Patent ID: 7859652

Claim:
A sight-line end estimation device comprising: a sight-line direction detection portion that detects a sight-line direction of a driver of a vehicle; a target object detection portion that detects a position of a target object existing around the vehicle; a relative position acquisition portion that acquires relative positional information between the driver and the target object detection portion; and a sight-line end estimation portion that estimates a sight-line end of the driver by detecting a target object whose position detected by the target object detection portion lies substantially in the driver's sight-line direction detected by the sight-line direction detection portion, factoring in the relative positional information acquired by the relative position acquisition portion, and an evaluation portion that evaluates a likelihood of the driver's sight line being presently directed in a direction of the target object, wherein the sight-line end estimation portion estimates the driver's sight-line end based on the target object at which it is highly likely that the driver's sight line is presently directed, using a result of evaluation provided by the evaluation portion, the evaluation portion evaluates the likelihood of the driver's sight line being presently directed in the direction of the target object based on the target object whose position lies substantially in the driver's sight-line direction detected concurrently with the position of the target object, at a plurality of time points, and the evaluation portion determines that, of target objects whose positions lie substantially in the driver's sight-line direction acquired concurrently with the positions of the target objects at any one of the plurality of time points, a common target object that is common to the plurality of time points is the target object at which it is highly likely that the driver's sight line is presently directed.