Patent ID: 7046822

Claim:
A method of detecting objects in a vicinity of a road vehicle up to a considerable distance, in which a distance from a moving or stationary vehicle to one or more objects is calculated by distance-based image segmentation using stereo image processing, and characteristics of the detected objects are determined by object recognition in the segmented image regions, the method comprising the acts of: determining image regions of elevated objects and/or flat objects; detecting elevated objects and/or flat objects by combining 3D points in accordance with predetermined criteria, the elevated objects being determined through features with similar distance values and the flat objects being determined through features with similar height values; tracking over time relevant detected objects and determining the distance and lateral position of the relevant detected objects relative to the road vehicle in order to assess dynamic behavior of the relevant detected objects; determining object hypothesis for performing object recognition, said object hypothesis being verified by comparison with object models; scanning segmented image regions in accordance with predetermined, statistically verified 2D features of particular relevant detected objects to be comparing the particular relevant detected objects using a neural network for classifying a specific object type; scanning one of recorded pairs of stereo images for significant features of objects to be registered; and determining a spacing of at least one object's significant features by comparing respective features in a stereo image from a pair of stereo images with the same, corresponding features, in the other stereo image from the pair of stereo images recorded at the same time; wherein disparities that occur are evaluated via cross correlation techniques.