Parking aid system

• US 20110006917A1
• Filed: 06/08/2010
• Published: 01/13/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Taniguchi, Daisuke, Kawano, Ryusuke
• Granted Patent: US 8,542,129 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/932.2
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 15/028 Guided parking by providing commands to the driver, e.g. acoustically or optically
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20061 Hough transform
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30264 Parking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/73 using feature-based methods

Abstract

A parking aid system is disclosed. The parking aid system includes: a parking space borderline recognition section configured to recognize two borderlines of the parking space based on a captured image, which is captured by an imaging device mounted to the vehicle, the two borderlines respectively being two parts of the parking space boundary opposite to each other in a width direction of the parking space; a displacement calculation section configured to calculate displacement of the vehicle in the width direction with respect to the two borderlines based on positions of the two borderlines in the captured image and an imaging range of the imaging device; and a notifier configured to notify the displacement calculated by the displacement calculation section.

Claims

1. A parking aid system for aiding in parking a vehicle into a parking space defined by a parking space boundary, the parking aid system comprising:

a parking space borderline recognition section that is configured to recognize two borderlines of the parking space based on a captured image, which is captured by an imaging device mounted to the vehicle, the two borderlines respectively being two parts of the parking space boundary and being opposite to each other in a width direction of the parking space;

a displacement calculation section that is configured to calculate displacement of the vehicle in the width direction with respect to the two borderlines based on positions of the two borderlines in the captured image and an imaging range of the imaging device, the imaging range being determined by reference to the vehicle; and

a notifier that is configured to notify the displacement calculated by the displacement calculation section.

2. The parking aid system according to claim 1, wherein:

the displacement calculation section calculates the displacement as a distance between a center line of the parking space and a center point of the vehicle;

the center line of the parking space is a line located at a same distance from the two borderlines; and

the center point of the vehicle is a point located at a center of the vehicle in a front-back direction of the vehicle and located on a vehicle center line, which is at a same distance from both lateral sides of the vehicle.

3. The parking aid system according to claim 1, wherein:

the imaging device is a component of the parking aid system and is one movement direction imaging device, which images an area frontward or backward of the vehicle;

the parking space borderline recognition section further recognizes an auxiliary line in addition to the two borderlines based on the captured image captured by the one movement direction imaging device,

the auxiliary line being located on such a place that the auxiliary line is located more distant from a vehicle approach side of the parking space than the two borderlines are from the vehicle approach side;

the parking space borderline recognition section acquires a positional relationship between the auxiliary line and the two borderlines in recognizing the two borderlines and the auxiliary line, so that the positional relationship is prospectively acquired; and

when the parking space borderline recognition section becomes unable to recognize the two borderlines, the displacement calculation section calculates the displacement by using the center point of the vehicle and the auxiliary line.

4. The parking aid system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an inclination angle calculation section that is configured to calculate an inclination angle of the vehicle with respect to the parking space boundary based on the two borderlines recognized by the parking space borderline recognition section.

5. The parking aid system according to claim 4, further comprising:

a rotation direction instruction image creation section that is configured to create a rotation direction instruction image indicative of which rotation direction of a steering wheel of the vehicle decreases magnitude of the inclination angle calculated by the inclination angle calculation section,

wherein the notifier includes

a display device configured to perform display operation and

a display control section configured to control the display operation of the display device, the display operation including display of the rotation direction instruction image.

6. The parking aid system according to claim 5, wherein:

the instruction image creation section creates the rotation direction instruction image so that size of the created rotation direction instruction image corresponds to a magnitude of rotation angle of the steering wheel, the magnitude causing the inclination angle to be zero.

7. The parking aid system according to claim 5, wherein:

the display control section causes the display device to display thereon the captured image, which is captured by the imaging device; and

the display control section further causes the display device to superimpose the rotation direction instruction image on the captured image.

8. The parking aid system according to claim 5, wherein:

the display control section causes the display device to display thereon the captured image, which is captured by the imaging device; and

the display control section further causes the display device to superimpose the rotation direction instruction image on the captured image so that location of the rotation direction instruction image on the captured image corresponds to the displacement calculated by the displacement calculation section.

9. The parking aid system according to claim 4, further comprising:

an inclination image creation section that is configured to create a inclination image which is indicative of the inclination angle calculated by the inclination angle calculation section and which is rotated around an end point of the inclination image by a rotation degree that corresponds to the inclination angle,

wherein the notifier includes

a display device configured to perform display operation and

a display control section configured to control the display operation of the display device, the display operation including display of the inclination image.

10. The parking aid system according to claim 9, wherein:

the display control section causes the display device to display thereon the captured image, which is captured by the imaging device; and

the display control section further causes the display device to superimpose the inclination image on the captured image.

11. The parking aid system according to claim 9, wherein:

the display control section causes the display device to display thereon the captured image, which is captured by the imaging device; and

the display control section causes the display device to superimpose the inclination image on the captured image so that location of the inclination image on the captured image corresponds to a magnitude of the displacement calculated by the displacement calculation section.

12. The parking aid system according to claim 4, wherein

the notifier includes a plurality of segments each having a plurality of parts;

the plurality of segments is arranged in a predetermined geometry to indicate the displacement calculated by the displacement calculation section;

the plurality of parts of each segment is arranged in a predetermined geometry to indicate the inclination angle calculated by the inclination angle calculation section; and

the notifier is configured such that one part of one segment lights up when the one part corresponds to a present value of the inclination angle and when the one segment corresponds to a present value of the displacement.

13. The parking aid system according to claim 4, wherein:

the notifier includes a plurality of light-emitting elements; and

the plurality of light-emitting elements is arranged in a predetermined geometry to indicate the inclination angle calculated by the inclination angle calculation section.

14. The parking aid system according to claim 1, wherein:

the notifier includes a plurality of light-emitting elements; and

the plurality of light-emitting elements is arranged in a predetermined geometry to indicate the displacement calculated by the displacement calculation section.

15. The parking aid system according to claim 4, further comprising:

an illustration creation section that is configured to create an illustration indicative of a result of the parking of the vehicle with respect to the parking space boundary, based on the displacement calculated by the displacement calculation section and the inclination angle calculated by the inclination angle calculation section,

wherein the notifier includes a display device,

wherein the display device displays thereon the illustration created by the illustration creation section to indicate the result of the parking.

16. The parking aid system according to claim 4, further comprising:

a parking result evaluation section that is configured to evaluate a result of the parking of the vehicle with respect to the parking space boundary thereby to provide an evaluation result, based on the displacement calculated by the displacement calculation section and the inclination angle calculated by the inclination angle calculation section; and

an illustration creation section that is configured to create an illustration indicative of the evaluation result provided by the parking result evaluation section,

wherein the notifier includes a display device and a display control section configured to control the display device,

wherein the display control section causes the display device to display thereon the illustration created by the illustration creation section to indicate the evaluation result.

17. The parking aid system according to claim 4, further comprising:

a parking result scoring section that is configured to score a result of the parking of the vehicle with respect to the parking space boundary thereby to provide a scoring result, based on the displacement calculated by the displacement calculation section and the inclination angle calculated by the inclination angle calculation section; and

an illustration creation section that is configured to create an illustration indicative of the scoring result provided by the parking result scoring section,

wherein the notifier includes a display device and a display control section configured to control the display device,

wherein the display control section causes the display device to display thereon the illustration created by the illustration creation section to indicate the scoring result.

18. The parking aid system according to claim 17, further comprising;

a storage section that is configured to accumulatively store therein the scoring result provided by the parking result scoring section,

wherein the display control section causes the display device to display thereon a graph showing transition of the scoring result, which is stored in the storage section.

19. A parking aid system for aiding in parking a vehicle into a parking space defined by a parking space boundary, the parking aid system comprising:

a parking space borderline recognition section that is configured to recognize two borderlines based on a captured image, which is captured by an imaging device mounted to the vehicle, the two borderlines respectively being two parts of the parking space boundary and being opposite to each other in a width direction of the parking space;

an inclination angle calculation section that is configured to calculate a inclination angle of the vehicle with respect to the parking space boundary based on the two borderlines recognized by the parking space borderline recognition section;

a rotation direction instruction image creation section that is configured to create a rotation direction instruction image indicative of which rotation direction of a steering wheel decreases magnitude of the inclination angle calculated by the inclination angle calculation section;

a display device that is configured to perform display operation; and

a display control section that is configured to control of the display operation of the display device, the display operation including display of the rotation direction instruction image by the display device.