Movable body spectrum measuring apparatus and movable body spectrum measuring method

• US 9,121,818 B2
• Filed: 07/30/2010
• Issued: 09/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Funayama, Ryuji, Sato, Jun, Sasaki, Kenji
• Primary Examiner(s): Chowdhury, Tarifur
• Assistant Examiner(s): Gray, Sunghee Y
• Application Number:
  US13/383,595
• Publication Number:
  US 20120194817A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,859 Days
• Field of Search: 356/402, 702182-185, 702/188
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/027 Control of working procedures of a spectrometer; Failure detection; Bandwidth calculation
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/2823 Imaging spectrometer
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/31 Investigating relative effect of material at wavelengths characteristic of specific elements or molecules, e.g. atomic absorption spectrometry G01N21/72 takes precedence

Abstract

A movable body spectrum measuring apparatus includes a spectrum sensor mounted in a movable body to measure spectrum data containing information including wavelength information and optical intensity information of a measuring object, a processor mounted in the movable body to discriminate the measuring object by processing the measured spectrum data, and a signal transmission path for transmitting the measured spectrum data from the spectrum sensor to the processor. The movable body spectrum measuring apparatus further includes a data transfer device which acquires reconfigured spectrum data by reconfiguring the measured spectrum data so that selected information as predetermined information is selected from the information contained in the measured spectrum data. The data transfer device transfers the reconfigured spectrum data to the processor via the signal transmission path.

Claims

1. A movable body spectrum measuring apparatus comprising:

a spectrum sensor mounted in a movable body to measure spectrum data containing information including wavelength information and optical intensity information of a measuring object;

processor circuitry mounted in the movable body to discriminate the measuring object by processing reconfigured spectrum data; and

a signal transmission path configured to transmit the measured spectrum data from the spectrum sensor to data transfer device circuitry, and configured to transfer the reconfigured spectrum data from the data transfer device circuitry to the processor circuitry, and

the data transfer device circuitry configured to select information from the measured spectrum data to acquire the reconfigured spectrum data,

wherein the data transfer device circuitry is configured to transfer the reconfigured spectrum data to the processor circuitry through the signal transmission path,

wherein the data transfer device circuitry is configured to select a part of the wavelength information contained in the measured spectrum data to acquire the reconfigured spectrum data,

wherein the data transfer device circuitry is configured to select the wavelength information contained in ambient light in surroundings around the movable body to acquire the reconfigured spectrum data.

2. The movable body spectrum measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the data transfer device circuitry is configured to select the wavelength information necessary for discrimination of the measuring object to acquire the reconfigured spectrum data.

3. The movable body spectrum measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the data transfer device circuitry acquires the reconfigured spectrum data by extracting and excluding wavelength information having insignificant optical intensity information from information contained in the measured spectrum data.

4. The movable body spectrum measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the movable body includes a movable body state acquiring unit configured to acquire a movable body state as a state of the movable body, and

the data transfer device circuitry is configured to determine the selected information according to the movable body state to acquire the reconfigured spectrum data.

5. The movable body spectrum measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the processor circuitry is configured to set the selected information,

the processor circuitry is configured to make a request to the data transfer device circuitry on the basis of a recognition result of the measuring object, and

the data transfer device circuitry is configured to determine the selected information according to the request to acquire the reconfigured spectrum data.

6. The movable body spectrum measuring apparatus according to claim 5, wherein

there are a plurality of measuring objects including an object of high occurrence ratio having a higher occurrence ratio than a rest of one or more other measuring objects among the plurality of measuring objects,

data amount reduced by reconfiguration from the measured spectrum data to the reconfigured spectrum data is referred to as data reduced amount, and

the processor circuitry is configured to set the selected information such that the data reduced amount of the object of high occurrence ratio is smaller than that of the other measuring objects.

7. The movable body spectrum measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the measured spectrum data is used to generate a spectrum image, and

the data transfer device circuitry is configured to select the selected information corresponding to a central region of the spectrum image to be different from the selected information corresponding to a peripheral region of the spectrum image.

8. The movable body spectrum measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the processor circuitry is configured to set the selected information,

a specified one of the measuring object is referred to as a specific measuring object, and

when recognizing that the specific measuring object exists in a measuring scope of the spectrum sensor, the processor circuitry is configured to set the selected information so as to exclude the measured spectrum data corresponding to the existence of the specific measuring object.

9. The movable body spectrum measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

in order to generate the reconfigured spectrum data, the data transfer device circuitry

represents the wavelength information corresponding to wavelength in a certain range as representative wavelength information, and

calculates representative optical intensity information on the basis of optical intensity information corresponding to the wavelength information.

10. A movable body spectrum measuring apparatus comprising:

a spectrum sensor mounted in a movable body to measure spectrum data containing information including wavelength information and optical intensity information of a measuring object;

processor circuitry mounted in the movable body to discriminate the measuring object by processing reconfigured spectrum data; and

a signal transmission path configured to transmit the measured spectrum data from the spectrum sensor to data transfer device circuitry, and configured to transmit the reconfigured spectrum data from the data transfer device circuitry to the processor circuitry, and

the data transfer device circuitry configured to select information from the measured spectrum data to acquire the reconfigured spectrum data,

wherein the data transfer device circuitry is configured to transfer the reconfigured spectrum data to the processor circuitry through the signal transmission path,

wherein the data transfer device circuitry is configured to select a part of the optical intensity information contained in the measured spectrum data to acquire the reconfigured spectrum data,

the data transfer device circuitry is configured to set a transfer maximum value as a maximum value of data amount transferable to the processor circuitry, and

the data transfer device circuitry is configured to limit the amount of selected information such that the amount of the reconfigured spectrum data is equal to or smaller than the transfer maximum value.

11. A movable body spectrum measuring apparatus comprising:

a spectrum sensor mounted in a movable body to measure spectrum data containing information including wavelength information and optical intensity information of a measuring object;

processor circuitry mounted in the movable body to discriminate the measuring object by processing reconfigured spectrum data; and

a signal transmission path configured to transmit the measured spectrum data from the spectrum sensor to data transfer device circuitry, and configured to transmit the reconfigured spectrum data from the data transfer device circuitry to the processor circuitry, and

the data transfer device circuitry configured to select information from the measured spectrum data to acquire the reconfigured spectrum data,

wherein the data transfer device circuitry is configured to transfer the reconfigured spectrum data to the processor circuitry through the signal transmission path,

wherein the measured spectrum data corresponds to each of a plurality of spectrum images over time, and

the data transfer device circuitry is configured to select information about the measured spectrum data corresponding to a partial period in a plurality of pieces of the measured spectrum data to acquire the reconfigured spectrum data.

12. A movable body spectrum measuring apparatus comprising:

a spectrum sensor mounted in a movable body to measure spectrum data containing information including wavelength information and optical intensity information of a measuring object;

processor circuitry mounted in the movable body to discriminate the measuring object by processing reconfigured spectrum data; and

a signal transmission path configured to transmit the measured spectrum data from the spectrum sensor to data transfer device circuitry, and configured to transmit the reconfigured spectrum data from the data transfer device circuitry to the processor circuitry, and

the data transfer device circuitry configured to select information from the measured spectrum data to acquire the reconfigured spectrum data,

wherein the data transfer device circuitry is configured to transfer the reconfigured spectrum data to the processor circuitry through the signal transmission path,

wherein the data transfer device circuitry is configured to set a transfer maximum value as a maximum value of data amount transferable to the processor circuitry, and

the data transfer device circuitry is configured to limit the amount of selected information such that the amount of the reconfigured spectrum data is equal to or smaller than the transfer maximum value,

wherein priority is set to each of a plurality of the measuring objects, and

the data transfer device circuitry is configured to determine the selected information on the basis of the priority to acquire the reconfigured spectrum data.

13. A movable body spectrum measuring method comprising:

measuring spectrum data containing information including wavelength information and optical intensity information of a measuring object by a spectrum sensor mounted in a movable body;

discriminating the measuring object by processing reconfigured spectrum data by processor circuitry mounted in the movable body;

transmitting the measured spectrum data from the spectrum sensor to data transfer device circuitry via a signal transmission path,

acquiring the reconfigured spectrum data by selecting information from the measured spectrum data; and

transferring the reconfigured spectrum data to the processor circuitry via the signal transmission path,

wherein selecting the information by the data transfer device circuitry includes;

selecting a part of the wavelength information contained in the measured spectrum data to acquire the reconfigured spectrum data; and

selecting the wavelength information contained in ambient light in surroundings around the movable body to acquire the reconfigured spectrum data.