# US 10,504,371 B2 · Drive assist apparatus and drive assist system

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- Number: US 10,504,371 B2
- Document ID: US10504371B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 16/168,375
- Filed: 2018-10-23
- Published: 2019-05-02
- Granted: 2019-12-10
- Earliest claimed: 2017-10-26
- Assignees: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
- Applicants: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
- Inventors: Takashige Hori; Makoto Akahane
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10504371B2

## CPC

- G08G 1/166: {for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes}
- B60Q 9/008: {for anti-collision purposes}
- B60R 11/04: Mounting of cameras operative during drive; Arrangement of controls thereof relative to the vehicle
- B60W 30/0956: {the prediction being responsive to traffic or environmental parameters}
- B60W 50/14: Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention
- G06T 7/75: {involving models}
- G06V 20/58: Recognition of moving objects or obstacles, e.g. vehicles or pedestrians; Recognition of traffic objects, e.g. traffic signs, traffic lights or roads
- G06V 40/103: {Static body considered as a whole, e.g. static pedestrian or occupant recognition}
- G06V 40/23: {Recognition of whole body movements, e.g. for sport training}
- G06V 40/28: {Recognition of hand or arm movements, e.g. recognition of deaf sign language (static hand signs G06V40/113)}
- G07C 5/0866: {the electronic data carrier being a digital video recorder in combination with video camera}
- B60R 2300/8093: for obstacle warning
- B60W 2050/143: {Alarm means}
- B60W 2050/146: {Display means}
- B60W 2420/403: Image sensing, e.g. optical camera
- B60W 2556/45: External transmission of data to or from the vehicle
- G08G: TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS (guiding railway traffic, ensuring the safety of railway traffic B61L; arrangement of road signs or traffic signals E01F9/00; radar or analogous systems, sonar systems, lidar systems specially adapted for traffic control G01S13/91, G01S15/88, G01S17/88; {radar or analogous systems, sonar systems, lidar systems specially adapted for anti-collision purposes G01S13/93, G01S15/93, G01S17/93})
- B60Q: ARRANGEMENT OF SIGNALLING OR LIGHTING DEVICES, THE MOUNTING OR SUPPORTING THEREOF OR CIRCUITS THEREFOR, FOR VEHICLES IN GENERAL
- B60R: VEHICLES, VEHICLE FITTINGS, OR VEHICLE PARTS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- B60W: CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE OR DIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TO THE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT
- G06T: IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL
- G06V: IMAGE OR VIDEO RECOGNITION OR UNDERSTANDING
- G07C: TIME OR ATTENDANCE REGISTERS; REGISTERING OR INDICATING THE WORKING OF MACHINES; GENERATING RANDOM NUMBERS; VOTING OR LOTTERY APPARATUS; ARRANGEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS FOR CHECKING NOT PROVIDED FOR ELSEWHERE

## Abstract

A drive assist system according to an aspect of the present invention comprises: an image analysis unit that analyzes an image captured by a forward-shooting camera mounted on a vehicle and identifies, when recognizing a person performing an action in a direction toward an obstacle located so as to face a traffic lane ahead of the vehicle and an object moving toward the traffic lane ahead of the vehicle from a rear of the obstacle, a combination of the recognized action of the person and the recognized object as a type of dangerous scene; a storage unit that stores dangerous scene type information related to the identified type of dangerous scene; a judgment unit that judges whether or not there is an action of a person included in the dangerous scene type information stored in the storage unit which is similar to the action of the person recognized based on the image captured by the camera; a drive assist unit that assists driving by alerting a driver by notifying the driver that an object included in dangerous scene type information which has been judged as including a similar action of a person is likely to appear in the traffic lane ahead of the vehicle.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A drive assist apparatus mounted on a vehicle, comprising:
a transmission unit that transmits an image captured by a forward-shooting camera mounted on the vehicle to a server;
a receiving unit that receives dangerous scene type information from the server, the dangerous scene type information being related to a type of dangerous scene consisting of a combination of a person who performs an action in a direction toward an obstacle located so as to face a traffic lane ahead of the vehicle and an object moving from a rear of the obstacle toward the traffic lane ahead of the vehicle, the action of the person and the object having been recognized by analyzing the image;
a storage unit that stores the received dangerous scene type information;
a judgment unit that judges whether or not there is an action of a person included in the dangerous scene type information stored in the storage unit which is similar to the action of the person recognized based on the image captured by the camera; and
a drive assist unit that assists driving by, when the judgment unit judges that there is a similar action of a person, alerting a driver by notifying the driver that an object included in dangerous scene type information which has been judged as including the similar action of a person is likely to appear in the traffic lane ahead of the vehicle.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The drive assist apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the receiving unit receives the dangerous scene type information transmitted from the server at least one of: each time the dangerous scene type information is stored in the server; and/or at predetermined intervals.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The drive assist apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the person performing an action toward the obstacle is at least one of a person waving one's hand toward the obstacle and/or a person turning one's gaze or face toward the obstacle.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The drive assist apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the drive assist unit alerts the driver at least one of: by outputting a voice message from a speaker; and/or by displaying on a display a message constituted by an image including characters.

### Claim 5

A drive assist system, comprising:
an image analysis unit that analyzes an image captured by a forward-shooting camera mounted on a vehicle and identifies, when recognizing a person performing an action in a direction toward an obstacle located so as to face a traffic lane ahead of the vehicle and an object moving toward the traffic lane ahead of the vehicle from a rear of the obstacle, a combination of the recognized action of a person and the recognized object as a type of dangerous scene;
a storage unit that stores dangerous scene type information related to the identified type of dangerous scene;
a judgment unit that judges whether or not there is an action of a person included in the dangerous scene type information stored in the storage unit which is similar to the action of the person recognized based on the image captured by the camera; and
a drive assist unit that assists driving by, when the judgment unit judges that there is a similar action of a person, alerting a driver by notifying the driver that the object in the dangerous scene type information which has been judged as including the similar action of a person is likely to appear in the traffic lane ahead of the vehicle.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The drive assist system according to claim 5, wherein the person performing an action toward the obstacle is at least one of a person waving one's hand toward the obstacle and/or a person turning one's gaze or face toward the obstacle.

### Claim 7 (depends on 5)

The drive assist system according to claim 5, wherein the drive assist unit alerts the driver at least one of: by outputting a voice message from a speaker; and/or by displaying on a display a message constituted by an image including characters.