Patent ID: 8068134

Claim:
A collision prediction apparatus comprising: a plurality of sensors configured to detect an object in front of a vehicle by different mechanisms, the plurality of the sensors comprising a radar configured to scan front of the vehicle and a camera configured to take an image of the front of the vehicle; and a control unit configured to select a sensor adequate for an input condition, and based on information obtained from the selected sensor, to predict a collision between the vehicle and the object in front, wherein in a case that a condition that the outside of the vehicle is lighter than a predetermined value, the control unit comprises: a processing area setting mechanism configured to recognize an image of the object with the taken image of the camera and to set a processing area within the taken image to include the image of the object; a reflection wave extraction mechanism configured to extract a reflection wave of the radar in the processing area; a processing area object detection mechanism configured to detect an area of the object, a distance from the vehicle to the object, and a relative speed between the vehicle and the object, based on the reflection wave extracted from the processing area; and a collision determination mechanism configured to determine a possibility of a collision between the vehicle and the object, based on the distance from the vehicle to the object and the relative speed between the vehicle and the object, and to predict the collision between the vehicle and the object, and in a case that a condition that the outside of the vehicle is darker than the predetermined value, the control unit comprises: an front area object detection mechanism configured to detect an area of the object, a distance from the vehicle to the object, and a relative speed between the vehicle and the object, based on a reflection wave from front of the vehicle scanned and detected by the radar; and the collision determination mechanism configured to predict a collision between the vehicle and the object.