Apparatus for determining the distance of a vehicle from a roadway side marking
First Claim
1. An apparatus for determining distance of a vehicle from at least one roadway side marking, comprising:
- at least first and second light-sensitive sensor elements arranged on the vehicle for optically scanning respective first and second strips of the roadway, which strips are not parallel to a longitudinal axis of said vehicle and extend laterally with respect to the roadway at least as far as the at least one roadway side marking; and
an evaluation unit operatively coupled to receive output signals from the first and second sensor elements, said evaluation unit reading said output signals of each of said first and second sensor elements sequentially and processing said output signals for determining a lateral distance of the vehicle from the at least one roadway side marking;
wherein said first and second strips of the roadway are spaced apart from each other in a direction of said longitudinal axis of said vehicle.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Apparatus is provided for determining the distance of a vehicle from a roadway side marking. An arrangement of light sensitive sensor elements is fitted to the vehicle for optically scanning a portion of the roadway located in front of the vehicle. An evaluation unit, connected downstream of the sensor element arrangement, is also provided. Only one or a few sensor element lines are used as the sensor element arrangement. Each line scans a narrow strip of the roadway which runs in front of the vehicle, not parallel to the vehicle longitudinal axis, and extends laterally as far as the roadway side marking. The evaluation unit reads each sensor element line sequentially and processes the received signals to determine the lateral distance of the vehicle from the roadway marking. The relatively small quantity of data which accumulates permits the processing of the data digitally in real time by a conventional microprocessor. The apparatus is used as sleep warning system or lane guard for motor vehicles.
103 Citations
12 Claims
-
1. An apparatus for determining distance of a vehicle from at least one roadway side marking, comprising:
-
at least first and second light-sensitive sensor elements arranged on the vehicle for optically scanning respective first and second strips of the roadway, which strips are not parallel to a longitudinal axis of said vehicle and extend laterally with respect to the roadway at least as far as the at least one roadway side marking; and an evaluation unit operatively coupled to receive output signals from the first and second sensor elements, said evaluation unit reading said output signals of each of said first and second sensor elements sequentially and processing said output signals for determining a lateral distance of the vehicle from the at least one roadway side marking; wherein said first and second strips of the roadway are spaced apart from each other in a direction of said longitudinal axis of said vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
-
Specification