Patent ID: 8094884

Claim:
An object detection apparatus, comprising: an image capturing unit configured to capture time series images of a target monitoring area using stereo cameras, a disparity profile calculation unit configured to calculate a disparity profile indicating a relation between a vertical position on the time series images and a disparity on a plane of the target monitoring area, based on an arrangement of the stereo cameras, a processing area setting unit configured to set a plurality of processing areas, by setting a position of the bottom of each of the plurality of processing areas on the time series images and setting a height of each of the processing areas using a length obtained by converting a reference value of a height of an object at the bottom of the processing area according to the disparity profile, an object detection unit configured to detect an object having a height higher than a certain height with respect to a plane of the monitoring area from each of the processing areas, unify an object detection result in each of the processing areas according to the disparity of the object, and detect the object of the whole monitoring area, an object movement information estimation unit configured to estimate position and speed for the object detected by the object detection unit.