# US 9,436,881 B2 · Apparatus for predicting turns of a vehicle

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- Number: US 9,436,881 B2
- Document ID: US9436881B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 14/343,617
- Filed: 2012-09-07
- Published: 2015-01-15
- Granted: 2016-09-06
- Earliest claimed: 2011-09-09
- Assignees: Denso Corporation
- Applicants: Koji Imaeda
- Inventors: Koji Imaeda
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US9436881B2

## CPC

- G06V 20/584: {of vehicle lights or traffic lights}
- B60W 30/095: Predicting travel path or likelihood of collision
- B60W 40/072: Curvature of the road
- G08G 1/166: {for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes}
- G08G 1/167: {Driving aids for lane monitoring, lane changing, e.g. blind spot detection}
- B60W 2420/403: Image sensing, e.g. optical camera
- G06V: IMAGE OR VIDEO RECOGNITION OR UNDERSTANDING
- 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
- 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 apparatus predicts a turn of a vehicle based on a picked-up image of a forward view of the vehicle. The forward view is imaged by an on-vehicle sensor to repeatedly acquire images. The acquired images include position coordinate information of a light source and information indicating whether the light source is a light source of a preceding vehicle or a light source of an oncoming vehicle. Based on such information, it is determined whether or not the light source is a light source of an oncoming vehicle newly appeared in the images and the light source is in a predetermined area near the left end or in a predetermined area near the right end in the images. When the determination result is affirmative, it is determined that there is a curve in the traveling direction of the vehicle.

## Claims

### Claim 1

An apparatus for predicting a turn of a vehicle on a basis of viewing field information indicating a viewing field in a forward direction of the vehicle, the viewing field information being acquired from a sensor installed in the vehicle, the apparatus comprising:
an information acquiring unit acquiring position information on a position coordinate of a surrounding object of the vehicle on the basis of the viewing field information, the surrounding object being present in the viewing field, and surrounding-object information indicating whether the surrounding object is a preceding vehicle or an oncoming vehicle;
a determining unit determining whether or not the surrounding object is an oncoming vehicle and the surrounding object is in a predetermined area on the left side or in a predetermined area on the right side in a detection range of the viewing field, on the basis of the surrounding-object information acquired by the information acquiring unit; and
a predicting unit predicting that there is a curve in a traveling direction of the vehicle when a determination result of the determining unit is affirmative and predicts there is no possible turn of the vehicle when a determination result of the determining unit is negative; wherein
the sensor is configured to repeatedly acquire a picked-up image as the viewing field information by picking up an image in a forward direction of the vehicle;
the information acquiring unit is configured to repeatedly acquire a position coordinate of a light source in a picked-up image that is repeatedly acquired by the sensor, source information indicating whether the light source is a light source of a preceding vehicle or a light source of an oncoming vehicle, and a distance from the light source to the vehicle, as the surrounding-object information, on the basis of the picked-up image;
the determining unit is configured to determine whether or not a distance from the light source to the vehicle is not less than a specified distance, the light source is a light source of an oncoming vehicle that has newly appeared in the picked-up image, and the light source is in a predetermined area near the left end or in a predetermined area near the right end in the picked-up image, on the basis of the repeatedly acquired surrounding-object information; and
the predicting unit is configured to determine there is a left-hand curve in a traveling direction of the vehicle on the bass of the fact that the light source is in the predetermined area near the left end in the picked-up image, and determine there is a right-hand curve in a traveling direction of the vehicle on the basis of the fact that the light source is in the predetermined area near the right end in the picked-up image, when a determination result of the determining unit is affirmative.