Illuminating a road crossing to indicate a safe crossing condition for a user

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12586459-B2
Application number	US-202418416036-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 18, 2024
Priority date	Jan 18, 2024
Publication date	Mar 24, 2026
Grant date	Mar 24, 2026

Abstract

System, methods, and other embodiments described herein relate to improving the safety of pedestrians at a road crossing. In one embodiment, a method includes acquiring sensor data about a pedestrian and a vehicle in surroundings of a road crossing. The method further includes identifying an intention to cross the road crossing of the pedestrian and a driving behavior of the vehicle. The method additionally includes determining a safety condition for the pedestrian to cross the road crossing based, at least in part, on the driving behavior. Moreover, the method includes controlling at least one lighting mechanism of the road crossing according to the safety condition.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system comprising:
one or more processors; and a memory communicably coupled to the one or more processors and storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: acquire sensor data about a pedestrian and a vehicle in surroundings of a road crossing; identify an intention to cross the road crossing of the pedestrian and a driving behavior of the vehicle, wherein the instructions to identify the driving behavior include instructions to identify the driving behavior based, at least in part, on at least one of: a driving history and a real-time condition of the vehicle; determine a safety condition for the pedestrian to cross the road crossing based, at least in part, on the driving behavior; and control at least one lighting mechanism of the road crossing according to the safety condition.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further include instructions to determine whether the safety condition satisfies a vehicle safety threshold, and
wherein the safety condition satisfies the vehicle safety threshold when the vehicle is likely to stop before reaching the road crossing.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions to identify the intention of the pedestrian include instructions to determine at least one of: a gait, a speed, an orientation, and a location of the pedestrian.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further include instructions to determine whether the safety condition satisfies a pedestrian safety threshold,
wherein the safety condition satisfies the pedestrian safety threshold when a movement profile of the pedestrian allows the pedestrian to cross the road crossing without a path of the pedestrian and a path of the vehicle intersecting, and wherein the movement profile is based, at least in part, on at least one of a gait and a speed of the pedestrian.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions to control the at least one lighting mechanism include instructions to cause a light associated with the road crossing that conveys the safety condition to activate when the safety condition indicates the driving behavior is safe.

6 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the instructions to control the at least one lighting mechanism include instructions to control at least one of: a brightness, a color, and a flash pattern of the light, and
wherein the light is at least one of: embedded into a surface of the road crossing and projected onto the surface of the road crossing.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions to acquire the sensor data about the vehicle include instructions to acquire at least one of: the driving history and the real-time condition of the vehicle, and
wherein the instructions to identify the intention include instructions to determine a direction of a gaze of the eyes of the pedestrian to assess whether the pedestrian intends to cross, and wherein identifying the driving behavior includes determining an autonomy level of the vehicle.

8 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the driving history includes at least one of: a history of yielding to other road users and a history of following instructions output from infrastructure, and
wherein the real-time condition includes at least one of: an operating condition of the vehicle, an environment of the vehicle, a speed of the vehicle, an acceleration of the vehicle, an emotional state of a driver of the vehicle, and an autonomy mode of the vehicle.

9 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium including instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to:
acquire sensor data about a pedestrian and a vehicle in surroundings of a road crossing; identify an intention to cross the road crossing of the pedestrian and a driving behavior of the vehicle, wherein the instructions to identify the driving behavior include instructions to identify the driving behavior based, at least in part, on at least one of: a driving history and a real-time condition of the vehicle; determine a safety condition for the pedestrian to cross the road crossing based, at least in part, on the driving behavior; and control at least one lighting mechanism of the road crossing according to the safety condition.

10 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the instructions further include instructions to determine whether the safety condition satisfies a vehicle safety threshold, and
wherein the safety condition satisfies the vehicle safety threshold when the vehicle is likely to stop before reaching the road crossing.

11 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the instructions further include instructions to determine whether the safety condition satisfies a pedestrian safety threshold,
wherein the safety condition satisfies the pedestrian safety threshold when a movement profile of the pedestrian allows the pedestrian to cross the road crossing without a path of the pedestrian and a path of the vehicle intersecting, and wherein the movement profile is based, at least in part, on at least one of a gait and a speed of the pedestrian.

12 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the instructions to control the at least one lighting mechanism include instructions to cause a light associated with the road crossing that conveys the safety condition to activate when the safety condition indicates the driving behavior is safe.

13 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the instructions to control the at least one lighting mechanism include instructions to control at least one of: a brightness, a color, and a flash pattern of the light, and
wherein the light is at least one of: embedded into a surface of the road crossing and projected onto the surface of the road crossing.

14 . A method, comprising:
acquiring sensor data about a pedestrian and a vehicle in surroundings of a road crossing; identifying an intention to cross the road crossing by the pedestrian and a driving behavior of the vehicle, wherein identifying the driving behavior includes identifying the driving behavior based, at least in part, on at least one of: a driving history and a real-time condition of the vehicle; determining a safety condition for the pedestrian to cross the road crossing based, at least in part, on the driving behavior; and controlling at least one lighting mechanism of the road crossing according to the safety condition.

15 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising: determining whether the safety condition satisfies a vehicle safety threshold, and
wherein the safety condition satisfies the vehicle safety threshold when the vehicle is likely to stop before reaching the road crossing.

16 . The method of claim 14 , wherein identifying the intention of the pedestrian includes determining at least one of: a gait, a speed, an orientation, a behavior, and a location of the pedestrian.

17 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising: determining whether the safety condition satisfies a pedestrian safety threshold,
wherein the safety condition satisfies the pedestrian safety threshold when a movement profile of the pedestrian allows the pedestrian to cross the road crossing without a path of the pedestrian and a path of the vehicle intersecting, and wherein the movement profile is based, at least in part, on at least one of a gait and a speed of the pedestrian.

18 . The method of claim 14 , whe

Assignees

• Toyota Eng & Mfg North America
• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Austin Benjamin Piya
• Gupta Rohit
• Garrett William Patrick
• Kirschweng Rebecca L
• Babian Philip J

Classifications

• G06V40/103

  Static body considered as a whole, e.g. static pedestrian or occupant recognition · CPC title

• B60W40/105

  Speed · CPC title

• B60W40/09

  Driving style or behaviour · CPC title

• B60W2540/22

  Psychological state; Stress level or workload · CPC title

• E01F9/582 Primary

  illuminated · CPC title