# US 2014/0197940 A1 · Obstacle alert device

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- Number: US 2014/0197940 A1
- Document ID: US20140197940A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 14/237,459
- Filed: 2011-11-01
- Published: 2014-07-17
- Earliest claimed: 2011-11-01
- Assignees: Aisin Seiki Kabushiki Kaisha
- Inventors: Tetsuya Maruoka; Akira Kadoya; Keigo Ikeda
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20140197940A1

## CPC

- G06V 20/52: Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects (recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69)
- B60R 1/26: to the rear of the vehicle
- G06V 20/53: {Recognition of crowd images, e.g. recognition of crowd congestion}
- G08G 1/166: {for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes}
- B60R 2300/307: virtually distinguishing relevant parts of a scene from the background of the scene
- B60R 2300/806: for aiding parking
- B60R 2300/8093: for obstacle warning
- G06V: IMAGE OR VIDEO RECOGNITION OR UNDERSTANDING
- B60R: VEHICLES, VEHICLE FITTINGS, OR VEHICLE PARTS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- 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})

## Abstract

An obstacle alert device is capable of indicating clearly presence of an obstacle approaching a vehicle to a driver, without impairing visibility of a peripheral situation of the vehicle. The device includes a photographed image acquisition section acquiring a photographed image photographing a scene in the periphery of the vehicle, a photographed-image-of-interest generation section generating a photographed image of interest based on the photographed image, a masked region setting section setting a masked region making undisplayed at least a portion of the scene of the vehicle periphery in the photographed image of interest, an object presence determination section determining whether an object is present or not in an outside region outside the photographed image of interest, and a masked-region highlighted-displaying section causing the masked region to be displayed with highlight when an object in the outside region has entered a region corresponding to the photographed image of interest.

## Claims

### Claim 1

An obstacle alert device comprising:
a photographed image acquisition section acquiring a photographed image photographing a scene in the periphery of the vehicle;
a photographed-image-of-interest generation section generating a photographed image of interest based on the photographed image;
a masked region setting section setting a masked region making undisplayed at least a portion of the scene of the vehicle periphery in the photographed image of interest;
an object presence determination section determining whether an object is present or not in an outside region outside the photographed image of interest; and
a masked-region highlighted-displaying section causing the masked region to be displayed with highlight when an object in the outside region has entered a region corresponding to the photographed image of interest.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The obstacle alert device according to claim 1, wherein the highlighted displaying comprises a flashing displaying.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The obstacle alert device according to claim 1, wherein the masked region is set at an upper portion of the monitoring screen.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The obstacle alert device according to claim 1, wherein the masked-region highlighted-displaying section stops the highlighted displaying of the masked region if the object has exited the region corresponding to the photographed image of interest.