Method and system for detecting objects in a vehicle blind spot

1. A method for detecting objects in a vehicle blind spot, wherein the method comprises:

generating a region of interest onto a first image taken from one camera placed in one side of the vehicle;

generating a top view of the region of interest;

dividing the top view of the region of interest into a plurality of rows;

determining an average value of each row of the plurality of rows;

generating a first 1D array containing the average value of each row;

detecting an object based on the 1D array;

comparing the average values of the first 1D array with values of a second 1D array containing a second set of average values;

determining that the object in the top view of the region of interest is a moving object based on the comparing; and

triggering a signal indicating that the moving object has been determined in the region of interest.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the generation of the top view of the region of interest is carried out by inverse perspective mapping homography computation.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the determination that the object in the region of interest is moving is carried out by track horizontal mean computation.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises filtering out objects with inconsistent motion.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the filtering out is carried out by horizontal mean computation.

6. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the mapping homography computation comprises mapping a 3D grid onto an image plane of the ground, so that each point in the grid is assigned a corresponding intensity value from the image plane.

7. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the track horizontal mean computation comprises a method of measuring a level of similarity between signals from two different frames.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the method of measuring the level of similarity comprises a normalized cross correlation.

9. The method according to claim 4 , wherein is filtering out is carried out by ego-motion computation.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein in determining that a target object in the region of interest is present, only objects with movements similar to a vehicle are considered.

11. A system for detecting objects in a vehicle blind spot using the method according to claim 1 , wherein the system comprises a blind spot detection module including only one camera on each side of the vehicle for detecting target objects in a zone adjacent to the vehicle.

12. The system according to claim 11 , wherein the system also comprises a side collision warning module for detecting target objects in a rear zone.

13. The system according to claim 11 , wherein said camera is a fixed camera during operation.

14. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the ego-motion computation comprises determining the vehicle speed with respect to the road.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second set of average values of the second 1D array is generated based on average values derived from a second plurality of rows of the region of interest of a second image taken by the camera subsequent to the first image.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the determining that the object is the moving object is made when a first portion of the second 1D array corresponding to the detected object includes values similar to values of the first 1D array corresponding to the detected object.