Patent Document ID: 20130266226
Application ID: 13441983
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. A method of detecting a clear path of travel, the method comprising the steps of: capturing various input images of a scene exterior of the vehicle utilizing at least one image capture device, the various input images being captured at various time step frames; generating a clear path probability map of a current time step frame by a processing module, the clear path probability map identifying probability values that represent whether extracted features within the current time step frame are clear path features; generating a clear path probability map of a temporal previous time step frame by the processing module, the clear path probability map identifying probability values that represent whether extracted features within the previous time step frame are clear path features; generating a corresponding clear path probability map for the current time step frame, the corresponding clear path probability map derived as a function of the clear path probability map of the previous time step frame and a corresponding mapping that coherently links the previous time step frame to the current time step frame; generating a weight-matching map by the processing module, the weight-matching map including weight values that identify a degree of successfully matching extracted features between the previous time step frame and the current time step frame; updating the probability values of the current time step frame as a function of the corresponding probability map, wherein the weight values are applied to the probability values of the corresponding probability map for determining the degree as to which the probability values of the corresponding probability map are used in updating the clear path probability map of a current time step frame; generating a current frame probability decision map based on updated probability values of the current time step frame; and identifying the clear path in the image of the current time stamp based on the current frame probability decision map.