Patent ID: 8175334

Claim:
A vehicle environment recognition apparatus comprising: stereo-image taking means for taking and outputting a reference image and a comparative image of a surrounding environment of a subject vehicle with a pair of cameras; stereo matching means for dividing the reference image into pixel blocks each having a predetermined number of pixels, subjecting each of the pixel blocks to stereo matching with the comparative image, and correlating a calculated parallax or distance with the pixel block in the reference image; preceding-vehicle detecting means for detecting a preceding vehicle from the reference image on the basis of the parallax or distance calculated by the stereo matching means; and smear determining means for searching a pixel column vertically extending in the reference image for brightnesses of pixels, the pixel column including a pixel block having, as the distance, a distance more than or equal to a long distance threshold value including infinity or having, as the parallax, a parallax less than or equal to a long-distance parallax threshold value corresponding to the long distance threshold value, and for determining that a smear occurs when a ratio of the number of pixels having brightnesses more than or equal to a predetermined brightness to the total number of pixels belonging to the pixel column is more than or equal to a predetermined ratio.