Safety driving support apparatus

• US 8,725,309 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2008
• Issued: 05/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Piece Future Pte., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Kubotani, Hiroyuki, Iwai, Kazuhiko
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Dalena
• Application Number:
  US12/593,941
• Publication Number:
  US 20100076621A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,234 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701/301, 701/96, 701/93, 701/116, 701/117, 701/119, 340/901, 340/902, 340/904, 340/905, 340/907, 340/909, 340/916, 340/426.16
• US Class Current: 701/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/09 Taking automatic action to avoid collision, e.g. braking and steering
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes

Abstract

An object of the invention is to provide a safety driving support apparatus capable of detecting a dangerous moving object with high accuracy at quick timing. A safety driving support apparatus 100 of the invention includes a traffic obstacle detection section 101 for detecting a traffic obstacle of the periphery of a vehicle, a speed change induced event detection section 106 for detecting an event of inducing a sudden change in behavior of a pedestrian from a traffic obstacle detected by the traffic obstacle detection section 101, a speed change detection section 102 for detecting a sudden change in behavior of a pedestrian from a traffic obstacle detected by the traffic obstacle detection section 101, and a dangerous pedestrian detection section 109 for deciding that the pedestrian is a dangerous pedestrian when the speed change detection section 102 detects a change in behavior of a pedestrian within a certain time from a point in time when a speed change induced event of a pedestrian detected by the speed change induced event detection section 106 occurs.

Claims

1. A safety driving support apparatus, comprising:

a traffic obstacle detection section that detects a moving object including a vehicle other than one'"'"'s vehicle or a pedestrian present in a periphery of one'"'"'s vehicle, the moving object and a traffic regulation substance, or the moving object and a road shape, and detects a position or a movement state of the moving object when the traffic obstacle detection section detects the moving object;

a speed change induced event selection section that selects a speed change induced event which is defined as an event in relation to a first moving object or the traffic regulation substance and of inducing a change in speed of a second moving object on the basis of a detection result in the traffic obstacle detection section when the traffic obstacle detection section detects at least one of the first moving object, the traffic regulation substance and the road shape and further detects the second moving object;

a speed change induced event detection section that determines a presence or absence of occurrence of the selected speed change induced event;

a speed change detection section that determines a presence or absence of occurrence of the change in speed of the second moving object when the traffic obstacle detection section detects the occurrence of the selected speed change induced event; and

a dangerous moving object detection section that determines the second moving object as a dangerous moving object when the speed change induced event detection section detects the change in speed of the second moving object.

2. The safety driving support apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a one'"'"'s vehicle movement path prediction section that predicts a path of one'"'"'s vehicle,

wherein the speed change induced event selection section selects the speed change induced event within a range determined on the basis of a path of one'"'"'s vehicle predicted by the one'"'"'s vehicle movement path prediction section.

3. The safety driving support apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising:

a one'"'"'s vehicle travel information detection section that detects travel information about one'"'"'s vehicle,

wherein the one'"'"'s vehicle movement path prediction section predicts the path of one'"'"'s vehicle on the basis of the travel information about one'"'"'s vehicle detected by the one'"'"'s vehicle travel information detection section.

4. The safety driving support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the traffic obstacle detection section further detects a position or a shape feature of the moving object when the traffic obstacle detection section detects the moving object, a position or a shape feature of the traffic regulation substance when the traffic obstacle detection section detects the traffic regulation substance, and a position or a shape feature of the road shape when the traffic obstacle detection section detects the road shape.

5. The safety driving support apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising:

a sight line detection section that detects a sight line direction of a driver of one'"'"'s vehicle; and

a visual recognition determination section that determines whether or not the driver visually recognizes the second moving object on the basis of position information of the moving object detected by the traffic obstacle detection section and the sight line direction detected by the sight line detection section,

wherein the dangerous moving object detection section determines the second moving object as the dangerous moving object when the visual recognition determination section determines that the driver visually recognizes the second moving object within a past predetermined time.

6. The safety driving support apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising a storage section that stores information indicating the speed change induced event in relation to information about the traffic regulation substance, the road shape or the moving object,

wherein the speed change induced event selection section selects the speed change induced event to be detected by the speed change induced event detection section from the information stored in the storage section.

7. The safety driving support apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an acquisition section that acquires information indicating the speed change induced event from a roadside system installed in a road through a road-to-vehicle communication section,

wherein the speed change induced event selection section selects the speed change induced event to be detected by the speed change induced event detection section from the information acquired by the acquisition section.

8. The safety driving support apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a information providing section that provides information about avoidance of contact with the dangerous moving object to a driver when the dangerous moving object is detected by the dangerous moving object detection section.

9. The safety driving support apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a vehicle control section that controls a vehicle for avoidance of contact with the dangerous moving object when the dangerous moving object is detected by the dangerous moving object detection section.