OVERHEAD WIRE RECOGNITION DEVICE AND OVERHEAD WIRE RECOGNITION METHOD

An overhead wire recognition device and method are capable of overhead wire recognition based on plural images taken by an imaging device such as a digital camera. The overhead wire recognition device includes an input unit to which multi-viewpoint images taken by a camera from different viewpoints and camera positions/attitudes are inputted, an overhead wire candidate extraction unit which selects, from the multi-viewpoint input images inputted to the input unit, an overhead wire region including an overhead wire and extracts, from the overhead wire region, a line segment as a candidate of the overhead wire, and an overhead wire model estimation unit which projects the candidate line segment in an imaginary 3D space, determines, based on the candidate line segment, the camera positions/attitudes, and the multi-viewpoint images, a plane where the overhead wire is present in the 3D space, and estimates a 3D model of the overhead wire.