EP-4735913-A1 - METHOD FOR IDENTIFYING AT LEAST ONE REGION IN OPTICAL IMAGE INFORMATION, OPTICAL CAPTURING SYSTEM, AND VEHICLE

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for identifying at least one region (44, 46) in optical image information, having the steps of: ascertaining first optical image information of a surrounding area (22) using a transmitted and received optical signal (LS), said first optical image information comprising a distance image (34) of the surrounding area (22), ascertaining second optical image information of the surrounding area (22) using received light (L), said second optical image information comprising a two-dimensional image (36) of the surrounding area, ascertaining the contour of at least one object (O) in the first and second image information, and identifying the at least one region (44, 46) using a comparison of the contour in the first and second image information. The invention additionally relates to an optical capturing system (10), to a vehicle (20), and to a computer program product.

Inventors

• PARL, CHRISTOPH
• SELBMANN, Frank
• SCHENK, JOCHEN
• REICHERT, ANDREAS
• BEUTH, Thorsten
• KRAUSE, Jonas

Assignees

• Valeo Schalter und Sensoren GmbH

Dates

Publication Date

20260506

Application Date

20240617

Claims (17)

1. 1. A method for identifying at least one region (44, 46) in optical image information, comprising: Determining a first optical image information of an environment (22) using a transmitted and received optical signal (LS), wherein the first optical image information comprises a distance image (34) of the environment (22), Determining a second optical image information of the environment (22) by received light (L), wherein the second optical image information comprises a two-dimensional image (36) of the environment, Determining a contour of at least one object (0) in the first and second image information, Identifying the at least one region (44, 46) using a comparison of the contour in the first and second image information.
2. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the identified region (44, 46) at least partially comprises the contour.
3. 3. Method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the comparison determines a difference between the contour in the first image information and the contour in the second image information.
4. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the at least one region (44, 46) is identified when the difference in the contour exceeds a certain distance value.
5. 5. Method according to one of the preceding claims, wherein an optical artifact in the first and/or the second image information is determined by comparing the contour.
6. 6. Method according to one of the preceding claims, wherein after identifying the at least one region (44, 46), a third image information is determined using the first and the second image information.
7. 7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the third image information is determined such that the artifact in the third image information is corrected.
8. 8. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the third image information comprises the first image information which is modified in the identified region (44, 46) using the second image information.
9. 9. Method according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the second image information comprises a gray image (36) of the environment.
10. 10. Method according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the received light comprises background light and the second image information is determined by a pixel-by-pixel noise measurement.
11. 11. Method according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the received light (L) comprises the received optical signal (LS) and the second image information is determined using the first image information.
12. 12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the determination of the second image information comprises an averaging of received amplitude values of the optical signal over a portion of the measuring distance, in particular over the entire measuring distance.
13. 13. Optical detection system comprising an optical transmitting device (12) which is set up to transmit an optical signal (LS), an optical receiving device (14) which is set up to receive the optical signal (LS), and a computing device (18) which is set up: to determine a first optical image information of an environment using the transmitted and received optical signal, wherein the first optical image information comprises a distance image (34) of the environment (22), to determine a second optical image information of the environment (22) depending on received light (L), wherein the second optical image information comprises a two-dimensional image of the environment, to determine a contour of at least one object (0) in the first and second image information, and to determine at least one region (44, 46) using a comparison of the contour in the first and second image information.
14. 14. Optical detection system according to claim 13, wherein the optical receiving device is arranged to receive the light (L) for determining the second image information.
15. 15. Optical detection system according to claim 13 or 14, wherein the optical transmitting device is arranged to emit the light (L) for determining the second image information.
16. 16. Vehicle (20) with an optical detection system according to one of claims 13 to 15.
17. 17. Computer program product which contains instructions which, when executed by a computing device (18), cause the computing device (18) to carry out a method according to one of claims 1 to 11.

Description

METHOD FOR IDENTIFYING AT LEAST ONE AREA IN OPTICAL IMAGE INFORMATION, OPTICAL DETECTION SYSTEM AND VEHICLE technical field The application relates to a method for identifying at least one area in optical image information and an optical detection system for a vehicle. background Modern vehicles (cars, vans, trucks, motorcycles, etc.) have a variety of sensor systems whose data is used to provide driver information and/or driver assistance systems. The sensor systems record the vehicle's surroundings and other road users. Based on the recorded data, a model of the vehicle's surroundings can be created and changes in this vehicle's surroundings can be responded to. Sensor systems are constantly being developed for various functions, e.g. for the acquisition of environmental information in the near and far range of vehicles, such as passenger cars or commercial vehicles. Sensor systems can also be used for driver assistance systems, in particular assistance systems for autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle control. They can be used in particular to detect obstacles and/or other road users in the front, rear or blind spot area of a vehicle. Sensor systems can be based on various sensor principles, such as radar, ultrasound, optics. An optical detection system for detecting the environment, e.g. of vehicles, can be based on Lidar technology (Lidar, English: Light Detection and Ranging). A Lidar system has an optical transmitter and an optical receiver. The transmitter can emit an optical transmission signal in the form of light, which can be continuous or pulsed. In addition, the optical transmission signal can be modulated. In a lidar sensor, light in the form of laser beams in the ultraviolet, visual or infrared range can be used. The receiving device can receive the light after reflection from an object in a detection area in the vicinity of the lidar sensor. The optical reception signal can be evaluated using the optical transmission signal, e.g. using a time-of-flight method, and the spatial position and distance of the object at which the reflection occurred can be determined. In this case, reflection or reflected light is understood to mean any light that is thrown back and is intended in particular to include light that is thrown back by scattering or absorption emission. US10564267B2 describes an optical detection system in which a light source emits light pulses into the environment and a pixel-based image sensor receives reflected pulses and generates a main image. An image processor identifies oversaturated image parts of the main image and interprets the oversaturated image parts using additional image information captured by the image sensor. The additional image information can be obtained from a secondary image with low illumination. Overview A method for identifying at least one region in optical image information comprises: Determining a first optical image information of an environment using a transmitted and received optical signal, wherein the first optical image information comprises a distance image of the environment, Determining a second optical image information of the environment by received light, wherein the second optical image information comprises a two-dimensional image of the environment, Determining a contour of at least one object in the first and second image information, Identifying the at least one region using a comparison of the contour in the first and second image information. The contour of the object, also called outline or silhouette, refers to a curve that delimits the object from its surroundings. The contour refers to the outer boundary or outline of the object. It is the line that defines the edge or shape of an object and delimits it from its surroundings. In image information, the contour can be viewed as a sequence of points or vectors that describe the outline of an object. The contour can be obtained, for example, using mathematical algorithms and can be part of object recognition. Contour recognition in image information can, for example, be based on edge-based or threshold-based algorithms that use intensity values or amplitude values of image information. The first and second image information relate at least partially to the same scene of the environment. This allows the same at least one edge to be identified in both the first image information and the second image information and at least one area can be identified that depicts the same scene of the environment, e.g. the same object. To identify the at least one area of interest, at least one distance image generated with active illumination by an optical signal and at least one two-dimensional image determined using received light are used. The received light can in particular differ from the optical signal. The differences in exposure for determining the first and second image information can then be used to identify the at least one area of interest. For this purpose, the same contour of the same