A feature extraction algorithm based on corner and spots in self-driving vehicles

Abstract

To solve the poor real-time performance problem of the visual odometry based on embedded system with limited computing resources, an image matching method based on Harris and SIFT is proposed, namely the Harris-SIFT algorithm. On the basis of the review of SIFT algorithm, the principle of Harris-SIFT algorithm is provided. First, Harris algorithm is used to extract the corners of the image as candidate feature points, and scale invariant feature transform (SIFT) features are extracted from those candidate feature points. At last, through an example, the algorithm is simulated by Matlab, then the complexity and other performance of the algorithm are analyzed. The experimental results show that the proposed method reduces the computational complexity and improves the speed of feature extraction. Harris-SIFT algorithm can be used in the real-time vision odometer system, and will bring about a wide application of visual odometry in embedded navigation system.

Keywords

• vehicle engineering
• self-driving vehicles
• feature extraction
• SIFT
• Harris
• RANSAC