Object collision warning system and method for a motor vehicle

#This application claims priority to European Patent Application No. 10000685.7, filed Jan. 25, 2010 and PCT/SE2010/051459, filed Dec. 22, 2010.

#The invention relates to an object collision warning system for a motor vehicle of the type having a sensing means adapted to sense a surrounding of the motor vehicle and a processing means, said processing means being adapted to detect objects in a surrounding of the motor vehicle by processing a signal provided by said sensing means, to perform an estimation of a collision probability between the vehicle and the detected object, and to output a warning signal in case the collision probability is non-negligible. The invention relates furthermore to a corresponding object collision warning method.

#US 2005 0225477 A1 discloses a vehicle collision warning system comprising a road curvature estimation subsystem for estimating the curvature of the roadway using measurements from host vehicle motion sensors, a target state estimation subsystem for estimating the state of a target vehicle on the basis of a radar measurement, and a control subsystem for determining whether or not the host vehicle is at risk of collision with the target, and if so, for determining and effecting corresponding action.

#In the following the invention shall be illustrated on the basis of preferred embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

#FIG. 1 shows in diagrammatic form a safety system for a motor vehicle;

#FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram explaining the prediction of the forthcoming vehicle path; and

#The safety/vision system 10 is mounted in a motor vehicle and comprises an imaging means 11 for recording images of a region surrounding the motor vehicle, for example a region in front of the motor vehicle. Preferably the imaging means 11 comprises one or more optical and/or infrared imaging devices 12a, 12b, in particular cameras, where infrared covers near IR with wavelengths below 5 microns and/or far IR with wavelengths beyond 5 microns. Preferably the imaging means 11 comprises a plurality of imaging devices 12a, 12b in particular forming a stereo imaging means 11; alternatively only one imaging device forming a mono imaging means can be used.

#The imaging means 11 is preferably coupled to an image pre-processor 13 adapted to control the capture of images by the imaging means 11, receive the electrical signal containing the image information from the image sensors 12a, 12b, warp pairs of left/right images into alignment and create disparity images, which per se is known in the art. The image pre-processor 13 may be realized by a dedicated hardware circuit. Alternatively the pre-processor 13, or part of its functions, can be realized in the electronic processing means 14.

#The pre-processed image data is then provided to an electronic processing means 14 where image and data processing is carried out by corresponding software. In particular, possible objects surrounding the motor vehicle, such as pedestrians, other vehicles, bicyclists or large animals, are identified, which preferably includes classification and verification steps. The position of identified objects in the recorded images is tracked over time. Information relating to an identified object is preferably displayed to the driver on a display means 19.