Artificial vision system locates pedestrians in front of vehicles

Soon to be integrated into Mercedes vehicles, the device includes two cameras and a unit that process information supplied in real time by all image points.

‘The new system can detect pedestrians from within vehicles using visible spectrum cameras, and can do so even at night,’ said David Fernández Llorca, a lecturer at Alcalá University who worked with colleagues from Heidelberg University and the Max Planck Institute for Informatics on the project.

According to a statement, the newest feature of the device is the use of a dense stereo system where two cameras, 30cm apart, are placed in a structure below the rear-view mirror.

‘Human beings are able to make out the distance and depth of objects thanks to our two eyes — the same occurs with artificial vision,’ said Fernández Llorca.

He added that the system is called ‘dense’ because it collects this information from all the points making up each one of the images that the cameras capture.