Collision possibility determination device

• US 20050159893A1
• Filed: 01/17/2005
• Published: 07/21/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Isaji, Kazuyoshi, Tsuru, Naohiko
• Granted Patent: US 7,209,833 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/301
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2201/08 Lane monitoring; Lane Keeping Systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2201/082 using alarm actuation
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/86 Combinations of lidar systems with systems other than lidar, radar or sonar, e.g. with direction finders
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/74 involving reference images or patches
• 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

A computer of a collision possibility determination device has a pixel position setting section, a travel vector calculating section, a vector direction determining section, and a collision possibility determining section. The pixel position setting section sets a travel direction pixel position in an image of view ahead of a vehicle and a circle with a specific radius from the set travel direction pixel position. The travel vector calculating section calculates a travel vector of an object that exists in the travel direction of the vehicle. The vector direction determining section determines whether an orientation of the travel vector matches a direction toward the inside of the circle. The collision possibility determining section determines a possible collision between the vehicle and the object when the orientation of the travel vector matches the direction toward the inside of the circle.

Claims

1. A collision possibility determination device for a vehicle, comprising:

image capturing means that captures an image of view ahead of the vehicle;

object detecting means that determines whether an object exists in a travel direction of the vehicle from the image captured by the image capturing means;

main pixel position specifying means that specifies a main pixel position of an image of the object, the main pixel position representing a position of the object in the image of view;

pixel position setting means that sets a travel direction pixel position in the image of view based on the travel direction of the vehicle;

storage means that stores the main pixel position;

travel vector calculating means that calculates a travel vector of the object from a history of the main pixel position of the object stored by the storage means; and

collision possibility determining means that determines a possibility of a collision between the vehicle and the object based on an orientation of the travel vector and the travel direction pixel position.

2. The collision possibility determination device according to claim 1, further comprising vector direction determining means that determines the orientation of the travel vector, wherein:

the pixel position setting means sets a circle with a specific radius from the set travel direction pixel position on the image;

the vector direction determining means determines whether the orientation of the travel vector matches a direction toward an inside of the circle; and

the collision possibility determining means determines that a possible collision between the vehicle and the object when the orientation of the travel vector matches the direction toward the inside of the circle.

3. The collision possibility determination device according to claim 1, further comprising gaze direction detecting means that detects a gaze direction of a driver, wherein the pixel position setting means sets a position that corresponds to the gaze direction on the image as a travel direction pixel position.

4. The collision possibility determination device according to claim 1, wherein the pixel position setting means sets a position that corresponds to an actual position a predetermined distance ahead of the vehicle on the image as a travel direction pixel position.

5. The collision possibility determination device according to claim 4, further comprising condition determining means that determines a driving condition including a vehicle speed and a road condition including a radius of a curve in a road in the travel direction, wherein the pixel position setting means includes setting altering means that alters at least one of x and y coordinates of the travel direction pixel position in the image according to at least one of the driving condition and the road condition.

6. The collision possibility determination device according to claim 1, further comprising warning producing means that produces a warning when a possible collision is determined by the collision possibility determining means.

7. The collision possibility determination device according to claim 6, wherein the warning producing means includes warning level altering means that alters a warning level based on a distance between the main pixel and the travel direction pixel.