Pedestrian-vehicle communication system, in-vehicle terminal device, pedestrian terminal device and safe-driving assistance method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10688928-B2
Application number	US-201716342456-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 29, 2017
Priority date	Oct 20, 2016
Publication date	Jun 23, 2020
Grant date	Jun 23, 2020

Abstract

In order to enable a driver in driving a vehicle to quickly and assuredly recognize a pedestrian having a collision risk with the vehicle even when it is difficult for the driver to recognize the pedestrian by eyes, such as during night time, an in-vehicle terminal device is configured to: determine a collision risk based on pedestrian position information and vehicle position information; generate turn-on instruction information which, when the pedestrian is determined to have the collision risk with the vehicle, causes an indicator light carried by the pedestrian to be turned on in a prescribed light color; and transmit the turn-on instruction information to a pedestrian terminal device via pedestrian-vehicle communication, and wherein the pedestrian terminal device is configured to: receive the turn-on instruction information transmitted from the in-vehicle terminal device; and turn on the indicator light based on the turn-on instruction information.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A pedestrian-vehicle communication system comprising an in-vehicle terminal device mounted on a vehicle and a pedestrian terminal device carried by a pedestrian, wherein pedestrian position information and vehicle position information are transmitted and received between the in-vehicle terminal device and the pedestrian terminal device via pedestrian-vehicle communication,
wherein the in-vehicle terminal device comprises:
a collision determiner configured to determine a collision risk based on the pedestrian position information and the vehicle position information;
a turn-on instruction generator configured to generate turn-on instruction information which, when the collision determiner determines that the pedestrian has the collision risk, causes an indicator light carried by the pedestrian to be turned on in a light color specific to the vehicle on which the in-vehicle terminal device is mounted; and
a pedestrian-vehicle communicator configured to transmit the turn-on instruction information to the pedestrian terminal device via the pedestrian-vehicle communication; and
wherein the pedestrian terminal device comprises:
a pedestrian-vehicle communicator configured to receive the turn-on instruction information transmitted from the in-vehicle terminal device; and
a turn-on controller configured to turn on the indicator light based on the turn-on instruction information,
wherein, when there is a plurality of pedestrians having collision risks with the vehicle, the turn-on instruction generator of the in-vehicle terminal device generates the turn-on instruction information which causes a plurality of indicator lights to be turned on in respective different light colors.

2. The pedestrian-vehicle communication system according to claim 1 , wherein, upon receiving the turn-on instruction information from a plurality of in-vehicle terminal devices, the turn-on controller of the pedestrian terminal device causes the indicator light to be turned on based on the turn-on instruction information which is transmitted from an in-vehicle terminal device of a vehicle having a highest collision risk.

3. The pedestrian-vehicle communication system according to claim 1 , wherein the turn-on instruction generator of the in-vehicle terminal device generates turn-on instruction information which causes the indicator light without any assigned light color to be turned on in a prescribed light color based on color information transmitted from the pedestrian terminal device.

4. The pedestrian-vehicle communication system according to claim 1 , wherein the in-vehicle terminal device comprises a display controller configure to display an image representing a position of the pedestrian superimposed on a map image on a display screen of a display device mounted on the vehicle, and
wherein the display controller causes the display device to display the image representing the position of the pedestrian in a same color as the light color of the indicator light of the pedestrian.

5. A pedestrian-vehicle communication system comprising an in-vehicle terminal device mounted on a vehicle and a pedestrian terminal device carried by a pedestrian, wherein pedestrian position information and vehicle position information are transmitted and received between the in-vehicle terminal device and the pedestrian terminal device via pedestrian-vehicle communication,
wherein the pedestrian terminal device comprises:
a collision determiner configured to determine a collision risk based on the pedestrian position information and the vehicle position information;
a turn-on controller configured, when the collision determiner determines that the collision risk is present, to turn on an indicator light carried by the pedestrian in a prescribed light color, and
wherein the in-vehicle terminal device comprises:
a pedestrian-vehicle communicator configured to receive color information indicating the prescribed light color from the pedestrian terminal device; and
a display controller configured to cause a display device mounted on the vehicle to display an image representing a position of the pedestrian in a same color as the prescribed light color indicated by the color information.

6. The pedestrian-vehicle communication system according to claim 5 , wherein the turn-on controller of the pedestrian terminal device causes the indicator light to be turned on in the light color which is set depending on a user attribute of the pedestrian.

7. The pedestrian-vehicle communication system according to claim 6 , the user attribute is classified according to a possibility of taking a dangerous action.

8. The pedestrian-vehicle communication system according to claim 5 , wherein the collision determiner of the pedestrian terminal device determines a plurality of assistance levels according to the collision risk, and
the turn-on controller of the pedestrian terminal device sets the light color depending on the assistance levels.

9. The pedestrian-vehicle communication system according to claim 8 , wherein, when a plurality of vehicles have collision risks with the pedestrian, the turn-on controller of the pedestrian terminal device sets the light color based on an assistance level for a vehicle having a highest collision risk with the pedestrian.

10. The pedestrian-vehicle communication system according to claim 5 , the collision determiner of the pedestrian terminal device determines a plurality of assistance levels according to the collision risk, and
the turn-on controller of the pedestrian terminal device changes a turn-on pattern of the indicator light depending on the assistance levels.

11. An in-vehicle terminal device mounted on a vehicle for performing pedestrian-vehicle communication with a pedestrian terminal device carried by a pedestrian, wherein pedestrian position information and vehicle position information are transmitted and received between the in-vehicle terminal device and the pedestrian terminal device via the pedestrian-vehicle communication, the in-vehicle terminal device comprising:
a collision determiner configured to determine a collision risk based on the pedestrian position information and the vehicle position information;
a turn-on instruction generator configured to generate turn-on instruction information which, when the collision determiner determines that the pedestrian has the collision risk, causes an indicator light carried by the pedestrian to be turned on in a light color specific to the vehicle on which the in-vehicle terminal device is mounted; and
a pedestrian-vehicle communicator configured to transmit the turn-on instruction information to the pedestrian terminal device via the pedestrian-vehicle communication,
wherein, when there is a plurality of pedestrians having collision risks with the vehicle, the turn-on instruction generator generates the turn-on instruction information which causes a plurality of indicator lights to be turned on in respective different light colors.

12. An in-vehicle terminal device mounted on a vehicle for performing pedestrian-vehicle communication with a pedestrian terminal device carried by a pedestrian, wherein pedestrian position information and vehicle position information are transmitted and received between the in-vehicle terminal device and the pedestrian terminal device via the pedestrian-vehicle communication, comprising:
a pedestrian-vehicle communicator configured to receive color information from the pedestrian terminal device, the color information indicating a light color of an indicator light carried by the pedestrian; and
a display controller mounted on the vehicle configured to cause a display device mount

Assignees

• Panasonic Corp

Inventors

• Ueno Tsuyoshi
• Tanaka Satoshi
• Sudo Hiroaki
• Shirosaki Yoshimasa
• Muramatsu Shintaro

Classifications

• G08G1/166

  for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes · CPC title

• G08G1/161

  Decentralised systems, e.g. inter-vehicle communication · CPC title

• G08G1/005 Primary

  including pedestrian guidance indicator · CPC title

• H04W4/20

  Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel · CPC title

• H04W4/40

  for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P] · CPC title