VEHICLE TOW BALL DETECTION METHOD AND SYSTEM

A position of a tow ball of a tow vehicle is detected by: receiving an image from a rear camera and a size of the tow ball; identifying, a representation of the tow ball projected onto a camera plane of the rear camera; determining at least two rays each passing through a center of the rear camera; estimating an angle formed between the first and second rays; estimating a distance from the rear camera to a center of the tow ball based upon the estimated angle and the size of the tow ball; and determining a height of the tow ball based upon the estimated distance. A lookup table, with entries that each include at least one x-direction value, at least one y-direction value associated with a tow ball representation in the image and a height value corresponding to the tow ball representation, may also be used.