Real time fusion of motion and stereo using flow/depth constraint for fast obstacle detection

Abstract

Early detection of moving obstacles is an important goal for many vision based driver assistance systems. In order to protect pedestrians, in particular children, in inner city traffic, we are using stereo vision and motion analysis in order to manage those situations. The flow/depth constraint combines both methods in an elegant way and leads to a robust and powerful detection scheme. Pyramidal Opt. Flow computation together with compensation of rotational camera ego-motion expands the measurement range, enabling us to use the system also at higher speeds. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2002.