JP2002216291A - Vehicle monitoring device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To warn a driver that a vehicle is in an idling state. SOLUTION: A controller 9 detects a vehicle in the idling state on the basis of noise information generated by a vehicle 11A-1 or 11B-2 detected by a microphone array 5. When it is determined that there is a vehicle in the idling state, the controller 9 drives an AVI camera 6-1 or 6-2 corresponding to a stopping lane of the vehicle and acquires number plate information. The controller 9 generates warning information including the number plate information to the vehicle in the idling state and displays it on a warning display board 8.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle monitoring apparatus and, more particularly, to a vehicle in which a driver who is idling a vehicle is warned and the engine is stopped, thereby suppressing deterioration of the environment. It relates to a monitoring device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, exhaust gas generated by vehicles has been regarded as a problem from the viewpoint of environmental protection. Therefore, for example, the necessity of stopping idling (stopping the engine) while the vehicle is stopped at a traffic light or the like is taken up.

[0003]

However, in special vehicles such as buses, when the vehicle stops, the engine is automatically stopped without manual operation by the driver. However, in a normal car, the engine does not stop unless the driver manually operates it, and the inconvenience of starting the engine does not make it easy to stop the engine.

The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and it is possible to identify a vehicle in an idling state and issue a warning, thereby urging the engine to stop, thereby suppressing the deterioration of the environment. Things.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided a vehicle monitoring apparatus comprising: a sound detecting means for detecting a sound generated by a vehicle; an identification information obtaining means for obtaining identification information of the vehicle; Determining means for determining whether or not the vehicle has stopped the engine based on the volume of the sound; and identification information obtained by the identification information obtaining means when the determining means determines that the vehicle has not stopped the engine. Output means for outputting information including information.

The sound detecting means detects a sound generated by a specific vehicle. The identification information obtaining means obtains identification information such as a license plate unique to the vehicle which is detected by the sound detection means.

The sound detecting means is, for example, the noise detecting section 22 of FIG. 2, the identification information obtaining means is, for example, the license plate recognizing section 23 of FIG. 2, and the determining means is, for example,
The main control unit 2 of FIG. 2 that executes the processing of step S7 of FIG.
1, the output means is, for example, the warning control unit 25 of FIG.
, Respectively. The sound detection means includes
The microphone array 5 of FIG. 1 is included, the identification information acquisition means includes the AVI cameras 6-1 and 6-2 of FIG. 1, and the output means includes the warning display board 8 of FIG. Each of them may be configured.

The vehicle is not limited to, for example, a four-wheeled vehicle as shown in FIG. 1, but also includes a two-wheeled vehicle such as a motorcycle. The sound generated by the vehicle is an exhaust sound or an engine sound when the vehicle is stopped.

The vehicle identification information acquired by the identification information acquiring means includes not only the license plate information of the vehicle acquired from the image information, but also the license plate and the identification information of the vehicle wirelessly notified from the vehicle-mounted device. .

As will be described later, the output means not only outputs information including identification information as warning information for an idling vehicle, but also, for example, a communication unit 2 shown in FIG.
The information including the identification information may be notified to the management center or the like via the control unit 6.

In the vehicle monitoring device according to the present invention, a sound generated by the vehicle is detected, identification information of the vehicle is obtained, and based on the volume of the detected sound, it is determined whether or not the vehicle has stopped the engine. When it is determined that the vehicle has not stopped the engine, information including the obtained identification information is output.

[0012] Thus, the driver of the vehicle in the idling state can easily recognize that the warning is displayed to the driver.

The lighting state detecting means for detecting the lighting state of the traffic signal is further provided, and the sound detecting means detects by the lighting state detecting means that the lighting state of the traffic light is a state indicating that the vehicle stops. Then, the sound generated by the vehicle can be detected.

The lighting state detecting means is constituted by, for example, the signal state detecting section 24 shown in FIG.

The output means detects the identification information when the lighting state detecting means detects that the lighting state of the traffic light has been switched from a state indicating that the vehicle is stopped to a state indicating permission of starting. The output of the information including "" may be terminated.

The identification information obtaining means obtains license plate information of the vehicle as the identification information, and the output means outputs warning information including the license plate information obtained by the identification information obtaining means to the vehicle. can do.

The identification information obtaining means may further obtain the type of the vehicle, and the output means may output to the vehicle warning information including the information on the vehicle type obtained by the identification information obtaining means. it can.

As described above, various information relating to the vehicle is displayed as warning information and a warning is issued to the driver of the vehicle in an idling state. The user can more easily recognize that the warning is displayed for himself / herself. As the information on the vehicle, an image of the stop position of the vehicle, the color of the vehicle body, and the image of the appearance of the vehicle may be displayed in addition to the license plate information and the vehicle type.

Further, various information about the driver, for example, the name of the driver obtained by inquiring of the management center based on the license plate information may be displayed as warning information.

[0020]

FIG. 1 shows an example of the configuration of a vehicle monitoring system to which the present invention is applied. Road 1 is in lanes A and B
, And the white arrows indicate the traveling direction of the vehicle in each lane. The road 1 is provided with a stop line 2 and a pedestrian crossing 3 separated from the stop line 2 by a predetermined distance in the traveling direction of the vehicle.

A gantry 4-1 is installed on the road 1 so as to cross the lanes A and B. The gantry 4-1 is provided with a plurality of microphones having high directivity for a predetermined distance. The microphone array 5 is installed at a distance.

The microphone array 5 detects sounds generated by vehicles existing in the lanes A and B. Then, the vehicle monitoring system calculates the volume of the sound generated by each vehicle based on the sound information supplied from the microphone array 5.

The gantry 4-1 is located at a predetermined distance from the gantry 4-1 in the traveling direction of the vehicle.
2 are installed, and AVI (Automatic V
ehicle Identification) A camera 6-1 is provided in the lane
An AVI camera 6-2 is provided corresponding to B.

In the vicinity of the pedestrian crossing 3, a traffic light 7 and a warning display board 8 such as an electric bulletin board are installed, and the microphone array 5 and the AVI camera 6 are provided.
1, 6-2, the traffic light 7 and the warning display board 8 are connected to a control device 9 installed near the pedestrian crossing 3 and outside the road 1.
Connected by wire or wirelessly.

In the example shown in FIG. 1, the traffic light 7 is in a state where a red light is lit, and the vehicles 11A-1 and 11B-1 stop immediately before the stop line 2, and the vehicle 1
1A-2 and 11B-2 are in a stopped state.

In the vehicle monitoring system having such a configuration, the microphone array 5 includes the stopped vehicles 11A-1 to 11B-2 (hereinafter referred to as the vehicle 11A).
When it is not necessary to distinguish each of -1 to 11B-2 individually, the sound (engine sound and accompanying exhaust sound) generated by collectively referred to as vehicle 11 is detected and controlled as noise information. Notify the device 9. Further, the AVI cameras 6-1 and 6-2 photograph the appearance including the license plate of the vehicle 11, and notify the control device 9 of the image information.

The control device 9 calculates the stop position of the vehicle 11 and the volume of the sound generated by the vehicle 11 based on the noise information notified from the microphone array 5,
It is determined whether or not the vehicle 11 stopped at the red light has stopped the engine (whether or not it is in an idling state). When the control device 9 determines that there is a vehicle 11 whose engine is not stopped, the control device 9 drives the AVI cameras 6-1 and 6-2 corresponding to the stop position of the vehicle, and transmits the license plate information of the vehicle 11 to the vehicle. get. The processing of the control device 9 for calculating the stop position of the vehicle based on the noise information will be described later.

The control device 9 generates warning information including the acquired license plate information and displays it on the warning display panel 8 to warn the idling vehicle 11. The control device 9 also controls the lighting state of the traffic light 7 (when the traffic light 7 is controlled by another control device, the lighting state of the traffic light 7 is detected from the output of the control device). In response to the timing at which the traffic light 7 switches from the red light to the green light, the output of the warning information to the warning display plate 8 is ended. Idling vehicle 1
A plurality of warning display boards 8 may be provided, or warning information to be displayed may be switched, when a plurality of warning signs 1 are detected. Of course, a warning for a plurality of vehicles may be displayed on the warning display plate 8.

When the vehicle 11 in the idling state is specified,
Since the warning information including the license plate information of the vehicle 11 is displayed on the warning display plate 8, the driver can easily recognize that the warning information is displayed for himself, and Accordingly, the engine can be stopped.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the internal configuration of the control device 9 of FIG.

The main control unit 21 has a CPU (Central Process
g Unit), ROM (Read Only Memory), and RAM (Rand
om Access Memory) and controls the overall operation of the control device 9.

The noise detector 22 calculates the stop position of the vehicle 11 and the volume of the sound generated by the vehicle 11 based on the noise information supplied from the microphone array 5 and notifies the main controller 21 of the calculated position. .

The noise detecting section 22 calculates a noise source based on, for example, the principle of so-called triangulation based on the noise information from the microphone array 5, and notifies the main control section 21 of the sound source position as a stop position of the vehicle. I do. That is, the noise detection unit 22 converts the noise information supplied from the microphone array 5 into a digital signal, and performs a frequency analysis by a fast Fourier transform or the like. Then, the noise detection unit 22 detects a phase difference of a signal of each frequency of a predetermined width input from each of the microphones constituting the microphone array 5, and determines a positional relationship between the microphones and the detected phase difference. The sound source position (stop position of the vehicle 11) is calculated based on the difference between the respective signal intensities.

The license plate recognizing section 23 receives the AVI cameras 6-1 and 6 based on the instruction from the main control section 21.
-2 is driven, the license plate of the vehicle 11 is photographed at a predetermined timing, and the license plate information of the vehicle 11 is obtained by analyzing the image information. The acquired license plate information is notified to the main control unit 21.

The signal state detecting section 24 detects the lighting state of the traffic light 7 and notifies the main control section 21.

The warning control unit 25 generates warning information for the vehicle 11 to be warned (idling) based on an instruction from the main control unit 21, outputs the warning information to the warning display panel 8, and displays it. The warning information generated by the warning control unit 25 may include the appearance of the vehicle 11 photographed by the AVI cameras 6-1 and 6-2, in addition to the license plate information of the vehicle 11 as a warning target. It may be. If it is difficult to photograph the appearance and the license plate with a common camera, each may be photographed with a different camera.

The communication unit 26 notifies various types of information supplied from the main control unit 21 to a management center (not shown) by wire or wirelessly. The information notified to the management center is, for example, license plate information of the vehicle 11 in an idling state, and is stored in a storage unit provided in the management center. When a database in which detailed information on the driver is stored corresponding to the license plate information is prepared in the management center, the main control unit 21
Based on the license plate information notified from the license plate recognition unit 23, an inquiry may be made to the management center via the communication unit 26 to obtain information on the driver of the vehicle 11 in the idling state. The obtained detailed information of the driver is supplied to the warning control unit 25, and is included in the warning information. Thereby, for example, the driver's name can be displayed on the warning display board 8 as warning information,
In this case, the driver can more easily recognize that he / she has been warned than in the case where only the license plate information is displayed.

Next, referring to the flowchart of FIG.
The warning process of the control device 9 in FIG. 1 will be described.

In step S1, the main control unit 21
Based on the information notified from the signal state detection unit 24, it is determined whether the display of the traffic light 7 is a red signal and whether a sufficient time has elapsed since the red signal was turned on to turn off the engine. I do. Sufficient time to switch off the engine, for example, 5 seconds after switching to the red light,
It is set in advance. The main control unit 21 includes a signal state detection unit 24
And waits until it is determined that the display of the traffic light 7 is a red light and that a predetermined time has elapsed since the switch to the red light.

When the main control unit 21 determines in step S1 that the traffic light 7 is a red light and that a predetermined time has elapsed since the switch to the red light, the main control unit 21 sends a signal to the noise detection unit 22 to the road 1. It instructs to detect a sound generated by the vehicle 11 stopped above.

In step S2, the noise detector 22
Controls the microphone array 5 in response to this instruction, and determines the volume of the sound generated by the vehicle 11 and the stop position of each vehicle 11 based on the collected noise information.
It is detected by the method described above. Stopped vehicle information including position information and volume information of the vehicle 11 detected by the noise detection unit 22 is notified to the main control unit 21.

In step S3, the main control unit 21
Based on whether or not the position information of the sound source notified from the noise detection unit 22 has changed, it is determined whether or not the vehicle 11 is stopped (whether or not the vehicle 11 is present).
If it is determined that the vehicle 11 has not stopped, the process returns to step S1, and the subsequent processes are repeatedly executed. Note that the main control unit 21 may determine whether the vehicle is stopped based on image information captured by the AVI cameras 6-1 and 6-2.

On the other hand, in step S3, the main control unit 2
If it is determined that the vehicle 11 is stopped on the road 1, the process proceeds to step S4.

In step S4, the main control unit 21
The stopped vehicle information including the sound volume of the sound generated by the vehicle 11 and the information on each sound source position (stop position) supplied from the noise detection unit 22 is stored in a memory (not shown), and the process proceeds to step S5. It is determined whether a predetermined time has elapsed.

The main control unit 21 waits in step S5 until it determines that the predetermined time has elapsed, and when it determines that the predetermined time has elapsed, proceeds to step S6. Then, in step S6, the noise detection unit 22 controls the microphone array 5 again based on the instruction from the main control unit 21, and detects the volume of the sound generated by the vehicle 11 and the sound source position (stop position). I do. The detected stopped vehicle information is supplied to the main control unit 21.

In step S7, the main control unit 21
The stopped vehicle information stored in the memory in step S4 is compared with the stopped vehicle information detected and notified again in step S6, and there is a vehicle 11 that continues to generate a sound having a volume equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold. And the vehicle 11 is on the road 1
It is determined whether or not the user has moved up. Main control unit 21
Compares two pieces of stopped vehicle information, and if it is determined that there is no vehicle 11 that continuously generates a sound having a volume equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, or that the vehicle 11 has moved on the road 1, Returning to S1, the subsequent processing is repeatedly executed.

On the other hand, the main controller 21 determines in step S7 that
When it is determined that the vehicle 11 continues to emit a sound having a volume equal to or higher than the predetermined threshold value and that the vehicle 11 has not moved (stopped) for the predetermined time referred to in step S5, The vehicle 11 is recognized as an idling vehicle, and the process proceeds to step S8.

In step S 8, the license plate recognizing unit 23 performs the AV based on the instruction from the main control unit 21.
The I-camera 6-1 or 6-2 is driven to photograph a license plate of the vehicle 11 in an idling state, and image analysis is performed to obtain license plate information of the vehicle 11. For example, the vehicle 1 is determined by the determination in step S7.
If it is determined that the vehicle 1A-1 is an idling vehicle, the license plate recognition unit 23 outputs
1 is driven to photograph the license plate of the vehicle 11A-1 to acquire license plate information. The license plate information of the vehicle 11 in the idling state acquired by the license plate recognition unit 23 is notified to the main control unit 21. If the vehicle in the idling state is the vehicle 11A-
If there is any other than 1, the license plate information is similarly obtained for the idling vehicle,
The information is notified to the main control unit 21.

In step S9, the warning control unit 25
Generates warning information for the vehicle 11 in the idling state based on an instruction from the main control unit 21, outputs the warning information to the warning display panel 8, and displays the warning information. The license plate information acquired in step S8 is notified to the warning control unit 25 via the main control unit 21, and is included in the warning information.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of warning information generated by the warning control unit 25 in step S9 of FIG. 3 and displayed on the warning display panel 8.

In the example shown in FIG. 4, a message "vehicle number Shinagawa 10A 1234, turn off the engine when the traffic light stops" is displayed as warning information. Since the driver of the vehicle 11 in the idling state displays the license plate information, the driver can easily recognize that the warning information is displayed for himself / herself.

In step S10, the noise detector 22
Detects noise generated by the vehicle 11 in the idling state, which is set as a warning target, based on an instruction from the main control unit 21, and notifies the main control unit 21 of stopped vehicle information. In step S11, the main control unit 21 determines whether or not the engine of the vehicle 11 to be warned has been stopped based on the notified stopped vehicle information, or based on the notification from the signal state detection unit 24, Is determined to be a green light.

If the main control unit 21 determines in step S11 that the engine of the vehicle 11 to be warned is not stopped and that the display of the traffic light 7 is not a green light, the process returns to step S9, and the warning information is returned. Keep displaying.
After that, the subsequent processing is repeatedly executed.

On the other hand, in step S11, if the main control unit 21 determines that the engine of the vehicle 11 to be warned has been stopped or that the traffic light 7 has been switched to the green light, the process proceeds to step S12, and the warning control unit 25 By giving the instruction, the display of the warning information is ended. Thereafter, the process returns to step S1, and the subsequent processes are repeatedly executed.

In the above description, license plate information and a warning message to stop the engine are displayed as the warning information displayed in step S9.
Various information can be included in the alert information.

FIG. 5 is generated by the warning control unit 25,
It is a figure showing other examples of warning information displayed on warning display board 8.

In the example of FIG. 5, a message "stop the engine for a large truck with a vehicle number of Shinagawa 10A 1234" is displayed as warning information. As shown in the example of FIG. 5 at the upper right of the license plate, information for specifying the type of the vehicle is indicated by a predetermined number of digits at the upper right of the license plate. By confirming this, the type of the vehicle 11 to be warned can be easily specified. The main control unit 21 may specify that the vehicle 11A-1 is a large truck, for example, based on the external appearance image of the vehicle 11 captured by the AVI cameras 6-1 and 6-2. Good.

FIG. 6 is generated by the warning control unit 25,
FIG. 9 is a diagram showing still another example of the warning information displayed on the warning display plate 8.

In the example shown in FIG. 6, a message "Stop the engine for the truck stopped second from the front in the lane B" is displayed as warning information.
In this case, the warning control unit 25 generates warning information based on the information regarding the stop position of the vehicle 11 detected in step S2 or step S6.

The warning information includes an image of the exterior of the vehicle 11 (for example, an image of a driver) photographed by the AVI cameras 6-1 and 6-2, and is displayed on the warning display plate 8. It may be.

In the above description, when traffic is restricted by the traffic light 7, warning information is displayed for a vehicle that does not stop the engine. However, the present invention is applied to idling warnings in various places. can do. For example, in a parking lot, a warning may be displayed for a vehicle that does not stop the engine while waiting for a parking space to become available.

[0062]

As described above, according to the present invention, a vehicle in an idling state is specified and warning information including license plate information of the vehicle is displayed. The user can easily recognize that the warning information is displayed for himself / herself.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a vehicle monitoring system to which the present invention has been applied.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the internal configuration of the control device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a process of a control device in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of warning information.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing another example of the warning information.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing still another example of the warning information.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 5 Microphone array 6-1 and 6-2 AVI camera 8 Warning display board 9 Control device 21 Main control unit 22 Noise detection unit 23 License plate recognition unit 24 Signal state detection unit 25 Warning control unit 26 Communication unit

Claims (5)

[Claims] A sound detection unit configured to detect a sound generated by the vehicle; an identification information acquisition unit configured to acquire identification information of the vehicle; and a vehicle based on a volume of the sound detected by the sound detection unit. Determining means for determining whether or not the engine is stopped; and including the identification information obtained by the identification information obtaining means when the determination means determines that the vehicle has not stopped the engine. An output unit for outputting information. 2. A lighting condition detecting means for detecting a lighting condition of the traffic light, wherein the sound detecting means indicates that the lighting condition of the traffic light is stopped with respect to the vehicle by the lighting condition detecting means. The vehicle monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein when the vehicle is detected as being in a state, a sound generated by the vehicle is detected. 3. The lighting device according to claim 2, wherein the lighting state of the traffic light is controlled by the lighting state detection means with respect to the vehicle.
The vehicle monitoring according to claim 1 or 2, wherein when it is detected that the state has been changed from a state indicating a stop to a state indicating permission to start, output of the information including the identification information is ended. apparatus. 4. The identification information acquiring means acquires license plate information of the vehicle as the identification information, and the output means outputs warning information including the license plate information acquired by the identification information acquiring means. The vehicle monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein the output is output to the vehicle. 5. The identification information obtaining means further obtains a vehicle type of the vehicle, and the output means outputs, to the vehicle, warning information including information on the vehicle type of the vehicle obtained by the identification information obtaining means. The vehicle monitoring device according to claim 4, wherein the vehicle monitoring device outputs the data.