Vehicle running state judging apparatus

• US 20050232464A1
• Filed: 03/28/2005
• Published: 10/20/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi FUSO Truck & Bus Corporation (Daimler Truck Holding AG)
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi FUSO Truck & Bus Corporation (Daimler Truck Holding AG)
• Inventors: Yamamoto, Keiichi, Ihara, Toru
• Granted Patent: US 7,388,967 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/20 Movements or behaviour, e.g. gesture recognition recognition of facial expressions G06V40/16
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/06 indicating a condition of sleep, e.g. anti-dozing alarms

Abstract

A vehicle running state judging apparatus calculates the edge detecting position of the first pixel group detected by the first gray value detection section, the edge detecting position of the second pixel group based on the gray value at that position, and the gray value at that position and judges meandering of a vehicle by comparing the edge detecting position of the second pixel group detected by the second gray value detection section and the gray value at that position, with the edge detecting position of the second pixel group calculated by the calculation section and the gray value at that position.

Claims

1. A vehicle running state judging apparatus comprising;

a camera which captures an image of a road surface in a vehicle running direction; and

a meander state detection section configured to obtain the amount of meandering based on the road surface image captured by the camera,

wherein the meander state detection section is comprised of;

a first gray value detection section configured to detect the edge of a gray value of a first pixel group arrayed in the horizontal direction out of the road surface images captured by the camera, and to detect the gray value at the edge detecting position;

a second gray value detection section configured to detect the edge of a gray value of a second pixel group arrayed in the horizontal direction out of the road surface images, and to detect the gray value at the edge detecting position;

a calculation section configured to calculate the edge detecting position of the first pixel group detected by the first gray value detection section, the edge detecting position of the second pixel group based on the gray value at that position, and the gray value at that position; and

a judging section configured to judge meandering of a vehicle by comparing the edge detecting position of the second pixel group detected by the second gray value detection section and the gray value at that position with the edge detecting position of the second pixel group calculated by the calculation section and the gray value at that position.

2. The vehicle running state judging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the meander state detection section obtains the amount of meandering based on the image data of the front side of the road surface image captured by the camera.

3. The vehicle running state judging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first pixel group is the road surface image in the vehicle running direction ahead of the second pixel group, and the timing of detecting the gray value of the edge by the second gray value detection section is changed according to vehicle speed.

4. The vehicle running state judging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the judging section obtains the meandering amount of a vehicle by comparing the edge detection position of the second pixel group detected by the second gray value detection means and the gray value at that position, with the edge detecting position of the second pixel group calculated by the calculation section and the gray value at that position, and judges the meandering when the average value of the meandering amount is over the reference level.

5. The vehicle running state judging apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the reference level is obtained by averaging the amount of meandering until a certain time passes after the start of driving.