Vehicle collision warning system
First Claim
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1. An apparatus providing a collision avoidance response to facilitate avoidance of a collision between a vehicle and an object, the apparatus comprising:
- a vision sensor providing image data; and
an image analyzer, operable to provide an estimated time to collision of the vehicle with the object,the estimated time to collision being determined from the rate of expansion of an image element within the image data, the image element corresponding to at least part of the object,the apparatus providing the collision avoidance response if the estimated time to collision is less than or approximately equal to a predetermined time.
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Abstract
An apparatus for facilitating avoidance of a vehicle collision with an object, comprises a vision sensor providing image data, and an image analyzer, operable to provide an estimated time to collision of the vehicle with the object. The estimated time to collision is determined from a rate of expansion of an image element corresponding to the object within the image data, and the apparatus provides a warning if the estimated time to collision is less than or approximately equal to a predetermined time.
32 Citations
27 Claims
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1. An apparatus providing a collision avoidance response to facilitate avoidance of a collision between a vehicle and an object, the apparatus comprising:
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a vision sensor providing image data; and an image analyzer, operable to provide an estimated time to collision of the vehicle with the object, the estimated time to collision being determined from the rate of expansion of an image element within the image data, the image element corresponding to at least part of the object, the apparatus providing the collision avoidance response if the estimated time to collision is less than or approximately equal to a predetermined time. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. An apparatus providing a collision avoidance response to facilitate collision avoidance between a vehicle and an object within a heading of the vehicle, the vehicle having a vehicle speed, the apparatus comprising:
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a pair of vision sensors, the vision sensors having optical axes separated by approximately 180 degrees, the vision sensors providing image data; an image analyzer, receiving the image data, the image analyzer performing an optical flow analysis of the image data and providing an estimated time to collision with the object; and a collision avoidance mechanism providing a collision avoidance response if the estimated time to collision is less than a predetermined time. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A method of facilitating avoidance of a vehicle collision with an object, the vehicle having a vehicle speed, and having a vehicle operator and vehicle surroundings, the method comprising:
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providing a vision sensor having a wide field of view of the vehicle surroundings; obtaining time-sequential image data from the vision sensor corresponding to the vehicle surroundings; determining an optical flow vector corresponding to an image element within the image data, the image element corresponding to a portion of the object; determining an estimated time to collision with the object using the optical flow vector; and providing a collision avoidance response to the vehicle operator if the time to collision is less than a predetermined time. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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Specification