Travel information providing device

• US 8,085,140 B2
• Filed: 09/04/2007
• Issued: 12/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Nishimura, Hirofumi, Kubotani, Hiroyuki, Kurokawa, Hisashi, Mochizuki, Makoto
• Primary Examiner(s): TRIEU, VAN THANH
• Application Number:
  US12/439,766
• Publication Number:
  US 20090303078A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,575 Days
• Field of Search: 340/435, 340/438, 340/439, 340/461, 340/576, 340/901, 340/903, 340/933, 340/815.75, 382/118, 382/154
• US Class Current: 340/438
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/08 Active safety systems predicting or avoiding probable or impending collision or attempting to minimise its consequences
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/02 related to ambient conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/08 related to drivers or passengers
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes

Abstract

A traveling information providing device is provided in which a surrounding information corrector acquires surrounding information on the condition surrounding a vehicle equipped with the device. An object extractor extracts a safety confirmation object the safety of which must be confirmed by a driver from the surrounding information acquired by the surrounding information collector. A line-of-sight detector detects a line-of-sight direction of the driver. A visibility calculator receives the extracted safety confirmation object and the line-of-sight direction of the driver and calculates visibility in consideration of the driver'"'"'s peripheral vision with respect to the safety confirmation object according to the distance or the angle from the driver'"'"'s line-of-sight direction to the object. An information presenter presents safety confirmation to the driver depending on the calculated visibility.

Claims

1. A traveling information providing apparatus comprising:

a peripheral information collector that acquires peripheral information indicating a peripheral situation of a vehicle equipped with said traveling information providing apparatus;

an object extractor that extracts a safety confirmation object, which is an object of safety confirmation performed by a driver of the vehicle, from the peripheral information acquired by said peripheral information collector;

a line-of-sight detector that detects a line-of-sight direction in which the driver is looking;

a visibility calculator that, using the extracted safety confirmation object and the detected driver'"'"'s line-of-sight direction, calculates a numerical value of visibility, taking into consideration peripheral vision of the driver, with respect to the safety confirmation object according to a distance or angle from the driver'"'"'s line-of-sight direction to the safety confirmation object; and

a controller that performs evocation of safety confirmation or control of a vehicle'"'"'s driving state based on the calculated numerical value of visibility,

wherein when the safety confirmation object is in a peripheral visual field of the driver, said visibility calculator calculates the numerical value of the visibility as a value between zero and a value calculated when the safety confirmation object is located in a central visual field, the numerical value of the visibility calculated for the safety confirmation object in the peripheral visual field being different from either zero or the value calculated when the safety confirmation object is located in the central visual field.

2. The traveling information providing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a cumulative visibility calculator that accumulates the numerical value of visibility calculated by said visibility calculator for the safety confirmation object during a predetermined period, to calculate cumulative visibility for the safety confirmation object.

3. The traveling information providing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said controller further comprises a changer that changes an evocation object of the safety confirmation or a control object of vehicle'"'"'s driving state according to the cumulative visibility calculated for the safety confirmation object.

4. The traveling information providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said controller further comprises a changer that changes at least one of an evocation object of the safety confirmation and a control object of the vehicle'"'"'s driving state according to the numerical value of visibility calculated for the safety confirmation object.

5. The traveling information providing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein:

said controller evokes the safety confirmation by displaying the safety confirmation object on a display; and

said changer changes a color of the safety confirmation object displayed on said display according to the numerical value visibility calculated by said visibility calculator.

6. The traveling information providing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a driver information inputter that inputs driver information indicating an attribute of a driver,

wherein said visibility calculator calculates the numerical value of visibility according to the input driver information.

7. The traveling information providing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein:

said controller evokes the safety confirmation by displaying the safety confirmation object on a display; and

said changer changes a color of the safety confirmation object displayed on said display according to the cumulative visibility calculated by said cumulative visibility calculator.

8. The traveling information providing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a driver state detector that detects a level of alertness of a driver,

wherein said visibility calculator calculates the numerical value of visibility according to the detected level of alertness.

9. The traveling information providing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an environmental information collector that acquires environmental information of a periphery of the vehicle,

wherein said visibility calculator calculates the numerical value of visibility according to the acquired environmental information of the periphery of the vehicle.

10. The traveling information providing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a degree-of-attentive-viewing calculator that measures a degree of concentration of attention to the safety confirmation object,

wherein said visibility calculator calculates the numerical value of visibility according to the measured degree of concentration of attention.

11. The traveling information providing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an object classifier that, when a plurality of safety confirmation objects are extracted by said object extractor, classifies the plurality of safety confirmation objects as an object group according to an attribute of each of the plurality of safety confirmation objects,

wherein said visibility calculator calculates the numerical value of visibility for the classified object group.

12. The traveling information providing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an object classifier that, when a plurality of safety confirmation objects are extracted by said object extractor, classifies the plurality of safety confirmation objects as an object group according to an attribute of each of the plurality of safety confirmation objects, wherein:

said controller evokes the safety confirmation by displaying the object group on a display;

said visibility calculator divides the object group displayed by said display into a plurality of sections, and calculate cumulative visibility for each of the divided sections; and

said display displays the divided sections in the object group in a form corresponding to the numerical value of visibility or the cumulative visibility calculated for each section.

13. The traveling information providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the central visual field is within an about 2 degrees with respect to the line-of-sight direction, and the peripheral visual field is outside the central visual field and less than about 20 degrees with respect to the line-of-sight direction.