LANE DETECTING APPARATUS

• US 20080114532A1
• Filed: 11/09/2007
• Published: 05/15/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: NISHIDA, Makoto, Tamaoki, Tomoyasu
• Granted Patent: US 7,860,652 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/200
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30256 Lane; Road marking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/12 Edge-based segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/167 Driving aids for lane monitoring, lane changing, e.g. blind spot detection

Abstract

The present invention discloses a lane detecting apparatus mounted on a vehicle including a camera for obtaining an image of a lane marking drawn on a road, a candidate line selecting part for selecting one or more candidate lines having edge information no less than an edge threshold from the image obtained by the camera, and a car pool lane determining part for determining whether the difference in the number of the candidate lines between the left side of the vehicle and the right side of the vehicle is no less than a predetermined value. When the difference is no less than the predetermined value, the lane detecting apparatus transfers to a car pool lane detection mode in which the candidate line selecting part detects the one or more candidate lines in accordance with a threshold that is less than the edge threshold.

Claims

1. A lane detecting apparatus mounted on a vehicle, the lane detecting apparatus comprising:

a camera for obtaining an image of a lane marking drawn on a road;

a candidate line selecting part for selecting one or more candidate lines having edge information no less than an edge threshold from the image obtained by the camera; and

a car pool lane determining part for determining whether the difference in the number of the candidate lines between the left side of the vehicle and the right side of the vehicle is no less than a predetermined value;

wherein when the difference is no less than the predetermined value, the lane detecting apparatus transfers to a car pool lane detection mode in which the candidate line selecting part detects the one or more candidate lines in accordance with a threshold that is less than the edge threshold.

2. The lane detecting apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a line information calculating part for calculating a road curvature of the lane markings based on the one or more candidate lines;

wherein the car pool lane determining part determines whether the road curvature of the one or more candidate lines on the right side of the vehicle is no less than a predetermined road curvature during the car pool lane detection mode;

wherein when the road curvature of the one or more candidate lines on the right side of the vehicle is no less than the predetermined road curvature, the lane detecting apparatus transfers to a one-side recognition mode in which the line information calculating part calculates the road curvature of the lane markings based on the candidate line on the left side of the vehicle.

3. The lane detecting apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the car pool lane determining part determines whether the difference in the number of candidate lines between the left side of the vehicle and the right side of the vehicle continues to be less than the predetermined value for more than a predetermined period during the car pool lane mode,

wherein when the difference continues to be less than the predetermined value for more than the predetermined period, the lane detecting apparatus transfers to a regular lane mode in which the candidate line selecting part selects the one or more candidate lines based on the edge threshold.