System and method for three-dimensional (3D) object detection

1. A system comprising:

a data processor; and

a 3D image processing system, executable by the data processor, the image processing system being configured to:

receive image data from at least one camera associated with an autonomous vehicle, the image data representing at least one image frame;

use a trained deep learning module to determine pixel coordinates of a two-dimensional (2D) bounding box around an object detected in the image frame;

use the trained deep learning module to determine vertices of a three-dimensional (3D) bounding box around the object;

obtain geological information related to a particular environment associated with the image frame;

obtain camera calibration information associated with the at least one camera, wherein the camera calibration information comprises camera calibration matrices with a camera extrinsic matrix and a camera intrinsic matrix; and

determine 3D attributes of the object using the 3D bounding box, the geological information, and the camera calibration information, wherein the 3D attributes of the object comprise a length, height, width, 3D spatial location, and heading of the object.

2. The system of claim 1 being further configured to provide the 3D attributes of the object to an autonomous driving perception system.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one camera comprises a camera lens of a type from the group consisting of: a wide-angle or close-range lens, a medium-range lens, and a long-range lens.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the vertices of the three-dimensional (3D) bounding box around the object are determined in pixel coordinates.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the geological information is obtained from a terrain map comprising global positioning system (GPS) locations with the height of the terrain.

6. A method comprising:

receiving image data from at least one camera associated with an autonomous vehicle, the image data representing at least one image frame;

using a trained deep learning module to determine pixel coordinates of a two-dimensional (2D) bounding box around an object detected in the image frame;

using the trained deep learning module to determine vertices of a three-dimensional (3D) bounding box around the object;

obtaining geological information related to a particular environment associated with the image frame;

obtaining camera calibration information associated with the at least one camera, wherein the camera calibration information comprises camera calibration matrices with a camera extrinsic matrix and a camera intrinsic matrix; and

determining 3D attributes of the object using the 3D bounding box, the geological information, and the camera calibration information, wherein the 3D attributes of the object comprise a length, height, width, 3D spatial location, and heading of the object.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the 3D bounding box around the object is a cuboid in a 3D space.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein at least one of the 2D bounding box and the 3D bounding box is determined by deep learning method.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the at least one of the 2D bounding box and the 3D bounding box is refined using Non-Maximum Suppression (NMS) method.

10. The method of claim 6 wherein the geological information is obtained from at least one of a global positioning system (GPS), an accelerometer, and a WiFi triangulation.

11. The method of claim 6 wherein the camera extrinsic matrix denotes coordinate system transformations from 3D world coordinates to 3D camera coordinates.

12. The method of claim 6 wherein the camera intrinsic matrix denotes coordinate system transformations from 3D camera coordinates to 2D image coordinates.

13. A non-transitory machine-useable storage medium embodying instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

receive image data from at least one camera associated with an autonomous vehicle, the image data representing at least one image frame;

use a trained deep learning module to determine pixel coordinates of a two-dimensional (2D) bounding box around an object detected in the image frame;

use the trained deep learning module to determine vertices of a three-dimensional (3D) bounding box around the object;

obtain geological information related to a particular environment associated with the image frame;

obtain camera calibration information associated with the at least one camera, wherein the camera calibration information comprises camera calibration matrices with a camera extrinsic matrix and a camera intrinsic matrix; and

determine 3D attributes of the object using the 3D bounding box, the geological information, and the camera calibration information, wherein the 3D attributes of the object comprise a length, height, width, 3D spatial location, and heading of the object.

14. The non-transitory machine-useable storage medium of claim 13 wherein the object is over 200 meters away from the autonomous vehicle.

15. The non-transitory machine-useable storage medium of claim 13 further configured to receive point cloud data from a laser range finder or a LIDAR associated with the autonomous vehicle.

16. The non-transitory machine-useable storage medium of claim 13 wherein the 3D bounding box has eight corners.

17. The non-transitory machine-useable storage medium of claim 13 wherein the geological information is obtained from a terrain map with the height of the terrain.

18. The non-transitory machine-useable storage medium of claim 13 wherein the length, height, and width have predefined bounds greater than 1 meter and less and 50 meters.