Vehicle-to-vehicle distance calculation apparatus and method
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A vehicle-to-vehicle distance calculation apparatus comprising:
- an imaging control device for controlling a camera, which has been mounted on one'"'"'s own vehicle, so as to image a target vehicle present ahead of one'"'"'s own vehicle;
a vehicle group decision device for deciding to what group the target vehicle belongs based upon an image obtained by imaging by the camera;
a target vehicle pixel count calculation device for calculating a number of width or height pixels of a target vehicle contained in an image obtained by imaging by the camera;
a vehicle memory for storing at least one of representative vehicle widths and vehicle heights on a per-vehicle-group basis;
a vehicle image detection circuit for detecting an image of a license plate of the target vehicle from an image obtained by the camera and a number of width or height pixels of the image obtained by imaging by the camera; and
a distance calculation device for calculating a vehicle-to-vehicle distance to the target vehicle based upon a representative vehicle width or vehicle height of the vehicle group of the at least one of the representative vehicle widths and vehicle heights, which has been decided by said vehicle group decision device, from among the representative vehicle widths or vehicle heights that have been stored in said vehicle memory, the number of pixels calculated by said target vehicle pixel count calculation device, and the number of width or height pixels of the image detected by said vehicle image detection circuit,wherein said vehicle group decision device decides the vehicle group referring to the image of the license plate detected by said vehicle image detection circuit in a case where a vehicle group cannot be determined widths or heights of the target vehicle heights.
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Abstract
The distance to a target vehicle is calculated. To achieve this, a target vehicle traveling ahead is imaged and it is determined to what vehicle group, such as a light-duty vehicle group, standard passenger car group or heavy-duty vehicle group, the image of the target vehicle belongs. Representative vehicle widths are stored in a vehicle group table on a per-vehicle-group basis. The distance from one'"'"'s own vehicle to a target vehicle is calculated using the vehicle width that corresponds to the vehicle group decided.
16 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A vehicle-to-vehicle distance calculation apparatus comprising:
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an imaging control device for controlling a camera, which has been mounted on one'"'"'s own vehicle, so as to image a target vehicle present ahead of one'"'"'s own vehicle; a vehicle group decision device for deciding to what group the target vehicle belongs based upon an image obtained by imaging by the camera; a target vehicle pixel count calculation device for calculating a number of width or height pixels of a target vehicle contained in an image obtained by imaging by the camera; a vehicle memory for storing at least one of representative vehicle widths and vehicle heights on a per-vehicle-group basis; a vehicle image detection circuit for detecting an image of a license plate of the target vehicle from an image obtained by the camera and a number of width or height pixels of the image obtained by imaging by the camera; and a distance calculation device for calculating a vehicle-to-vehicle distance to the target vehicle based upon a representative vehicle width or vehicle height of the vehicle group of the at least one of the representative vehicle widths and vehicle heights, which has been decided by said vehicle group decision device, from among the representative vehicle widths or vehicle heights that have been stored in said vehicle memory, the number of pixels calculated by said target vehicle pixel count calculation device, and the number of width or height pixels of the image detected by said vehicle image detection circuit, wherein said vehicle group decision device decides the vehicle group referring to the image of the license plate detected by said vehicle image detection circuit in a case where a vehicle group cannot be determined widths or heights of the target vehicle heights. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A vehicle-to-vehicle distance calculation method comprising:
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controlling a camera, which has been mounted on one'"'"'s own vehicle, so as to image a target vehicle present ahead of one'"'"'s own vehicle; deciding to what group the target vehicle belongs based upon an image obtained by imaging by the camera; calculating a number of width or height pixels of a target vehicle contained in an image obtained by imaging by the camera; storing at least one of representative vehicle widths and vehicle heights on a per-vehicle-group basis a vehicle memory; detecting the image of a license plate of the target vehicle from an image obtained by the camera and a number of width or height pixels of the image obtained by imaging by the camera; and calculating a vehicle-to-vehicle distance to the target vehicle based upon a representative vehicle width or vehicle height of the vehicle group of the at least one of the representative vehicle widths and vehicle heights, which has been decided by said deciding, from among the representative vehicle widths or vehicle heights that have been stored in said vehicle memory, the calculated number of width or height pixels of the target vehicle, and the number of width or height pixels of the image obtained by imaging by the camera, wherein said deciding decides the vehicle group referring to the image of the license plate detected by said detecting in a case where a vehicle group cannot be determined widths or heights of the target vehicle heights. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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Specification