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EP0529619A2
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EP
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Inter-car distance detecting device for tracking a car running ahead
Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corp
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Filing: 1992-08-27
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2012-08-27
Abstract
Abstract This invention relates to an inter-car distance detecting device for tracking a car (5) running ahead and automatically setting a tracking window in a display screen. The inter-car distance detecting device has a pair of image sensors (4) which pick up the image of a car running ahead. A window setting section (12) sets a plurality of windows, so that the distances from objects contained in those windows are detected and a position of the car (5) running ahead is detected by means of comparing the distances corresponding to the windows which contain the car (5) running ahead and which do not contain it. Thereby, a position and a size of a tracking window is set in the display screen at the position of the car (5) running ahead thus detected.
Inventors
- 👤 Yoshiaki C/O Mitsubishi Denki K.K. Asayama
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-10 01:08
CPC Classifications
G; G01; G01S; G01S11/00; G01S11/12; G01S3/00; G01S3/78; G01S3/782; G01S3/785; G01S3/786; G01S3/7864; G01S3/7865; B; B60; B60R; B60R2300/00; B60R2300/10; B60R2300/105; B60R2300/30
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 7
Claim 1
Independent Claim
196 words
An inter-car distance detecting device installed on a first car for tracking a second car running ahead of said first car, said inter-car distance detecting device comprising: a pair of image sensors each for picking up an image of objects including said second car and background; window setting means for setting a plurality of distance measuring windows in predetermined positions in the image picked up by one of said image sensors, respectively; distance detecting means for comparing the image contained within each of said distance measuring windows with a corresponding image picked up by the other of said image sensors, to detect a distance from said first car to a part of said objects contained within each of said distance measuring windows; window selecting means for selecting said windows which contain the image of said second car according to a detection value of said distance detecting means; tracking window setting means for setting a tracking window for tracking the image of said second car with reference to said windows selected by said window selecting means; and tracking distance detecting means for detecting a distance to said second car in the image contained within said tracking window.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
30 words
An inter-car distance detecting device according to claim 1, further comprising display means for displaying said image picked up by one of said sensors, distance measuring windows and tracking windows.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
18 words
An inter-car distance detecting device according to claim 1, wherein said image sensors are positioned along vertical direction.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
51 words
An inter-car distance detecting device according to claim 1, wherein said window selecting means compares said distances detected by said distance detecting means with each other to select said distance measuring windows which are adjacent to one another and contain the image having the distance of which is same and shortest.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
37 words
An inter-car distance detecting device according to claim 1, wherein said tracking window setting means sets a position of said tracking window with reference to a center window of said windows selected by said window selecting means.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
35 words
An inter-car distance detecting device according to claim 1, wherein said tracking window setting means sets a size thereof with reference to the number of said distance measuring windows selected by said window selecting means.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
134 words
An inter-car distance detecting device according to claim 1, further comprising an optical system including a pair of lenses corresponding to said pair of image sensors, respectively, wherein said distance detecting means superposes the image contained in one of said windows with the image of the other sensor along the position of this window while shifting one pixel element by one pixel element, and detects the amount of shift ℓ when the two image signals are coincided up best, so as to perform the principle of trigonometrical measurement as the following equation: R = f × L/n × P where R is a distance from the second car running ahead; P is the pitch of the picture elements; L is base length of said optical system; and f is focal distance of said lenses.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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