Drive assist apparatus and drive assist system

• US 10,504,371 B2
• Filed: 10/23/2018
• Issued: 12/10/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Hori, Takashige, Akahane, Makoto
• Primary Examiner(s): Alizada, Omeed
• Application Number:
  US16/168,375
• Publication Number:
  US 20190130757A1
• Time in Patent Office: 413 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 9/008 for anti-collision purposes
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 11/04 Mounting of cameras operative during drive; Arrangement of controls thereof relative to the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/8093 for obstacle warning
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/143 Alarm means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/146 Display means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2420/403 Image sensing, e.g. optical camera
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/45 External transmission of data to or from the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/0956 the prediction being responsive to traffic or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/14 Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/75 involving models
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/58 Recognition of moving objects or obstacles, e.g. vehicles or pedestrians; Recognition of traffic objects, e.g. traffic signs, traffic lights or roads
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/103 Static body considered as a whole, e.g. static pedestrian or occupant recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/23 Recognition of whole body movements, e.g. for sport training
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/28 Recognition of hand or arm movements, e.g. recognition of deaf sign language static hand signs G06V40/113
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0866 the electronic data carrier being a digital video recorder in combination with video camera
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes

Abstract

A drive assist system according to an aspect of the present invention comprises: an image analysis unit that analyzes an image captured by a forward-shooting camera mounted on a vehicle and identifies, when recognizing a person performing an action in a direction toward an obstacle located so as to face a traffic lane ahead of the vehicle and an object moving toward the traffic lane ahead of the vehicle from a rear of the obstacle, a combination of the recognized action of the person and the recognized object as a type of dangerous scene; a storage unit that stores dangerous scene type information related to the identified type of dangerous scene; a judgment unit that judges whether or not there is an action of a person included in the dangerous scene type information stored in the storage unit which is similar to the action of the person recognized based on the image captured by the camera; a drive assist unit that assists driving by alerting a driver by notifying the driver that an object included in dangerous scene type information which has been judged as including a similar action of a person is likely to appear in the traffic lane ahead of the vehicle.

Claims

1. A drive assist apparatus mounted on a vehicle, comprising:

a transmission unit that transmits an image captured by a forward-shooting camera mounted on the vehicle to a server;

a receiving unit that receives dangerous scene type information from the server, the dangerous scene type information being related to a type of dangerous scene consisting of a combination of a person who performs an action in a direction toward an obstacle located so as to face a traffic lane ahead of the vehicle and an object moving from a rear of the obstacle toward the traffic lane ahead of the vehicle, the action of the person and the object having been recognized by analyzing the image;

a storage unit that stores the received dangerous scene type information;

a judgment unit that judges whether or not there is an action of a person included in the dangerous scene type information stored in the storage unit which is similar to the action of the person recognized based on the image captured by the camera; and

a drive assist unit that assists driving by, when the judgment unit judges that there is a similar action of a person, alerting a driver by notifying the driver that an object included in dangerous scene type information which has been judged as including the similar action of a person is likely to appear in the traffic lane ahead of the vehicle.

2. The drive assist apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the receiving unit receives the dangerous scene type information transmitted from the server at least one of:

each time the dangerous scene type information is stored in the server; and

/or at predetermined intervals.

3. The drive assist apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the person performing an action toward the obstacle is at least one of a person waving one'"'"'s hand toward the obstacle and/or a person turning one'"'"'s gaze or face toward the obstacle.

4. The drive assist apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the drive assist unit alerts the driver at least one of:

by outputting a voice message from a speaker; and

/or by displaying on a display a message constituted by an image including characters.

5. A drive assist system, comprising:

an image analysis unit that analyzes an image captured by a forward-shooting camera mounted on a vehicle and identifies, when recognizing a person performing an action in a direction toward an obstacle located so as to face a traffic lane ahead of the vehicle and an object moving toward the traffic lane ahead of the vehicle from a rear of the obstacle, a combination of the recognized action of a person and the recognized object as a type of dangerous scene;

a storage unit that stores dangerous scene type information related to the identified type of dangerous scene;

a judgment unit that judges whether or not there is an action of a person included in the dangerous scene type information stored in the storage unit which is similar to the action of the person recognized based on the image captured by the camera; and

a drive assist unit that assists driving by, when the judgment unit judges that there is a similar action of a person, alerting a driver by notifying the driver that the object in the dangerous scene type information which has been judged as including the similar action of a person is likely to appear in the traffic lane ahead of the vehicle.

6. The drive assist system according to claim 5, wherein the person performing an action toward the obstacle is at least one of a person waving one'"'"'s hand toward the obstacle and/or a person turning one'"'"'s gaze or face toward the obstacle.

7. The drive assist system according to claim 5, wherein the drive assist unit alerts the driver at least one of:

by outputting a voice message from a speaker; and

/or by displaying on a display a message constituted by an image including characters.