Patent ID: 8421859

Claim:
Method for detecting a clear path of travel for a vehicle free of objects limiting travel of the vehicle using an image of a roadway generated by a camera, the method comprising: monitoring the image; utilizing a first patch-based analysis of the image comprising dividing the image into a plurality of patches, and analyzing each patch from the plurality of patches to determine a patch specific first likelihood value that a patch being analyzed represents a portion of the clear path of travel, the analysis of each patch comprising: analyzing the image while avoiding identification and classification of individual objects in the image to formulate the clear path including presuming all of the image as clear, using a non-pixelated analysis, determining whether an interesting feature indicating an object upon the roadway within the patch being analyzed is present, if the interesting feature is present within the patch being analyzed, extracting a feature from the patch being analyzed, and determining the patch specific first likelihood value based upon said feature; and for each patch including the interesting feature, comparing the patch specific first likelihood value to a first threshold confidence likelihood and including the patch including the interesting feature within a first set of clear path patches if the patch specific first likelihood value is greater than the first threshold confidence likelihood; utilizing a second pixel-based analysis comprising identifying a subset of the plurality of patches from the first analysis, the subset including all patches that have a patch specific first likelihood value less than the first threshold confidence likelihood; analyzing each patch of the subset to determine a patch specific second likelihood value that the patch of the subset being analyzed represents a portion of the clear path of travel; and for each patch of the subset, comparing the patch specific first likelihood value to a second threshold confidence likelihood and including the patch of the subset being analyzed within a second set of clear path patches if the patch specific first likelihood value is greater than the first threshold confidence likelihood; and identifying the clear path of travel for the vehicle based upon the first and second sets of clear path patches.