Patent Document ID: 9317757
Application ID: 13378572
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for detecting a state of a rear vehicle light, wherein the rear vehicle light comprises a switched on turn indicator and/or switched on hazard lights, and wherein the method comprises: receiving an image of an environment in front of a vehicle; detecting at least one vehicle contained in the image; defining an image region of the image associated with the at least one vehicle; dividing the image region into part regions that include at least one left part region and at least one right part region; segmenting the left and right part regions into image segments based on brightness values of pixels contained in the left and right part regions; extracting at least one brightest image segment from each of the left and right part regions; analyzing the extracted image segments as to whether they can be associated with the rear vehicle light in a switched on state; extracting a time sequence of the at least one brightest image segment from the left part region and right part region; analyzing a time periodicity of the at least one brightest image segment from the left part region and right part region; and generating a signal if the rear vehicle light is in the switched on state and if the periodicity has a frequency within a predefined frequency range, wherein the method further comprises: comparing the extracted time sequence of the at least one brightest image segment from the left part region with the extracted image time sequence of the at least one brightest image segment from the right part region; and generating a signal to indicate that the hazard lights are switched on if the extracted time sequence of the at least one brightest image segment from the left and right part regions are synchronized, wherein the left and right part regions include rows of pixels, and wherein the segmenting comprises: defining rows of pixels in the left and right part regions, wherein each pixel includes a brightness value; sorting the rows of pixels into row segments based on the brightness values of the pixels such that each row segment includes pixels of substantially similar brightness values; and generating image segments by pooling mutually contacting row segments of adjacent rows of pixels in the left and right part regions.