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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday April 24 2019, @09:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the take-me-to-Anchorage,-Alaska dept.

According to a [PDF] paper to be presented at the 2019 Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, June 15-21 in Long beach, California, researchers have discovered a "simple, cost-effective, and accurate new method" of enabling self driving cars to recognize 3d objects in their path.

Currently bulky expensive lasers, scanners, and specialized GPS receivers are used in LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) sensors and mounted on top of the vehicle. This causes increased drag as well as being unsightly and adding another ~$10,000 to the price tag. Until now, this has been the only viable option.

Cornell researchers have discovered that a simpler method, using two inexpensive cameras on either side of the windshield, can detect objects with nearly LiDAR's accuracy and at a fraction of the cost. The researchers found that analyzing the captured images from a bird's eye view rather than the more traditional frontal view more than tripled their accuracy, making stereo cameras a viable and low-cost alternative to LiDAR.

According to the paper, which goes into this in considerable depth, it is not the quality of images and data which causes the difference in accuracy, but the representation of the data. Adjusting this brings the object detection results using far less expensive camera data for 3D image-analysis up to nearly the same effectiveness as much more expensive LiDAR.

Kilian Weinberger, associate professor of computer science and senior author of the paper, notes that

stereo cameras could potentially be used as the primary way of identifying objects in lower-cost cars, or as a backup method in higher-end cars that are also equipped with LiDAR.

The paper concludes that future work may improve image-based 3D object detection using the denser data feed from cameras further, fully closing the gap with LiDAR.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 24 2019, @12:45PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 24 2019, @12:45PM (#834306)

    Some worn ass wipers? I think that is a problem.

  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday April 24 2019, @01:49PM (5 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 24 2019, @01:49PM (#834335) Journal

    The next time you are out driving around some town or other, keep an eye open for a place called "NAPA" or "O'Reilly's" or - well, just any place with "auto parts" in the name. You can go inside, ask for a windshield wiper to fit your car. The salesman will even stick his head outside, to inform you of what model and make your car is. Then he will look up the part numbers that fit your car. You can choose the least expensive, the most expensive, and sometimes, as many as five other options in between. You'll be amazed at the difference changing your worn ass wipers with new! If you've never changed your wipers before, and you don't know how, a lot of salesmen these days, will change the wipers for you. He'll even dispose of the old ones, so you don't have them lying in the floor, or on the passenger seat, and you won't have to throw them out the window on the highway. It's like magic!!

    Perhaps on next week's episode, we'll discuss the idea of replacing your worn out windshield wiper fluid tank, pump, and tubing. Or not.

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 24 2019, @02:10PM (4 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 24 2019, @02:10PM (#834346)

      Heh, funny, but think about it. It's a self driving car, that needs them replaced. It'll be the part that will worn out most often. When the car drives itself, how often are you going to be changing some camera wipers, escpecially after a generation that doesn't even know how to drive. Perhaps the windscreen is obsolete anyway at that point. I see it as a problem, that they must be replaced as often as i suspect for the cameras and that they might not be.

      And another issue is that it can take several seconds to get them clean after some truck goes by and that sort of thing has to be taken into account aswell.

      I see issues, if they are not, then good.

      There are no Napas, O'Reillys' and no Autozones around here. I kind of like Autozone, so too bad.

      • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday April 24 2019, @02:30PM (1 child)

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 24 2019, @02:30PM (#834349) Journal

        That is interesting. So - gotta wonder about state mandated inspections. Some years ago, Arkansas eliminated annual inspections of cars. Texas, meanwhile, is quite strict on inspections. Will Arkies decide to start inspecting again? Will Texas get even stricter? If the day comes when the average driver NEVER looks his car over, and people die routinely for very stupid stuff, will all states come around to annual or semi-annual inspections? Might there be quarterly inspections one day?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 24 2019, @03:16PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 24 2019, @03:16PM (#834363)

        When the car drives itself, how often are you going to be changing some camera wipers, escpecially after a generation that doesn't even know how to drive.

        Simple. The car will remind you of changing the wipers. If, after getting the message, you still don't do so for a prolonged time, it will refuse to start until you have them replaced.

        • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Wednesday April 24 2019, @10:30PM

          by MostCynical (2589) on Wednesday April 24 2019, @10:30PM (#834537) Journal

          European and Japanese cars already have bongs, bings and trills for seatbelts, lights, doors, etc.. And dashboard warnings for failures (lights blown, errors in electronics, flat key fob battery..)

          Adding one more for "obscured self driving camera" is not going to cause the end of the world.

          I think vehicles with autonomous braking or radar cruise control already have some sort of warning if the radar unit is covered.

          The problem with extending the period between inspections comes down to brake and tyre wear. Heavy braking and hard acceleration (the way most people seem to drive these days) can wear out brakes and tyres in under a year..

          --
          "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex