JPH08115491A - Drive support system for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a simple and inexpensive drive support system such as an alarm generating system including an HUD system display device. CONSTITUTION: The system is provided with an object information detecting means detecting information of an object in the forward space of the vehicle, a transmission information detecting means detecting transmission information to be transmitted to a driver from the detected object information and an information transmitting means transmitting the transmission information to the driver. The information transmitting means is provided with plural light projecting means a-j which are arrayed so as to face a windowshield FG and permits the windowshield FG to be irradiated with reflection light beam by the windowshield FG at an incident angle for turning the beam to the face of the driver and a means detecting a position occupied by object information which becomes the base of detected transmission information within the eye field of the driver and selectively operating one of the light projecting means a-j, where the extending line of reflection light by the windowshield FG passes as the most near position.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a driving assistance system such as a vehicle collision warning system and a navigation system, and more particularly to a driving assistance system which simplifies and reduces the cost of a display device. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, various driving support systems have been developed for supporting safe driving and comfortable driving of vehicles. This kind of driving support system, an object information detecting means for detecting information of an object around the vehicle, a transmission information detecting means for detecting transmission information to be transmitted to a driver such as an alarm from the detected object information, An information transmission means for actually transmitting the detected transmission information to the driver by sound or video is provided.

An alarm generation system, which is a typical example of this type of driving support system, is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 6-215300 entitled "Danger situation alarm device". This dangerous state warning device includes a radar device, a television camera, and the like as object information detecting means. Further, as the transmission information detecting means, it is determined whether or not the object detected by the radar device or the like has a risk of causing an accident in the light of a traveling condition of the own vehicle such as a traveling speed, and there is such a fear. It is equipped with a risk treatment device that issues an alarm when it is determined. Further, as an information transmitting means, an alarm output device is provided which issues an alarm to the driver by surrounding a corresponding obstacle existing in the driver's visual field with a red frame or the like generated by a head-up display (HUD) device. ing.

[0004]

In the alarm output device disclosed in the above patent publication, since the obstacle to be alarmed is surrounded by a red frame, the shape of the obstacle is automatically recognized in the device. There is a need. For this reason, not only the television camera but also an image processing apparatus for performing contour extraction and separation of the image within the shooting screen is required, and there is a problem that the entire system becomes too complicated and expensive.

Further, since the head-up display (HUD) device which constitutes the above-mentioned alarm output device uses a holography or a liquid crystal display device, it is complicated and expensive.
There is also the problem of increasing the manufacturing cost of the entire alarm system.

[0006]

According to the driving support system of the present invention, the information transmitting means such as the alarm output device is arranged so as to face the windshield, and the light rays reflected by the windshield are directed to the driver's face. A plurality of light irradiating means for irradiating the windshield with light at an incident angle to be directed, and a position where the object information which is the basis of the detected transmission information occupies in the driver's visual field is detected. And a means for selectively emitting the light whose extension line of the reflected light by the windshield is closest to the detected position.

[0007]

The driver feels the light beam reflected by the windshield as if it came from the direction in which the reflected light beam is extended forward. Therefore, by selectively operating one or some of the plurality of light emitting means depending on the situation so that the object information such as the obstacle to be warned exists in the extension direction of the reflected light, holography or liquid crystal Without using a complicated and expensive device such as a display device, it is possible to realize an alerting function almost equivalent to that of a HUD device using these devices.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an alarm generation system according to an embodiment of the driving support system of the present invention. This alarm generation system is a multi-beam scanning type F
It includes an M radar device 1, an alarm generation device 2, a light emitting device 3 and a buzzer 4.

Multi-beam scanning FM radar device 1
Is as disclosed in the specification of Japanese Patent Application No. 6-137903 entitled "Multi-beam Radar Device" related to the applicant's earlier application. This radar device sequentially emits FM signal beams in a plurality of different directions in front of the vehicle, sequentially receives reflected waves of FM signal beams from an object existing in each direction, and mixes these with the original FM signal. Then, a beat signal is generated, and the frequency of the beat signal is detected to sequentially detect the distance to the object that generated the reflected wave in each direction.

The alarm generator 2 creates a history of the distance between the object and the vehicle detected in each direction and the changing speed (relative speed) of these distances, and analyzes the created history. It is determined whether or not each object has a risk of causing an accident in light of the running condition of the vehicle such as the distance between the vehicle and the vehicle or the relative speed, and if it is determined that there is such a risk, then In order to notify the driver to that effect, an alarm is generated by sounding and emitting a buzzer.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, the number of FM signal beams radiated in different directions is set to 5, and the detection area of the object relating to the directions is quantized into 5 areas centered on the respective FM signal beams. . Further, the distance R to the object is quantized into two regions, which are closer or farther than this, based on a predetermined threshold value Rth. That is, as shown in FIG. 4, five detection areas having different directions A to E are defined as near areas, and five detection areas having different directions F to J are defined as far areas. The alarm generation unit 2 causes the buzzer 4 to ring, and depending on where in the maximum 10 areas A to J the alarmed objects are present,
One or some of the maximum 10 light emitting elements a to j arranged on the light emitting device 3 corresponding to each of these maximum 10 regions are caused to emit light.

The light emitting device 3 in which ten light emitting elements a to j are arranged is arranged on a flat panel PN, as illustrated by using a side view (A) and a plan view (B) of FIG. It has a structure in which ten light emitting elements a to j are attached, and is arranged on the dashboard immediately below the windshield FG. Each of the 10 light emitting elements a to j is arranged on the panel PN so as to face the windshield FG, and an incident angle such that a reflected light beam due to the windshield FG is directed to the driver's face. The panel PN is mounted so that the mounting angle can be changed so that the panel PN can be irradiated with light.

As the light emitting element, an incandescent lamp, which is inexpensive in terms of cost reduction, may be used, and a high brightness light emitting diode may be used when a slight increase in cost can be tolerated. In particular, when an incandescent lamp of low brightness is used, the incident angle to the windshield FG is set to a value exceeding the critical angle in at least one of the horizontal plane and the vertical plane in order to increase the reflectance of the windshield FG. It

Each of the light emitting elements a to j has the characteristics shown in FIG.
The individual detection areas A to J are arranged so as to correspond to each other in terms of direction and have an opposite relationship to each other in terms of distance. The driver feels as if the light emitted from each light emitting element were incident from the direction indicated by the dotted line obtained by extending the reflected light. As shown in FIG. 1A, the reflected light that is incident substantially horizontally on the face alerts the driver to the distance, and the reflected light that is incident upwards alerts the driver to the vicinity.

Therefore, assuming that the field of view in front of the vehicle seen by the driver through the windshield is as illustrated in FIG. 2, some of a maximum of 10 light emitting elements a to j emit in this field of view. Some of the maximally 10 rays α to κ that have been captured will be observed. For example, if an alarm target object is present in one of the detection areas in the vicinity, the buzzer 4
Is transmitted to the driver by the ringing of, and it is determined in which region in the vicinity of such an object that such an object exists, the rays α to ε.
Is transmitted by lighting or blinking. Further, when an object to be alarmed exists in one of the distant detection areas, the fact that the buzzer 4 sounds is transmitted to the driver, and in which distant area such an object exists, the It is transmitted by lighting or blinking one of ζ to κ. As a result, the driver can recognize the object to be alarmed in an extremely short time, and the performance of the alarm system is significantly improved.

Although the case where the alarm system is used as the driving support system has been illustrated above, it is obvious that the present invention can be applied to other driving support systems such as a navigation system.

[0017]

As described above in detail, according to the vehicle driving support system of the present invention, the information transmitting means such as the alarm output device is provided with a simple arrangement of the light emitting elements and selectively emitting each light emitting element. Since it has a simple structure including the control means to operate, an inexpensive vehicle driving support system can be realized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view (A) and a plan view showing a positional relationship between a light emitting device (3) a windshield (FG) and a driver which constitutes an alarm generation system according to an embodiment of a driving support system of the present invention (a). B).

[FIG. 2] In the above embodiment, the driver is a windshield
FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of a positional relationship between a scene in front of the own vehicle observed through (FG) and reflected light (α to κ) of a light emitting element superimposed on the scene.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an alarm generation system of the above embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of a method of dividing an object detection area by the multi-beam scanning FM radar of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

FG Windshield a to j Light emitting device 3 Light emitting device 2 Alarm generator 1 Multi-beam FM radar device 4 Speaker α to κ Reflected light of light emitting device a to j A to B Front of the vehicle divided into 10 according to direction and distance Object detection area

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An object information detecting means for detecting information on an object in a space in front of a vehicle, a transmission information detecting means for detecting transmission information to be transmitted to a driver from the detected object information, and this transmission. In a vehicle driving support system including an information transmitting unit that transmits information to a driver, the information transmitting unit is arranged so as to face a windshield, and a light ray reflected by the windshield is incident on a driver's face. A plurality of light irradiating means for irradiating the windshield with light at an angle, and detecting the position occupied by the object information which is the basis of the detected transmission information in the driver's visual field, and among the light irradiating means, A driving assistance system for a vehicle, comprising: means for selectively operating an extension of the reflected light from the windshield that passes through the position closest to the detected position. 2. The vehicle driving support system according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of light irradiating means are arranged so that extension lines of the reflected light indicate one of a distance and a vicinity in each direction. . 3. The vehicle driving assistance system according to claim 1, wherein the incident angle with respect to the windshield is set to a value exceeding a critical angle. 4. The vehicle display device according to claim 1, wherein the information detection means is an FM radar device.