Visual detection of distant objects

Taking an autonomous road vehicle as an example, approaches and methods for object detection (this being the first step of obstacle recognition) are discussed. Vision, using a single passive camera as the primary sensor and a real-time vision system for analyzing the resulting image sequence, is found to be the best approach. Results obtained in real-world experiments with such a system are reported: large obstacles have been detected in distances up to 716 m; all relevant objects that were encountered during a prolonged test on a highway were detected; the cycle time of the detection process was below 100 ms, and less than one false alarm occurred per minute