JPH09128697A - Circumferential state monitor device for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the influence of noise such as engine sound, and collect sounds in necessary directions and improve the judging precision for the circumferential state of a vehicle by providing a selecting means which selects a sound collecting means and a judging means which judges the circumferential state of the vehicle according to the sounds gathered by the selected sound collecting means. SOLUTION: A microphone switching part 5 for sound collection selects microphone pairs 1-4 to be used according to the judged result of a travel state judging part 9 and supplies the output signals of the selected microphone pairs to a vehicle discriminating part 10. The vehicle discriminating part 10 discriminates whether or not another vehicle is present or approaching according to the inputted sound signals and inputs the result to an alarm part 11. The alarm part 11 warns the driver with, for example, a synthesized voice when it is judged that the car is approaching. Thus, the circumferential state is judged according to the sounds collected by the selected microphone pairs according to the travel state of the vehicle, so the influence of noise is reduced and the judging precision of the circumferential state of the vehicle can be improved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle surrounding condition monitoring apparatus for informing an occupant of the presence or approach of another vehicle by collecting sounds around the vehicle and detecting a traveling sound of the other vehicle. Regarding

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A device which detects a sound around a vehicle, determines whether or not another vehicle is approaching based on the detected sound, and gives a warning to a driver has been known (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-62160). -1
No. 75239, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 5-92767).

[0003]

However, in the device described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 175239/1987, sound is collected by a single microphone. Therefore, depending on the installation position of the microphone, a wind noise or an engine of the vehicle. It may be easier to pick up sound, and it may not be possible to accurately determine the surrounding situation (approach of another vehicle). Further, for example, if a microphone is installed in the rear part of the vehicle to make it difficult to pick up wind noise, it becomes difficult to pick up the sound in front of the vehicle and the detection accuracy of other vehicles approaching from the front (or diagonally front) is reduced.

On the other hand, in the device described in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 5-92767, two microphones are used to detect the direction of another vehicle approaching. However, two microphones are used to detect the direction. At the same time, no consideration was given to how to use the microphone to reduce the effects of wind noise and own vehicle engine noise. This device employs a method of making a judgment by attenuating the low-frequency region and the high-frequency region with a bandpass filter in order to remove noise, but this technique also attenuates the signals necessary for the judgment, and There was a risk that the accuracy would be reduced.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned points, and reduces the influence of noise such as wind noise and own vehicle engine sound, and reliably collects sound in the necessary direction to determine the surrounding conditions of the vehicle. An object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle surrounding condition monitoring device that can improve the determination accuracy.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention detects a traveling state of the vehicle and sound collecting means provided at a plurality of places of the vehicle for collecting sounds around the vehicle. A traveling state detecting means, a selecting means for selecting the sound collecting means in accordance with the detected traveling state, and a judging means for judging the surrounding condition of the vehicle based on the sound collected by the selected sound collecting means. There is provided a vehicle surrounding condition monitoring device having:

Further, the sound collecting means is provided at least in front of and behind the vehicle, the traveling state detecting means detects a vehicle speed, and the selecting means selects the front and rear sound collecting means according to the detected vehicle speed. It is desirable to do.

The sound collecting means is provided at least on the left and right sides of the vehicle, the running state detecting means detects the operating state of the blinker, and the selecting means detects the operating state of the blinker according to the detected operating state of the blinker. It is desirable to select the sound collecting means.

The vehicle further includes a navigation system that detects the current position of the vehicle and provides information to the occupants, and the running state detecting means detects road information during running based on information from the navigation system. It is desirable that the selecting unit selects the sound collecting unit according to the detected road information.

According to the present invention, the sound collecting means provided at a plurality of positions of the vehicle are selected according to the traveling state of the vehicle, and the ambient condition is determined based on the sound collected by the selected sound collecting means. To be judged.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a vehicle surrounding condition monitoring apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, 1 to 4 are sets of microphones (hereinafter referred to as "microphone pairs") installed in the right front part, the left front part, the right rear part and the left rear part of the vehicle as shown in FIG. The microphone pair 1 is arranged in the right front part of the vehicle in order to collect the sound from the front right of the vehicle, and is provided in the vicinity of the right front end part of the roof of the vehicle and the microphone 1a provided near the right front part of the vehicle. It is composed of the microphone 1b. The microphone pair 2 is arranged in the left front part of the vehicle in order to collect the sound from the left front of the vehicle, and is provided in the vicinity of the left front end part of the roof of the vehicle and the microphone 2a provided in the left front most part of the vehicle. It is composed of a microphone 2b. The microphone pair 3 is arranged in the right rear part of the vehicle in order to collect the sound from the right rear of the vehicle, and is provided in the vicinity of the microphone 3a provided near the right rearmost part of the vehicle and the right rear end part of the roof of the vehicle. The microphone 3b is provided. Microphone pair 4
Is arranged in the left rear part of the vehicle in order to collect the sound from the left rear of the vehicle, and is provided in the vicinity of the left rear end part of the vehicle roof and the microphone 4a provided in the leftmost part of the vehicle. And a microphone 4b. Microphone pair 1-4
Is connected to the sound collecting microphone switching unit 5, and the voice signal converted into an electric signal by the microphone pairs 1 to 4 is input to the sound collecting microphone switching unit 5.

A running state discriminating section 9 for discriminating the traveling state of the vehicle is connected to the sound collecting microphone switching section 5,
The traveling state determination unit 9 indicates the traveling speed (vehicle speed) V of the vehicle.
A vehicle speed sensor 6 for detecting a turn signal, a turn signal switch 7 for switching the operation of a turn signal, and a navigation system 8 for detecting the current position of the vehicle and providing information to an occupant.
Is connected. The navigation system 8 uses the road information of the traveling position of the vehicle and its vicinity (for example, information that the vehicle is approaching an intersection or traveling on an expressway).
Is supplied to the traveling state determination unit 9.

The sound collection microphone switching section 5 selects a microphone pair to be used according to the discrimination result of the traveling state discrimination section 9, and supplies the output signal of the selected microphone pair to the vehicle discrimination section 10. The vehicle determination unit 10 determines the presence or approach of another vehicle based on the input audio signal, and outputs the result to the alarm unit 1.
Enter 1 When it is determined that another vehicle is approaching, the alarm unit 11 gives a warning to the driver by, for example, synthesized voice.

Note that the sound collection microphone switching unit 5, the traveling state determination unit 9, and the vehicle determination unit 10 are actually a central processing unit (CPU) and a ROM that stores a program executed by the CPU, and the CPU is operated by the CPU. It is configured by an electronic control unit including a RAM to be used and an interface circuit with other components.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing a procedure of processing for realizing the functions of the sound collecting microphone switching section 5 and the traveling state judging section 9, and this processing is actually executed by the CPU.

In the figure, in step S1, it is judged whether or not the detected vehicle speed V is a set value VREF (for example, 40 km / h) or more. When V <VREF, microphone pairs 1 and 2 are selected (step S2). ). This is because when the vehicle speed V is low, the wind noise and the engine sound of the own vehicle are relatively small, and therefore even if the microphone pairs 1 and 2 are selected, their influence is small. Further, as shown in FIG. 4 (a), when an intersection such as a T-shaped road is approached, the vehicle speed becomes low, and the vehicle travels from the right front (side) or the left front (side) of the vehicle. This is because it is necessary to detect the approaching vehicle 30 or 40. In the figure (a), 20 is the own vehicle, 30 and 40 are other vehicles, and the shaded parts 51 and 5
Reference numeral 2 indicates a range in which sound can be collected by the microphone pairs 1 and 2, respectively.

When V ≧ VREF, the operation of the blinker switch 7 for indicating the rightward course change (hereinafter referred to as “rightward operation”, similarly, for indicating the leftward course change). It is determined whether or not the operation is referred to as "leftward operation" (step S3), and the answer is affirmative (YE).
In the case of S), the microphone pair 3 is selected (step S
4). On the other hand, when the winker switch 7 is not operated in the right direction, it is determined whether or not the left direction is operated (step S5). When the answer is affirmative (YES), the microphone pair 4 is selected (step S6). When the winker switch 7 is not operated, the process immediately returns to step S1.

When the turn signal switch 7 is operated when the vehicle speed is high, it is considered that the driver intends to change the lane. Therefore, as shown in FIGS. 4 (b) and 4 (c), the turn signal switch 7 is selected. Is operated to the right, by selecting the microphone pair 3, it is possible to reliably detect the other vehicle 30 approaching from the right rear, and the turn signal switch 7
Is operated to the left, the other vehicle 40 approaching from the right rear can be reliably detected by selecting the microphone pair 4. Further, by selecting the microphone pair provided at the rear part of the vehicle, it is possible to reduce the influence of the wind noise and the engine sound of the own vehicle and improve the determination accuracy. In addition, in FIGS. 2B and 2C, hatched portions 53 and 54 indicate the sound collection ranges of the microphone pairs 3 and 4, respectively.

Although not shown in the flow chart of FIG. 3, according to the information from the navigation system 8,
For example, when the traveling state discrimination unit 9 discriminates road information such as approaching an intersection such as a T-shaped road or traveling on a highway, and when, for example, a T-shaped road is approached according to the road information. Alternatively, the microphone pair selection processing may be performed such that the microphone pairs 1 and 2 are selected and the microphone pair 3 or 4 is selected during traveling on the highway. This processing may be executed instead of the processing based on the vehicle speed V and the blinker switch operation described above, or may be executed in combination. By combining them, it is possible to improve the detection accuracy of the traveling state of the vehicle.

Further, the processing in the vehicle discriminating unit 10 extracts a characteristic of an electric signal corresponding to a collected sound and stores the extracted characteristic in advance as shown in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-175239. The sound source of the collected sound is determined based on the similarity with the characteristics of the various sound sources. This makes it possible to detect the sound emitted by the other vehicle and accurately determine the approach.

Further, in the present embodiment, the microphone pair provided in each part of the vehicle is selected. Therefore, based on the outputs of the respective microphones forming the pair, the actual flat panel 5-92 is used.
As shown in Japanese Patent No. 767, the direction of the approaching vehicle may be detected.

Note that one microphone may be installed in each of the right front portion, the left front portion, the right rear portion, and the left rear portion of the vehicle, and the microphone pair selection method described above may be applied to the selection of one microphone.

[0025]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, the sound collecting means provided at a plurality of locations of the vehicle are selected according to the running state of the vehicle, and the sound is collected by the selected sound collecting means. Since the surrounding conditions are judged based on the sound that is generated, the influence of noise such as wind noise and own vehicle engine sound is reduced, and the sound in the necessary direction is reliably collected to improve the accuracy of the vehicle surroundings judgment. Can be made.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a vehicle surrounding condition monitoring apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a mounting position of a microphone.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a process of selecting a set of microphones.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a positional relationship between a sound collection range of a microphone and another vehicle.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 to 4 Microphone set (microphone pair) 5 Sound collection microphone switching section 6 Vehicle speed sensor 7 Turn signal switch 8 Navigation system 9 Running state determination section

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Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A sound collecting unit that is provided at a plurality of locations of a vehicle and that collects a sound around the vehicle, a traveling state detecting unit that detects a traveling state of the vehicle, and a traveling state detecting unit that detects the traveling state of the vehicle. An ambient condition monitoring device for a vehicle, comprising: a selection unit that selects the sound collection unit; and a determination unit that determines the ambient condition of the vehicle based on the sound collected by the selected sound collection unit. 2. The sound collecting means is provided at least before and after the vehicle, the traveling state detecting means detects a vehicle speed, and the selecting means selects front and rear sound collecting means according to the detected vehicle speed. The ambient condition monitoring device for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The sound collecting means is provided at least on the left and right of the vehicle, the traveling state detecting means detects an operating state of a blinker, and the selecting means detects the operating state of the blinker according to the detected operating state of the blinker. 2. The vehicle surrounding condition monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sound collecting means is selected. 4. A navigation system is provided which detects the current position of the vehicle and provides information to an occupant, and the traveling state detection means detects road information during traveling based on information from the navigation system, The vehicle surrounding condition monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the selection unit selects the sound collection unit according to the detected road information.