Patent ID: 7184073

Claim:
A road curvature warning system based on the analysis of multiple multi-scale images for efficiently identifying road curvature while driving at high speed on a highway, said road curvature warning system comprising: (a) an RCWS controller subsystem for controlling cameras and interfacing with a vehicle, said RCWS controller subsystem comprising: a system configuration element for dynamically managing system configuration related to camera, system thresholds, and standard road dimensions; a camera controller element for dynamically controlling the cameras; a vehicle interface element for obtaining vehicle related parameters comprising ground speed and slope; and a multi-camera element for acquiring multiple multi-scale images; and (b) an RCWS preprocessor subsystem for preprocessing an image, said RCWS preprocessor subsystem comprising: an error correction and binarization element for image preprocessing, correcting said image for heading and offset errors, and binarization of said image; a road parameter computation element for computing the lane width and lane marker width; a look-ahead distance computation element for determining an appropriate look-ahead distance for configuring the cameras; and a visibility checking element for determining the road visibility conditions; and (c) an RCWS processor subsystem for generating curvature related over-speed warnings based on a plurality of multi-scale images, said RCWS processor subsystem comprising: a lane identification element for identifying left and right road lane markers in said plurality of multi-scale images; a multi-scale image processing element for analyzing said plurality of multi-scale images to correlate and correct a plurality left and right lane markers across said plurality of multi-scale images; a mosaic construction element for constructing a road mosaic using said plurality of left and right lane markers; a road curvature identification element for identifying a road curvature from said road mosaic; and a warning generation element for generating an appropriate warning to the driver based on said road curvature.