Apparatus for safety-driving of vehicle

• US 10,121,379 B2
• Filed: 01/12/2016
• Issued: 11/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hyundai Mobis Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hyundai Mobis Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Lee, Seong Soo
• Primary Examiner(s): Perungavoor, Sathyanaraya V
• Assistant Examiner(s): Brown, Jr., Howard D
• Application Number:
  US14/993,663
• Publication Number:
  US 20160203720A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,029 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/607 from a bird's eye viewpoint
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/584 of vehicle lights or traffic lights
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/588 Recognition of the road, e.g. of lane markings; Recognition of the vehicle driving pattern in relation to the road
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/167 Driving aids for lane monitoring, lane changing, e.g. blind spot detection

Abstract

An apparatus for safety-driving of a vehicle, including: a camera unit outputting images of different directions based on a vehicle by photographing the vicinity of the vehicle, the images including a left image and a right image of the vehicle; a top-view image output unit synthesizing the images to output a top-view image; a traffic lane detecting unit detecting a left or right traffic lane of the vehicle from the top-view image by considering a traffic lane feature of the top-view image; a side vehicle detecting unit detecting a wheel of another vehicle in at least one of the left image and the right image; an another vehicle area estimating unit estimating an existing area of another vehicle by considering the location of the detected wheel; and a warning signal output unit outputting a warning signal when the vehicle enters the existing area of another vehicle.

Claims

1. An apparatus for safety-driving of a vehicle, the apparatus comprising:

a plurality of cameras mounted on the vehicle, photographing a vicinity of the vehicle in different directions, and outputting a plurality of images of the vicinity of the vehicle in the different directions, the plurality of images including a left image and a right image of the vehicle;

at least one processor configured to;

synthesize the plurality of images to output a top-view image;

detect a left or right traffic lane of the vehicle from the top-view image based on a traffic lane feature of the top-view image;

detect a wheel of another vehicle from at least one of the left image and the right image by using at least one of a plurality of Haar-like features detected in the at least one of the left image and the right image;

estimate an existing area of another vehicle based on a location of the detected wheel of another vehicle; and

output a warning signal when the vehicle enters the existing area of another vehicle; and

a warning unit configured to announce a danger to a driver of the vehicle when receiving the warning signal.

2. The apparatus for safety-driving of a vehicle of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to detect a plurality of traffic lane center points having a predetermined brightness value or more by applying a top-hat filter for each predetermined area in a predetermined direction with respect to a gray-scale image of the top-view image.

3. The apparatus for safety-driving of a vehicle of claim 2, wherein the at least one processor is configured to detect left and right feature points based on the respective traffic lane center points, and

the left feature point and the right feature point correspond to boundaries of predetermined traffic lane brightness patterns.

4. The apparatus for safety-driving of a vehicle of claim 3, wherein the at least one processor is configured to make a search in all directions from the left feature point and the right feature point to extract a line component for the left feature point and a line component for the right feature point, and detect a left or right traffic lane of the vehicle based on the traffic lane center point when a difference in angle between the line component for the left feature point and the line component for the right feature point is a threshold or less.

5. The apparatus for safety-driving of a vehicle of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to select the at least one of the plurality of Haar-like features by using an Adaboost algorithm and detect the wheel of another vehicle by using the selected Haar-like feature.

6. The apparatus for safety-driving of a vehicle of claim 5, wherein the at least one processor is configured to combine two or more Haar-like features to detect the wheel of another vehicle when two or more Haar-like features are selected.

7. The apparatus for safety-driving of a vehicle of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to estimate an area having a predetermined shape and a predetermined size as the existing area of another vehicle based on the location of the detected wheel of another vehicle.

8. The apparatus for safety-driving of a vehicle of claim 7, wherein the at least one processor is configured to output the warning signal when a distance between the vehicle and the existing area of another vehicle is less than a predetermined distance.