Warning method and system for detecting lane-changing condition of rear-approaching vehicles
First Claim
1. A warning method for detecting lane-changing condition of rear-approaching vehicles, comprising:
- performing an image acquisition process for sensing a rear-view image of an ego-vehicle that is performing the warning method;
performing a lane line recognition algorithm for identifying lane lines in the rear-view image and thus obtaining the position information of the lane lines in an image coordinate system;
defining three regions of interest (ROI) corresponding respectively to a lane to the left of the ego-vehicle, a lane to the right of the ego-vehicle, and a lane where the ego-vehicle is travelling thereon, i.e., a left lane ROI, a right lane ROI and an ego-lane ROI, while enabling the three ROIs to be defined based upon the expected height of any common direction light, so as to allow any direction light on a rear-approaching vehicle that is flashing to be recognizable on the acquired rear-view image and thus to be used for determining accurately whether the rear-approaching vehicle is traveling on the same lane of the ego-vehicle or is traveling on the adjacent lane, to the ego-vehicle i.e., the left lane or the right lane;
determining whether there is any direction light flashing in the left lane ROI, indicating that there is a vehicle approaching the ego-vehicle from the left lane of the ego-vehicle, and then determining whether the flashing direction light on the rear-approaching vehicle is the one used for right-turn indication, and if so, performing a warning process for issuing an alarm signal to the driver of the ego-vehicle for reminding the same that the rear-approaching vehicle is going to perform a lane changing maneuver to move from the left lane to the same lane of the ego-vehicle;
determining whether there is any direction light flashing in the right lane ROI, indicating that there is a vehicle approaching the ego-vehicle from the right lane of the ego-vehicle, and then determining whether the flashing direction light on the rear-approaching vehicle is the one used for left-turn indication, and if so, performing the warning process for issuing an alarm signal to the driver of the ego-vehicle for reminding the same that the rear-approaching vehicle is going to perform a lane changing maneuver to move from the right lane to the same lane of the ego-vehicle; and
determining whether there is any direction light flashing in the ego-lane ROI, indicating that there is a vehicle approaching the ego-vehicle from the rear in the same lane of the ego-vehicle, and then determining whether the flashing direction light on the rear-approaching vehicle is the one used for right-turn indication, and if so, performing the warning process for issuing an alarm signal to the driver of the ego-vehicle for reminding the same that the rear-approaching vehicle is going to perform a lane changing maneuver to move from the ego-lane to the right lane of the ego-vehicle;
otherwise, determining whether the flashing direction light on the rear-approaching vehicle is the one used for left-turn indication, and if so, performing the warning process for issuing an alarm signal to the driver of the ego-vehicle for reminding the same that the rear-approaching vehicle is going to perform a lane changing maneuver to move from the ego-lane to the left lane of the ego-vehicle.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A warning method and system for detecting lane-changing condition of rear-approaching vehicles are disclosed, in which the method comprises the steps of: detecting rear-view images of an ego-vehicle so as to be used for defining three regions of interest (ROI) corresponding respectively to a lane to the left of the ego-vehicle, a lane to the right of the ego-vehicle, and a lane where the ego-vehicle is travelling thereon; detecting whether there is any direction light that is flashing to be used as basis for determining whether there is any vehicle approaching from the rear that is expected to be a potential threat to the ego-vehicle; and if so, issuing an alarm signal to the driver of the ego-vehicle for reminding the same to aware the distance between the ego-vehicle and the rear-approaching vehicle. Thereby, the driver'"'"'s road environment awareness is enhanced and consequently the safety of driving can be improved.
28 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A warning method for detecting lane-changing condition of rear-approaching vehicles, comprising:
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performing an image acquisition process for sensing a rear-view image of an ego-vehicle that is performing the warning method; performing a lane line recognition algorithm for identifying lane lines in the rear-view image and thus obtaining the position information of the lane lines in an image coordinate system; defining three regions of interest (ROI) corresponding respectively to a lane to the left of the ego-vehicle, a lane to the right of the ego-vehicle, and a lane where the ego-vehicle is travelling thereon, i.e., a left lane ROI, a right lane ROI and an ego-lane ROI, while enabling the three ROIs to be defined based upon the expected height of any common direction light, so as to allow any direction light on a rear-approaching vehicle that is flashing to be recognizable on the acquired rear-view image and thus to be used for determining accurately whether the rear-approaching vehicle is traveling on the same lane of the ego-vehicle or is traveling on the adjacent lane, to the ego-vehicle i.e., the left lane or the right lane; determining whether there is any direction light flashing in the left lane ROI, indicating that there is a vehicle approaching the ego-vehicle from the left lane of the ego-vehicle, and then determining whether the flashing direction light on the rear-approaching vehicle is the one used for right-turn indication, and if so, performing a warning process for issuing an alarm signal to the driver of the ego-vehicle for reminding the same that the rear-approaching vehicle is going to perform a lane changing maneuver to move from the left lane to the same lane of the ego-vehicle; determining whether there is any direction light flashing in the right lane ROI, indicating that there is a vehicle approaching the ego-vehicle from the right lane of the ego-vehicle, and then determining whether the flashing direction light on the rear-approaching vehicle is the one used for left-turn indication, and if so, performing the warning process for issuing an alarm signal to the driver of the ego-vehicle for reminding the same that the rear-approaching vehicle is going to perform a lane changing maneuver to move from the right lane to the same lane of the ego-vehicle; and determining whether there is any direction light flashing in the ego-lane ROI, indicating that there is a vehicle approaching the ego-vehicle from the rear in the same lane of the ego-vehicle, and then determining whether the flashing direction light on the rear-approaching vehicle is the one used for right-turn indication, and if so, performing the warning process for issuing an alarm signal to the driver of the ego-vehicle for reminding the same that the rear-approaching vehicle is going to perform a lane changing maneuver to move from the ego-lane to the right lane of the ego-vehicle;
otherwise, determining whether the flashing direction light on the rear-approaching vehicle is the one used for left-turn indication, and if so, performing the warning process for issuing an alarm signal to the driver of the ego-vehicle for reminding the same that the rear-approaching vehicle is going to perform a lane changing maneuver to move from the ego-lane to the left lane of the ego-vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A warning system for detecting lane-changing condition of rear-approaching vehicles, comprising:
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a signal process-control module comprising; an image acquisition and decoding unit , a random access memory, an image coding and outputting unit, a signal processing and control unit, and a non-volatile programmable memory; an image sensor, electrically connected to the signal process-control module; a control unit, electrically connected to the signal process-control module; a display unit, electrically connected to the signal process-control module; and an alarm unit, electrically connected to the signal process-control module; wherein the signal process-control module is used for processing the rear-view image from the image sensor using a Sobel filter so as to identify edges of lanes that are to be used in a Hough transform operation for obtaining position information of the lane lines in the image coordinate system; and
further, with reference to the positions (xi,yi) of the lane lines detected in the image coordinate system, the signal process-control modules uses the following inverse perspective projection equations; - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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Specification