Patent Document ID: 9690997
Application ID: 14593136
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A recognition object detecting apparatus disposed in an own vehicle, the apparatus comprising: means for generating image data representing a taken image; and means for detecting a recognition object from the image represented by the image data, wherein the generating means has a characteristic in which a relation between luminance and output pixel values varies depending on a luminance range and on a distance between the own vehicle and the recognition obiect, wherein a first distance between the own vehicle and the recognition object is associated with a first luminance range, a second distance between the own vehicle and the recognition object is less than the first distance and is associated with a second luminance range greater than the first luminance range, further wherein, in the generating means, the relation between the luminance and the output pixel values for the first luminance range is represented by a first line and the relation between the luminance and the output pixel values for the second luminance range is represented by a second line, wherein the first line is steeper than the second line, and the detecting means binarizes the output pixel values of the image represented by the image data by using a plurality of threshold values to generate a plurality of binary images, and detects the recognition object based on the plurality of binary images.