Patent ID: 7400236

Claim:
A lane monitoring system deployed on a vehicle for monitoring the position of the vehicle relative to a lane in which the vehicle is traveling, the system comprising: a front camera mounted on the vehicle for capturing front lane image data relating to an area substantially to the front of the vehicle; a rear camera mounted on the vehicle for capturing rear lane image data relating to an area substantially to the rear of the vehicle; a vehicle heading correction device for steering the vehicle; and a processor coupled to said vehicle heading correction device, said front camera, and said rear camera for receiving said front lane image data and said rear lane image data, said processor configured to determine the position of the vehicle relative to the lane from said front lane image data and from said rear lane image data when said front camera and said rear camera are operational, said processor further configured to cause said vehicle heading correction device to perform a vehicle heading correction when the vehicle drifts form a desired lane position by more than a predetermined amount and only when a first lane position derived from said front lane image data differs from a second lane position derived from said rear lane image data by less than a predetermined amount.