Patent Application
20140316659
1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to safety devices for vehicles, and particularly to an airbag control apparatus and a method for controlling an airbag device of a vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
Airbag devices are examples of safety devices for vehicles. When a vehicle collision occurs, an airbag frontal impact sensor (FIS) of a conventional safety device outputs an airbag expanding signal to expand an airbag of the safety device, so as to protect a driver and passengers of a vehicle. The conventional safety device for the vehicle is problematic in that once an operating signal is applied to an airbag device in response to a vehicle collision, the airbag device is expanded or operated by a predetermined physical parameters, such as a preset pressure or a preset load, to protect the driver and the passengers of the vehicle. However, the conventional safety device is limited by the predetermined physical parameters and may fail to optimally protect the driver and the passengers of the vehicle collision. Therefore, there is room for improvement within the art.
The present disclosure, including the accompanying drawings, is illustrated by way of examples and not by way of limitation. It should be noted that references to “an” or “one” embodiment in this disclosure are not necessarily to the same embodiment, and such references mean “at least one.”
In the present disclosure, the word “module,” as used herein, refers to logic embodied in hardware or firmware, or to a collection of software instructions, written in a program language. In one embodiment, the program language may be Java, C, or assembly. One or more software instructions in the modules can be embedded in firmware, such as in an EPROM. The modules described herein can be implemented as either software and/or hardware modules and can be stored in any type of non-transitory computer-readable media or storage medium. Some non-limiting examples of a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprise CDs, DVDs, flash memory, and hard disk drives.
The steering wheel 2 includes a depth-sensing camera 21, a gyroscope 22, and at least one airbag device 23. As show in
In the embodiment, each of the 3D images may include image data of the scene and a distance between the depth-sensing camera 21 and the driver. Referring to
In one embodiment, the storage device 11 can be an internal storage system, such as a flash memory, a random access memory (RAM) for temporary storage of information, and/or a read-only memory (ROM) for permanent storage of information. The storage device 11 can also be an external storage system, such as an external hard disk, a storage card, or a data storage medium. The at least one microprocessor 12 can be a central processing unit (CPU), a data processor, or other data processor chip that performs various functions of the airbag control apparatus 100 included in the vehicle 1. The drive device 13 can be a drive motor that drives the airbag device 23 to unlock the at least one airbag 230, and controls the airbag device 23 to expand the at least one airbag 230 by deploying automatically.
In the embodiment, the air control system 10 comprises an image capturing module 101, an image adjusting module 102, an image analysis module 103, and an airbag control module 104. The modules 101-104 can comprise computerized instructions in the form of one or more computer-readable programs that are stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium (such as the storage device 11) and executed by the at least one microprocessor 12 of the airbag control apparatus 100. A description of each module is given in the following paragraphs.
In step S31, the image capturing module 101 controls the depth-sensing camera 21 to capture a first 3D scene image of a scene in front of the steering wheel 2 of the vehicle 1 before the vehicle 1 is started and the driver is sitting in the driver's seat, and obtains an original position of the driver from the first 3D scene image. The image capturing module 101 further stores the first 3D scene image and the original position of the driver into the storage device 11. In the embodiment, the first 3D scene image include X-Y coordinate image data of the scene, and a Z-coordinate distance between the depth-sensing camera 21 and the driver, such as 50 cm shown in
In step S32, the image capturing module 101 controls the depth-sensing camera 21 to capture a second 3D scene image of the scene in front of the steering wheel 2 while the vehicle 1 is being driven. Referring to
In step S33, the image adjusting module 102 detects a rotation angle of the steering wheel 2 using the gyroscope 22 fixed on the steering wheel 2, and adjusts a tilting angle of the second 3D scene image according to the rotation angle of the steering wheel 2. The depth-sensing camera 21 may tilt from a horizontal level when the vehicle 1 is driven along a route, so that the depth-sensing camera 21 may capture the second 3D scene image having the tilting angle which distorts an actual 3D scene image of the scene in front of the steering wheel 2.
In step S34, the image analysis module 103 compares the second 3D scene image and each 3D model of the driver stored in the storage device 11 to determine an actual position of the driver in the second 3D scene image. In the embodiment, the 3D model of the driver is created by performing the following steps: (a) using the depth-sensing camera 21 to capture 3D images of the driver, and obtaining a distance between the depth-sensing camera 21 and the driver from each 3D image of the driver; (b) storing all the distances into a character array; (c) ranking all the distances in the character array according to an ascending order; (d) calculating a position tolerance range of the driver according to the ranked distances; and (e) creating the 3D models of the driver according to the position tolerance range of the driver, and storing the 3D models of the driver into the storage device 11.
In the embodiment, the image analysis module 103 determines an actual position of the driver in the second 3D scene image by performing the following steps: (a) obtaining a distance between the depth-sensing camera 21 and each point of the second 3D scene image, and storing all the distances into a scene array; (b) ranking all the distances in the scene array according to an ascending order, and calculating a pixel difference between each pixel value of the second 3D scene image and each pixel value of the 3D model; (c) determining that a pixel value of the second 3D scene image is within the position tolerance range of the driver if the pixel difference between the pixel value of the second 3D scene image and a corresponding pixel value of the 3D model is less than 5%; and (d) determining an area of the second 3D scene image as the actual position of the driver if more than 80% of pixel values of the second 3D scene image are within the position tolerance range of the driver.
In step S35, the image analysis module 103 marks an image of the driver in the second 3D scene image using a rectangular shape, and determines a position offset value of the diver between the original position of the driver and the actual position of the driver based on the rectangular shape. Referring to
In step S36, the image analysis module 103 determines whether the driver is in danger (i.e., the at least one airbag 230 needs to be expanded) according to the position offset value. Referring to
In step S37, the airbag control module 104 drives the drive device 13 to unlock the at least one airbag 230 of the airbag device 23, and controls the airbag device 23 to expand the at least one airbag 230 automatically. As such, the airbag device 23 is controlled to automatically expand the at least one airbag 230 before an accident occurs in the vehicle 1, such as, so as to protect the driver of the vehicle 1 from damage injury.
Although certain disclosed embodiments of the present disclosure have been specifically described, the present disclosure is not to be construed as being limited thereto. Various changes or modifications may be made to the present disclosure without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 102114486 | Apr 2013 | TW | national |
