Patent ID: 8903638
Filing Date: 2014-12-02
Classification: B60Q,G06K,G08G,H04N

Abstract:
1. A warning method for detecting lane-changing condition of rear-approaching vehicles, comprising: performing an image acquisition process for sensing a rear-view image of an ego-vehicle that is performing the warning method; performing a lane line recognition algorithm for identifying lane lines in the rear-view image and thus obtaining the position information of the lane lines in an image coordinate system; defining three regions of interest (ROI) corresponding respectively to a lane to the left of the ego-vehicle, a lane to the right of the ego-vehicle, and a lane where the ego-vehicle is travelling thereon, i.e., a left lane ROI, a right lane ROI and an ego-lane ROI, while enabling the three ROIs to be defined based upon the expected height of any common direction light, so as to allow any direction light on a rear-approaching vehicle that is flashing to be recognizable on the acquired rear-view image and thus to be used for determining accurately whether the rear-approaching vehicle is traveling on the same lane of the ego-vehicle or is traveling on the adjacent lane, to the ego-vehicle i.e., the left lane or the right lane; determining whether there is any direction light flashing in the left lane ROI, indicating that there is a vehicle approaching the ego-vehicle from the left lane of the ego-vehicle, and then determining whether the flashing direction light on the rear-approaching vehicle is the one used for right-turn indication, and if so, performing a warning process for issuing an alarm signal to the driver of the ego-vehicle for reminding the same that the rear-approaching vehicle is going to perform a lane changing maneuver to move from the left lane to the same lane of the ego-vehicle; determining whether there is any direction light flashing in the right lane ROI, indicating that there is a vehicle approaching the ego-vehicle from the right lane of the ego-vehicle, and then determining whether the flashing direction light on the rear-approaching vehicle is the one used for left-turn indication, and if so, performing the warning process for issuing an alarm signal to the driver of the ego-vehicle for reminding the same that the rear-approaching vehicle is going to perform a lane changing maneuver to move from the right lane to the same lane of the ego-vehicle; and determining whether there is any direction light flashing in the ego-lane ROI, indicating that there is a vehicle approaching the ego-vehicle from the rear in the same lane of the ego-vehicle, and then determining whether the flashing direction light on the rear-approaching vehicle is the one used for right-turn indication, and if so, performing the warning process for issuing an alarm signal to the driver of the ego-vehicle for reminding the same that the rear-approaching vehicle is going to perform a lane changing maneuver to move from the ego-lane to the right lane of the ego-vehicle; otherwise, determining whether the flashing direction light on the rear-approaching vehicle is the one used for left-turn indication, and if so, performing the warning process for issuing an alarm signal to the driver of the ego-vehicle for reminding the same that the rear-approaching vehicle is going to perform a lane changing maneuver to move from the ego-lane to the left lane of the ego-vehicle.