Accident/near-miss factor area specifying device and accident/near-miss factor area specifying method

• US 8,981,963 B2
• Filed: 09/16/2011
• Issued: 03/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Piece Future Pte., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Emura, Koichi, Ito, Hayashi
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Phung
• Application Number:
  US13/822,874
• Publication Number:
  US 20130181850A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,278 Days
• Field of Search: 340/905, 340/995.1, 340/995.17, 340/435, 340/436, 701/301
• US Class Current: 340/905
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0967 Systems involving transmission of highway information, e.g. weather, speed limits transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/16 Anti-collision systems road vehicle drive control systems for predicting or avoiding probable or impending collision otherwise than by control of a particular sub-unit B60W30/08
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/165 for passive traffic, e.g. including static obstacles, trees
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/167 Driving aids for lane monitoring, lane changing, e.g. blind spot detection

Abstract

Disclosed is an accident/near-miss factor area specifying device capable of specifying accident/near-miss factor areas, the presentation of which is highly required. The accident/near-miss factor area specifying device (100) is used for specifying accident/near-miss factor areas which a driver of a vehicle should be aware of in order to prevent an accident, and the device comprises a viewing area specifying unit (151) for specifying a viewing area of a driver of a vehicle which had a near-miss, immediately before the near-miss occurs, and an unnoticed area specifying unit (152) wherein, when a near-miss object is located in a viewing area, an area corresponding to the position of the object is treated as an unnoticed area which is one of the accident/near-miss factor areas.

Claims

1. An incident/potential-incident factor area specifying apparatus that specifies one or more incident/potential-incident factor areas to be noticed by a driver of a vehicle in order to prevent an incident and a potential incident, comprising:

a viewing area specifying section that specifies a viewing area of a driver of a vehicle for which an incident or a potential incident has occurred, the viewing area being the driver'"'"'s viewing area just before the incident or the potential incident; and

an unnoticed area specifying section that, if an object of the incident or the potential incident is located in the viewing area, sets an area corresponding to a location of the object, as an unnoticed area that is one of the incident/potential-incident factor areas.

2. The incident/potential-incident factor area specifying apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an over-noticed area specifying section that, if the object of the incident or the potential incident is located in the viewing area and another object that is likely to be noticed by the driver is located in the viewing area, sets an area corresponding to the location of the other object as an over-noticed area that is one of the incident/potential-incident factor areas.

3. The incident/potential-incident factor area specifying apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a factor area presenting section that displays the incident/potential-incident factor area so as to be overlapped on map data.

4. The incident/potential-incident factor area specifying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the viewing area specifying section specifies the viewing area on the basis of time-series data as record of a driving state of the vehicle.

5. The incident/potential-incident factor area specifying apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an incident/potential-incident determining section that determines presence/absence of occurrence of the incident or the potential incident of the vehicle and specifies occurrence time and the object of the incident or the potential incident on the basis of time-series data as record of a driving state of the vehicle.

6. The incident/potential-incident factor area specifying apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the incident/potential-incident determining section specifies the object of the incident or the potential incident of the vehicle on the basis of a time-series data as record of a driving state of another vehicle.

7. The incident/potential-incident factor area specifying apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the incident/potential-incident determining section determines that the incident or the potential incident of the vehicle occurs at time when at least one of acceleration and course of the vehicle changes drastically.

8. The incident/potential-incident factor area specifying apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a factor blind area specifying section, that if the object of the incident or the potential incident of the vehicle is already located in the viewing area and also located in a blind spot of the driver, sets an area corresponding to the blind spot as a factor blind area that is one of the incident/potential-incident factor areas.

9. The incident/potential-incident factor area specifying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the viewing area specifying section specifies the viewing area in time unit, and

the unnoticed area specifying section specifies the unnoticed area in time unit.

10. An incident/potential-incident factor area specifying method of specifying one or more incident/potential-incident factor area to be noticed by a driver of a vehicle in order to prevent an incident and a potential incident, comprising:

a step of specifying a viewing area of a driver of a vehicle for which an incident or a potential incident has occurred, the viewing area being the driver'"'"'s viewing area just before the incident or the potential; and

a step, if an object of the incident or the potential incident is located in the viewing area, of setting an area corresponding to a location of the object, as an unnoticed area that is one of the incident/potential-incident factor areas.