Patent Document ID: 9928427
Application ID: 14957953
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for determining a wet surface condition of a road, the method comprising the steps of: capturing an image of a road surface by an image capture device of the host vehicle, the image capture device mounted on a side of the host vehicle and capturing an image in a downward direction; identifying in the captured image, by a processor, a region of interest rearward of the wheel of the host vehicle, the region of interest representative of where rearward splash as generated by the wheel occurs; applying a filter to the region of interest in the image for identifying precipitation, including applying an edge filter for identifying an edge between an area of splash and an area of no splash in the region of interest, wherein applying the edge filter includes applying a texture classification filter, wherein the texture classification filter utilizes an LM filter bank including a plurality of filters having various orientations, wherein the plurality of filters applied to the region of interest assists in identifying edges within the region of interest, wherein a feature analysis is applied to responses from the LM filter bank to determine whether precipitation is present, and wherein a response from the LM filter bank having a magnitude of 0 indicates a no-splash condition; determining whether precipitation is present in the region of interest; and generating a wet road surface signal in response to the identification of precipitation in the region of interest.