Raindrop detection device, vehicle wiper apparatus and raindrop detection method

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a raindrop detector that can precisely detect raindrops.SOLUTION: The raindrop detector includes: a camera 11 for taking an image of a windshield 2 from the inside of a vehicle C and acquiring image data; and a raindrop determination unit 22 that determines the presence of raindrops based on the image data. The raindrop determination unit 22 performs edge extraction processing for extracting edges from sequentially taken image data, and repeats presence determination processing q times (q is an integer larger than one) for determining the presence of an edge if an edge has been detected at the same position p times out of the past m times (m is an integer larger than one and p is an integer smaller than m). After that, based on an edge which has been determined to exist after the processing, the presence of raindrops is determined.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1