JP5465223B2 - Vehicle driving support device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a driving support device that detects an object existing around a vehicle and performs an alerting process for alerting a driver to the object.

  Conventionally, as seen in Patent Document 1, for example, an object such as a pedestrian existing in a monitoring area (an imaging area of an in-vehicle camera) in front of the vehicle is detected, and there is a risk of contact between the object and the host vehicle. In order to alert the driver to the object when it is determined to be present, a warning sound or other notification sound is output, or the object in the captured image of the camera is displayed on a display such as a head-up display. A driving support device is proposed in which a warning process such as highlighting is executed.

JP 2003-284057 A

  By the way, in the driving assistance apparatus as seen in Patent Document 1, when there are a plurality of objects such as pedestrians in front of the vehicle, the plurality of objects to be alerted are within a relatively short time. It may be detected one after another.

  In such a case, each time an object to be alerted is detected, an alarm such as a notification sound for alerting the driver to each object is output. Or will be output continuously. For this reason, there is an inconvenience that the alarm becomes troublesome for the driver or the driver cares about the alarm excessively.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a driving support device capable of preventing an alarm for alerting a driver to a detected object from being output excessively frequently.

In order to achieve the above object, the vehicle driving support device of the present invention is present in a monitoring area around the vehicle and is recognized as a driver's attention to avoid contact with the vehicle. A target detection means for detecting a warning target that is a target satisfying a predetermined warning generation condition, and the warning target when the target detection means is detected by the target detection means A process for alerting the driver of the vehicle with respect to an object, and an alert processing means for executing an alert process including at least a process of outputting an alarm immediately after detection of the alert object a driving support device, the reminder object said object detecting means detects includes a and animals other than humans and humans, before Symbol alert processing means, said object detecting means, wherein The object to call attention In the case where the alerting object is sequentially detected from the state where it is not issued, the alarm is output in response to the detection of the first alerting object, and then the kth (k: any integer greater than or equal to 1) ) Is detected as the (k + 1) th alert object within the period that satisfies the alert occurrence condition, the k + 1th alert object is detected. Accordingly, the process of outputting the warning is omitted, and when an animal other than a human is detected as the k + 1 th alert target, the detection of the k + 1 th alert target is performed as the k th alert target. The warning is output in response to the detection of the (k + 1) th alerting object regardless of whether or not the alerting object detected for the first time is performed within a period that satisfies the alerting occurrence condition. (First invention)

  Here, the k + 1th alerting target is detected within the period in which the alerting target detected at the kth (k: any integer greater than or equal to 1) satisfies the alerting occurrence condition. , It means that a state in which any object that should alert the driver to the monitoring area is continuously present. Accordingly, the kth alerting object and the (k + 1) th alerting object can be regarded as a group (a group) of objects that are connected to each other.

Therefore, in the first invention, as described above, in the case where the alert processing means sequentially detects the alert objects from a state in which the object detector does not detect the alert objects, After outputting the alarm in response to the detection of the first alerting target, the k + 1th alerting target is detected within the period in which the kth alerting target condition satisfies the alert generation condition. When the person is detected, the process of outputting the alarm in response to the detection of the k + 1th alert object is omitted.

Therefore, according to the first invention, although the alarm is output in response to detection of the first alerting object, the alerting object detected in the kth condition satisfies the alert generation condition. as long as the situation human as a k + 1 th alert object is detected within the period continues, in other words, there carefully evoke all-out object of the driver (human) in the monitoring area As long as the state continues continuously, the output of the alarm according to the detection of the alerting object after the first is omitted.

  For this reason, according to 1st invention, it can prevent that the alarm for alerting a driver | operator with respect to the alerting target object detected by the target object detection means is output too frequently. In addition, if a warning object is detected from a state in which no warning object is detected, the warning is output accordingly, so that the driver of the vehicle can perform the first warning call. It is possible to pay attention to an object including the object in the monitoring area and appropriately support avoidance of contact between the vehicle and the alert object.

  In the first aspect of the invention, the alert generation condition is, for example, predicted to have a high possibility of future contact between the alert target object and the vehicle when the alert generation condition is satisfied. Set as a condition. As such a warning generation condition, for example, a predetermined area ahead in the traveling direction of the vehicle (for example, a distance from the vehicle is equal to or less than a predetermined value, and a width in the lateral direction of the vehicle is a predetermined width). A condition that an object is present in the region), or a condition that a future predicted course of the object relative to the vehicle is a course toward the front of the vehicle. In this case, the alert generation condition may further include a condition that the type of the target object is a predetermined type of target object (for example, a person, an animal, etc.).

In the first invention, the alert processing means outputs the alarm in response to the detection of the first alert object, and then the k-th alert object detected is the alert object. When the (k + 1) th alert object is detected within a period that satisfies the occurrence condition, and an animal other than a human is detected as the (k + 1) th alert object, the k + 1th alert object is detected . it is outputting the alarm in response to the detection of evoked object.

In this first invention , animals other than human beings as alert objects are highly urgent, and it is necessary to take measures to avoid contact between the alert object and the vehicle as quickly as possible. It means that there is.

According to the first invention, when an animal other than a person who is highly urgent is detected , the alert object detected immediately before the detection of the animal other than the person is the caution. Regardless of whether or not it is performed within a period that satisfies the alert generation condition, a process for outputting the alarm in response to detection of an object of an animal other than the person is executed by the alert processing means.

For this reason, when an animal other than the person is detected as an alerting target , the driver's attention is alerted by the output of the alarm accordingly, and the driver Measures for avoiding contact with the vehicle (brake operation, steering operation, etc.) can be quickly started.

Further, in the first invention, the alert processing means is detected in the k-th position when a predetermined condition regarding the traveling environment of the vehicle or the type of the k-th alert object is satisfied. Even when the k + 1th alerting object is detected within a period of time after the period when the alerting object meets the alerting occurrence condition, a predetermined time elapses, the k + 1th object is also detected. The process of outputting the alarm in response to the detection of the alerting object may be omitted ( reference invention ).

  That is, depending on the traveling environment of the vehicle or the type of the detected alert object, even if the detected alert object does not satisfy the alert generation condition, immediately after that, the newly attracted alert object May be detected (including the case where the same object is detected again). For example, when a warning target is detected in a driving environment where a target that can be a target of warning is detected at a high frequency, or a motion that is difficult to predict, such as a bicycle, a child, or a non-human animal. When an object that is easy to perform is detected as an alerting object, there is a high possibility that an alerting object is newly detected immediately after the detection.

Therefore, in the above reference invention , as described above, the alert processing means, when a predetermined condition relating to the traveling environment of the vehicle or the type of the kth alert object is satisfied, When the k + 1th alert object is detected within a period until a predetermined time elapses after a period when the alert object detected at the end of the condition that satisfies the alert occurrence condition is completed, The process of outputting the alarm in response to detection of the (k + 1) th alert object is omitted.

  Thereby, in the situation where it is predicted that the object to be alerted is likely to be frequently detected by the object detection means, it is possible to suppress the frequent output of the alarm as much as possible.

The predetermined condition in the above-described reference invention is, for example, that the k + 1th alert object is immediately after the travel environment of the vehicle has ended the period in which the kth alert object satisfies the alert occurrence condition. The condition is set in advance to be effective when the environment is predicted to be highly likely to be detected (that is, in this case, the predetermined condition is satisfied) .
More specifically, the alert processing means includes a condition that a predetermined number or more people are detected within a period from a current time to a predetermined time before the vehicle travel environment, and the vehicle travels in an urban area. A condition in which the vehicle is traveling, a condition that the width of the road on which the vehicle is traveling is a road having a predetermined width or less, and a condition that the vehicle speed of the vehicle is a low speed not more than a predetermined vehicle speed. In the driving environment where is established, the k + 1-th within the period from the end of the period in which the k-th detected alerting target condition satisfies the alerting occurrence condition to the elapse of a predetermined time Even when a person is detected as the th alert object, the process of outputting the alarm in response to detection of the (k + 1) th alert object is omitted (second invention).

In the second aspect of the invention , the traveling environment of the vehicle includes a condition that a predetermined number or more people are detected within a period from a current time to a predetermined time, a condition that the vehicle is traveling in an urban area, A traveling environment in which one of a condition that the width of the road on which the vehicle is traveling is a road having a predetermined width or less and a condition that the vehicle speed of the vehicle is a low speed not more than a predetermined vehicle speed is satisfied. In this case, the object to be alerted is likely to appear frequently, for example , when the vehicle is traveling on an urban area or a narrow road.

According to the second aspect of the present invention , it is possible to suppress the frequent output of the alarm as much as possible under such a traveling environment.

In addition, the predetermined condition in the above reference invention is, for example, that the type of the k-th alert object is generated again immediately after the alert object does not satisfy the alert generation condition. The condition may be determined in advance so as to be effective when the type is predicted to be highly likely to satisfy the condition (that is, in this case, the predetermined condition is satisfied) .
More specifically, the alert processing means, when the type of the k-th alert object is a child or a person on a bicycle, the k-th detected alert Even when a person as the k + 1th alerting object is detected within a period from when the alerting object satisfies the alerting occurrence condition to a predetermined time, the k + 1th alerting object is detected. The process of outputting the alarm in response to the detection of the th alert object is omitted (third invention).

According to the third aspect of the invention , when a warning object that is likely to satisfy the warning generation condition is detected again immediately after the warning generation condition is no longer satisfied, the warning is issued. Can be suppressed as much as possible.

Supplementally, in the reference invention, the alert processing means is detected in the k-th case when a predetermined condition regarding the travel environment of the vehicle or the type of the k-th alert target is satisfied. The k + 1th object that is not the specific type of object within a period that includes a period in which the alerting target condition satisfies the alerting occurrence condition and a period from when the period ends to when a predetermined time elapses Is detected, the process of outputting the alarm is omitted in response to the detection of the (k + 1) th alerting object, and the (k + 1) th alerting object is the specified object. In the case of the type of object, whether the detection of the (k + 1) th alert object is performed within the period in which the alert object detected in the k-th detection satisfies the alert occurrence condition Done after the end of Regardless of the hawk, and executes the process of outputting the alarm in response to the detection of said (k + 1) th alert object.
In addition, the vehicle driving support apparatus according to the present invention is provided in a monitoring area around the vehicle, and a predetermined warning generation condition for certifying that the driver should be alerted in order to avoid contact with the vehicle Object detection means for detecting a warning object that is an object satisfying the condition, and when the warning object is detected by the object detection means, the vehicle driver's attention to the warning object A driving assistance device comprising a warning processing means for executing a warning process including at least a process of outputting an alarm immediately after detection of the warning target object, wherein the target The alert target detected by the object detector includes a person and an animal other than a person, and the alert processor is in a state in which the alert detector does not detect the alert target. From before When the alerting objects are sequentially detected, the kth (k: 1, any integer greater than or equal to) alerting object and the (k + 1) th alerting object are people, and the kth If the (k + 1) th alert object is detected within a period when the alert object satisfies the alert occurrence condition, the alarm is output in response to the detection of the (k + 1) th alert object. If the process is omitted and the k-th alert object is a person and the k + 1-th alert object is an animal other than a human, the detection of the k + 1-th alert object is: Regardless of whether or not the k-th detected alert object is performed within a period that satisfies the alert occurrence condition, the alarm is generated in response to detection of the (k + 1) -th alert object. Output (fourth invention).
In the present invention described above, the alarm is, for example, a notification sound (fifth invention).

The block diagram which shows the structure of the driving assistance apparatus in embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the monitoring area | region etc. ahead of the vehicle carrying the driving assistance device of FIG. The flowchart which shows the process in 1st Embodiment of the arithmetic processing unit shown in FIG. The timing chart for demonstrating the action | operation in 1st Embodiment of the alerting process part shown in FIG. The timing chart for demonstrating the action | operation in 1st Embodiment of the alerting process part shown in FIG. The flowchart which shows the process in 2nd Embodiment of the arithmetic processing unit shown in FIG. The figure for demonstrating the action | operation in 2nd Embodiment of the alerting processing part shown in FIG. The timing chart for demonstrating the action | operation in 2nd Embodiment of the alerting process part shown in FIG.

[First Embodiment]
A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

  Referring to FIG. 1, the driving support device 1 of the present embodiment includes a pair of cameras 3a and 3b (stereo) that captures a predetermined monitoring area (an area of a predetermined angle of view range) ahead of a vehicle 2 (own vehicle). Camera) and a display 4 for displaying a captured image of one of the cameras 3a and 3b, for example, the camera 3a (hereinafter also referred to as a reference camera 3a), and an alarm sound and audio information for the driver are output. And a calculation processing unit 6 that executes various calculation processes such as image processing of captured images of the cameras 3a and 3b.

  In this embodiment, each of the cameras 3a and 3b configuring the stereo camera is configured by an infrared camera having sensitivity to wavelengths in the infrared region. The cameras 3a and 3b are mounted in parallel in the left-right direction on the front portion (front grill portion, etc.) of the vehicle 2 so that the respective imaging ranges include a predetermined monitoring area in front of the vehicle 2. The monitoring area that is the imaging area of both cameras 3a and 3b is, for example, an area between straight lines La and Lb indicated by broken lines in FIG.

  In addition to the area in front of the vehicle 2, a camera that captures an area on the side or rear of the vehicle 2 is further mounted on the vehicle 2, and the surrounding area other than the area in front of the vehicle 2 is the monitoring area. May be included.

  The display device 4 is configured by, for example, a liquid crystal display, and is installed at a location where the driver can visually recognize, such as a dashboard in the passenger compartment. Note that the display device 4 does not have to be a dedicated device for displaying a captured image, and may also serve as a display function for other images such as a navigation image. Furthermore, the display device 4 may be a head-up display that projects and displays an image on the windshield of the vehicle 2, for example.

  The arithmetic processing unit 6 is an electronic circuit unit composed of a CPU, a RAM, a ROM, an interface circuit, and the like, and is disposed at an appropriate position of the vehicle 2. The arithmetic processing unit 6 receives captured images (pixel value data of each pixel constituting the captured image) of the cameras 3a and 3b. Although not shown, detection data such as the vehicle speed of the vehicle 2 is also input to the arithmetic processing unit 6 from an appropriate sensor.

  In the present embodiment, the arithmetic processing unit 6 is based on the captured images of the cameras 3a and 3b, as a main function realized by the installed program and the like. The target object detection part 7 to detect at the same time, and the alerting process part 8 which performs the alerting process for alerting a driver | operator with respect to the detected alerting object are included.

  Note that the arithmetic processing unit 6 has a function of displaying the captured image of the reference camera 3a on the display 4 in addition to the functions of the object detection unit 7 and the attention calling processing unit 8. The captured image of the reference camera 3a displayed on the display device 4 does not have to be the entire captured image, and may be a part of the captured image.

  The object to be alerted detected by the object detection unit 7 is recognized as an object to be alerted to the driver in order to avoid contact with the host vehicle 2 among objects existing in the monitoring area in front of the vehicle 2. It is an object that satisfies a predetermined alerting condition that is predetermined for the purpose.

  In this embodiment, the alert generation condition includes a condition related to the type of the object and a condition related to the relative position (or motion state) of the object with respect to the host vehicle 2.

  More specifically, among the alert generation conditions, the condition related to the type of the object is that the type of the object is a predetermined type, for example, a person (pedestrian) or an animal other than a person (a quadruped animal such as a dog or a cat). ).

  Moreover, the condition regarding the relative position of the target object with respect to the host vehicle 2 is a condition that the target object exists in a predetermined region in the monitoring region in front of the host vehicle 2, for example. For example, as shown as a stippled portion in FIG. 2, the predetermined area has a distance from the own vehicle 2 (a distance in the front-rear direction of the own vehicle 2) that is equal to or less than a predetermined value Da and Is a region AR having a predetermined value Db that is slightly wider than the vehicle width of the host vehicle 2. Hereinafter, this predetermined area AR is referred to as an attention target area AR.

  In this case, the predetermined value Da is set according to the detected value of the vehicle speed of the host vehicle 2 so that the value of Da increases as the vehicle speed of the host vehicle 2 increases. For example, the value of Da is set to a value obtained by multiplying the detected value of the vehicle speed by a predetermined proportional constant.

  Further, the attention target area AR is an area in which the boundary lines on both sides in the horizontal direction are located at an equal distance from the center line of the vehicle width of the host vehicle 2.

  Note that the types of objects to be alerted may include other types of moving objects such as humans and animals, such as bicycles and other vehicles.

  In addition to the conditions related to the relative position of the target object as described above, the alert generation conditions may include a condition related to the motion state of the target object with respect to the host vehicle 2 instead of the condition related to the relative position. Good. For example, the alert generation condition may be a condition that the future movement course of the object predicted from the time series of the relative position of the object with respect to the host vehicle 2 is a course that faces the front of the host vehicle 2. Even if the future movement course of the target object and the future course of the subject vehicle 2 predicted from the detected values of the vehicle speed and yaw rate (or steering angle) of the subject vehicle 2 are included, etc. Good.

  In the present embodiment, for example, the alert processing unit 8 highlights the detected alert object on the captured image of the reference camera 3a displayed on the display 4 (for example, an image of the alert object). And a process of outputting an alarm for alerting the driver to the driver is executed.

  In the present embodiment, the process for outputting the alarm is a process for outputting a notification sound from the speaker 5 for audibly informing the driver of the presence of the alerting target object. The notification sound is an alarm sound such as “beep”. However, the form of the notification sound may be another form of notification sound as long as it can call the driver's attention. For example, the notification sound may be a voice.

  Supplementally, the object detection unit 7 and the attention calling processing unit 8 may be provided in different arithmetic processing units. The object detection unit 7 and the attention calling processing unit 8 correspond to the object detection means and the attention calling processing means in the present invention, respectively.

  Next, the processing of the arithmetic processing unit 6 will be described in more detail.

  The arithmetic processing unit 6 sequentially executes the processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. 3 at a predetermined arithmetic processing cycle. In the following description, the arithmetic processing unit 6 first executes the processing of the object detection unit 7 in STEP 1 and uses the captured images of the cameras 3a and 3b to generate the alert generation condition in the monitoring area in front of the vehicle 2. An object that satisfies the condition is detected as an alerting object.

  Specifically, this processing is performed as follows. That is, the object detection unit 7 creates a binarized image composed of a high luminance part having a luminance equal to or higher than a predetermined value and a low luminance part having a luminance lower than the predetermined value from the captured image of the reference camera 3a. Then, based on the shape feature or size of the high-luminance portion of the binarized image, a portion corresponding to a person (pedestrian) or an animal other than a person is extracted. As a result, an object that satisfies the condition related to the type of the object among the alert generation conditions (hereinafter, sometimes referred to as a candidate for the alert object) is detected from the captured image of the reference camera 3a.

  Various methods are known for detecting a specific type of object such as a person or an animal from a captured image, and a candidate for an alert target is detected from the reference camera 3a by the known method. You just have to do it.

  Further, the object detection unit 7 detects a warning object (a person or the person in the present embodiment) detected from an image captured by the standard camera 3a from an image captured by the other camera 3b (hereinafter also referred to as a reference camera 3b). Images corresponding to each candidate of (other animals) are extracted, and a known stereo distance measurement is performed from the candidate image in the captured image of the reference camera 3b and the candidate image in the captured image of the reference camera 3a. The spatial position of the candidate in the real space (spatial position with respect to the host vehicle 2) is calculated by the technique.

  Note that the position of the object in real space can also be measured from a captured image of a single camera (monocular camera) by, for example, a motion stereo technique. In that case, one of the cameras 3a and 3b (for example, the camera 3b) is unnecessary.

  Then, the object detection unit 7 determines whether or not the position of each of the attention target candidates detected from the captured image is a position in the attention target area AR in front of the host vehicle 2. If the determination result is affirmative, the candidate is determined as an alert target. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 2, when a pedestrian (person) P exists in the alert target area AR, the pedestrian P is determined as the alert target.

  Further, when the position of the candidate for the alert target deviates from the alert target area AR, the target object detection unit 7 assumes that the candidate is not the alert target object.

  Even if the position of the candidate for the alert target deviates from the alert target area AR, for example, the motion state of the candidate object for the host vehicle 2 is the alert generation condition as described above. If the condition is satisfied, the candidate may be determined as an alert target.

  In this way, the alerting target condition that satisfies the alerting occurrence condition is detected by the processing of the object detection unit 7 in STEP1.

  Next, the arithmetic processing unit 6 performs the processing of STEP 2 to 7 by the attention calling processing unit 8. Specifically, first, the attention calling processing unit 8 performs the determination process of STEP2. In STEP 2, the alert processing unit 8 determines whether or not an alert target is detected by the process in STEP 1.

  If this determination result is negative, that is, if there is no alert object in the monitoring area, the current calculation process of the calculation processing unit 6 ends. On the other hand, when the determination result of STEP2 is affirmative (when the alerting target object exists in the monitoring area), the alerting processing unit 8 executes the process of STEP3.

  In STEP 3, the alert processing unit 8 highlights the detected images of the alert objects in the captured image of the reference camera 3 a displayed on the display 4. In this case, in this embodiment, the alert processing unit 8 displays the image of each detected alert object on the display 4 by enclosing the image with a slightly larger rectangular frame. Highlight the image of the object.

  Furthermore, the alert processing unit 8 determines whether or not there is an alert target that is newly detected by the process of STEP 1 (the alert target that has not been detected in the previous computation processing cycle of the computation processing unit 6). Is determined in STEP4.

  If the determination result in STEP 4 is negative, the object to be alerted detected in STEP 1 has already been detected prior to the current processing cycle, so the current time of the processing unit 6 is The calculation process ends.

  On the other hand, if the determination result in STEP 4 is affirmative, the alert processing unit 8 next executes the determination process in STEP 5. In STEP 5, the alert processing unit 8 determines whether the newly detected alert target type is an animal other than a human.

  Here, when the newly detected type of the alerting target object is an animal other than a human, the alerting target object often moves quickly. There is a high need to quickly start a driving operation (brake operation or steering operation) for avoiding contact with an arousal object (animal).

  Therefore, if the determination result in STEP 5 is affirmative, the alert processing unit 8 next executes the process in STEP 7. In STEP 7, the alert processing unit 8 outputs a notification sound from the speaker 5 in order to further promote alerting to the newly detected alert target. The output of the notification sound surely alerts the driver to the front of the host vehicle 2, and the driver avoids contact between the alert target object (animal other than a human here) and the host vehicle 2. The appropriate driving operation can be started quickly.

  On the other hand, when the determination result in STEP 5 is negative, the attention processing unit 8 determines whether or not to output a notification sound according to the detection of the newly detected attention object. , STEP 6 is executed.

  In STEP 6, the alert processing unit 8 determines whether or not the alert target detected in the current computation processing cycle includes a detected alert target prior to the current computation processing cycle. to decide.

  The situation in which the determination result of STEP 6 is negative is that a person (pedestrian) as an alerting target has not been detected in the previous computation processing cycle, and a new alerting target in this computation processing cycle. This is a situation where a person (pedestrian) is detected.

  In this case, the alert processing unit 8 ensures that the driver recognizes that an alert object that has not existed in the monitoring area ahead of the host vehicle 2 has appeared in the monitoring area. Then, the processing of STEP 7 described above is executed, and a notification sound is output from the speaker 5. Due to the output of the notification sound, the driver's attention to the front of the host vehicle 2 is surely alerted, and the driver appropriately performs an appropriate driving operation for avoiding contact between the alert target object and the host vehicle 2. be able to.

  On the other hand, the situation in which the determination result in STEP 6 is affirmative is a situation in which a notification sound for prompting the driver's attention has already been output a relatively short time ago, and the driver is careful about the front of the vehicle 2. It is a situation that pays. Therefore, in this case, the attention calling processing unit 8 omits the processing of STEP 7 (processing for outputting the notification sound to the speaker 5).

  The details of the processing of the arithmetic processing unit 6 have been described above.

  According to the embodiment described above, when a pedestrian (person) as an alerting target is detected one after another at relatively short time intervals, frequent notification sounds are prevented from being output. The

  For example, as shown in FIG. 4, it is assumed that pedestrians A, B, C, and D are detected at times t1, t2, t3, and t4, respectively. In this case, it is assumed that the alert object is not detected before time t1. In addition, pedestrians A, B, C, and D are subject to attention because the alert generation conditions are continuously established within the period from time t1, t2, t3, and t4 to T1, T2, T3, and T4. It shall be detected as an object. The start time t2 of detection of the pedestrian B is the time within the period T1, the start time t3 of the detection of the pedestrian C is the time within the period of T2, and the start time t4 of the detection of the pedestrian D is T3. It is assumed that the time is after the end of the period.

  At this time, since the object to be alerted is not detected before time t1, when the pedestrian A is detected as a new object to be alerted at time t1, the determination result in STEP 6 becomes negative. . For this reason, according to the detection of the pedestrian A at the time t1, the notification sound is output as shown in the lowermost graph of FIG.

  When pedestrian B is detected at time t2, since pedestrian A has already been detected, the determination result in STEP 6 is positive. Similarly, when pedestrian C is detected at time t3, since pedestrian B has already been detected, the determination result in STEP 6 is positive. Therefore, the output of the notification sound according to the detection of the pedestrians B and C is omitted.

  On the other hand, when the pedestrian D is detected at the time t4, there is no detected alerting object other than the pedestrian D. Therefore, as in the case of the detection of the pedestrian A (time t1), the determination result of the above STEP6 Becomes positive. For this reason, according to the detection of the pedestrian D at the time t4, a notification sound is output as shown in the lowermost graph of FIG.

  As described above, in the case where detection of a plurality of pedestrians as an alerting object continues without interruption, as if the plurality of pedestrians are a group of continuous alerting objects, After the notification sound is output according to the detection of the first pedestrian, the output of the notification sound according to the detection of the second and subsequent pedestrians is omitted.

  Thereby, when detection of a plurality of pedestrians continues without interruption, it is possible to prevent an excessively frequent notification sound for alerting the driver. Therefore, it is possible to alert the driver to the alert object without causing the driver to feel excessive annoyance.

  Note that the driver pays attention to the front of the host vehicle 2 based on the output of the notification sound in response to the detection of the first pedestrian, and the highlighted display on the indicator 4 of the detected alerting object Since it is made on the display image of the display device 4 for each object to be aroused, the driver is prevented from overlooking the presence of the second and subsequent pedestrians.

  Moreover, in this embodiment, when an animal other than a person is detected as the alerting target object, whether or not another alerting target object such as a pedestrian has already been detected at the time of detection. In addition, a notification sound is output in response to detection of the animal.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 5, it is assumed that pedestrians A, B, C, and animals E are detected at times t1, t2, t3, and t5, respectively. In this case, it is assumed that the detection timings and detection periods of pedestrians A, B, and C are the same as those in FIG. The detection period of the animal E is assumed to be a period from time t5 to T5 within a period in which the pedestrian C satisfies the alert generation condition (detection period for the pedestrian C).

  In this case, as in the case of FIG. 4, the output of the notification sound in response to the detection of the pedestrians B and C is omitted, but when the animal E is detected at time t5, the determination result in STEP5 is positive. It becomes. For this reason, in response to detection of the animal E at time t5, a notification sound is output as shown in the lowermost graph of FIG.

  Thus, when an animal other than a highly urgent person is detected as an alerting target object, whether or not another alerting target object such as a pedestrian has already been detected at the time of detection. Instead, a notification sound is output. Therefore, the output of the notification sound surely alerts the driver to the front of the host vehicle 2, and the driver quickly starts an appropriate driving operation to avoid contact between the host vehicle 2 and the animal. can do.

[Second Embodiment]
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. Note that this embodiment is different from the first embodiment only in part of the processing of the alert processing unit 8 of the first embodiment and the arithmetic processing unit 6. Therefore, the difference will be mainly described. Detailed descriptions of the same matters in the first embodiment are omitted.

  In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6, the processing executed by the arithmetic processing unit 6 is the processing after the STEP 6 described in the first embodiment (processing executed by the alert processing unit 8). This is different from the first embodiment.

  Specifically, when the determination result in STEP 6 is negative, the alert processing unit 8 of the arithmetic processing unit 6 next performs a notification sound restriction which is an additional condition for restricting the output of the notification sound. It is determined in STEP 8 whether or not the additional condition is satisfied.

  The notification sound restriction adding condition corresponds to a predetermined condition in the present invention. In the present embodiment, the notification sound restriction additional condition includes a condition (hereinafter referred to as a first additional condition) relating to the traveling environment of the host vehicle 2 (however, the traveling environment during a period from the current time to a predetermined time) and the current calculation. Conditions related to the type of the alert object last detected in the past (however, the past from the current time to the predetermined time) before the new alert object is detected in the processing cycle (hereinafter, the second additional condition) If any of these additional conditions is satisfied, the notification sound restriction additional condition is satisfied.

  The first additional condition is a condition that the traveling environment of the host vehicle 2 is an environment in which an object to be alerted such as a pedestrian is likely to appear frequently.

  Whether or not the first additional condition is satisfied is determined as follows, for example. That is, if a predetermined number or more of alert objects excluding animals other than humans are detected in a period from the current time to a predetermined time, it is determined that the first additional condition is satisfied.

  As another method, for example, when it can be determined that the host vehicle 2 is traveling in an urban area based on navigation information or the like, or based on captured images of the cameras 3a and 3b, navigation information, or the like. When it can be determined that the road on which the vehicle is traveling is a narrow road with a predetermined width or less, or when the vehicle speed (detected value) of the host vehicle 2 is a low speed with a predetermined vehicle speed or less, the first additional condition is You may make it judge that it is materialized.

  In addition, the second additional condition is that the type of the alert object detected last is an object of a kind that is difficult to predict, such as a child, or a bicycle on which a person is riding. It is a condition that there is. This kind of alerting object is a kind of object that is likely to move so that the alerting condition is again met immediately after the alerting condition is not met.

  In the present embodiment, the object detection unit 7 detects the pedestrian (person) as the alerting object, for example, the ratio of the vertical width to the horizontal width of the image of the pedestrian in the captured image of the reference camera 3a, etc. Based on the above, it is possible to distinguish and detect a child and an adult. Furthermore, it is possible to detect a bicycle on which a person is boarded based on, for example, characteristics of the shape of the bicycle image in a captured image.

  When neither the first additional condition nor the second additional condition is satisfied and the determination result in STEP 8 is negative, the alert processing unit 8 performs the same process as STEP 7, that is, a notification. A process for outputting sound from the speaker 5 is executed in STEP 10.

  On the other hand, when the first additional condition or the second additional condition is satisfied and the determination result in STEP 8 is affirmative, the alert processing unit 8 next executes the determination process in STEP 9. In STEP 9, the alert processing unit 8 ends the detection of the last detected alert object (excluding animals other than humans), that is, the end of the period in which the alert object satisfies the alert occurrence condition. It is determined whether or not the elapsed time from the time to the current time is equal to or less than a predetermined time ΔT (for example, 1.0 second).

  If the determination result in STEP 9 is negative, the alert processing unit 8 executes the process in STEP 10 to output a notification sound from the speaker 5.

  If the determination result in STEP 9 is affirmative, the attention processing unit 8 omits the process of outputting the notification sound from the speaker 5.

  The present embodiment is the same as the first embodiment except for the matters described above.

  According to this embodiment, even when a warning object other than an animal is newly detected in a situation where a warning object is not detected, the notification sound restriction additional condition is satisfied, and , If the new alerting object is detected within the period from the end of detection of the alerting object detected last in the past before the detection of the new alerting object until the predetermined time ΔT has elapsed The output of the notification sound corresponding to the detection is omitted.

  That is, in the situation where the notification sound restriction addition condition is satisfied, for example, as shown in FIG. 7, a certain alerting target P deviates from the alerting target area AR and is not detected as the alerting target (the alerting occurrence occurs). Even if it does not satisfy the condition, immediately after that, there is a high possibility that an alerting object that is the same as or different from the alerting object P that has been detected previously is newly detected.

  In this case, in the present embodiment, in a situation where the notification sound restriction addition condition is satisfied, the predetermined time ΔT has elapsed since the end of the detection of the alert object finally detected in the past before the detection of the new alert object. When the new alerting target object is detected within the period until it is done, the output of the notification sound according to the detection is omitted.

  For this reason, it is possible to effectively prevent the notification sound for alerting the driver from being output excessively frequently in a situation where the notification sound restriction additional condition is satisfied and the alert target is easily detected continuously. be able to.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 8, it is assumed that pedestrians F, G, and H are detected at times t6, t7, and t8, respectively. In this case, it is assumed that the alert target is not detected for a sufficiently long period before time t6, and that the first additional condition is satisfied after time t6. In addition, pedestrians F, G, and H are detected as alerting objects when the alerting conditions are continuously established within the period from time t6, t7, and t8 to T6, T7, and T8, respectively. And The start time t7 for detecting the pedestrian G is a time within the period from the end of the period T6 until the predetermined time ΔT elapses, and the start time t8 for detecting the pedestrian H is the end of the period T7. It is assumed that the time is after the predetermined time ΔT has elapsed from the hour.

  At this time, as in the first embodiment, in response to detection of the pedestrian F at time t6, a notification sound is output as shown in the lowermost graph of FIG.

  Further, when the pedestrian G is detected at the time t7, the detection of the pedestrian F is completed, but since the time is within the period from the end of the period T6 until the predetermined time ΔT elapses, The determination result in STEP 9 is positive. Therefore, the output of the notification sound according to the detection of the pedestrian G is omitted.

  On the other hand, when the pedestrian H is detected at time t8, since the predetermined time ΔT has already elapsed since the end of the period T7 in which the pedestrian G was detected, the determination result in STEP 9 is negative. . For this reason, according to the detection of the pedestrian H at the time t8, the notification sound is output as shown in the lowermost graph of FIG.

  Note that, in the case where F, G, and H in FIG. 8 are, for example, a child or a bicycle that satisfies the second additional condition, the output of the notification sound corresponding to the detection of the alerting target G is omitted as described above. On the other hand, the notification sound is output according to the detection of the alerting target H.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the notification sound restriction additional condition is satisfied, and the notification sound for calling the driver's attention is excessively frequent in a situation where the alert target is easily detected continuously. The output can be effectively prevented.

  In the second embodiment described above, when an animal other than a person is detected as a new alerting object in a situation where the alerting object is not detected, the attention detected last before that is detected. The target object is the same kind of animal as the new target object, and the start of detection of the new target object has passed the predetermined time ΔT from the end of the last detected target object When it is the timing within the period until the notification, the output of the notification sound according to the detection of the new alerting object (animal) may be omitted.

  In the first and second embodiments, the alerting target existing in the monitoring area is detected using the images captured by the cameras 3a and 3b. However, a radar apparatus such as a laser radar or a millimeter wave radar is used. When mounted on the vehicle 2, the alerting target existing in the monitoring area may be detected using the radar device or using the camera and the radar device in combination.

  Moreover, in the said 1st and 2nd embodiment, although the alerting | reporting sound was used as a warning for alerting a driver | operator, if the said alert | call alerts a driver | operator's attention, an alerting | reporting sound It may be an alarm other than that. For example, the alarm may be a visual alarm by blinking a lamp or a sensory alarm such as a vibration of the seat.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Driving assistance device, 2 ... Vehicle, 7 ... Object detection part (object detection means), 8 ... Warning processing part (attention processing means).

Claims (5)

A warning target that exists in a monitoring area around the vehicle and is a target that satisfies a predetermined warning generation condition for certifying that the driver should be alerted to avoid contact with the vehicle Object detection means for detecting an object, and processing for alerting the driver of the vehicle to the alert object when the alert object is detected by the object detector; , A driving support device comprising a warning processing means for executing a warning process including at least a process of outputting an alarm immediately after detection of the warning object ,
The alert object detected by the object detection means includes a person and an animal other than a person,
The alert processing means detects the first alert object when the object detector detects the alert object sequentially from the state where the alert object is not detected. after outputting the alarm in response, the k-th: a (k 1 or more arbitrary integer) the (k + 1) -th alert object alert object was detected within the alert generation condition is satisfied period If a person is detected, the process of outputting the alarm is omitted in response to the detection of the k + 1th alert object, and an animal other than a person is detected as the k + 1 alert object. The detection of the (k + 1) th alert object is performed regardless of whether or not the kth alert object detected within the period that satisfies the alert occurrence condition. , The k + 1th alert Driving support apparatus for a vehicle and outputs the alarm in response to detection of an elephant thereof. The vehicle driving support device according to claim 1,
The alert processing means includes a condition that a predetermined number or more people are detected within a period from a current time to a predetermined time before the traveling environment of the vehicle, and a condition that the vehicle is traveling in an urban area, In a driving environment in which any one of the condition that the width of the road on which the vehicle is traveling is a road having a predetermined width or less and the condition that the vehicle speed of the vehicle is a low speed not more than a predetermined vehicle speed is satisfied. in one case the k-th to the detected alert object the alert generation satisfies period the first (k + 1) th alert workpiece in a period from the end until a predetermined time elapses Even if a person is detected, a process for outputting the alarm in response to detection of the (k + 1) th alert object is omitted. The vehicle driving support device according to claim 1,
The alert processing means, the type of pre-Symbol k-th alert object, in the case of people who are riding in the child or bicycle, alert objects detected in the k-th said Even when a person as the k + 1 th alert target is detected within a period from the end of the period satisfying the alert occurrence condition to the elapse of a predetermined time, the k + 1 th alert target is also detected. A driving support apparatus for a vehicle, characterized in that the process of outputting the alarm in response to detection of an object is omitted. A warning target that exists in a monitoring area around the vehicle and is a target that satisfies a predetermined warning generation condition for certifying that the driver should be alerted to avoid contact with the vehicle Object detection means for detecting an object, and processing for alerting the driver of the vehicle to the alert object when the alert object is detected by the object detector; , A driving support device comprising a warning processing means for executing a warning process including at least a process of outputting an alarm immediately after detection of the warning object ,
The alert object detected by the object detection means includes a person and an animal other than a person,
Before SL alert processing means, said object detecting means, wherein the state is not detected alert object, in case of detecting the alert object sequentially, the k-th (k: 1 or more optional integer) a reminder object and the k + 1 th alert object and the human, and, the (k + 1) th caution alert object of the k - th is in the alert generation condition is satisfied period When an alerting object is detected , the process of outputting the alarm is omitted in response to detection of the (k + 1) th alerting object , and the kth alerting object is a person and the (k + 1) th When the th alert target is an animal other than a human, the detection of the (k + 1) th alert target is such that the k th detected alert target satisfies the alert occurrence condition. Whether or not it was done during the period, Driving support apparatus and outputs the alarm in response to the detection of the (k + 1) -th alert object The driving support apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the alarm is a notification sound.

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