Patent ID: 9721171
Date: 2017-08-01
CPC Classifications: G06K,G06T,G08G

Claim:
1. A method for detecting variable message traffic signs of a vehicle, the method comprising: reading in a vehicle position; comparing the vehicle position to position information of at least one variable message traffic sign to determine a presence of a variable message traffic sign in a predefined area around the vehicle and in response to provide proximity information; and varying an instruction for detecting information of a variable message traffic sign in response to the proximity information to detect the variable message traffic sign; wherein pulsed LED light sources of the at least one variable message traffic sign are operated at a frequency which is not perceptible to the human eye, so that an off phase of a pulsing may fall into a recording time window so that the at least one variable message traffic sign is only partially detectable or not detectable in the image, wherein the varying includes modifying a control parameter for a camera so that the pulsed LED light sources of the at least one variable message traffic sign are scanned during a recording time window of the camera at a point in time at which the pulsed LED light sources are switched on, wherein in the comparing, the position information of variable message traffic signs is provided by a navigation device and/or by a data base, and wherein the proximity information includes at least one additional property of the variable message traffic sign, in particular the precise position and/or elevation above the road surface and/or a pulsing frequency of the variable message traffic sign.