JPH01311399A - On vehicle road information identifying device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable a driver or the like to easily recognize an object by coding an output signal from a vehicle-mounted object recognizing means which can be turned to a required direction and collating the code with a reference code to generate an alarm. CONSTITUTION:A vehicle speed or the like from a vehicle information detecting means 4 is discriminated, and when the vehicle speed obtained from a deciding means 23 is rapid, a TV camera 1 to be vehicle-mounted object recognizing means is moved vertically and right and left directions so as to be turned to a required direction and automatically focused to the object. The image pickup signal of the camera 1 is coded by a coding circuit 20 in collating device and compared and collated with a reference code stored in a data memory 22 by a shape recognizing device 21 to recognize the shape, color pattern, characters, etc., of the object. The recognized result is collated with the contents of a temporary memory 25 by a deciding means 23, a mark is discriminated, a storage device 6 is referred by a deciding means 24 to execute organic judgement, a right turn inhibition command signal or the like is formed and, display and information are executed by a monitor 30 and a sound generator 31, so that vehicle driver or the like can easily and properly recognize the object.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] <Industrial application field> The present invention relates to an on-vehicle road information identification device.

<Prior art and its problems> With the spread of automobiles in recent years, a large amount of road information such as road JRrt1 has become available, and the burden on drivers is increasing, and the number of oversights and misreadings of road information is increasing. Furthermore, as expressways have become more popular, the number of cases of overlooking due to narrow field of vision when driving at high speeds has increased, and this has become one of the major causes of vehicle accidents.

In order to assist drivers in recognizing a large amount of road information, a device for mechanically recognizing road information has already been proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-31231. However, this device has problems such as the need for large-scale installation on the road side, such as outputting a signal from an information source such as a sign.

<Summary of the Invention> The present invention was made to solve the above-mentioned problems of the conventional technology, and it eliminates the need to install old equipment on the road side and mechanically recognizes road information such as road signs. The purpose is to provide a device that notifies drivers, etc.

For this purpose, the in-vehicle road information identification device of the present invention includes an object recognition means installed in a vehicle facing a predetermined direction, encodes an output signal of the object recognition means, and stores a stored standard. The basic feature is that it is provided with a means for checking the code and a notification means for making a notification corresponding to the output of the checking means.

<Operation> The object recognition means recognizes an object in a predetermined direction, such as the road JsWt, by means such as optical or electromagnetic waves. The collation means encodes the recognition information, collates it with a reference code stored in advance, and outputs the result. The notification means notifies the driver or the like of the output from the verification means by an appropriate means such as visually or audibly. The driver etc. can recognize the object by this notification, and can recognize the object in addition to or in addition to their own perception6.
Embodiment> An embodiment of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings.

In the block diagram of FIG. 1, the object is recognized by an object recognition device 1 or verified by a verification device 2, and the result is notified to a driver or the like by a notification device 3.

The object recognition device 1 recognizes the object X as an image using an optical method or electromagnetic waves, and in this embodiment, T
It consists of a V camera. This TV camera is installed inside the hood of the vehicle, and is configured to display an image of the object X in front of the TV camera. This object recognition device 1 is provided with an actuator 5,
This actuator 5 allows it to move vertically and horizontally. Further, the lens is configured such that its focal length or focal point position can be changed or adjusted. FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of the TV camera 10 and the actuator 5. The main body of the TV camera 10 has a lens 11 and an autofocus mechanism 12, and automatically focuses on the object X at a predetermined position. It is configured as follows. The main body of the TV camera 10 is supported by a vertical rotation ring 13, and is configured to be rotated in the vertical direction by a vertical motor 14. Further, the vertical motor 14 is supported by a lateral rotation ring 15 and is configured to rotate in the lateral direction (horizontal direction) by a gear 16 and a lateral motor 17. With this configuration, the TV camera 10 can capture an image of the object X at any position within the rotation range.

The drive driver 18 is for driving the vertical direction motor 14 and the horizontal direction motor 17, and is used to drive the discriminating device 2 described later.
3, the vertical motor 14 and the horizontal motor 17 are driven to determine the direction of the TV camera 10. In this embodiment, the TV camera 1o is configured to display the road Js11 as image information.

The collation device 2 is composed of a microcomputer, etc., and includes an encoding device 20, a shape recognition device 21, and a discriminator N2.
3. Has a new version M24.

The encoding device 20 is a device that encodes the image signal from the TV camera 10, and is configured to encode its shape, color, pattern, characters, etc., and send the signal to the shape recognition device 21.

The shape recognition device 21 inputs the encoded signal and compares the shape, color, pattern, characters, etc. with the data memory 22 stored in advance, and determines what the image is (45j1m).
Determine whether For example, there are many types of circular signs, but if there is a white symbol on the ground, the number will be narrowed down to a few. In this case, once the pattern of the white symbol is determined, the meaning of 41ra is determined. It also reads the letters and numbers shown on auxiliary signs and provides data to determine whether the regulations are necessary information for the vehicle. Auxiliary signs and the like are uniform in character, format, and expression format, so they can be read. The signal of the mark identified by the shape recognition device 21 is sent to the discrimination device 23.

The discrimination device 23 compares the marker pattern corresponding to the marker data with the contents of the previous input stored in the temporary memory 25. - If the contents of the memory 25 are the same, new information is searched. If the contents are different from the contents of the - hour memory 25, a new indicator pattern is stored in the - hour memory 25. Further, the discriminating device 23 is configured to add supplementary information regarding this information from the data memory 22. Further, the discrimination device 23 is configured to output a command signal to the actuator 5 and move the TV camera 10 to obtain information when no information is input for a certain period of time.

The discrimination device 23 receives information from the vehicle information detection device 4 such as vehicle speed, travel distance, time, inclination of the vehicle, illuminance around the vehicle, course change, etc., and sends a rotation command of the TV camera 1o to the actuator 5. It is configured to take these conditions into consideration when outputting commands. For example, as the vehicle speed increases, it becomes necessary to select more distant road signs as recognition targets. Therefore, it is necessary to make adjustments such as setting the focal length depending on the vehicle speed. In addition, the vehicle information detection device 4 uses a steering sensor, blinker,
Alternatively, it is configured to detect by inertial reading on the left and right sides.

The signal from the discrimination device 23 is sent to the judgment device 24. Information indicating the state of the vehicle from the vehicle information detection device 4 is also input to the judgment device M24, and here various types of information are determined based on this information. For example,
If the sign signal "Right turn prohibited 8-20J" is input from the discrimination device 23, when the vehicle changes course, it compares the current time with the meaning of r3-20J, and if it is within that time, "Right turn prohibited" is input. It is configured to output a "prohibited" signal.

Also, based on the vehicle speed from the vehicle information detection device 4, it is determined whether the current vehicle can safely turn right, etc., and the result is output. In addition, the determination device 24 includes a storage device 6, and the JsW! from the determination device 23! It is configured such that information can be stored in this storage device M6. The stored contents of the storage device 6 are configured to be erased in chronological order based on information from the vehicle information detection device 4 at regular time intervals or at regular mileage intervals. This configuration makes it possible to reduce the storage capacity of the storage device 6. The contents stored in the storage device 6 are configured to be read out by a command from the operating device 8 and displayed on the monitor 3o of the notification device 3. The reading of the operating device 8 may be random, but in this embodiment, the operating device 8 is provided with an up button and a down button, and the configuration is such that the specified address can be sequentially increased or decreased by these operations and read out in order. has been done.

In this embodiment, the notification device 3 includes a monitor 30 and a sound generating device 31, and is configured to use sound and images as notification means. The monitor 3o is controlled by a monitor control device 32, and is configured so that the display mode for displaying TV reception and notification content from the judgment device 24 can be switched by operating the operating device 8.

Next, the operation will be explained.

In FIG. 3, the verification device 2 detects vehicle information from the vehicle information detection device 4 and drives the actuator 5 to adjust the direction, focus, etc. of the object recognition device 1 in step 4.
0.47), the object X is read (step 41), and the object X is identified in the verification device 2 (step 42), and the vehicle information detection device! A device that makes comprehensive decisions based on vehicle information from 4! 24 (step 43).

Then, this judgment result is announced by the notification device W3 (
Step 44).

The adjustment operation of the object recognition device 1 will be explained with reference to FIG.

In this example, the operation of changing the course and adjusting the object recognition device 1 according to the vehicle inclination and vehicle speed will be explained. Needless to say, other vehicle conditions can be detected by the vehicle information detection device 4 as needed, and the object recognition device W1 can be adjusted accordingly. First, the discrimination device 23 checks whether or not data has been input for a predetermined period of time from the vehicle information detection device 4 (step 48). Make the head shake in the left and right directions (step 49), and if no data is input within a predetermined time, make the head shake in the vertical direction (step 50.51).Next, the vehicle information detection device 4 detects the vehicle detects the inclination of the
Make the head of V camera 1o shake (steps 52 and 53) 0
Next, the vehicle speed is detected from the vehicle information detection bag M4, and the focal length of the TV camera 10 is changed accordingly (step 54).
．． 55, 57), and here, a decrease in illuminance outside the vehicle is detected by turning on and off the lights, and when the lights are on, it is determined that the illuminance is decreasing, and the focal length is shortened (steps 56, 57). .

The label reading operation in the verification device 2 will be explained with reference to FIG. The discrimination device 23 inputs the sign data recognized by the shape recognition device 21 (step 58) and compares it with the reference data stored in the time memory 25 (step 5).
9), identify the 111m data (step 60), and store the corresponding marker pattern in the temporary memory 25 (step 61); at this time, check whether the marker pattern is the same as the one stored in the temporary memory 25; If they are the same, the actuator 5 is controlled to read another mark, and the mark pattern is determined by the judgment device 2.
4, and the 1 judgment device 24 executes a predetermined judgment.

Here, we will explain the following operations. First, the first judgment bag W24 judges whether the am is important or not (step 62). For example, (stop) (no entry)
etc., which if ignored would lead to an immediate accident, are recorded in advance as important signs, and if they match, the voice generating device 31 performs voice synthesis and issues a voice warning (step 63). At the same time, the corresponding J? Ir
Display pattern a. At this time, the monitor 30 is forcibly switched to the display mode (step 64), and if it does not match the important sign in step 62, it is checked whether the sign has a time element such as a time limit (step 65). If there is a time element, read the current time from the vehicle information detection device 4 and check whether the sign is within the time limit (step 66 and 67). If it is within the time limit, it is marked as an important sign. Once approved, step 68) returns to step 62. If it is outside the time limit, it is determined that it is not important (Step 69), and if the monitor 30 is in the display mode, the Js recognition pattern is displayed, and if it is not in the display mode, it is not displayed (Steps 70, 71, and 72).

The operation of interlocking the vehicle speed and the speed limit sign is explained in FIG. 6. The zero determination device 24 inputs the vehicle speed from the vehicle information detection device 4 and checks whether the vehicle speed has increased (step 7).
3) If the speed limit has increased, read out the speed limit in the sign data (step 74), and determine whether the speed limit has been exceeded (step 75). If it exceeds the limit, the sound generator 31 issues a warning (step 76).
). When the speed falls below the speed limit (step 77), the warning is stopped (step 78).

FIG. 7 shows the operation when a change in course is linked with a sign prohibiting a right turn. In this example, the vehicle information detection device 4 detects the lighting of the turn signal (step 79).
, if the light is on, the judgment device 24 determines that a course change is being prepared, and reads the sign regarding the course change (step 80).
), it is determined whether the route can be changed (step 81).
), if it is not possible to change course, whether there is a time limit;
Check if within time limit step 82.8
3) A sound warning is issued by the sound generator 31 (step 84).

FIG. 8 shows the operation of changing the mode of the monitor 30. The judgment device 24 checks whether the monitor 30 is in the display mode (step 85), and if it is in the display mode, the operation bag M8
If the up button of the operating device 8 is pressed (step 87), a check is made to see if the final data is being displayed (step 86). 88), if it is the final data, a notification to that effect is made and the up command is canceled (step 89); if it is not the final command, the next data stored in the storage device 6 is displayed.

If the down button is pressed (step 91), check whether the first data is being displayed (step 92).
, if it is the first data, a notification to that effect is made and the final data is displayed. If it is not the first data, the previous data is displayed.

As explained above, in the above configuration, a JS warning display and audio warning are performed, and various judgments are made according to the vehicle situation, and displays and warnings to that effect are performed, so the driver It can assist in the recognition and judgment of JIA knowledge etc. Moreover, oversight and misreading can be prevented. Furthermore, it is possible to promote safe driving by being able to compensate for the narrowing of the field of view during high-speed driving.

<Effects of the Invention> As explained above, the in-vehicle road information identification device of the present invention includes an object recognition means installed in a vehicle facing a predetermined direction, encodes an output signal of the object recognition means, Since it is equipped with a means for checking with a stored reference code and a notification means for giving a notification corresponding to the output of the checking means, it can assist in object recognition and reduce the burden on vehicle drivers. It becomes possible to reduce the It also has the advantage that it does not require any equipment on the road and can be achieved using only the equipment on the vehicle.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing one embodiment of a TV camera, and FIGS. 3 to 8 are flowcharts explaining the operation. 1: Object recognition device, 2: Verification device, 3: Notification device, 4
: Vehicle information detection device, 5: Actuator, 6: Storage device, 8: Operating device, 1o: T■ camera, 11: Lens,
12: autofocus mechanism, 13: vertical rotation ring, 14: vertical rotation motor, 15: lateral rotation ring, 16: gear 1, 17: lateral rotation motor, 18: drive driver, 2o: encoding device, 21: Shape recognition device, 22
: Data memory, 23: Discrimination device, 24: Judgment device, 2
5 temporary memory, 3o: monitor, 31: sound generator,
32: Monitor control device. Patent originator Clarion Co., Ltd. agent Patent attorney Kiyoshi Takahashi and one other person Figure 2 Figure 5 Figure 6

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1) Object recognition means installed in a vehicle facing a predetermined direction; means for encoding an output signal of the object recognition means and comparing it with a stored reference code; and the comparison. An in-vehicle road information identification device comprising: a notification means for making a notification corresponding to the output of the means; 2) Vehicle information detection means for detecting vehicle speed, vehicle inclination, illuminance around the vehicle, etc., and means for changing the direction of the object recognition means in accordance with the output of the vehicle information detection means. An in-vehicle road information identification device according to claim 1. 3) The in-vehicle road information according to claim 1, comprising: means for storing the output signal of the collation means; and means for reading out and announcing the contents stored in the storage means. Identification device.