Patent Application
20140071278
This application was prepared with financial support from the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission, and in consideration therefore, the present inventor has granted the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia a non-exclusive right to practice the present invention.
1. Field of the Disclosure
Embodiments described herein relate generally to a system and method for minimizing hazards of blind spots while driving. More particularly the embodiments described relate to a system and a method that can assist a driver in being made aware of other automobiles near the driver's automobile, which may not be visible in the driver's rear view and side view mirrors.
2. Description of the Background
Most automobiles are equipped with a passenger-side-view mirror, a driver-side-view mirror, and a rear-view mirror. These mirrors are used by the driver to identify vehicles that are located near the driver's automobile and assist the driver when the driver changes lanes or makes a turn. A known problem is that the mirrors do not provide complete 180 degree around the sides and back of the automobile. Areas to the immediate rear-left and rear-right of the vehicle are typically called “blind spots” that are not visible in the mirrors when the driver is seated in the driver's seat and in a driving posture. When on a multi-lane highway, the blind spots are located in the driving lane next to the automobile, usually between a car length and half a car length behind the front of the driver's automobile. It is, therefore, dangerous for the driver to change lanes by only using the mirrors.
One technique is to use a convex shaped mirror to provide a wider field of view. However, as recognized by the present inventor, the shaped mirror provides a distorted view and therefore can cause some confusion to the driver, which is especially dangerous when there is little reaction time, such as when the driver is in executing an avoidance maneuver.
The conventional technique is for the driver to turn his head and look in the blind spot. However, once again this can be dangerous since the driver has to take his eyes of the road in front of him.
JP 2008-221980 describes a camera located next to the driver's side view mirror to assist in detecting vehicles in the blind spot. However as recognized by the present inventor, this system is active all the time, and neither assists in alerting the driver when the system determines that the driver is attempting to change lanes nor assists the driver by tracking the vehicle in the blind spot.
According to a blind-spot detection and collision avoidance system embodiment for an automobile, the system includes
a blind-spot camera integrated into a side-view mirror assembly between a side-view mirror and a driver-side of the automobile adjacent to a driver-side window, the blind-spot camera being oriented by greater than 180° relative to the side-view mirror so as to provide a different visual operating range than the side view mirror;
a rear view mirror assembly that includes a mirrored portion and a display portion, the display portion configured to presents a visual representation of an object detected in a blind spot covered by the visual operating range of the blind-spot camera;
a tracking processor that receives an image captured by the blind-spot camera, the tracking processor including
the object detector is responsive to an external signal indicating that the automobile is preparing to change driving lanes.
A more complete appreciation of the invention and many of the attendant advantages thereof will be readily obtained as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The present inventor recognized that conventional systems do not assist a driver in inspecting a blind spot without distorting the view or requiring the driver to turn his head. In light of this deficiency, an automobile blind spot detection and tracking mechanism is presented.
The system of
A driver's side tracking camera 109 is a side facing camera that looks to the left of the vehicle moving forward. A similar camera is provided on the passenger side as well. These cameras may also be used to assist the driver when merging onto a highway (as opposed to driving on the highway), so the driver can look ahead when attempting to merge, yet still be aware of an approaching vehicle that has the right of way. A rear tracking camera 111 is provided near the trunk of the vehicle and faces backwards. Images detected by the cameras 105, 109 and 111 will be discussed in more detail with respect to
In
Internal to the tracking processor 220 is an object detector 320, an angle rate of change processor 330 and a display processor 340. The object detector 320 receives input from the various cameras and identifies objects located within the respective field of views for the cameras. Once an object is detected in one of the cameras, an image is saved in memory for that detected object so that the tracking processor 320 may use that detected image to provide input to the object detector 320 when a similar object is presented within the field of view of one of the other cameras. In this way, an object is detected in the field of view of one of the cameras and may then be identified and used to “tip-off” another of the cameras in which the object may soon be presented if the object is approaching the automobile 100 or is moving around the automobile 100, perhaps from the rear of the vehicle to the side of the vehicle.
The angle rate of change processor 330 determines a rate of change in which a detected object is moving through the field of view of one of the cameras so that it may anticipate when the object will appear in the field of view of another camera. For example, in the case of the rear tracking camera 111, a vehicle that is approaching from the rear and moving at a rate of 10° per second towards the driver's side of the vehicle, may be used by the tracking processor 220 to anticipate when that other vehicle will appear in the field of view θ2 of the driver's side tracking camera 109. Moreover, the object detector 320 would begin to look for the approaching vehicle in the field of view θ2 in the driver's side tracking camera 109 within just moments of the approaching vehicle reaching the outer edge of the field of view θ3 of the rear tracking camera 111. By coordinating between cameras in this way, helps the tracking processor provide a “handoff” in terms of where and when the approaching vehicle will be displayed on the rear view mirror and display 107.
The display processor 340 prepares for display on the rear view mirror and display 107 relative positions of the detected vehicles with respect to a footprint of the automobile 100 (e.g., a rectangular box that represents an outer perimeter of the automobile 100). Moreover, the display processor 340 includes a footprint of the automobile 100 and an indication of the detected object at a representative location around the vehicle 100 based on the detected position of the detected vehicle. This way the driver may easily see in the rear view mirror and display 107 the location of the detected objects and how those detected objects move as a function of time. This allows the user to keep his head in a straight forward position while safely changing lanes by only checking the side view mirrors and rear view mirror and display 107, which can be done by quickly glancing his eyes left/right and to the rear view mirror and display 107.
A tactile transducer 310 is also connected to the input/output interface 350, and it is used to provide a tactile response to the driver if it appears that the driver is taking an action that may result in a collision with the detected object. An exemplary tactile response is a vibration of the steering wheel or perhaps a vibration of the driver's seat generated by the tactile transducer 310. The tactile transducer 310 is triggered by an electronic signal, and responds by generating a mechanical vibration. Similarly, once an audio alert 360 is triggered by an electronic signal, the audio alert 360 triggers an audio signal to drive a speaker and generate an audible alarm to alert to the driver of a potential collision. The audio alert 360 and tactile transducer 310 are user settable such that sensitivities of both devices may be set so that the number of false alarms is not overly high depending on the driver's driving pattern. The sensitivities may be set via a processor interface with options presented via a drop down command function displayed on the rear view mirror and display 107, when set in a programming mode
The present inventor recognized however that often drivers do not use their turn signals, but instead may look left or look right attempting to check a blind spot before turning into an adjacent lane. A head movement detector 410 (which optionally may be mounted on the visor of the driver's side) triggers an alert if the facial image of the driver is determined to have turned to the left or the right. When a trigger signal is generated and passed through the input/output 420 to the object detector 320, the object detector 320 then determines whether a potential collision may exist. If it does, then the object detector 320 generates an alert signal through the processor 340 for generating a tactile or audio alert. Similarly, a visual alert may also be generated by causing a blinking of the detected object in the display 107.
The head movement detector 310 may also include an eye movement detector 415, which may also be a separate device. The eye movement detector 410 tracks a user's eyes and generates a trigger signal when the eyes are determined to have moved far left or far right, indicating that the user is looking at adjacent lanes, perhaps signaling that the user is intending to change lanes. Similarly, if the eye movement detector 410 generates a trigger signal and there is a vehicle located in an adjacent lane in the direction in which the user is looking, the object detector 320 recognizes that a collision may occur and generates a trigger signal to the display processor 340 for generating a visual, tactile or audio alert.
Furthermore, the object detector 320 considers a size and optionally a shape of the detected object to estimate a distance between the detected object and the camera. This is so that the object detector does not generate a false detection if the detected object is a long distance from the camera. The distance may be determined either optically (by percentage of field of view occupied by the detected object) or with a supplemental distance detector, such as a laser range finder, built into the camera. With respect to percentage of field of view, it may be that one of the cameras views a portion of the detected object while another camera views another portion of the detected object. Accordingly, the object detector considers detection amounts from multiple camera sources. Table 1 shows exemplary percentages of fields of view for triggering a detection event, and Table 2 shows what conditions exist to place the object detector 320 in an active alert mode, or a standby mode. The active alert mode is one in which a warning signal will be generated, while the standby mode will not.
Next, a hardware description of the tracking processor 220 according to exemplary embodiments is described with reference to
Further, the claimed advancements may be provided as a utility application, background daemon, or component of an operating system, or combination thereof, executing in conjunction with CPU 500 and an operating system such as Microsoft Windows 7, UNIX, Solaris, LINUX, Apple MAC-OS and other systems known to those skilled in the art.
CPU 500 may be a Xenon or Core processor from Intel of America or an Opteron processor from AMD of America, or may be other processor types that would be recognized by one of ordinary skill in the art. Alternatively, the CPU 500 may be implemented on an FPGA, ASIC, PLD or using discrete logic circuits, as one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize. Further, CPU 500 may be implemented as multiple processors cooperatively working in parallel to perform the instructions of the inventive processes described above.
The processor 220 further includes a display controller 508, such as a NVIDIA GeForce GTX or Quadro graphics adaptor from NVIDIA Corporation of America for interfacing with display 510, such as a Hewlett Packard HPL2445w LCD monitor. A general purpose I/O interface 512 interfaces with a keypad 302 as well as a touch screen panel 516 on or separate from display 510. General purpose I/O interface also connects to a plurality of pins 304.
A sound controller 520 is also provided in the tactile communication apparatus 1, such as Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium from Creative, to interface with speakers/microphone 522 thereby providing sounds and/or music. The speakers/microphone 522 can also be used to accept dictated words as commands for controlling the tactile communication apparatus 1 or for providing location and/or property information with respect to the target property.
The general purpose storage controller 524 connects the storage medium disk 504 with communication bus 526, which may be an ISA, EISA, VESA, PCI, or similar, for interconnecting all of the components of the tactile communication apparatus 1. A description of the general features and functionality of the display 510, as well as the display controller 508, storage controller 524, network controller 506, and sound controller 520 is omitted herein for brevity as these features are known.
Obviously, numerous modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings. It is therefore to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described herein.
