Patent Document ID: 20120140988
Application ID: 13389590
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. An obstacle detection device for detecting an obstacle around a vehicle from a spectral image obtained by an imaging unit mounted on the vehicle, the obstacle detection device comprising: an image storage unit for storing an image provided by the imaging unit; a flow extraction unit for extracting a flow of a pixel from images stored at two different times in the image storage unit, the two different times being a current time and an earlier time than the current time; a vehicle movement amount estimation unit for estimating an amount of movement of the vehicle in a real world based on the extracted flow; a road plane estimation unit for estimating a position of a road plane based on the extracted flow and the amount of movement of the vehicle; an obstacle candidate point relating unit relating pixels in images at the two times by using a pixel in an image at an earlier time as a reference, by assuming that the pixel corresponds to the road plane in the real world, and by extracting a corresponding pixel at the current time based on the amount of movement of the vehicle; a non-matching range identifying unit for comparing, pixel by pixel, partial images having centers at obstacle candidate points related between the pixels in the images at the two times, and identifying a range in which pixel values are different as a non-matching range; and an obstacle determining unit for comparing the pixel values in the spectral images at the two times corresponding to the non-matching range, and determining whether the obstacle candidate point comprises a point corresponding to a shadow on the road plane or a point corresponding to an actual obstacle.