US 2010/0164706 A1Published application

System and method for detecting surrounding environment

AssigneeIndustrial Technology Research Institute

InventorsShan-Chuan JENG, Hsieh-Tai SU, Long-Tai CHEN, Chih-Che LIN

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Abstract

A system and method applicable to a vehicle for detecting a surrounding environment are provided. The system and method include installing primary and secondary display units in a vehicle; installing a plurality of detectors of various types around the vehicle; detecting obstacles around the vehicle using the plurality of different detectors; generating and outputting first detector data to be received by a primary control module; generating second detector data by integrating data to generate and transmit a primary warning message including vehicle positional information relative to the obstacle and a secondary warning message comprising obstacle positional information to the primary and secondary display units respectively for display. The system and method enable accurate detection of an obstacle via the warning messages and improved driving safety, using detectors with functions different from and complementary to one another.

Claims35

Dependent claims

A system applicable to a vehicle for detecting a surrounding environment, comprising:

a primary display unit disposed in the vehicle;
a plurality of secondary display units disposed in the vehicle and corresponding in direction to obstacles to be detected;
a plurality of different types of detectors disposed around the vehicle for detecting positions of the obstacles around the vehicle and relative to the detectors, generating and outputting first detector data according to the positions detected;
and
a primary control module electrically connected to the primary display unit, the secondary display units and the detectors, and configured for receiving the first detector data, performing data fusion on the first detector data received so as to generate second detector data, generating primary warning messages including positional information of a center of the vehicle relative to the obstacles and secondary warning messages including positional information of the obstacles according to the second detector data, sending the primary warning messages to the primary display unit to display the primary warning messages thereon, and sending the secondary warning messages to the secondary display units corresponding thereto, respectively, to display the secondary warning messages thereon according to the positional information of the obstacles,
wherein the data fusion is performed to convert the positional information of the obstacles relative to the detectors and comprised in the first detector data into the positional information of the obstacles relative to the center of the vehicle.

3 more elements

A method for detecting a surrounding environment for a vehicle, wherein the vehicle is equipped with primary control module, a plurality of different types of detectors, a primary display unit, and a plurality of secondary display units respectively electrically connected to the primary control module, wherein the secondary display units are disposed in the vehicle at positions corresponding to directions of obstacles to be detected, the method comprising the steps of:

detecting by the detectors positions of obstacles around the vehicle and relative to the detectors, generating and outputting by the detectors first detector data according to the detected positions of obstacles;
receiving the first detector data by the primary control module, performing data fusion on the first detector data by the primary control module to generate second detector data, wherein the data fusion is performed to convert positional information of the obstacles relative to positions of the detector into that relative to a center of the vehicle;
generating, according to the second detector data, primary warning messages comprising the positional information of the obstacles relative to a center of the vehicle, and secondary warning messages comprising the positional information of the obstacles;
and
transmitting the primary warning messages to the primary display unit, and transmitting the secondary warning messages to the second display unit.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.