Vehicle detecting apparatus
First Claim
1. A vehicle detecting apparatus comprising:
- an image sensor mounted on a host vehicle so as to be able to take an image ahead of said host vehicle and outputting image data representing said image;
a light source area extracting function of extracting, from said image data, an area having luminance higher than a predetermined value as a light source area;
a vehicle detecting function of detecting existence of at least one of an oncoming vehicle and a preceding vehicle by recognizing which of a headlight of said oncoming vehicle, a taillight of said preceding vehicle, and a roadside reflector causes said light source area in said image data; and
a headlight axis position detecting function of detecting whether a headlight of said host vehicle is in a high-beam position or a low-beam position;
wherein said vehicle detecting function is configured to lower a probability that said vehicle detecting function recognizes that said light source area is caused by said roadside reflector when said headlight of said host vehicle is detected to be in said low-beam position by said headlight axis position detecting function.
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Abstract
The vehicle detecting apparatus includes an image sensor mounted on a host vehicle so as to be able to take an image ahead of the host vehicle, a light source area extracting function of extracting, from image data outputted from the image sensor, an area having luminance higher than a predetermined value as a light source area, a vehicle detecting function of detecting existence of at least one of an oncoming vehicle and a preceding vehicle by recognizing which of a headlight of the oncoming vehicle, a taillight of the preceding vehicle, and a roadside reflector causes the light source area in the image data. The vehicle detecting function is configured to lower a probability that the vehicle detecting function recognizes that the light source area is caused by the roadside reflector when the headlight of the host vehicle is in a low-beam position.
45 Citations
13 Claims
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1. A vehicle detecting apparatus comprising:
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an image sensor mounted on a host vehicle so as to be able to take an image ahead of said host vehicle and outputting image data representing said image; a light source area extracting function of extracting, from said image data, an area having luminance higher than a predetermined value as a light source area; a vehicle detecting function of detecting existence of at least one of an oncoming vehicle and a preceding vehicle by recognizing which of a headlight of said oncoming vehicle, a taillight of said preceding vehicle, and a roadside reflector causes said light source area in said image data; and a headlight axis position detecting function of detecting whether a headlight of said host vehicle is in a high-beam position or a low-beam position; wherein said vehicle detecting function is configured to lower a probability that said vehicle detecting function recognizes that said light source area is caused by said roadside reflector when said headlight of said host vehicle is detected to be in said low-beam position by said headlight axis position detecting function. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A vehicle headlight control system comprising:
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an image sensor mounted on a host vehicle so as to be able to take an image ahead of said host vehicle and outputting image data representing said image; a light source area extracting function of extracting, from said image data, an area having luminance higher than a predetermined value as a light source area; a vehicle detecting function of detecting existence of at least one of an oncoming vehicle and a preceding vehicle by recognizing which of a headlight of said oncoming vehicle, a taillight of said preceding vehicle, and a roadside reflector causes said light source area in said image data; a headlight axis position detecting function of detecting whether a headlight of said host vehicle is in a high-beam position or a low-beam position; and a headlight actuator device controlling said illuminating position between said high-beam position and said low-beam position in accordance with detection result by said vehicle detecting function; wherein said vehicle detecting function is configured to lower a probability that said vehicle detecting function recognizes that said light source area is caused by said roadside reflector when said headlight of said host vehicle is detected to be in said low-beam position by said headlight axis position detecting function.
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Specification