A distance-measuring apparatus is formed of a photographic device formed of a pair of image-forming lenses and photosensor arrays for taking images of an object through the image-forming lenses, and a calculating device electrically connected to the photosensor arrays for calculating a distance to an object to be measured by two images of the object taken by the photographic device based on a triangulation principle. The calculating device calculates the distance to the object by an amount of shift determined based on an inter-optical-axis distance of the pair of image-forming lenses and photographed images of a reference object having a pattern of a periodic structure repeated at an interval same as the inter-optical-axis distance; a difference in offsets of image-forming positions on the photosensor arrays caused by a medium located between the apparatus and the measured object, with the difference being detected based on the amount of the shift; and an amount of shift detected when the distance to the measured object is measured.
A position detecting device for a vehicle detects the position of an object in a real space coordinate system. A plurality of objects are extracted from an image obtained by cameras, and a pitching-dependent correction amount is calculated based on amounts of displacement in position of the plurality of objects in a direction of height. Positions of the plurality of objects are corrected based on the pitching-dependent correction amount.
An optical axis direction, a distance measurement accuracy and so on are efficiently performed for quality assurance of a vehicle-mounted camera in cooperation of an image processing unit and a vehicle-mounted navigation control unit. In a vehicle monitoring system for imaging view ahead of the vehicle with the camera (2a, 2b) installed in the vehicle body and for recognizing a running condition with the image processing unit (20), the image processing unit measures an optical axis direction and a distance measurement accuracy to determine whether the camera quality is appropriate or not for quality assurance of the vehicle-mounted camera. The determined result is displayed on a monitor (52) of the vehicle mounted navigation control unit (5) to recommend adjustment of the camera. When failure is determined in the pass/fail determination of the optical axis direction, an attachment member having a shape, the optical axis direction by which is included in the correct range in the reference pattern of the recognized image, is selected from a variety of the attachment members prepared in advance, and replacement of the attachment member with the selected attachment member is recommended.
An apparatus for detecting the passenger occupancy of a vehicle includes, at least two image pickup sections provided at a specified distance, a measuring section measuring a distance to an object on the basis of the at least two images acquired by the at least two image pickup sections, a reference data providing section providing reference data relating to the distance from the image pickup sections to a seat in accordance with the position of the seat, and a detection section detecting the passenger occupancy of the seat on the basis of the distance measured by the measuring section and the reference data.
