A technique for recognizing an object based on a captured image obtained using a camera has been proposed. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2014-102805 discloses an apparatus that extracts a straight line such as an outline of an object from each of two captured images obtained by imaging the object from different viewpoints, respectively.
The apparatus disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2014-102805 extracts a feature point such as an intersection point (corner point) of straight lines extracted from each of two captured images. The apparatus disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2014-102805 recognizes the object by associating the feature points extracted from each of the two captured images with each other.
However, in the apparatus disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2014-102805, a feature point based on the outline of the object which is a recognition target and a feature point based on the outline of a distant scene which is not the recognition target are extracted in a batch. When the object relatively moves with respect to a camera, while the outline of the object moves in a captured image, the outline of the distant scene does not move in the captured image. In this case, for example, if an intersection point between the outline of the object and the outline of the distant scene is used as a feature point based on the outline of the object, the feature point moves on the outline of the object, and thus, a position which is not the same position on the object in reality may be erroneously recognized as the same position, or the position or a movement amount of the object may not be accurately recognized. Accordingly, recognition accuracy of the object may deteriorate, and thus, improvement is desirable.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds