JP2016100019A - Obstacle warning system and operation method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an obstacle warning system and an operation method thereof.SOLUTION: The present invention relates to an obstacle warning system and an operation method thereof, the obstacle warning system uses an obstacle detection unit, and is coupled to a visual line detection unit for observing a pupil of a driver, and calculating a visual angle, thereby a moving object or a stationary object in a range of about several meters around a vehicle can be detected, and by referring to a movement direction and movement speed of the obstacle, it is determined whether or not the obstacle substantially affects vehicle travel safety. The present invention further can issue a warning message when a driver does not know risk, thereby the driver pays attention to the risk, and copes with the risk.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to a warning system and a method for operating the warning system, and more particularly, when the driver is not careful that a collision between an obstacle and the vehicle may occur, especially when the vehicle is operated in a vehicle, a warning message is immediately displayed to the driver. It is related to the thing which can ensure that the driver pays attention to the presence of the obstacle and responds by issuing the notification.

  Automobiles are based on the comfort that drivers want, and are one of the means of transportation that people use extensively. However, when driving a vehicle on the road, the driver poses both a threat to the life safety of both the driver and the pedestrian due to the presence of blind spots, mental fatigue or other illegal behavior of the road user. In order to improve safety, a considerable amount of driven safety equipment is already standard equipment at the time of vehicle shipment, and main driving safety equipment is also continuously developed under the efforts of each major automobile manufacturer.

  In existing main safety equipment technology, there are already some safety warning function devices that warn the user immediately, for example, signal emitters and signal receivers installed as parking sensors, or other objects approaching the vehicle body When trying to do so, there is a facility installed to alert the driver with sound effects. However, these main safety devices are not sufficient to predict the crisis that may cause the vehicle to collide even earlier, for example, the object itself that may cause a collision with the vehicle. Since it is also moving, it needs to be shortened to a few seconds, which is sufficient to avoid the early warning time.

  In addition, if the driver receives a sound effect warning, the location of the object that will soon be impacted, where it looks, what shape it is moving in, in which direction, or how fast it moves The driver cannot take an appropriate action to avoid danger. On the other hand, since the existing technology only determines the distance between the object and the vehicle body, the object cannot be distinguished. Therefore, even if the surrounding area of the vehicle is a harmless object such as a weed, a warning sound effect is generated or an automatic brake is generated. Unnecessary troubles such as triggering are generated.

  The main object of the present invention is to combine the technology to detect the obstacles outside the vehicle and the driver's viewing angle inside the vehicle, so that if the obstacles that interfere with vehicle driving safety are detected, the driver will notice the presence of the obstacles. If not, an obstacle warning system is provided that can issue a warning until the driver notices the presence of the obstacle using a voice method.

  Another object of the present invention is to provide an obstacle warning system that can accurately determine whether or not the driver's viewing angle is in a safe state with the driver's pupil direction as a detection target.

  Yet another object of the present invention is to detect the position of an obstacle, the direction of movement and the speed of movement when detecting an obstacle, and whether or not a collision occurs when the route overlaps with the vehicle where the driver is located. Therefore, the present invention is to provide an obstacle warning system that warns about an obstacle having an actual collision risk and can prevent a meaningless warning sound from becoming unpleasant noise. .

  Yet another object of the present invention is that an image of an obstacle can be projected onto a windshield, and is particularly located at the rear side or lower side of the vehicle, and the driver may notice when checking only the rearview mirror. An object of the present invention is to provide an obstacle warning system operating method capable of projecting images of some difficult obstacles on a windshield.

  In order to achieve the above-described object, the obstacle warning system disclosed in the present invention is installed in a moving vehicle, and the obstacle warning system is installed in the moving vehicle or at least one side thereof in terms of structural configuration. A plurality of obstacle detection units, a detection module having a line-of-sight detection unit installed in the moving vehicle, and a plurality of modules connected to the detection module and generated by using the obstacle detection unit and the line-of-sight detection unit A calculation module that receives detection data and generates warning data through calculation; and a warning module that is connected to the calculation module and that receives the warning data and transmits a warning message to the moving vehicle. . Accordingly, the operation step includes the step of detecting the position information and the moving direction information of at least one obstacle outside the moving vehicle using the obstacle detection unit, and using the projection unit to detect the obstacle. Projecting an image of an object on a plate surface, detecting a gaze direction information of a driver of the moving vehicle using a gaze detection unit, and using the arithmetic module, the position information of the obstacle And the possibility of collision between the obstacle and the moving vehicle is calculated using the moving direction information, and the plate surface is positioned within the driver's line of sight using the line-of-sight information. And if there is a possibility of collision between the obstacle and the moving vehicle, and the plate surface is not located within the driver's line of sight, It sends the warning module, and including the step of notifying by sending an alert message using the alert module to the driver.

The present invention discloses in detail an obstacle warning system and a method of operating the same, which uses a detection facility, and combines with observation of a driver's pupil to calculate a visual angle, thereby warning a driver at the present stage. Since the system is enhanced to detect moving objects or fixed articles within a range of about several tens of meters around the vehicle, not only can obstacles affect vehicle driving safety, It also makes it possible to ensure that the driver pays attention to these risks.
Furthermore, the low-cost but high-accuracy of the present invention is less affected by the environment, and does not need to change the vehicle body structure for installation, and is directly applied to ordinary vehicles. In today's world, when vehicle driving safety is more important, the obstacle warning system and the operation method of the present invention must have development potential and application value without doubt.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the installation positions of partial parts of a preferred embodiment of the present invention, which shows the positions relative to a moving vehicle. It is a schematic diagram which shows the structure structure of the suitable Example of this invention. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the steps of a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 6 is a flow chart illustrating the steps of another preferred embodiment of the present invention, illustrating the use of a projection module.

  The technical contents, structural features, objects to be achieved, and operational effects of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to examples and drawings.

  First, referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 together, an obstacle warning system disclosed in one embodiment of the present invention is installed in a mobile vehicle 1 such as an automobile, and the obstacle warning system includes a detection module. 2, a calculation module 3, and a warning module 4. The detection module 2 therein includes at least one obstacle detection unit 21 and a line-of-sight detection unit 22, and these obstacle detection units 21 are provided inside the mobile vehicle 1 or at least one side of the mobile vehicle 1. The line-of-sight detection unit 22 is installed in the moving vehicle 1. The calculation module 3 is connected to the detection module 2, and the warning module 4 is connected to the calculation module 3.

  The obstacle detection unit 21 provided in the detection module 2 is used to detect the presence or absence of an object that may affect the vehicle traveling safety in the space around the moving vehicle 1, for example, pedestrians, animals, and other movements. Used to detect the presence or absence of vehicles, fixed balustrades, bushes of shrubs, etc. Since the driver's viewing angle range is finite, there are inevitably various types of blind spots, and in particular, there are blind spots such as the side surface of the vehicle 1, the rear side, or a low edge around the vehicle 1. These blind spots are the priority selection positions of the obstacle detection unit 21 installed in one embodiment according to the present invention. However, these blind spots are installed in the moving vehicle 1 and are omnidirectionally detected with respect to the surroundings. You may make it perform. The obstacle detection unit 21 includes a depth detector and a two-dimensional camera. The obstacle detection unit 21 can acquire depth information at the same time as acquiring video and knows the positional relationship with other objects in the space of the moving vehicle 1. Used for. That is, complete spatial information can be acquired, and subsequent analysis, calculation and reconstruction can be performed. For example, referring to the moving direction and moving speed of the obstacle relative to the vehicle, it is determined whether or not the obstacle collides with the moving vehicle 1, or both approach closely, but it actually leads to a contact accident There is no fear. The obstacle detection unit 21 may separately include an embedded chip, which is a subsystem that can independently detect parameter adjustment or data access.

  The line-of-sight detection unit 22 installed in the mobile vehicle 1 is used to detect the driver's line-of-sight direction, and it may be integrated with the obstacle detection unit 21 installed in the mobile vehicle 1. . Some possible methods of the gaze detection unit 22 include detecting the direction of the driver's head and determining the direction of the gaze, or identifying the driver's face. However, in a preferred embodiment according to the present invention, an RGB-D camera is used as a pupil detection component in order to realize the line-of-sight detection unit 22. The pupil detection component can identify whether or not the presence of the collision risk information can be observed from the gaze point of the driver's eyes by acquiring and tracking the eyeball position by video shooting. In this embodiment, the part structure of the line-of-sight detection unit 22 may include an embedded chip.

  The above-described collision risk information is classified into two types, one type being actual data and another type being simulated data. The actual data means that the driver can easily observe the risk of collision in the traveling direction of the moving vehicle 1, for example, a forward vehicle or a pedestrian passing through the front of the car, and rotating the head You may make it make a driver | operator recognize a collision risk directly on the conditions which do not make it. On the other hand, based on the fact that the driver's line-of-sight range is limited, for example, the driver rotates the head or backs the position of the side of the moving vehicle 1 such as the side, the rear, and the low edge. Although it is finally possible to observe through the reflection of the mirror, there may be many scenes in which the collision risk cannot be observed in some cases. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the related image using the obstacle detection unit 21 described above is used. Then, the image obtained by using the projection method is displayed at a position where the driver can easily observe, for example, on the windshield in front.

  The projection of the simulated data requires the use of the projection module 5 connected to the calculation module 3, and the projection module 5 displays the obstacle image acquired by the obstacle detection unit 21 as the obstacle detection unit 21. The image can be projected on a plate surface through processing by its own built-in chip or processing by the arithmetic module 3. Since the obstacle detection unit 21 can acquire the depth information of the image, if the image projected by the projection module 5 is also reconstructed into a three-dimensional space image, the driver can further clearly identify the form of the obstacle. can do. A method of emphasizing the distance between the obstacle and the moving vehicle 1 based on the color change is also a preferable projection method. Thus, it is also possible to display the projection result separately on the vehicle display screen of the moving vehicle 1 without projecting the image on the windshield.

  However, whether the obstacle is in front of the moving vehicle 1 or displayed on the windshield by the projection technique described above, the driver still draws attention to lack of concentration or other targets. Accordingly, in some cases, the presence of these collision risks may be overlooked. In this embodiment, it is determined whether or not the driver has observed these collision risks using the above-described line-of-sight detection unit 22. For example, when a pedestrian runs away in front of the mobile vehicle 1 or there is a motorcycle several meters away from the side of the mobile vehicle 1 in the image provided by the projection module 5, and referring to its moving direction and speed When notifying the driver that a collision with the moving vehicle 1 may occur, the line-of-sight detection unit 22 is positioned in front of the moving vehicle 1 or where the driver's eyes can see the image provided by the projection module 5. You can determine whether you are directed.

  Even if the detection result of the line-of-sight detection unit 22 indicates that the driver is not paying attention to such information, in particular, using a predetermined time (for example, 1-2 seconds, or the speed of the moving vehicle 1 and the moving speed of the obstacle). When the calculation module 3 performs the calculation, the calculation module 3 does not pay attention to these information even after a specific number of seconds calculated in advance before the occurrence of the collision). Can be used to alert the driver. The arithmetic module 3 refers to the detection results of the obstacle detection unit 21 and the line-of-sight detection unit 22 and then generates warning data and transmits it to the warning module 4. The warning module 4 receives the warning data and sends a warning message into the moving vehicle 1. The preferred format of the warning message is audio or light, but is not limited to this. In one embodiment, the warning module 4 comprises at least one sound effect unit, which plays continuously to alert the driver with a pre-recorded audio frequency sound, so that the driver If you don't pay attention to its existence, it will not be released. For example, if the line-of-sight detection unit 22 does not detect that the driver's line-of-sight direction coincides with the position of the plate surface described above, the warning module 4 does not stop sending the warning message.

  The sound effect unit can generate sound from different directions by using spatial arrangement in the moving vehicle 1. For example, the sound effect unit is installed at a plurality of corners in the moving vehicle 1 and the movement of the obstacle is performed. Refer to the heading relative to the vehicle 1, and at the time of warning, generate sound only from the sound effect unit in the heading, and support the driver to be alerted to where the obstacle is in the shortest time Can do.

According to the structure described above, with reference to FIG. 3, the operating method of the obstacle warning system according to an embodiment of the present invention includes the following steps.
Step S10: Using the obstacle detection unit, detect position information and movement direction information of at least one obstacle outside the moving vehicle.
Step S11: Detect gaze direction information of the driver of the moving vehicle using the gaze detection unit.
Step S12: Using the calculation module, the possibility of collision between the obstacle and the moving vehicle is calculated using the position information and the moving direction information of the obstacle, and the obstacle is driven using the gaze direction information. It is judged whether it is located in a person's gaze range.
Step S13: If there is a possibility of collision between the obstacle and the moving vehicle, and the obstacle is not located within the driver's line of sight, the warning data is transmitted to the warning module by the calculation module, and the warning module is used. Then, a warning message is sent to the driver for notification.
On the other hand, if a projection module is used, referring to FIG. 4, it includes the following steps:
Step S20: Detect position information and movement direction information of at least one obstacle outside the moving vehicle using the obstacle detection unit.
Step S21: Project an image of an obstacle on the plate surface using the projection unit.
Step S22: Using the line-of-sight detection unit, the line-of-sight information of the driver of the moving vehicle is detected.
Step S23: Using the calculation module, the possibility of collision between the obstacle and the moving vehicle is calculated using the position information and the moving direction information of the obstacle, and the plate surface is driven using the line-of-sight direction information. It is judged whether it is located in a person's gaze range.
Step S24: If there is a possibility of collision between the obstacle and the moving vehicle, and the plate surface is not located within the driver's line of sight, the warning data is transmitted to the warning module by the calculation module, and the warning module is used. Then, a warning message is sent to the driver for notification.

  When the obstacle warning system disclosed in the present invention is attached to a moving vehicle for the first time, or every time it starts and departs, the position between the image generated by the projection module and the driver's line of sight is calibrated in advance. The relationship can be adjusted.

  The above-described embodiments are merely illustrative of the principle of the present invention and its effects, and do not limit the present invention. Thus, modifications or changes that can be made to the above-described embodiments by those having ordinary knowledge in the technical field to which the present invention pertains do not depart from the spirit of the present invention. The present invention already has industrial applicability, novelty and inventive step, and meets the requirements of patents.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Moving vehicle 2 Detection module 21 Obstacle detection unit 22 Eye-gaze detection unit 3 Calculation module 4 Warning module 5 Projection module S10, S11, S12, S13 Step S20, S21, S22, S23, S24 Step

Claims (10)

An obstacle warning system installed on a mobile vehicle,
A detection module having an obstacle detection unit installed in or on at least one side of the moving vehicle, and a line-of-sight detection unit installed in the moving vehicle;
A calculation module connected to the detection module, receiving a plurality of detection data generated by using the obstacle detection unit and the line-of-sight detection unit, and generating warning data through calculation;
An obstacle warning system, comprising: a warning module connected to the arithmetic module and receiving the warning data and transmitting a warning message into the moving vehicle.   The obstacle warning system according to claim 1, wherein the obstacle detection unit includes a depth detector and a two-dimensional camera.   The obstacle warning system according to claim 1, wherein the line-of-sight detection unit includes a pupil detection component used to detect a line-of-sight direction of a driver of the moving vehicle.   The obstacle warning system according to claim 1, wherein the warning module comprises at least one sound effect unit.   The at least one sound effect unit is installed at a plurality of corners in the moving vehicle, and the warning message is emitted from a part of the at least one sound effect unit. The obstacle warning system described.   The obstacle warning system according to claim 1, further comprising a projection module connected to the arithmetic module and used to project an image of the obstacle onto a plate surface. An operation method of an obstacle warning system installed in a mobile vehicle,
Detecting position information and movement direction information of at least one obstacle outside the moving vehicle using an obstacle detection unit;
Detecting gaze direction information of a driver of the moving vehicle using a gaze detection unit;
Using the calculation module, the possibility of collision between the obstacle and the moving vehicle is calculated using the position information and the moving direction information of the obstacle, and the gaze direction information is used to calculate the possibility Determining whether an obstacle is located within the driver's line of sight;
If there is a possibility of collision between the obstacle and the moving vehicle, and the obstacle is not located within the driver's line of sight, the arithmetic module sends warning data to the warning module, and the warning Transmitting the warning message to the driver using a module and notifying the driver.   The warning message is transmitted using at least one sound effect unit of the warning module in the step of transmitting and notifying the warning message to the driver using the warning module. The operation | movement method of the obstacle warning system of Claim 7. An operation method of an obstacle warning system installed in a mobile vehicle,
Detecting position information and movement direction information of at least one obstacle outside the moving vehicle using an obstacle detection unit;
Projecting an image of the obstacle onto the plate surface using the projection unit;
Detecting gaze direction information of a driver of the moving vehicle using a gaze detection unit;
Using the arithmetic module, the possibility of collision between the obstacle and the moving vehicle is calculated using the position information and the moving direction information of the obstacle, and the eye direction information is used to calculate the possibility Determining whether a plate surface is located within the driver's line of sight;
If there is a possibility of collision between the obstacle and the moving vehicle and the plate surface is not located within the driver's line of sight, the arithmetic module sends warning data to the warning module, and the warning Transmitting the warning message to the driver using a module and notifying the driver.   10. The warning module according to claim 9, wherein the warning module stops the transmission of the warning message when it is detected that the driver's line-of-sight direction coincides with the position of the plate surface. How the obstacle warning system works.

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