VEHICLE DETECTING DEVICE

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vehicle detecting device capable of detecting information of a vehicle from images with high accuracy. SOLUTION: A vehicle detection device 1 for detecting information of a vehicle from images photographed by an imaging means 4 includes a surface candidate estimation means 11 for estimating a candidate of a surface of the vehicle; a feature point extraction means 12 for extracting a plurality of feature points, with a predetermined feature amount from the photographed images of the vehicle; a three-dimensional position estimation means 13 for estimating the three-dimensional positions of the feature points extracted; and a vehicle information detection means 14 for searching for the correspondence relation of the feature points among surface candidates whose difference in the feature amount of the plurality of feature points is small for each combination of surface candidates estimated from the images photographed with different timings, determining the positional error, after translational movement and rotation conversion of the three-dimensional positions of the plurality of feature points having the searched correspondence relation, extracting a combination of surface candidates whose positional error is minimum, and detecting the surface of the vehicle, based on the extracted combination of surface candidates. COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT