Calibrating range-finding system using parallax from two different viewpoints and vehicle mounting the range-finding system

Abstract

A range-finding system includes two imaging devices to capture multiple images from two different viewpoints and a parallax calculator to calculate parallax based on the multiple images captured by the two imaging devices. The parallax calculator includes an estimation unit to estimate a correction value based on the amount of image deviation in a lateral direction corresponding to pixel position in the images captured by the two imaging devices and a correction unit to correct a pre-correction parallax or an image based on the correction value estimated by the estimation unit.

1 .- 5 . (canceled) 
     
     
         6 . A method comprising:
 calculating a disparity for each of multiple stereo images captured at different timing; and   calculating a correction amount corresponding to image coordinates based on the disparity calculated for each of the multiple stereo images.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6  further comprising:
 calculating a disparity offset based on each disparity calculated for each of the multiple stereo images captured at different timing; and 
 calculating the correction amount corresponding to the image coordinates based on a profile of the disparity offset corresponding to image coordinates in the captured image. 
 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 6  further comprising correcting at least one of the disparity or the image based on the correction amount. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the correction amount corresponding to the image coordinates is calculated for each of regions prepared by dividing the image in X direction. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein each of the regions have a gap between adjacent regions. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the adjacent regions are overlapped. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the correction amount corresponding to the image coordinates is calculated by performing an interpolation to each of the correction amount calculated for each of regions prepared by dividing the image in X direction. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein each of the regions have a gap between adjacent regions. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the adjacent regions are overlapped. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the correction amount corresponding to the image coordinates is calculated for each of regions prepared by dividing the image into two directions defining two dimensional space. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein each of the regions have a gap between adjacent regions. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the adjacent regions are overlapped. 
     
     
         18 . An apparatus comprising:
 a correction unit to calculate a correction amount corresponding to image coordinates based on a disparity calculated for each of multiple stereo images captured at different timing.   
     
     
         19 . The apparatus of  claim 18  further comprising:
 a calculation unit to calculate a disparity offset based on each disparity calculated for each of the multiple stereo images captured at different timing; and 
 a calculation unit to the correction amount corresponding to the image coordinates based on a profile of the disparity offset corresponding to image coordinates in the captured image. 
 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 18  further comprising
 a calculation unit to correct the disparity based on the correction amount, or correct the image based on the correction amount.