Obstacle map generation using virtual disparity image

The driving support system is one of the most important research fields in intelligent transport system (ITS). In this paper, we address an obstacle maps generation method for driving support system. The stereovision system is the one of most suit sensor to recognize details of environment. On the other hand, a disparity image obtained by stereovision system has quite a lot of information. Therefore an efficient algorithm to analyze obtained disparity image is strongly demanded. If the road surface is extracted, obstacles can be easily extracted by evaluating whether one object touch on a road or not. In this paper, we propose a novel method to estimate three-dimensional road surface position by using virtual disparity image. Moreover, an obstacle extraction method is expressed.