OBSTACLE ALERT DEVICE

• US 20140197940A1
• Filed: 11/01/2011
• Published: 07/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd. (Aisin Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd. (Aisin Corp.)
• Inventors: Maruoka, Tetsuya, Kadoya, Akira, Ikeda, Keigo
• Granted Patent: US 9,773,172 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/435
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 1/26 to the rear of the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/307 virtually distinguishing relevant parts of a scene from the background of the scene
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/806 for aiding parking
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/8093 for obstacle warning
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/53 Recognition of crowd images, e.g. recognition of crowd congestion
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes

Abstract

An obstacle alert device is capable of indicating clearly presence of an obstacle approaching a vehicle to a driver, without impairing visibility of a peripheral situation of the vehicle. The device includes a photographed image acquisition section acquiring a photographed image photographing a scene in the periphery of the vehicle, a photographed-image-of-interest generation section generating a photographed image of interest based on the photographed image, a masked region setting section setting a masked region making undisplayed at least a portion of the scene of the vehicle periphery in the photographed image of interest, an object presence determination section determining whether an object is present or not in an outside region outside the photographed image of interest, and a masked-region highlighted-displaying section causing the masked region to be displayed with highlight when an object in the outside region has entered a region corresponding to the photographed image of interest.

Claims

1. An obstacle alert device comprising:

a photographed image acquisition section acquiring a photographed image photographing a scene in the periphery of the vehicle;

a photographed-image-of-interest generation section generating a photographed image of interest based on the photographed image;

a masked region setting section setting a masked region making undisplayed at least a portion of the scene of the vehicle periphery in the photographed image of interest;

an object presence determination section determining whether an object is present or not in an outside region outside the photographed image of interest; and

a masked-region highlighted-displaying section causing the masked region to be displayed with highlight when an object in the outside region has entered a region corresponding to the photographed image of interest.

2. The obstacle alert device according to claim 1, wherein the highlighted displaying comprises a flashing displaying.

3. The obstacle alert device according to claim 1, wherein the masked region is set at an upper portion of the monitoring screen.

4. The obstacle alert device according to claim 1, wherein the masked-region highlighted-displaying section stops the highlighted displaying of the masked region if the object has exited the region corresponding to the photographed image of interest.