Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for detecting a lane on a road

US5991427A · kind A · utility

74Cited by
10References
4Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJul 31, 1997
Grant dateNov 23, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateJul 31, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06V10/44
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

The invention is directed to a method and apparatus for detecting a lane on a road, the latter of which includes an edge sensor (ED) for detecting edges indicative of boundaries of opposite sides of each lane, an edge memory (EM) for storing the edges to form a couple of continuous lines of edge groups indicative of the opposite boundaries of the lane, and an image processor (DP) for defining the opposite boundaries of the lane on a plane in a three-dimensional geometry. A center of curvature defining device (RC) defines a center of curvature to the opposite boundaries of the lane. An edge line extracting device (ES) divides the edge groups stored in the edge memory into a plurality of continuous regions each having a predetermined length along a concentric circle arc having the same center as the center of curvature, and extracts a pair of edge lines from each region. A tangent defining device (TL) defines a couple of tangents to the edge lines, and a normal defining device (NL) defines a normal to the tangents. Then, a segment setting device (SD) defines a couple of intersections of the normal with the tangents, and sets a line segment between the intersections as a segment of th…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.