Method and device for determining the three-dimension position of passengers of a motor car
The invention relates to a method for determining a three-dimensional position of passengers of a motor vehicle. The inventive method consists in observing the passengers of the vehicle with the aid of at least two cameras ( 1, 2, 1′, 2 ′) which are disposed in such a way that they can operate in non-stereo mode, extracting the appropriate characteristics of the passengers from video data, initialising tracking by means of a head model, verifying said extracted characteristics by pattern recognition and in tracking said verified characteristics by means of said head model. The inventive device based on a store controller which is used for carrying out said method is also disclosed.
1 . A method for determining the three-dimensional position of vehicle passengers which comprises the following steps:
observing the vehicle passengers by means of at least two cameras ( 1 , 2 , 1 ′, 2 ′) which are disposed in such a way that they can operate in non-stereo mode;
extracting appropriate characteristics from the recorded video data of the vehicle passengers;
initializing a tracking method by means of a head model;
verifying the extracted characteristics by means of pattern recognition; and
tracking the verified characteristics by means of the head model.
2 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the characteristics are selected from a group which consists of facial or shape characteristics of the passengers.
3 . The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the facial or shape characteristics comprise eyes, nostrils, corners of the mouth, eyebrows or hairline.
4 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the cameras ( 1 , 2 , 1 ′, 2 ′) do not need to be synchronized.
5 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the cameras ( 1 , 2 , 1 ′, 2 ′), having different fields of view, are positioned in such a manner that one eye of a driver ( 4 ) is always visible.
6 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , which furthermore comprises the step of determining the head attitude of passengers.
7 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , which also comprises the step of determining the direction of view of passengers.
8 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , which also comprises the step of determining the state of the eyelids of the passengers.
9 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the tracking step is based on the Kalman filtering of all recorded characteristics of the cameras ( 1 , 2 ; 1 ′, 2 ′), wherein the cameras can be operated asynchronously.
10 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the head model is an anthropometric model.
11 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the pattern recognition is a statistical pattern recognition.
12 . A device for determining the three-dimensional position of vehicle passengers, comprising:
at least two cameras ( 1 , 2 , 1 ′, 2 ′) for observing the vehicle passengers, which are disposed in such a way that they can operate in non-stereo mode; and
a controller ( 3 ) comprising the following:
means for extracting appropriate characteristics from the recorded video data of the vehicle passengers;
means for initializing a tracking step by means of a head model;
means for verifying the extracted characteristics by means of pattern recognition; and
means for tracking the verified characteristics by means of the head model.
13 . The device as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the characteristics are selected from a group which consists of facial or shape characteristics of the passengers.
14 . The device as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the facial or shape characteristics comprise eyes, nostrils, corners of the mouth, eyebrows or hairline.
15 . The device as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the cameras ( 1 , 2 , 1 ′, 2 ′) do not need to be synchronized.
16 . The device as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the cameras ( 1 , 2 , 1 ′, 2 ), having different fields of view, are positioned in such a manner that one eye of a driver ( 4 ) is always visible.
17 . The device as claimed in claim 12 , which also comprises means for determining the head attitude of passengers.
18 . The device as claimed in claim 12 , which also comprises means for determining the state of the eyelids of the passengers.
19 . The device as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the means for tracking are constructed for carrying out the Kalman filtering of all recorded characteristics of the cameras ( 1 , 2 ; 1 ′, 2 ′), wherein the cameras can be operated asynchronously.
20 . The device as claimed in claim 12 wherein the cameras ( 1 , 2 ) are arranged in the front area of the vehicle ( 10 ).
21 . The device as claimed in claim 12 , wherein one camera ( 1 ′) is arranged in the front area and the other camera is arranged in the side area of the vehicle ( 10 ).
22 . The device as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the controller ( 3 ) also comprises means for controlling the release of an airbag and/or the adjustment of a head rest ( 5 ) and/or the adjustment of a seat of the vehicle by means of the detected head position.