Lane change alarm for use in a highway vehicle
First Claim
1. An apparatus for use in a vehicle being driven on a highway for detecting an inadvertent lane change, comprising:
- a locator for determining a vehicle location for said vehicle;
a highway track database having location data for a track of a lane of said highway;
a transverse error detector coupled to the locator and the database for determining a transverse distance error between said vehicle location and a location along said track closest to said vehicle location;
andan alarm gate coupled to the transverse error detector for issuing an alarm condition indication when said transverse distance error exceeds a threshold.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A lane change alarm using data for a highway track. A highway track database provides geographical location points for a track of a highway lane. A differential global positioning system (DGPS) receiver provides a vehicle location. A longitudinal track matching code matches the vehicle location against a track location and provides a longitudinal direction and a transverse distance to an alarm gate. The alarm gate indicates an alarm condition unless a lane change signaler is operated for indicating that the lane change is intentional. The highway track database is created using a similar DGPS receiver by determining and recording highway track location points for a selected highway lane while driving on the highway lane.
133 Citations
25 Claims
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1. An apparatus for use in a vehicle being driven on a highway for detecting an inadvertent lane change, comprising:
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a locator for determining a vehicle location for said vehicle; a highway track database having location data for a track of a lane of said highway; a transverse error detector coupled to the locator and the database for determining a transverse distance error between said vehicle location and a location along said track closest to said vehicle location; and an alarm gate coupled to the transverse error detector for issuing an alarm condition indication when said transverse distance error exceeds a threshold. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method for use in a vehicle while driving on a highway for detecting a lane change, comprising steps of:
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determining a vehicle location of said vehicle; determining a track location proximate to said vehicle location from a highway track database having location data for a track of a lane of said highway; determining a transverse distance error between said vehicle location and a location along said track closest to said vehicle location; and issuing an alarm condition indication when said transverse distance error exceeds a threshold. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A method of creating a highway track database having location data for a track of a lane of a highway, comprising steps of:
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entering a lane number; entering a lane width associated with said lane number; driving a reference vehicle on said highway; determining a reference vehicle location of said reference vehicle; monitoring a change lane indicator for indicating a lane change; when said lane change is not being indicated, recoding said reference vehicle location while driving said reference vehicle for said location data for said track of said lane of said highway in said highway track database; and associating said location data with said lane number and said width in said highway track database.
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Specification