Patent ID: 7839303
Filing Date: 2010-11-23
Classification: B60Q

Abstract:
1. A vehicle detecting apparatus comprising: an image sensor mounted on a host vehicle so as to be able to take an image ahead of said host vehicle and outputting image data representing said image; a light source area extracting function of extracting, from said image data, an area having luminance higher than a predetermined value as a light source area; a vehicle detecting function of detecting existence of at least one of an oncoming vehicle and a preceding vehicle by recognizing which of a headlight of said oncoming vehicle, a taillight of said preceding vehicle, and a roadside reflector causes said light source area in said image data; and a headlight axis position detecting function of detecting whether a headlight of said host vehicle is in a high-beam position or a low-beam position; wherein said vehicle detecting function is configured to lower a probability that said vehicle detecting function recognizes that said light source area is caused by said roadside reflector when said headlight of said host vehicle is detected to be in said low-beam position by said headlight axis position detecting function; said vehicle detecting function has a first kind likelihood calculating function of calculating a first kind of a headlight likelihood indicative of a probability of said light source area being caused by said headlight of said oncoming vehicle, a first taillight likelihood indicative of a probability of said light source area being caused by said taillight of said preceding vehicle, and a first reflector likelihood indicative of a probability of said light source area being caused by said roadside reflector, and a second kind likelihood calculating function of calculating a second kind of a headlight likelihood indicative of a probability of said light source area being caused by said headlight of said oncoming vehicle, a second taillight likelihood indicative of a probability of said light source area being caused by said taillight of said preceding vehicle, and a second reflector likelihood indicative of a probability of said light source area being caused by said roadside reflector such that said second kind of said reflector likelihood becomes smaller than said second kind of said headlight and taillight likelihoods when said headlight of said host vehicle is detected to be in said low-beam position, said vehicle detecting function being configured to multiply each of said first kind of said headlight, taillight, and reflector likelihoods by corresponding one of said second kind of said headlight, taillight, and reflector likelihoods to produce an integrated headlight likelihood, an integrated taillight likelihood, and an integrated reflector likelihood, and to determine that said light source area is caused by said headlight of said oncoming vehicle or said taillight of said preceding vehicle if said integrated reflector likelihood is smaller than said integrated headlight and integrated taillight likelihoods.