VEHICLE PERIPHERAL OBSTACLE NOTIFICATION SYSTEM

• US 20150307024A1
• Filed: 03/19/2015
• Published: 10/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: ISHIMOTO, Hidefumi, FUKUDA, Yoshibumi, ONUMA, Chieko, OOTA, Moritaka, KAWAMATA, Yukihiro
• Granted Patent: US 9,463,741 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 9/008 for anti-collision purposes
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 1/27 providing all-round vision, e.g. using omnidirectional cameras
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/8093 for obstacle warning
• CPC Class Codes: E02F 9/261 Surveying the work-site to be treated
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20221 Image fusion; Image merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30261 Obstacle
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/246 using feature-based methods, e.g. the tracking of corners or segments
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/56 exterior to a vehicle by using sensors mounted on the vehicle
• 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

Abstract

A vehicle peripheral obstacle notification system, used on a construction machine, detects a moving obstacle, gives composite display of the detected moving obstacle, and notifies a user thereof, the moving obstacle being at a location not appearing in a composite bird'"'"'s-eye view obtained by onboard cameras acquiring images of the surroundings of the vehicle including an image immediately under the vehicle body. The system has a composite image formation part that extracts composite image formation areas from the surrounding images to compose a composite bird'"'"'s-eye image. A moving obstacle is detected using the surrounding images and it is decided whether the detected position of the moving obstacle is inside or outside the composite image formation areas. If the detected position is determined to be outside the composite image formation areas, information about the detected position is extracted and an image thereof is output for superimposition onto the composite bird'"'"'s-eye image.

Claims

1. A vehicle peripheral obstacle notification system comprising:

a surrounding image input part that acquires images of the surroundings of a vehicle and outputs the acquired surrounding images;

a composite image formation part that extracts composite image formation areas from the surrounding images acquired by the surrounding image input part and composes a composite bird'"'"'s-eye image as an output resulting from the extracted composite image formation areas; and

an output part that presents a user with the resulting output,

wherein the vehicle peripheral obstacle notification system further includes;

an object detection part that performs the process of detecting a moving obstacle by use of the surrounding images;

an area determination part that determines whether the position at which the moving obstacle is detected by the object detection part is inside or outside the composite image formation areas; and

an image information extraction part which, if the area determination part determines that the detected position of the moving obstacle is outside the composite image formation areas, then extracts information about the detected position of the moving obstacle and extracts an image of the detected moving obstacle for output to the composite image formation part for superimposition thereby onto the composite bird'"'"'s-eye image.

2. The vehicle peripheral obstacle notification system according to claim 1, wherein the composite image formation part superimposes onto the composite bird'"'"'s-eye image the information about the detected position of the moving obstacle and the image of the moving obstacle output from the image information extraction part so that the image of the moving obstacle is displayed at the detected position of the moving obstacle.

3. The vehicle peripheral obstacle notification system according to claim 1, wherein the composite image formation part superimposes onto the composite bird'"'"'s-eye image the information about the detected position of the moving obstacle and the image of the moving obstacle output from the image information extraction part so that the detected position of the moving obstacle is highlighted and the image of the moving obstacle is displayed at a position different from the detected position of the moving obstacle.

4. The vehicle peripheral obstacle notification system according to claim 1, wherein, if the area determination part determines that the detected position of the moving obstacle is inside the composite image formation areas, the image information extraction part also extracts the information about the detected position of the moving obstacle and extracts the image of the detected moving obstacle for output to the composite image formation part for superimposition thereby onto the composite bird'"'"'s-eye image.

5. The vehicle peripheral obstacle notification system according to claim 1, wherein, if the area determination part determines that the detected position of the moving obstacle is outside the composite image formation areas, the image information extraction part extracts the information about the detected position of the moving obstacle and extracts the surrounding image including the detected position for output to the composite image formation part;

and

wherein the composite image formation part provides translucent display of the areas other than those indicated by the composite bird'"'"'s-eye image and highlights the detected position of the moving obstacle when composing the surrounding images.

6. The vehicle peripheral obstacle notification system according to claim 1, wherein, if the area determination part determines that the detected position of the moving obstacle has changed from inside to outside the composite image formation areas, the image information extraction part retains the image of the moving obstacle acquired inside the composite image formation areas;

and

wherein, while the detected position of the moving obstacle remains outside the composite image formation areas, the image information extraction part outputs, the information about the detected position of the moving obstacle and the retained image of the moving obstacle acquired inside the composite image formation areas, to the composite image formation part for superimposition thereby onto the composite bird'"'"'s-eye image.