire solid body in the width direction appears within the image, and for specifying a state in which a predetermined region of the image and the solid body come close to each other when the shift from the second condition to the third condition is detected after detecting the first condition; solid-body-width detection means for detecting the width of the solid body when the second end is detected; and pedestrian determination means for determining whether or not the solid body is a pedestrian by comparing the width of the solid body with a preset threshold value.