Road surface division mark recognition apparatus, and lane departure prevention apparatus

• US 8,392,115 B2
• Filed: 08/01/2012
• Issued: 03/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Kataoka, Hiroaki, Kageyama, Shioya
• Primary Examiner(s): Chen, Shelley
• Application Number:
  US13/564,078
• Publication Number:
  US 20120293657A1
• Time in Patent Office: 216 Days
• Field of Search: 701/514
• US Class Current: 701/514
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/147 Details of sensors, e.g. sensor lenses fingerprint or palmprint sensors G06V40/13; vascular sensors G06V40/145; eye sensors G06V40/19
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/586 of parking space
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/588 Recognition of the road, e.g. of lane markings; Recognition of the vehicle driving pattern in relation to the road

Abstract

A road surface division mark recognition apparatus includes: a vehicle-mounted camera that takes an image of a road surface ahead of a vehicle; an image processing portion which has a plurality of image processing modes that correspond respectively to a plurality of kinds of road surface division marks, and which recognizes a road surface division mark in a selected image processing mode; a temperature measurement portion that measures the temperature of the vehicle-mounted camera; and a restriction portion that restricts the action of the vehicle-mounted camera if the temperature measured by the temperature measurement portion is higher than or equal to a threshold value. The threshold value differs between the image processing modes.

Claims

1. A lane departure prevention apparatus that prevents a vehicle from departing from a traveling lane, comprising:

a vehicle-mounted camera that takes an image of a road surface;

an image processing portion that recognizes a road surface division mark that defines the traveling lane based on the image of the road surface taken by the vehicle-mounted camera;

a temperature measurement portion that measures temperature of the vehicle-mounted camera;

a restriction portion that restricts action of the vehicle-mounted camera if the temperature measured by the temperature measurement portion is higher than or equal to a threshold value;

a determination portion that makes a determination regarding possibility of the vehicle departing from the traveling lane based on a result of recognition by the image processing portion; and

a warning output portion that outputs a warning that indicates possibility of departure before the departure, based on a result of determination by the determination portion,

wherein the threshold value is set according to a warning timing that is set in the warning output portion.

2. The lane departure prevention apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the warning timing is a time that indicates how many seconds prior to an expected time of departure of the vehicle from the traveling lane the warning is to be output.

3. A lane departure prevention apparatus that prevents a vehicle from departing from a traveling lane, comprising:

a vehicle-mounted camera that takes an image of a road surface;

an image processing portion that recognizes a road surface division mark that defines the traveling lane based on the image of the road surface taken by the vehicle-mounted camera;

a temperature measurement portion that measures temperature of the vehicle-mounted camera;

a restriction portion that restricts action of the vehicle-mounted camera if the temperature measured by the temperature measurement portion is higher than or equal to a threshold value;

a determination portion that makes a determination regarding possibility of the vehicle departing from the traveling lane based on a result of recognition by the image processing portion;

a warning output portion that outputs a warning that indicates possibility of departure from the traveling lane based on a result of determination by the determination portion; and

a timing adjustment portion that adjusts a timing of the warning according to the temperature measured by the temperature measurement portion,

wherein the threshold value is set according to the timing of the warning set by the warning output portion.

4. The lane departure prevention apparatus according to claim 3, wherein:

the warning timing is a time that indicates how many seconds prior to an expected time of departure of the vehicle from the traveling lane the warning is to be output; and

the timing adjustment portion gradually shortens the warning timing with an increase in the temperature.