Danger avoidance system for a vehicle
First Claim
1. A danger avoidance system for a vehicle comprising:
- a vehicle condition monitoring system for monitoring a behavior of the vehicle and for providing vehicle information;
an ambient condition monitoring system for monitoring a condition of ambience surrounding the vehicle and for providing ambient information;
a traveling condition deciding unit, receiving the vehicle information indicative of the behavior of the vehicle, and the ambient information indicative of the ambience of the vehicle, for deciding whether the vehicle is in a dangerous traveling mode based on the vehicle information and the ambient information, the traveling condition deciding unit having means for providing a first output if the vehicle is in the dangerous traveling mode;
a danger recognition confirming unit, receiving the first output and driver information indicative of behavior of a driver of the vehicle, for deciding, in response to the first output, whether the driver is aware of the dangerous traveling mode, the danger recognition confirming unit having means for providing a second output if the driver is unaware of the dangerous traveling mode;
a danger avoidance effecting unit, receiving the second output, for effecting warning actions to warn the driver of the dangerous traveling mode in response to the second output; and
a vehicle condition data storage unit for storing data represented by output signals of the vehicle condition monitoring system for a predetermined time;
wherein the ambient condition monitoring system includes means for inferring the condition of the ambience surrounding the vehicle from the data stored in the vehicle condition data storage unit and includes means for selectively determining a monitoring range of the ambient information to be monitored by the ambient condition monitoring system in response to the inferred condition of the ambience.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention relates to a danger avoidance system capable of avoiding the collision of a vehicle against obstacles and of reducing the effect of collision on a vehicle. A traveling condition deciding unit decides whether or not the vehicle is in a dangerous traveling condition on the basis of the respective outputs of a vehicle monitoring system and an ambient condition monitoring system. A danger recognition confirming unit decides whether or not the driver is aware of the dangerous traveling condition on the basis of the respective outputs of a driver monitoring system, the ambient condition monitoring system and the vehicle monitoring system. When the traveling condition deciding unit decides that the vehicle is in the dangerous traveling condition, measures to avoid danger or to reduce the effect of collision on the vehicle are taken only when the driver is not aware of the dangerous traveling condition. Therefore, a danger avoidance effecting unit does not execute the measures to avoid danger or to reduce the effect of collision on the vehicle when the driver is aware of the dangerous traveling condition.
135 Citations
11 Claims
-
1. A danger avoidance system for a vehicle comprising:
-
a vehicle condition monitoring system for monitoring a behavior of the vehicle and for providing vehicle information; an ambient condition monitoring system for monitoring a condition of ambience surrounding the vehicle and for providing ambient information; a traveling condition deciding unit, receiving the vehicle information indicative of the behavior of the vehicle, and the ambient information indicative of the ambience of the vehicle, for deciding whether the vehicle is in a dangerous traveling mode based on the vehicle information and the ambient information, the traveling condition deciding unit having means for providing a first output if the vehicle is in the dangerous traveling mode; a danger recognition confirming unit, receiving the first output and driver information indicative of behavior of a driver of the vehicle, for deciding, in response to the first output, whether the driver is aware of the dangerous traveling mode, the danger recognition confirming unit having means for providing a second output if the driver is unaware of the dangerous traveling mode; a danger avoidance effecting unit, receiving the second output, for effecting warning actions to warn the driver of the dangerous traveling mode in response to the second output; and a vehicle condition data storage unit for storing data represented by output signals of the vehicle condition monitoring system for a predetermined time; wherein the ambient condition monitoring system includes means for inferring the condition of the ambience surrounding the vehicle from the data stored in the vehicle condition data storage unit and includes means for selectively determining a monitoring range of the ambient information to be monitored by the ambient condition monitoring system in response to the inferred condition of the ambience. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
-
-
5. In a danger avoidance system for a vehicle having a vehicle condition monitoring system for monitoring behavior of the vehicle, an ambient condition monitoring system for monitoring a condition of ambience surrounding the vehicle, and a driver monitoring system for monitoring driver'"'"'s behavior, the danger avoidance system comprising:
-
a traveling condition deciding unit for automatically deciding whether the vehicle is in a dangerous traveling mode on the basis of an output of the vehicle condition monitoring system and an output of the ambient condition monitoring system and having means for providing a first output if the vehicle is in the dangerous traveling mode; a danger recognition confirming unit for automatically deciding, in response to receipt of the first output, whether the driver is aware of the dangerous traveling mode on the basis of an output of the driver monitoring system and having means for providing a second output if the driver is unaware of the dangerous traveling mode; and a data storage unit for storing data represented by the output of the vehicle condition monitoring system, the output of the ambient condition monitoring system, the first output, the output of the driver monitoring system and the second output in time series; wherein the ambient condition monitoring system includes means for inferring the condition of the ambience surrounding the vehicle from the data represented by the output of the vehicle condition monitoring system stored in the data storage unit and includes means for selectively determining a monitoring range of the ambient information to be monitored by the ambient inferred condition on the ambience monitoring system in response to the condition.
-
-
6. A danger avoidance system for a vehicle, comprising:
-
vehicle condition monitoring means for monitoring a behavior of the vehicle and for providing vehicle information indicative of a condition of the vehicle; ambient condition monitoring means for monitoring a condition of ambience surrounding the vehicle and for providing ambient information indicative of an ambience of the vehicle; traveling condition means for deciding whether the vehicle is in a dangerous traveling mode based on an inference of the behavior of the vehicle including; first vehicle information means for receiving the vehicle information indicative of a condition of the vehicle, first ambient information means for receiving the ambient information indicative of an ambience of the vehicle, vehicle behavior means for inferring the behavior of the vehicle based on the vehicle information and the ambient information, and enabling means for providing an enabling signal when the vehicle is in a dangerous traveling mode; recognition confirming means for deciding whether a driver is aware when the vehicle is in a dangerous traveling mode based on an inference of the awareness of the driver including; means for receiving the enabling signal, driver information means for receiving driver information indicative of behavior of the driver, driver behavior means for inferring the awareness of the driver based on the driver information, and warning means for providing a warning signal when the driver is unaware of the dangerous traveling mode and for inhibiting the warning signal when the driver is aware of the dangerous traveling mode; and danger avoidance means for providing warning actions to warn the driver of the dangerous traveling mode when the driver is unaware of the dangerous traveling mode including means for receiving the warning signal; and data storage means for storing data including the vehicle information indicative of the condition of the vehicle and the ambient information indicative of the ambience of the vehicle; wherein the ambient condition monitoring means includes means for inferring the condition of the ambience surrounding the vehicle from data indicative of the condition of the vehicle stored in the vehicle condition data storage unit and means for selectively determining a monitoring range of the ambient information to be monitored by the ambient condition monitoring system in response to the inferred condition of the ambience. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8)
-
-
9. A method for a vehicle to avoid danger, the method comprising the steps of;
-
(a) receiving vehicle data indicative of the vehicle; (b) receiving ambient data indicative of ambience surrounding the vehicle; (c) inferring the behavior of the vehicle based on an integration of the vehicle data and the ambience data; (d) determining whether the vehicle is in a dangerous traveling mode based on the inference of the behavior of the vehicle; (e) receiving driver data indicative of the behavior of the driver; (f) inferring the behavior of a driver based on the driver data; (g) determining whether the driver is aware of the dangerous traveling mode based on the inference of the behavior of the driver; (h) if step (g) determines that the driver is unaware of the dangerous traveling mode, providing a warning to the driver; (i) monitoring the vehicle to determine the vehicle data; and (j) monitoring the ambience surrounding the vehicle to determine the ambient data; wherein the step (a) includes the steps of; storing the vehicle data for a predetermined time; inferring the ambience surrounding the vehicle based on the stored vehicle data; and selecting a monitoring range of the ambience data to be monitored based on the inference of the ambience surrounding the vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11)
-
Specification