Patent Document ID: 8472673
Application ID: 12523847
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of detecting road surface reflections, comprising the steps of receiving an image of a road in front of a vehicle from an image capturing device; determining a region of interest in an identified road in the image using a region of interest processing module; identifying road surface reflections in the region of interest using a reflection detection device, wherein the identified road surface reflections are not lane markings; determining luminance gradients in the region of interest, wherein determining luminance gradients includes determining edge strength in the region of interest to identify potential reflection edges; wherein identifying road surface reflections includes comparing the luminance gradients to a strength threshold and comparing edge strength to said strength threshold; identifying a pair of edges as potential reflection edges by comparing each edge strength to said strength threshold; determining spacing between the pair of edges; comparing said spacing to a spacing threshold, wherein if the edge spacing is greater than the spacing threshold, then the edge pair is eliminated from further consideration, otherwise the edge pair may represent a reflection; determining lengths of possible reflection edges; and comparing each edge length against a length threshold, wherein if each edge length is less than the length threshold, then the edge pair is eliminated from further consideration; wherein remaining edges represent reflection.