METHOD FOR DERIVING ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION FROM DETECTING THE REAR LIGHTS OF PRECEDING VEHICLES

• US 20150035979A1
• Filed: 05/08/2012
• Published: 02/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Conti Temic Microelectronic GmbH (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Conti Temic Microelectronic GmbH (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Fischer, Marc, Ulbricht, Dirk
• Application Number:
  US14/118,580
• Publication Number:
  US 20150035979A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/148
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30252 Vehicle exterior; Vicinity of vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/584 of vehicle lights or traffic lights
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/188 Capturing isolated or intermittent images triggered by the occurrence of a predetermined event, e.g. an object reaching a predetermined position signal generation from motion picture films H04N5/253

Abstract

A method for deriving environmental information from detecting the rear lights of preceding vehicles, including the following steps: Recording a sequence of images with a camera that captures the surroundings in front of the vehicle; Detecting and tracking rear lights of preceding vehicles in the sequence of images; and Analysis of the position and movement of the tracked rear lights and deriving environmental information from this analysis.

Claims

1. A method for deriving environmental information from detecting rear lights of preceding vehicles, comprising the following steps:

recording a sequence of images with a camera that captures surroundings in front of the vehicle;

detecting and tracking the rear lights of preceding vehicles in a sequence of images; and

analyzing position and movement of the tracked rear lights and deriving environmental information from this analysis.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least a possible course of the road is derived as environmental information from the tracked rear lights.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein an additional analysis of the number of tracked rear lights is performed and at least a high density of preceding vehicles and/or driving in convoy are derived as environmental information from the tracked rear lights.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein an additional analysis of the intensity of the tracked red rear lights is performed and environmental information with respect to braking operations of preceding vehicles and/or fog are derived from the tracked rear lights.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein a collective braking phase is derived from the frequent occurrence of sudden increases in intensity of the tracked red rear lights if driving in convoy is detected.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein a bending or branching of the road is derived from a lateral movement of the tracked rear lights.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein a bump, upward or downward slope of the road is derived from a horizontal movement of the tracked rear lights.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the detection of the rear lights from a sequence of images is performed by a method for automatic light control or a high beam light assistance system.

9. A device for deriving environmental information from detecting the rear lights of preceding vehicles, comprising:

a camera that captures the surroundings in front of the vehicle and records a sequence of images;

a first processing means for detecting and tracking rear lights of preceding vehicles in the sequence of images;

a second processing means for analyzing the position and movement of the tracked rear lights and for deriving environmental information from this analysis;

a data transmission unit via which the derived environmental information can be transmitted.