Technical Field
The present invention relates to a lane-line recognition apparatus.
Related Art
A known technique is configured to extract edge points in an image ahead of a subject vehicle captured by a vehicle-mounted camera and recognize a lane line based on the extracted edge points. In the presence of a three-dimensional object, such as a preceding vehicle, ahead of the subject vehicle, such a technique may detect not only the edge points of the lane line, but also edge points of the three-dimensional object, which may prevent lane-line recognition.
Another technique, as disclosed Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2006-331389, is configured to mask an area of the image, in which a preceding vehicle lies, to thereby exclude the edge points within the masked area, and recognize a lane line on the basis of the remaining edge points.
With such a technique, however, many of the edge points of the lane line may be masked with an excessively large mask depending on the position of the preceding vehicle or a distance from the subject vehicle to the preceding vehicle. In such a case, it becomes difficult to accurately recognize the lane line.
In consideration of the foregoing, exemplary embodiments of the present invention are directed to providing a lane-line recognition apparatus for accurately recognizing a lane line.