Method and Appratus for Identifying Concealed Objects In Road Traffic

• US 20100045482A1
• Filed: 10/10/2007
• Published: 02/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Strauss, Matthias
• Granted Patent: US 8,179,281 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/903
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/163 involving continuous checking

Abstract

Method for detecting concealed objects in road traffic in which the surroundings of a vehicle and movement variables of the driver'"'"'s vehicle are sensed by sensors, said variables are transmitted as information to vehicles which are located in the surroundings by an interface for vehicle-to-vehicle communication and are received from the vehicles which are located in the surroundings, wherein the following steps are executed:

• • the data from the sensors expand a surroundings model,
  • the expanded surroundings model is represented in updated form by a display in the driver'"'"'s vehicle,
  • a situation analysis of the surroundings and an evaluation of the situation are carried out in the driver'"'"'s vehicle,
  • objects which represent an accident hazard on the display are displayed with a high priority,
  • predefined steps for reducing accident hazard are activated in the driver'"'"'s vehicle,
  • information relating to the pre-defined steps are transmitted to the surroundings by the communication system.

Claims

1-8. -8. (canceled)

9. Method for detecting concealed objects in road traffic in which surroundings of a driver'"'"'s vehicle and movement variables of the driver'"'"'s vehicle are sensed by sensors, wherein said movement variables are transmitted as information to vehicles which are located in the surroundings of the driver'"'"'s vehicle by an interface for vehicle-to-vehicle communication, and movement variables are received from the vehicles which are located in the surroundings, said method comprising the steps of:

a) generating or updating a surroundings model based upon data from the sensors,

b) representing the generated or updated surroundings model in updated form on a display in the driver'"'"'s vehicle,

c) performing a situation analysis of the surroundings and an evaluation of the situation in the driver'"'"'s vehicle,

d) displaying objects which represent an accident hazard on the display with a high priority,

e) activating predefined steps for reducing the accident hazard in the driver'"'"'s vehicle, and

f) transmitting information relating to the steps which have been initiated in order to reduce the accident hazard to the surroundings via the interface for vehicle-to-vehicle communication.

10. Method according to claim 9,

wherein the transmitting step is carried out by multicast transmission, unicast transmission, broadcast transmission, or any combination thereof.

11. Method according to claim 9,

wherein the received information is evaluated with priority and the information which is to be transmitted is transmitted with priority after relevance testing.

12. Method according to claim 9,

wherein the received information is passed on to a driver assistance system in the driver'"'"'s vehicle, and when vehicles which have an activated driver assistance system are detected in the surroundings the transmitted information is transmitted to the respective driver assistance system of the respective vehicle.

13. Method according to claim 9,

wherein the predefined steps for reducing the accident hazard in the vehicle are carried out by pretensioning seatbelts, prefilling brake systems, or both pretensioning the seatbelts and prefilling the brake systems.

14. Method according to claim 9,

wherein the sensor is a stereocamera with a 12-bit dynamic range.

15. Method according to claim 9,

wherein the transmitted information is provided in the form of position information packets and dynamic information packets.

16. Device for carrying out the method according to claim 9, comprising at least one memory, at least one computer unit and at least one interface for exchanging data,

wherein the information from the vehicles which are located in the surroundings is passed on to the computer unit via the communication system and via the interface,

the data on the driver'"'"'s vehicle are determined by the sensors, updated and passed on to a surroundings model via a sensor data processor,

wherein, under real time conditions, the position of the driver'"'"'s vehicle, the surroundings and the position of the surrounding vehicles are determined by a position-determining system and are transmitted to the computer unit via the interface with the surroundings model,

wherein, when there is a hazard, one or more of the following occur:

(i) signalling is carried out to the driver via the interface with an output unit, (ii) intervening in the movement path of the driver'"'"'s vehicle by the vehicle safety systems or the vehicle assistance systems, or (iii) signalling the intervention in the movement path of the vehicle to the adjacent vehicles.