Lane departure warning system

• US 8,587,649 B2
• Filed: 04/21/2009
• Issued: 11/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Create Electronic Optical Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Create Electronic Optical Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Lo, Chih-Wei, Lin, Shih-Ho, Wei, Hui-Chen
• Primary Examiner(s): Winder, Patrice
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hagos, Eyob
• Application Number:
  US12/427,248
• Publication Number:
  US 20100265325A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,673 Days
• Field of Search: 348/119, 348113-116, 340/435, 340/438, 340/441, 340/459, 340/461, 340/463, 701/1, 701/116, 701/300
• US Class Current: 348/119
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 15/029 Steering assistants using warnings or proposing actions to the driver without influencing the steering system

Abstract

A lane departure warning system (LDWS) installed on vehicles is revealed. The LDWS includes a camera that captures road images and the data of images is sent to an electronic control unit (ECU) for processing and recognition. The ECU is directly connected with a global positioning system (GPS) that provides vehicle speed signals so as to check whether dangerous driving occurs. Once the dangerous driving occurs, a warning unit is turned on to send an alert. The conventional LDWS that complicatedly connects with vehicles parts such as turn signal lights or speedometers is replaced by connection with a GPS. Thus the convenience of installation of LDWS in vehicles is improved.

Claims

1. A system having a camera, a global positioning system (GPS) and a device with lane departure warning system (LDWS), the device being an integrated part of the LDWS installed in vehicles and comprising an internal electronic control unit (ECU) and at least a warning unit, wherein:

the device which is an integrated part of the LDWS has a cover with a camera connection port, a GPS connection port, a power connection port, a speaker port for providing sounds from an audible warning unit and at least one LED warning light of the warning unit;

the camera is connected with the device by a wire plugged into the camera connection port to track road images in front of a car and input the road images to the electronic control unit;

the electronic control unit having a video decoder, a digital signal processor (DSP) and a memory unit for processing and recognizing images;

the global positioning system (GPS) being connected with the device by at least one wire plugged into the GPS connection port;

wherein the electronic control unit is further connected with the global positioning system (GPS) so as to obtain vehicle speed signals of the car;

while in use, the road images are captured by the camera and are input to the electronic control unit (ECU) for being processed and recognized while the electronic control unit (ECU) gets the vehicle speed signals through the connected global positioning system (GPS) so as to check and give an alarm by sending signals to initiate the warning unit so as to warn the driver once the driver departs a lane without signaling,

the camera and global positioning system being the only external devices operatively connected to the device with lane departure warning system (LDWS).

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cover of the device has a display to show the road images captured by the camera.

3. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cover of the device has a composite video broadcast signal (CVBS) connection port that is connected with an external display by at least one wire.

4. The system as claimed in claim 3, wherein the external display is a liquid crystal display panel or a Head-Up-Display (HUD) that projects images.

5. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the digital signal processor (DSP) is an integrated circuit (IC).

6. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the digital signal processor (DSP) includes a video input, a DSP core, a control unit and a Read-Only Memory (ROM).

7. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the memory unit is a double-data-rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (DDR2SDRAM).

8. The system as claimed in claim 7, wherein the memory unit further includes at least one of an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) and a flash.

9. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the warning unit is an audible warning unit, a visual warning unit, a vibrating warning unit or combinations of them.

10. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the integrated part of the LDWS is further disposed on its cover with a power connection port, at least one functional key, a ON/OFF button of a LCD panel and a speaker sound level button.

11. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the electronic control unit (ECU) gets the vehicle speed signals through the connected global positioning system (GPS), the vehicle speed signal is set as equal to or above 60 Km/hr to turn on the warning unit for giving a driver a warning.