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Inter-vehicle distance measurement apparatus

  • US 5,874,904 A
  • Filed: 08/08/1997
  • Issued: 02/23/1999
  • Est. Priority Date: 08/14/1996
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. An inter-vehicle distance measurement apparatus for measuring a distance from a first vehicle to a second vehicle, comprising:

  • an optical system having a pair of parallel optical axes,a pair of light receiving devices including (m) optical sensor arrays disposed in parallel at a specified interval such that a longitudinal direction of each of the sensor arrays substantially becomes a vertical direction, and (n) measurement windows set on the respective optical sensor arrays, said light receiving devices being disposed in the longitudinal direction of the optical sensor arrays on image forming surfaces of the pair of the parallel optical axes to obtain image data from the optical sensor arrays,distance detection means to detect distances at (m×

    n) points, coordinates of which are specified by sensor line numbers and measurement window addresses,white line detection means connected to the distance detection means, said white line detection means detecting, through detection results obtained by the distance detection means, an optical sensor array among said (m) optical sensor arrays in which an image of a white line is present on a surface of a road where a first vehicle is travelling, andvehicle detection means connected to the white line detection means and the distance detection means, said vehicle detection means detecting a presence of a second vehicle through detection results of the distance detection means for an optical sensor array among said (m) optical sensor arrays where an image of the white line is absent, and detecting at least an inter-vehicle distance to the second vehicle.

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