Patent Document ID: 9971945
Application ID: 14957998
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for determining a wet surface condition of a road, the method comprising: capturing an image of a road surface by an image capture device of a motor vehicle, the image capture device being mounted on the motor vehicle and capturing the image in a downward direction; identifying in the captured image, by a processor, a region of interest, the region of interest being in a region sideways to a face of a road wheel of the motor vehicle, the region of interest representative of where sideways splash as generated by the road wheel occurs; determining whether or not water is present in the region of interest, including: converting the captured image into a polarized image; identifying within the polarized image a pole in the region of interest; identifying a polar axis originating from the pole; and generating a polar coordinate system within the polarized image as a function of radii and angles, each of the radii in the polarized image determined as a respective distance from the pole to each of a plurality of image pixels, and each of the angles in the polarized image determined as a respective angle between the polar axis and each of the image pixels; and generating a wet road surface signal in response to a determination that water is present in the region of interest.