JP3064587B2 - Vehicle entrainment accident prevention device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for preventing a vehicle from being caught in a vehicle, and more particularly to a device for preventing a vehicle from turning left or right (turning).
The present invention relates to a device for preventing an accident involving a wheeled vehicle or a pedestrian.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 56-163934 has been proposed as a device for preventing such a vehicle entanglement accident. In this device, at least one side of the vehicle is provided. A radar sensor is provided near the rear wheels to illuminate the front side of the vehicle, and the radar sensor detects whether there is an obstacle in the turning direction of the vehicle by the radar sensor. At this time, the steering wheel may turn the steering wheel. In such a case, an alarm is issued from the alarm device.

[0003]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Problems to be Solved by the Invention
In the device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 163934, the objects detected by the radar sensor when the vehicle turns are not limited to obstacles such as motorcycles and pedestrians existing between the vehicle and the road edge (shoulder). Since all obstacles are included, there is a problem that the alarm operation is constantly performed and is troublesome.

A device for monitoring the side of a vehicle using a TV camera without using such a radar device is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-141293.
However, neither of these methods directly detects an obstacle in a turning direction of a vehicle from an image detected by a TV camera. There is a problem that it is necessary to make a judgment while looking at each item, which involves danger.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to realize a device for automatically detecting an obstacle at the time of turning a vehicle by processing an image obtained by a TV camera and preventing a collision accident.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a device for preventing a vehicle from being caught in an accident according to the present invention always includes a steering sensor of a vehicle and a detection plate having a predetermined concentration or more provided on a side surface of the vehicle. TV set to be included in the detection screen
Image processing for detecting an object having a size equal to or greater than the predetermined density which is present between the detection target plate and a color portion having a density equal to or higher than the predetermined density applied to a road edge in a detection image of the camera and the TV camera And an alarm determination unit that activates an alarm when it is determined that the steering operation has been performed from the output signal of the sensor when the image processing unit detects the object.

Further, according to the present invention, in the above-described device for preventing a vehicle from being caught in an accident, a turn signal switch is further provided, and the alarm judging unit detects a steering wheel from an output signal of the sensor when the image processing unit detects the object. Even when the operation is not performed, the alarm device can be activated when it is determined from the output signal of the blinker switch that the blinker operation has been performed.

[0008]

According to the present invention, a detection plate having a predetermined density or more is provided on the side of the vehicle, and a color portion having the same predetermined density or more is applied to the edge of the road. Is set to be always included in the detection screen.

In such a state, the image processing section always includes the plate to be detected in the screen, but when turning left or right, the color portion applied to the road edge is also simultaneously displayed in the screen. Then, when an object having the same predetermined density or more and a certain size or more exists between the color portion at the road edge and the detected plate, the image processing unit detects this.

Therefore, when the image processing unit detects the above-mentioned object, the alarm judging unit activates the alarm when it is judged from the output signal of the steering sensor of the vehicle that the steering wheel operation has been performed, so that the entrainment accident is detected. I try to prevent it.

In the above case, a turn signal switch is provided. At this time, even when the steering wheel operation is not performed as described above, the alarm determination unit performs the turn signal operation from the output signal of the turn signal switch. Even when it turns out, the alarm can be activated to prevent a sneaking accident.

[0012]

FIG. 1 schematically shows a vehicle accident prevention apparatus according to the present invention. An output image of a TV camera 2 is sent to an image processing section 13 where a predetermined image processing is performed. Is sent to the alarm determination unit 14.

Each output signal of the steering sensor 11 and the turn signal switch 12 is given to the alarm judging section 14, and together with the output signal from the image processing section 13, the alarm 15 is energized under a certain condition and the driver is driven. Warnings.

FIG. 2 shows a vehicle 1 of the TV camera 2 shown in FIG.
For example, in this embodiment, the TV camera 2 is provided above one side of the vehicle 10 (the left side in a left-hand traffic country and the right side in a right-hand traffic country). The position and angle of the TV camera 2 are set so that the detection target plate 1 installed on the vehicle 10 from the camera 2 always enters the detection screen. The alarm 3 that is activated via the image processing unit 13 and the alarm determination unit 14 in FIG. 1 is provided, for example, on a dashboard at the front of the vehicle.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the vehicle 10 shown in FIG. 2. In particular, when the vehicle 10 makes a left turn, the color portion 4 provided at the end of the road and having a predetermined density or more and the detected object are detected. When there is an obstacle 5 such as a motorcycle between the plate 1 and T
The state where the V camera 2 detects these three is shown.

The operation of the above embodiment will now be described with reference to the control algorithm shown in FIG. 4. First, the alarm judging section 14 inputs each output signal of the steering sensor 11 and the turn signal switch 12 (step S1).

Then, a signal as to whether or not the image processing section 13 has detected the obstacle 5 is inputted and the determination is made (at step S).
2).

Here, how the image processing unit 13 detects the obstacle 5 as shown in FIG. 3 will be described with reference to FIGS.

First, FIG. 5 shows one frame screen composed of images output from the TV camera 2, and when the vehicle 10 turns left, at least the detected plate 1
In addition, the color portion 4 applied to the road edge is shown, and when an obstacle 5 such as a motorcycle is present, the screen shown in the figure is displayed.

When image processing is performed on such a screen, the image processing unit 13 creates a histogram of density (horizontal axis) vs. number of pixels (vertical axis) from an image detected by the TV camera 2 as shown in FIG.

[0021] Then, the pixels belonging to a predetermined concentration I _th or more concentration zone in the histogram created in this manner (the hatched portion) as a logic "1", binarizes the other pixels as a logic "0" As a result, it is possible to extract images of the detected plate 1, the road edge color portion 4, and the obstacle portion 5 as shown by hatching in FIG.

Then, the area of each of the hatched areas is determined from the number of pixels in each of the hatched areas, and the center of gravity is determined from the position of each pixel.

In this manner, the detected plate 11 and the road end portion 4
And the area of the obstacle 5 and its center of gravity are required,
When the obstacle 5 exists between the road edge color portion 4 and the vehicle 10, it should be when the center of gravity of the obstacle 5 exists between the center of gravity of the detected plate 1 and the center of gravity of the road edge color portion 4. There is such a relation of the center of gravity, and the center of gravity is located
The image processing unit 13 performs the alarm processing unit 1 only when the region (the region of the obstacle 5) sandwiched by
An output signal indicating that an obstacle 5 is present is given to 4.

Returning to FIG. 4, when an obstacle is detected as described above, the alarm determination section 14 first determines the output signal of the steering sensor 11 to detect whether or not the steering wheel operation has been performed (see FIG. 4). S3).

As a result, when it is determined that the steering wheel operation has been performed, the alarm 3 is driven (S5).

Further, even when the steering wheel operation is not performed, the alarm determination unit 14 determines that the blinker operation is being performed from the output signal of the blinker switch 12 (at the same step S).
In 4), the alarm 3 is also driven (S5). However, when neither the steering wheel operation nor the turn signal operation is performed, this routine is terminated similarly to the case where the failure detection is not performed.

[0027]

As described above, according to the apparatus for preventing a vehicle from getting caught in the vehicle according to the present invention, the color of the plate applied to the side of the vehicle and the color applied to the road edge are determined from the density of the image detected by the TV camera. Can be automatically detected, and if a steering wheel operation or turn signal operation is performed at this time, an alarm is issued. It can reduce the possibility of an accident involving a right turn.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a vehicle accident prevention device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a vehicle equipped with a TV camera used in the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a state in which the TV camera detects an obstacle existing between the road edge and the vehicle by looking at the vehicle as shown in FIG. 2 from above.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an alarm determination process performed by the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a detection screen of a TV camera obtained by the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a graph showing a histogram of density versus number of pixels obtained from a screen detected by a TV camera.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Detection board 2 TV camera 3 Alarm device 4 Road edge color part 5 Obstacle 10 Vehicle 11 Steering sensor 12 Turn signal switch 13 Image processing part 14 Alarm determination part In the figure, the same code | symbol shows the same or corresponding part.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI G08G 1/16 G08G 1/16 C H04N 7/18 H04N 7/18 J (72) Inventor Hirofumi Sakamoto 8 Tsuchiya, Fujisawa City, Kanagawa Prefecture Address: Isuzu Central Research Institute Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Yasumaru Kubo, 8th Dotana, Fujisawa-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture Isuzu Central Research Institute Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor: Toshihiro Kuroda 8 Dotana, Fujisawa-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture Inside the Isuzu Central Research Laboratory (72) Keisuke Kawashima, Inventor Keisuke Kawashima 8 Tsurana, Fujisawa-shi, Kanagawa Isuzu Central Research Laboratory Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-56-163934 (JP, A) JP-A-56-8729 (JP) , A) Hikaru 1-109452 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B60R 21/34 652 B60R 21/34 662 B60R 21/34 682 B60R 1/00 G08G 1/00-9/02 H04N 7/18 B60R 21/00 B6 2D 6/00

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A vehicle steering sensor, a TV camera installed so as to always include a detection plate having a predetermined density or more provided on a side surface of the vehicle in a detection screen, and applying a detection image of the TV camera to a road edge in a detection image of the TV camera. An image processing unit that detects an object having a size equal to or greater than the predetermined density existing between the color portion having the predetermined density or more and the plate to be detected, and when the image processing unit detects the object. An accident judging device for energizing an alarm when it is determined from the output signal of the sensor that a steering operation has been performed. 2. The vehicle accident prevention device according to claim 1, further comprising a turn signal switch, wherein the alarm determining unit detects a steering wheel from an output signal of the sensor when the image processing unit detects the object. The winding of a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the alarm device is activated when it is determined from the output signal of the blinker switch that the blinker operation has been performed even when the operation is not performed. Accident prevention device.