JP2015060283A - Vehicle safety confirmation device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vehicle safety confirmation device capable of accurately urging a driver inside a vehicle and the driver of another vehicle outside the vehicle to confirm safety.SOLUTION: A vehicle safety confirmation device includes: an input information acquisition unit 110 for acquiring information related to a situation in the circumference of a vehicle; an analysis unit 111 for analyzing the information related to the state in the circumference of the vehicle and determining whether the state in the circumference of the vehicle is the state to be notified; and an instruction processing unit 112 for giving an instruction to an on-vehicle CPU 4 that controls the respective operations of a vehicle interior notification device 9 for performing notification inside the vehicle and a vehicle exterior notification device for performing notification to the other vehicle outside the vehicle when the state has been determined to be the one to be notified, and then allowing the vehicle interior notification device 9 and the vehicle exterior notification device to perform notification to urge safety confirmation.

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle safety confirmation device that is mounted on a vehicle and performs a notification for prompting safety confirmation according to the situation around the vehicle.

For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a field-of-view assistance device that captures an image of the outside of a vehicle with a camera mounted on a vehicle with a wider angle of view than the field of view of the vehicle driver, corrects image distortion, and displays the image on a display device.
This device can easily grasp the positional relationship between the range that can be seen by the vehicle driver and the range that cannot be seen based on the image taken outside the vehicle taken by the camera, and can eliminate the blind spot of the vehicle driver.

JP 2005-94202 A

In the conventional technique represented by Patent Document 1, even if the driver of the host vehicle recognizes the surrounding situation that should be confirmed safety based on the image taken outside the vehicle taken by the camera, this situation is used for driving the surrounding vehicle. If you are not aware of it, you may not be able to avoid dangerous situations.
For example, when making a right or left turn on the host vehicle, the driver notifies the following vehicle by blinking the blinker. At this time, from the result of analyzing the situation around the own vehicle, even if the driver of the own vehicle recognizes that the following vehicle collides with the own vehicle at the time of turning left and right if the vehicle continues to run at the current vehicle speed, Conventionally, there is no means for notifying this.
In this case, if the driver of the following vehicle determines that the vehicle does not collide with the own vehicle even if the vehicle does not decelerate until the vehicle turns right or left, the subsequent vehicle may collide with the own vehicle. is there.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and provides a vehicle safety confirmation device that can promptly confirm safety with respect to a driver inside a vehicle and a driver of another vehicle outside the vehicle. With the goal.

  A vehicle safety confirmation device according to the present invention is a vehicle safety confirmation device that is mounted on a vehicle and performs notification for prompting safety confirmation according to the situation around the vehicle, and an information acquisition unit that obtains information related to the situation around the vehicle; When the information acquisition unit analyzes the information about the situation around the vehicle and determines whether or not the vehicle periphery should be notified, and when the analysis unit determines that the situation should be notified Instructing the control device for controlling each operation of the in-vehicle notification device for notifying the inside of the vehicle and the outside notification device for notifying other vehicles outside the vehicle, and causing the in-vehicle notification device and the out-of-vehicle notification device to perform a notification for confirming safety And an instruction processing unit.

  According to the present invention, there is an effect that it is possible to prompt the driver in the vehicle and the driver of the other vehicle outside the vehicle to confirm safety accurately.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the vehicle safety confirmation system to which the vehicle safety confirmation apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention is applied. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the vehicle safety confirmation device according to the first embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the notification which urges | urges safety confirmation.

Embodiment 1 FIG.
1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a vehicle safety confirmation system to which a vehicle safety confirmation device according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention is applied. The vehicle safety confirmation system shown in FIG. 1 is a system that prompts a driver of a vehicle (hereinafter referred to as the host vehicle) on which the vehicle safety confirmation device 1 is mounted to confirm safety, and includes a vehicle safety confirmation device 1 and a front camera 2a. , Rear camera 2b, sensor unit 3, in-vehicle CPU 4, blinker control unit 5, blinker 5a, tail lamp control unit 6, tail lamp 6a, small light control unit 7, small light 7a, headlight control unit 8, headlight 8a and in-vehicle notification A device 9 is provided.

The front camera 2a is a camera that is mounted on the host vehicle and captures the front of the vehicle. For example, a preceding vehicle that travels in front of the host vehicle is the subject.
The rear camera 2b is a camera that is mounted on the host vehicle and captures the rear of the vehicle. For example, a rear vehicle that travels behind the host vehicle is a subject.
The sensor unit 3 is a variety of sensors that are mounted on the host vehicle and detect the state of the host vehicle, and detects the vehicle speed, acceleration, position, and the like of the host vehicle.

The in-vehicle CPU 4 is a control device that is mounted on the host vehicle and controls the operation of electrical components in the vehicle.
For example, the in-vehicle CPU 4 is connected to the control unit 11, the blinker control unit 5, the tail lamp control unit 6, the small light control unit 7, the headlight control unit 8, and the vehicle interior via the in-vehicle LAN (Local Area Network). Each operation is controlled by communication connection with the notification device 9.

  The blinker control unit 5 controls the lighting operation of the blinker 5a in accordance with an instruction from the in-vehicle CPU 4. The tail lamp control unit 6 controls the lighting operation of the tail lamp 6a in accordance with an instruction from the in-vehicle CPU 4. The small light control unit 7 controls the lighting operation of the small light 7a in accordance with an instruction from the in-vehicle CPU 4. The headlight control unit 8 controls the lighting operation of the headlight 8a in accordance with an instruction from the in-vehicle CPU 4.

The in-vehicle notification device 9 is an in-vehicle notification device that notifies a driver in the host vehicle, displays an image of notification contents on a display device (not shown), and outputs a notification sound from a speaker in the vehicle.
For example, display audio (DA) which is an audio device provided with a display is used.

  The vehicle safety confirmation device 1 is a device that is mounted on a vehicle and issues a notification that prompts safety confirmation according to the situation around the vehicle, and includes A / D converters 10a and 10b and a control unit 11. The A / D converters 10a and 10b convert analog image data photographed by the front camera 2a and the rear camera 2b into digital data. The control part 11 is a control part which controls the internal structure of the vehicle safety confirmation apparatus 1, and is provided with the input information acquisition part 110, the analysis part 111, and the instruction | indication process part 112 as the function structure.

  The input information acquisition unit 110 is an information acquisition unit that acquires information related to the situation around the host vehicle. Specifically, an image of the front of the host vehicle converted to digital data by the A / D converter 10a, an image of the rear of the host vehicle converted to digital data by the A / D converter 10b, and information detected by the sensor unit 3 get.

The analysis unit 111 analyzes various information acquired by the input information acquisition unit 110 (information about the situation around the vehicle), distances from other vehicles around the host vehicle, speeds of the surrounding vehicles, and roads on which the host vehicle runs. Vehicle width, road conditions, weather around the vehicle, etc.
And the analysis part 111 determines whether it is the situation which the periphery of the own vehicle should notify from these specified information.
For example, based on the image ahead of the host vehicle, the vehicle speed and position of the host vehicle, whether or not the other vehicle that precedes the same lane as the host vehicle falls within the distance range to be notified of the safety confirmation after a predetermined time has passed. Confirm. In addition, it is determined whether or not the other vehicle that follows the same lane as the own vehicle from within the image behind the own vehicle, the vehicle speed and position of the own vehicle falls within a distance range in which a safety confirmation is to be notified after a predetermined time has elapsed. Check.
As a result of this confirmation, when the other vehicle is within a distance range where a safety confirmation is to be notified after a predetermined time has elapsed, it is determined that a notification for prompting a safety confirmation is to be made.
Note that the distance range uses a value obtained by adding a predetermined margin to the distance at which the host vehicle and another vehicle may collide.
Further, when the front of the host vehicle at night is a T-shaped road without a signal from the image in front of the host vehicle, it is determined that the safety confirmation should be notified. That is, even if the surrounding vehicle is not identified from the camera image, if the vehicle is traveling on a road where the surrounding vehicle needs to be encouraged to drive safely, the vehicle is judged to be a target for promoting safety confirmation. The

  When it is determined that the analysis unit 111 is in a situation to be notified, the instruction processing unit 112 and the in-vehicle notification device 9 for notifying the inside of the vehicle and the out-of-vehicle notification device for notifying other vehicles outside the vehicle (the blinker 5a, the tail lamp 6a, It is an instruction processing unit that instructs the in-vehicle CPU 4 that controls each operation of the small light 7a and the headlight 8a) to make a notification prompting safety confirmation by the in-vehicle notification device 9 and the out-of-vehicle notification device. For example, when it is determined by the analysis unit 111 that the distance between the host vehicle and the following vehicle should be notified to promote safety confirmation, the tail lamp 6a is connected to the in-vehicle CPU 4 via the in-vehicle LAN and the tail lamp 6a is different from the normal one. A control signal to be lit with a lighting pattern (such as high-intensity high-speed blinking) and a control signal for notifying the in-vehicle notification device 9 that safety should be confirmed based on the positional relationship with the following vehicle are transmitted.

  Note that the input information acquisition unit 110, the analysis unit 111, and the instruction processing unit 112 are configured so that the microcomputer of the information processing device that functions as a vehicle safety confirmation device executes a program related to the processing unique to the present invention. It is realized as a concrete means in cooperation with software.

Next, the operation will be described.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the vehicle safety confirmation device according to the first embodiment, and shows a case where it is determined whether or not the safety confirmation should be notified from the positional relationship between the own vehicle and the surrounding vehicle. ing.
First, the input information acquisition unit 110 receives an image of the front of the host vehicle converted to digital data by the A / D converter 10a, an image of the rear of the host vehicle converted to digital data by the A / D converter 10b, and the sensor unit 3. Information on the state of the detected vehicle is acquired. The information related to the state of the host vehicle may be information such as a steering operation, a winker, a brake, a shift lever, and a speedometer acquired from the vehicle control device of the host vehicle. In this case, the sensor unit 3 may be omitted.

The analysis unit 111 recognizes the surrounding situation of the host vehicle based on various information acquired by the input information acquisition unit 110 (step ST1).
For example, from the images of the front camera 2a and rear camera 2b, the road shape of the road on which the vehicle is traveling, the road shape such as the T-shaped road and the road width, the light emission state of the signal, the road sign indicating the stop, rain and snow Analyze the surrounding conditions such as the wetness of the road surface.

Next, the analysis unit 111 predicts the track (traveling track) of the host vehicle and the surrounding vehicle based on the surrounding situation of the host vehicle analyzed in step ST1 and various information acquired by the input information acquisition unit 110 ( Step ST2).
Since the input information acquisition unit 110 constantly acquires the above information, the analysis unit 111 determines the time interval at which the camera image is acquired by the input information acquisition unit 110, the position change of the surrounding vehicle that is the subject of the camera image, and the Based on the vehicle speed information, the speed and acceleration of surrounding vehicles can be analyzed. Based on the analysis results regarding the behavior of the surrounding vehicles and the position and behavior of the own vehicle analyzed from the detection information of the sensor unit 3, the analysis unit 111 tracks the own vehicle and the surrounding vehicles at a time advanced by a predetermined time. (Future positional relationship) is predicted.
The predetermined time may be, for example, a time in which a driving action corresponding to the content of the notification can be performed in the host vehicle and the surrounding vehicles after a notification for prompting safety confirmation is performed.
Here, the predetermined time is adjusted from the surrounding situation of the host vehicle analyzed in step ST1. For example, if the visibility is poor due to bad weather conditions such as rain or snow at night, and it is difficult for the surrounding vehicle to confirm the presence of the host vehicle, the predetermined time is set shorter than when the visibility is good. , Make it possible to make a notification prompting for safety confirmation as soon as possible.

Subsequently, in a situation where the analysis unit 111 should notify the own vehicle and the surrounding vehicle of safety confirmation based on the track (future positional relationship) between the own vehicle and the surrounding vehicle at a time advanced by a predetermined time. It is determined whether or not there is (step ST3).
For example, when the trajectory of the host vehicle and surrounding vehicles traveling in the same lane is within the distance range to be notified of safety confirmation at the time advanced by a predetermined time, and is within this distance range Then, it is determined that it is a situation in which notification for prompting safety confirmation to the host vehicle and the surrounding vehicles is to be made.
Here, when it is determined that there is no situation in which the vehicle and the surrounding vehicles should be notified of safety confirmation (step ST3; NO), the process returns to step ST1 and the above process is repeated.

If it is determined that a notification for prompting safety confirmation to the host vehicle and the surrounding vehicles is to be made (step ST3; YES), the analysis unit 111 tracks the host vehicle and the surrounding vehicles at the time advanced by a predetermined time (future Information on the general positional relationship) and the determination result are output to the instruction processing unit 112. The instruction processing unit 112 determines contents for prompting the driver of the own vehicle to confirm safety based on the information about each track of the own vehicle and the surrounding vehicles input from the analysis unit 111 and the above determination result, and notifies the contents of the content. A control signal to be instructed is transmitted to the in-vehicle CPU 4.
Based on the control signal received from the instruction processing unit 112, the in-vehicle CPU 4 instructs the in-car notification device 9 to notify the content indicated by the control signal. Thereby, the notification apparatus 9 in the vehicle notifies the content determined by the instruction processing unit 112 (step ST4).

Next, the instruction processing unit 112 determines the content for prompting the driver of the surrounding vehicle to confirm safety based on the information about each track of the host vehicle and the surrounding vehicle input from the analysis unit 111 and the above determination result. Is transmitted to the in-vehicle CPU 4.
The in-vehicle CPU 4 is based on the control signal received from the instruction processing unit 112, and the content indicated by the control signal in the vehicle outside notification device such as the blinker control unit 5, tail lamp control unit 6, small light control unit 7, and headlight control unit 8. Instruct to perform notification.
Accordingly, any one of the winker 5a, the tail lamp 6a, the small light 7a, and the headlight 8a is used by at least one of the winker control unit 5, the tail lamp control unit 6, the small light control unit 7, and the headlight control unit 8. Then, notification to the surrounding vehicle is performed (step ST5).

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a notification for prompting safety confirmation. FIG. 3A illustrates an example of notification to the driver of the host vehicle, and FIG. An example of notification is shown.
FIG. 3 shows a case where it is determined that safety confirmation is necessary based on the future positional relationship between the host vehicle A and the following motorcycle B.
When the future track of the own vehicle A is turned to the left, the future track of the two-wheeled vehicle B is predicted to go straight, and the future track of the own vehicle A and the two-wheeled vehicle B falls within the distance range to be notified of the safety confirmation. Think.
At this time, as shown in FIG. 3A, the future track of the host vehicle A and the two-wheeled vehicle B is displayed on the screen of the in-vehicle notification device 9, and both of them travel as they are to the driver of the host vehicle. Is informed of the danger of a collision. At this time, a voice notification such as “a motorcycle is approaching. Please be careful when turning left” may be given.

Further, in the present invention, a notification for prompting safety confirmation is also given to the motorcycle side. For example, the instruction processing unit 112 transmits a control signal so as to notify the in-vehicle CPU 4 via the in-vehicle LAN with the blinker 5a. The in-vehicle CPU 4 controls the blinker control unit 5 according to the control signal received from the instruction processing unit 112 to light the blinker 5a with a safety confirmation lighting pattern (for example, high-brightness and high-speed blinking).
Thereby, as shown in FIG. 3B, the driver of the two-wheeled vehicle B can recognize that the safety should be confirmed based on the positional relationship with the preceding vehicle A.
In addition, the lighting pattern for safety confirmation should just be a lighting pattern which the driver | operator of a surrounding vehicle can recognize that the safety confirmation is urged from the own vehicle A, for example, the lighting pattern in the normal driving action of the own vehicle A A different lighting pattern is used. It is conceivable to change the light emission luminance, the blinking cycle, and the direction of illumination for a lighting pattern different from normal.

  For example, when it is determined that there is a possibility that the rear vehicle may collide with the host vehicle, the tail lamp 6a is flashed with high brightness and is notified to the rear vehicle. Further, when it is determined that there is a possibility of contact with the host vehicle when the surrounding vehicle changes lanes, the tail lamp 6a and the small light 7a are flashed with high brightness and notified to the surrounding vehicle. Further, when the host vehicle enters a T-shaped road where there is no signal at night, surrounding vehicles entering from the left and right of the T-shaped road by moving the headlight 8a up and down and blinking light on the front wall. To notify.

As described above, according to the first embodiment, the input information acquisition unit 110 that acquires information about the situation around the vehicle, and the information about the situation around the vehicle that is acquired by the input information acquisition unit 110 are analyzed. To the in-vehicle notification device 9 for notifying the inside of the vehicle and other vehicles outside the vehicle when the analyzing unit 111 determines that the situation should be notified. An instruction to instruct the in-vehicle CPU 4 that controls each operation of the outside notification device (the blinker 5a, the tail lamp 6a, the small light 7a, and the headlight 8a) that performs the notification, and to perform a notification that prompts safety confirmation by the in-vehicle notification device and the outside notification device. And a processing unit 112.
With this configuration, it is possible to promptly confirm safety with respect to the driver inside the vehicle and the driver of another vehicle outside the vehicle.

Further, according to the first embodiment, the vehicle outside notification device is a vehicle lamp such as the blinker 5a, the tail lamp 6a, the small light 7a, and the headlight 8a mounted on the vehicle, and the instruction processing unit 112 is provided outside the vehicle. As a notification to the other vehicle, the vehicle lamp is turned on with a lighting pattern different from the normal lighting pattern corresponding to the state of the vehicle.
By comprising in this way, the driver | operator of a surrounding vehicle can recognize correctly that safety confirmation is urged from the own vehicle.

  In the present invention, any component of the embodiment can be modified or any component of the embodiment can be omitted within the scope of the invention.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Vehicle safety confirmation apparatus, 2a Front camera, 2b Rear camera, 3 Sensor part, 4 Car-mounted CPU, 5 Winker control part, 5a Winker, 6 Tail lamp control part, 6a Tail lamp, 7 Small light control part, 7a Small light, 8 head Ride control unit, 8a headlight, 9 in-car notification device.

Claims (2)

A vehicle safety confirmation device that is mounted on a vehicle and performs a notification that prompts safety confirmation according to the situation around the vehicle,
An information acquisition unit for acquiring information on the situation around the vehicle;
Analyzing the information about the situation around the vehicle acquired by the information acquisition unit and determining whether the situation around the vehicle should be notified;
When the analysis unit determines that the situation is to be notified, it instructs the control device that controls each operation of the in-vehicle notification device that notifies the vehicle and the outside notification device that notifies the other vehicle outside the vehicle, A vehicle safety confirmation device comprising: an in-vehicle notification device and an instruction processing unit that makes a notification for prompting safety confirmation by the outside notification device. The outside notification device is a vehicle lamp mounted on the vehicle,
The said instruction | indication process part makes the said vehicle lamp light with the lighting pattern different from the normal lighting pattern corresponding to the state of the said vehicle as a notification to the other vehicle outside the said vehicle. Vehicle safety confirmation device.

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