Vehicle monitoring of infrastructure lighting

• US 10,402,666 B2
• Filed: 12/18/2017
• Issued: 09/03/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Orris, Jr., Stephen Jay, Herman, David A., Scheufler, Nicholas Alexander, DeCia, Nunzio, Herman, David Michael, Orris, David Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Suh, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US15/845,270
• Publication Number:
  US 20190188503A1
• Time in Patent Office: 624 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 11/04 Mounting of cameras operative during drive; Arrangement of controls thereof relative to the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30252 Vehicle exterior; Vicinity of vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/73 using feature-based methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/582 of traffic signs
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/584 of vehicle lights or traffic lights
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0141 for traffic information dissemination
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/09623 Systems involving the acquisition of information from passive traffic signs by means mounted on the vehicle G08G1/0967 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096766 where the system is characterised by the origin of the information transmission
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096791 where the origin of the information is another vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/097 Supervising of traffic control systems, e.g. by giving an alarm if two crossing streets have green light simultaneously

Abstract

A method and apparatus for vehicle monitoring of infrastructure lighting, an example of which includes a vehicle having a camera, an inter-vehicle communication module and a controller. The controller is to identify a stationary infrastructure object within an image captured by the camera and identify, in response to determining that the stationary infrastructure object includes a lamp, whether the lamp is inoperable. The controller also is to send, via vehicle-to-infrastructure communication utilizing the inter-vehicle communication module, an alert to an infrastructure communication node indicating that the lamp is inoperable.

Claims

1. A vehicle comprising:

a camera;

an inter-vehicle communication module; and

a controller to;

identify a stationary infrastructure object within an image captured by the camera;

identify, in response to determining that the stationary infrastructure object includes a lamp, whether the lamp is inoperable; and

send, via vehicle-to-infrastructure communication utilizing the inter-vehicle communication module, an alert to an infrastructure communication node indicating that the lamp is inoperable.

2. The vehicle of claim 1, further including a proximity sensor to further detect a presence of the stationary infrastructure object.

3. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein, to identify the stationary infrastructure object and operability of the lamp, the controller utilizes machine learning to perform image recognition.

4. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the controller monitors a light emission of the lamp to determine whether the lamp is inoperable.

5. The vehicle of claim 4, further including a light sensor configured to collect light emission measurements to enable the controller to monitor the light emission of the lamp.

6. The vehicle of claim 4, wherein, to monitor the light emission of the lamp, the controller utilizes light frequency filtering to process a light profile of the lamp.

7. The vehicle of claim 4, wherein the controller determines that the lamp is inoperable in response to determining, based upon the light emission of the lamp, that one or more LEDs of the lamp is inoperable.

8. The vehicle of claim 1, further including:

a second communication module configured to send the alert to a server via a cellular network; and

a GPS receiver configured to identify a vehicle location,

wherein the controller includes the vehicle location, at which the camera captured the image that included the stationary infrastructure object, in the alert to facilitate identification of a location of the lamp that is inoperable.

9. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the controller identifies that the stationary infrastructure object is a lamppost, the lamp of the lamppost being a first streetlamp configured to illuminate a portion of a road.

10. The vehicle of claim 9, further including a light sensor to monitor an ambient light, wherein the controller is configured to identify an operability of the first streetlamp in response to the light sensor detecting that the ambient light is below an ambient light threshold.

11. The vehicle of claim 9, wherein, upon the controller identifying that the lamppost includes the first streetlamp and a second streetlamp, the controller determines an operability of the first streetlamp by comparing light emissions of the first streetlamp and the second streetlamp.

12. The vehicle of claim 9, wherein the controller is configured to:

identify a pattern of lampposts along the road based upon a plurality images captured by the camera;

determine a pattern of illumination corresponding to the pattern of lampposts; and

identify that the first streetlamp of the lamppost is inoperable in response to determining an illumination measurement of the lamppost does not correspond to the pattern of illumination.

13. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the controller identifies that the stationary infrastructure object is a first traffic light that includes traffic lamps, each of the traffic lamps includes a first lamp for instructing traffic to proceed, a second lamp for instructing the traffic to yield, and a third lamp for instructing the traffic to stop.

14. The vehicle of claim 13, wherein, upon the controller identifying that an intersection includes the first traffic light and a second traffic light, the controller determines an operability of one or more of the traffic lamps of the first traffic light by comparing light emissions of the first traffic light and the second traffic light.

15. The vehicle of claim 13, wherein the controller is configured to:

retrieve an illumination pattern of the traffic lamps; and

identify one of the traffic lamps as inoperable in response to determining that a measured illumination sequence of the traffic lamps does not correspond with the illumination pattern.

16. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the controller identifies that the stationary infrastructure object is a commercial sign.

17. A method comprising:

identifying, via a processor, an infrastructure object within an image captured by a camera of a vehicle;

determining whether the infrastructure object includes a lamp;

identifying, in response to determining the infrastructure object includes the lamp, whether the lamp is inoperable; and

sending, via vehicle-to-infrastructure communication utilizing an inter-vehicle communication module of the vehicle, an alert to an infrastructure communication node indicating that the lamp is inoperable.

18. The method of claim 17, further including:

identifying a pattern of lampposts along a road based upon a plurality of images captured by the camera, one of the lampposts being the infrastructure object;

determining a pattern of illumination corresponding to the pattern of the lampposts; and

identifying that the lamp of the infrastructure object is inoperable in response to determining that an illumination measurement for the infrastructure object does not correspond to the pattern of illumination.

19. The method of claim 17, further including:

identifying, based upon the image captured by the camera, an intersection that includes a first traffic light and a second traffic light, the first traffic light being the infrastructure object; and

determining an operability of the lamp of the first traffic light by comparing light emissions of the first traffic light and the second traffic light.

20. The method of claim 17, further including

identifying that the infrastructure object is a traffic light;

retrieving an illumination pattern of traffic lamps of the traffic light; and

identifying that one of the traffic lamps is inoperable in response to determining that a measured illumination sequence of the traffic lamps does not correspond with the illumination pattern.