Vehicle-mounted alarm generating apparatus

• US 20100176970A1
• Filed: 01/05/2010
• Published: 07/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Takafuji, Tetsuya
• Granted Patent: US 8,264,336 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/905
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/167 Driving aids for lane monitoring, lane changing, e.g. blind spot detection

Abstract

The vehicle-mounted alarm generating apparatus includes an extracting section configured to extract a road boundary marking representing a boundary of a lane from an image of a picture of a road surface ahead of a vehicle, a position setting section configured to set a first position and a second position more distant from the vehicle than the first position in accordance with extraction results by the extracting section, a first alarm generating section configured to generate a first alarm when a distance between the vehicle and the first position becomes shorter than a predetermined first distance, and a second alarm generating section configured to generate a second alarm, when a distance between the vehicle and the first position becomes shorter than a predetermined second distance. The configuration of the second alarm is different from that of the first alarm.

Claims

1. A vehicle-mounted alarm generating apparatus comprising:

an extracting section configured to extract a road boundary marking representing a boundary of a lane from an image of a picture of a road surface ahead of a vehicle;

a position setting section configured to set a first position and a second position more distant from said vehicle than said first position in accordance with extraction results by said extracting section;

a first alarm generating section configured to generate a first alarm when a distance between said vehicle and said first position becomes shorter than a predetermined first distance; and

a second alarm generating section configured to generate a second alarm, when a distance between said vehicle and said first position becomes shorter than a predetermined second distance, configuration of said second alarm being different from a configuration of said first alarm.

2. The vehicle-mounted alarm generating apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a behavior information acquiring section configured to acquire information representing behavior of said vehicle,

said first alarm generating section being configured to calculate a first reaching time needed for said vehicle to reach said first position on the basis of extraction results by said extracting section and said behavior information, and determine that distance between said vehicle and said first position becomes shorter than said first distance when said calculated first reaching time becomes shorter than a first predetermined threshold,

said second alarm generating section being configured to calculate a second reaching time needed for said vehicle to reach said second position on the basis of extraction results by said extracting section and said behavior information, and determine that distance between said vehicle and said first position becomes shorter than said second distance when said calculated second reaching time becomes shorter than a second predetermined threshold.

3. The vehicle-mounted alarm generating apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a control section configured to cause said first alarm generating section to operate when said vehicle is before said first position, and cause said second alarm generating section to operate when said vehicle is between said first position and said second position in a case where a distance between said first and second positions is wider than a predetermined threshold width.

4. The vehicle-mounted alarm generating apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said control section causes one of said first and second alarm generating section to operate when a distance between said first and second positions is shorter than said threshold width.

5. The vehicle-mounted alarm generating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said first position is set at one edge of said extracted road boundary marking on the side of said vehicle, and said second position is set at the other edge of said extracted road boundary marking on the opposite side of said vehicle.

6. The vehicle-mounted alarm generating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of said first and second alarms includes at least one of or a combination of an audible alarm, a visual alarm and a sensory alarm.

7. The vehicle-mounted alarm generating apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an operation detecting section configured to detect operations to said vehicle performed by a driver of said vehicle, and an alarm configuration setting section to variably set configuration of each of said first and second alarms in accordance with detection results by said operation detecting section.

8. The vehicle-mounted alarm generating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said operation detecting section is configured to detect operations of at least one of a steering wheel, a brake pedal, an accelerator pedal and a turn signal lever of said vehicle.