Forward direction monitoring device
First Claim
1. A forward direction monitoring device comprising:
- an image taking part for taking an image of road condition in front of own vehicle;
a radar part for projecting detecting waves into a detection area in front of said own vehicle and receiving reflected waves of said detecting waves from objects in front to thereby obtain relative position data on relative positions of said objects with respect to said own vehicle;
a mapping part for mapping said relative positions of said objects on said image taken by said image taking part;
an object identifying part for specifying image portions of said image with respect to said relative positions, identifying kinds of said objects by analyzing brightness distribution of said image portions and eliminating those of relative position data of said objects other than relative position data of desired objects from the relative position data of said objects obtained by said radar part; and
a monitoring part for obtaining continuously in time sequence the relative position data after the step of eliminating and continuously monitoring said desired objects based on said obtained relative position data.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A forward direction monitoring device has a camera to take an image of road condition in front and a back-projection image is generated. A radar part receives reflected waves from objects in front and obtains their relative position data. These relative positions are mapped on the image taken by the camera. Portions of the image are specified with reference to these relative positions and brightness distribution of image portions is analyzed to distinguish the kinds of the objects. After those of the relative position data not related to a desired object are eliminated, the remaining relative position data are obtained sequentially to monitor the desired object based on the obtained data.
48 Citations
11 Claims
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1. A forward direction monitoring device comprising:
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an image taking part for taking an image of road condition in front of own vehicle;
a radar part for projecting detecting waves into a detection area in front of said own vehicle and receiving reflected waves of said detecting waves from objects in front to thereby obtain relative position data on relative positions of said objects with respect to said own vehicle;
a mapping part for mapping said relative positions of said objects on said image taken by said image taking part;
an object identifying part for specifying image portions of said image with respect to said relative positions, identifying kinds of said objects by analyzing brightness distribution of said image portions and eliminating those of relative position data of said objects other than relative position data of desired objects from the relative position data of said objects obtained by said radar part; and
a monitoring part for obtaining continuously in time sequence the relative position data after the step of eliminating and continuously monitoring said desired objects based on said obtained relative position data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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Specification