Exterior monitoring for vehicles

摘要

Vehicular arrangement for obtaining information about objects exterior to the vehicle includes distance measuring systems fixed to the vehicle along the windshield, an edge or side of the vehicle, each including a camera that obtains images of objects exterior of the vehicle and a processor that determines a distance between the vehicle and objects included in images obtained by the camera and a speed of the objects based on the successive distance determinations. A reactive system is arranged on the vehicle and coupled to the distance measuring systems, and considers distance between the objects and the vehicle and the speed of the objects and reacts accordingly. A position of the distance measuring systems is selected to encompass an area in front of the vehicle, an area behind the vehicle and an area on each side of the vehicle in the fixed fields of view of the distance measuring systems.

主权项

1. A vehicle, comprising:
a vehicular frame; a plurality of distance measuring systems each fixed to said vehicular frame along the windshield of the vehicle, along an edge of the vehicle or along a side of the vehicle, each of said distance measuring systems including:
a camera configured to obtain images of objects exterior of the vehicle; anda processor that determines a distance between the vehicle and objects included in images obtained by said camera and a velocity of the objects relative to the vehicle based on the successive distance determinations; and a reactive system arranged on said vehicular frame and coupled to said distance measuring systems and a map database containing positional information about vehicular travel lanes, said reactive system being configured to determine, by accessing the map database and receiving distance and velocity information from said distance measuring systems, the possibility of contact between each of the objects and the vehicle based on distance between each of the objects and the vehicle, the velocity of each of the objects relative to the vehicle, and the position of each of the objects considered relative to the positional information about vehicular travel lanes, and react accordingly to the determined possibility of contact between each of the objects and the vehicle, and wherein a position of each of said distance measuring systems is selected to encompass an area in front of the vehicle, an area behind the vehicle or an area on a side of the vehicle in a respective fixed field of view of said distance measuring system.