Collision warning system

1. A method of estimating a time-to-collision (TTC) of a vehicle with an object using a system including a camera and a processor mountable in a motor vehicle the method comprising:

acquiring from the camera a plurality of images of the object at known time intervals;

determining a relative scale of the object in the images;

determining a function of relative velocity and relative acceleration between the vehicle and the object from the relative scale and die time intervals; and

determining the time-to-collision (TTC) based on the function of the relative velocity and the relative acceleration.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said relative scale includes a ratio between respective dimensions of a feature of the object in different images of the plurality of the images.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the relative velocity and relative acceleration are determined from data from the images.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein said determining the relative scale and said determining the time-to-collision are performed while avoiding a real-space distance measurement to the object and while avoiding a real-space dimension measurement of the object.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein only data from the images are used for said determining the time-to-collision (TTC).

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

alerting a driver of the vehicle to a possible collision of the vehicle with the object responsive to the TTC.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining whether the vehicle and the object are on a course that leads to a collision at the TTC.

8. A system for estimating a time-to-collision collision, the system including a camera and a processor mountable in a motor vehicle, the system operable to:

acquire from the camera a plurality of images of the object at known time intervals;

determine a relative scale of the object in the images;

determine a function of relative velocity and relative acceleration between the vehicle and the object from the relative scale and the time intervals; and

determine the time-to-collision (TTC) based on the function relative velocity and the relative acceleration.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein said relative scale includes a ratio between respective dimensions of a feature of the object in different images of the plurality of the images.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the relative velocity and relative acceleration are determined from data from the images.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the camera is a single camera.

12. The system of claim 8 , further comprising;

an alarm apparatus operatively connected to the processor, wherein said alarm apparatus is configured based on the TTC, to alert a driver of the vehicle of a possible collision of the vehicle with the object.

13. A system for alerting a driver to a possible collision with an object, the system comprising:

a camera and a processor mountable in a motor vehicle, the system operable to:

acquire a plurality of images of the object at known time intervals;

determine the time-to-collision (TTC) based on data from the images and the time intervals; and

determine motion of at least two features of the object relative to the vehicle from the images; and

determine from the relative motions at the time-to-collision, if the real space horizontal coordinates of said at least two features straddle the real-space horizontal coordinate of at least a part of the vehicle.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the system is operable to:

determine a relative scale of the object in the images;

determine a function of relative velocity between the vehicle and object from the relative scale and the time intervals; and

determine the time-to-collision (TCC) based on the function of the relative velocity.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein the system is operable to:

determine a relative scale of the object in the images;

determine a function of relative velocity and relative acceleration between the vehicle and the object from the relative scale and the time intervals; and

determine the time-to-collision (TTC) based on the function of the relative velocity and the relative acceleration.