Driving assistance apparatus and driving assistance method

A method for assisting a driver of a vehicle in driving the vehicle, comprising:

• recognizing a road sign from an image captured by a vehicle-mounted imager;
• notifying the driver of the vehicle of road sign information representing the road sign recognized;
• determining whether a turn indicator has been activated;
• determining whether a speed of the vehicle has decreased to below a predetermined speed;
• determining a presence of a turning action of the vehicle solely in response to determining that both the turn indicator has been activated and the speed of the vehicle has decreased to below a predetermined speed;
• and
• in response to determining the presence of the turning action of the vehicle, withholding notifying the driver of the vehicle of the road sign information representing the road sign recognized within a period of time from when the presence of the turning action of the vehicle is determined, the period of time determined based on a steering angle of the vehicle in which the steering angle of the vehicle is equal to or less than a threshold.

An apparatus for assisting a driver of a vehicle in driving the vehicle, comprising:

• a processor;
• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium;
• and
• a set of computer-executable instructions stored on the computer-readable storage medium that cause the processor to implement:
• obtaining a road sign signal representing a road sign recognized from an image captured by a vehicle-mounted imager;
• outputting a notifying signal to a notifier for notifying the driver of the vehicle of the road sign represented by the road sign signal;
• determining whether a turn indicator has been activated;
• determining whether a speed of the vehicle has decreased to below a predetermined speed;
• determine a presence of a turning action of the vehicle solely in response to both determining that both the turn indicator has been activated and the speed of the vehicle has decreased to below a predetermined speed;
• and
• wherein the processor withholds notifying the driver of the vehicle of the road sign represented by the road sign signal within a period of time from when the presence of the turning action of the vehicle is determined, the period of time determined based on a steering angle of the vehicle in which a steering angle of the vehicle is equal to or less than a threshold.