Vehicle driver assist system
View Patent ↗A driver assist system is provided that generates a video signal representing a vehicle environment outside a vehicle. At least one feature is extracted from the video signal. A reference is selected from a plurality of reference features stored as location attributes in a map database. The extracted feature is compared to at least one reference feature. An object in the vehicle environment is identified based on the comparison of the extracted feature and the reference feature. An indication is provided to a driver of the vehicle on the basis of the identified object. In one example, the system includes a video capturing device, an indicating device, a vehicle-based processing resource and access to a map database server. Processing tasks may be distributed among the vehicle-based processing resource and an external processing resource.
1. A method for assisting a driver comprising:
generating a video signal representing a vehicle environment outside a vehicle;
transmitting a first data signal from the vehicle to an external data processing resource, the first data signal including at least location data of the vehicle;
transmitting a second data signal from the external data processing resource to the vehicle, the second data signal indicating at least one reference feature selected by the external data processing resource in response to the transmitted location data from a plurality of reference features which are stored as location attributes in a map database;
comparing, by a vehicle-based data processing resource, at least one feature extracted from the video signal to the at least one reference feature;
identifying an object in the vehicle environment on the basis of the comparison of the at least one feature extracted from the video signal and the reference feature; and
providing an indication to a driver of the vehicle on the basis of the identified object.
2. The method of claim 1 where the second data signal includes video data or audio data to be indicated to the driver.
3. The method of claim 1 where the external data processing resource communicates with a plurality of vehicles.
4. The method of claim 3 where the external data processing resource correlates features extracted from video signals of different vehicles.
5. The method of claim 1 where the external data processing resource communicates with the vehicle via an Internet-based communication channel.
6. The method of claim 1 where the at least one feature extracted from the video signal and the reference features correspond to a transformation-invariant feature representation.
7. A driver assist device for mounting in a vehicle comprising:
a vehicle-based video capturing device configured to generate a video signal representing a vehicle environment outside the vehicle;
a vehicle-based transmitter for transmitting a first data signal to an external data processing resource, the first data signal indicating at least location data of the vehicle;
a vehicle-based receiver for receiving a second data signal from the external data processing resource, the second data signal indicating at least one reference feature selected by the external data processing resource in response to the transmitted location data from a plurality of reference features which are stored as location attributes in a map database;
a vehicle-based data processing resource configured to perform a comparison between at least one feature extracted from the video signal and the reference feature to identify an object in the vehicle environment; and
an indication device configured to provide an indication to a driver of the vehicle on the basis of the object identified in the vehicle environment.
8. The driver assist device of claim 7 where the second data signal includes video data or audio data to be indicated to the driver.
9. The driver assist device of claim 7 where the object data include coordinates, dimensions, and/or an identifier of the identified object.