Driving assistance device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9275287-B2
Application number	US-201214123631-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 13, 2012
Priority date	Jun 13, 2011
Publication date	Mar 1, 2016
Grant date	Mar 1, 2016

Abstract

An indication control unit 11 indicates a side-rearward image of a vehicle 1 captured by a left-rearward camera 2 L and a right-rearward camera 2 R mounted on the vehicle 1 , after superimposing guidelines showing a guide of a distance from the vehicle 1 , to a left-rearward indicator 3 L and a right-rearward indicator 3 R. A road shape recognizing unit 13 recognizes a shape of a road on which the vehicle is traveling. When it is recognized by the road shape recognizing unit 13 that the vehicle 1 is traveling on the road of a predetermined shape, the indication control unit 11 sets the guidelines to non-display, or sets an indicating position of the guidelines according to the shape of the road recognized by the road shape recognizing unit 13.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A driving assistance device equipped with an indication control unit including an indicator mounted on a vehicle which displays an image of a side-rearward of the vehicle captured by a camera mounted on the vehicle with a guideline showing a guide of distance from the vehicle to an object in the image superimposed on the image, the driving assistance device comprising:
a road shape recognizing unit which recognizes a shape of a road on which the vehicle is traveling;
wherein, when it is recognized by the road shape recognizing unit that the shape of the road on which the vehicle is traveling is a shape of a curved road with a curvature equal to or more than a first predetermined value, or a shape of a road of a traveling path during a right-turn or a left-turn of an intersection, or a shape of a road with a gradient change rate equal to or more than a second predetermined value, the indication control unit sets the guideline to non-display or sets a indicating position of the guideline in line with the shape of the road recognized by the road shape recognizing unit.

2. The driving assistance device according to claim 1 ,
further comprising a brightness detecting unit which detects a brightness of surroundings of the vehicle, and
a side-rearward object detecting unit which detects an other vehicle existing at side-rearward of the vehicle, based on the captured image of the camera,
wherein, when the brightness of the surroundings of the vehicle detected by the brightness detecting unit is equal to or less than a predetermined level, the indication control unit indicates the guideline only when the other vehicle is being detected by the side-rearward object detecting unit, and sets the guideline to non-display when the other vehicle is not being detected by the side-rearward object detecting unit.

3. The driving assistance device according to claim 1 ,
further comprising a luminance change detecting unit which detects that a luminance of a luminance detecting region set so as to include an image portion of a road side is changing periodically, for a side-rearward image of the vehicle captured by the camera during traveling of the vehicle,
wherein, when it is detected by the luminance change detecting unit that the luminance of the luminance detecting region is changing periodically, the indication control unit performs a gradation process of decreasing a luminance difference between pixels in the luminance detecting region to the image, and indicates the image performed with the gradation process to the indicator.

4. The driving assistance device according to claim 3 ,
wherein the luminance detecting region is set to a shape in which a length in a first direction corresponding to a vertical direction of the vehicle is longer than a length in a second direction corresponding to a right and left direction of the vehicle.

5. The driving assistance device according to claim 3 ,
wherein the indication control unit performs the gradation process, when the pixels with the luminance changing periodically within the luminance detecting region are distributed toward a vanishing point in which an image portion of the road vanishes in a direction corresponding to rearward of the vehicle.

6. The driving assistance device according to claim 3 ,
further comprising a road situation detecting unit which detects a situation of the road on which the vehicle is traveling,
wherein, when the vehicle is traveling on a road having a plurality of traffic lanes, the indication control unit performs the gradation process limited to a case where the vehicle is traveling on a leftmost or a rightmost traffic lane.

7. The driving assistance device according to claim 3 ,
wherein the luminance change detecting unit detects whether or not the luminance is changing periodically for each pixel in the luminance detecting region, and
the indication control unit performs the gradation process limited to a case where a proportion of the pixels in which the luminance is changing periodically to total pixels of the luminance detecting region is equal to or more than a predetermined value.

8. The driving assistance device according to claim 3 ,
wherein the indication control unit performs, as the gradation process, a process of decreasing a contrast of the luminance detecting region, or changing a maximum luminance of each pixel in the luminance detecting region to equal to or less than a predetermined upper limit luminance.

9. The driving assistance device according to claim 1 ,
further comprising an acceleration-deceleration detecting unit which detects an acceleration-deceleration of the vehicle,
wherein the luminance change detecting unit sets a standard period for detecting that the luminance of the luminance detecting region is changing periodically, based on the acceleration-deceleration of the vehicle.

Assignees

• Watanabe Takashi
• Oshida Kei
• Nishiguchi Haruhiko
• Honda Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Watanabe Takashi
• Oshida Kei
• Nishiguchi Haruhiko

Classifications

• B60R2300/305

  merging camera image with lines or icons · CPC title

• G08G1/167

  Driving aids for lane monitoring, lane changing, e.g. blind spot detection · CPC title

• H04N7/183

  for receiving images from a single remote source · CPC title

• B60R2300/8086

  for vehicle path indication · CPC title

• G08G1/166

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