Vehicle-onboard driving lane recognizing apparatus

Abstract

A vehicle-onboard driving lane recognizing apparatus of a small scale includes an image pick-up unit ( 1 ) mounted on a motor vehicle for picking up images of scenes making appearance in front of the motor vehicle, an image data selecting unit ( 2 ) for selecting image data only of a predetermined region from the image picked up by the image pick-up unit ( 1 ), an image data storing unit ( 3 ) for storing the image data, and a driving lane recognizing unit ( 4 ) for detecting lane markings ( 21 ) on the road from the image data stored in the image data storing unit ( 3 ) to thereby recognize a driving lane extending along the lane markings ( 21 ), The image data selecting unit ( 2 ), the image data storing unit ( 3 ) and the driving lane recognizing unit ( 4 ) are all implemented in a single chip.

1 . A vehicle-onboard driving lane recognizing apparatus, comprising: 
 image pick-up means mounted on a motor vehicle running on a road for picking up images of scenes making appearance in front of said motor vehicle to thereby output picked-up images in the form of pixel data;    image data transfer rate converting means for converting transfer rate of said pixel data for transferring said pixel data at a converted transfer rate;    image data selecting means for selecting the image data of a predetermined region from image data constituted by a set of said pixel data outputted from said pixel data transfer rate converting means;    image data storing means for storing the image data selected by said image data selecting means; and    driving lane recognizing means for detecting lane markings on said road from the image data stored in said image data storing means to thereby recognize a driving lane extending along said lane markings,    wherein representing the number of said pixel data by M while representing the number of bits of said pixel data by N (where M and N are given natural numbers, respectively), said pixel data transfer rate converting means is so arranged as to transform M pixel data each of N bits into a single (M×N)-bit data for thereby transferring said (M×N)-bit data to said image data selecting means en bloc through a single transfer at a time point when M pixel data each of N bits have been held.    
   
   
       2 . A vehicle-onboard driving lane recognizing apparatus according to  claim 1 , 
 said image data selecting means said image data storing means and said driving lane recognizing means being realized by a microcomputer which incorporates therein software for selecting the image data of said predetermined region and a timer,    wherein said image data selecting means is so designed as to select the image data in dependence on high level and low level of an output signal of said timer while changing dynamically selection-subjected objects contained in said image data.    
   
   
       3 . A vehicle-onboard driving lane recognizing apparatus according to  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 an oscillator designed to output a basic clock signal for controlling said image data selecting means, said image data storing means and said driving lane recognizing means,    wherein a control signal for controlling said image pick-up means is generated on the basis of said basic clock signal.    
   
   
       4 . A vehicle-onboard driving lane recognizing apparatus according to  claim 1 , 
 said image data selecting means, said image data storing means and said driving lane recognizing means being realized by a microcomputer which incorporates therein a timer,    wherein an output signal of said timer is made use of as a control signal for controlling said image pick-up means.    
   
   
       5 . A vehicle-onboard driving lane recognizing apparatus according to  claim 1 , 
 wherein said image data selecting means is so arranged as to select a plurality of predetermined regions on a road which corresponds to an image located beneath the horizon from an image picked up by said image pick-up means, said plurality of predetermined regions extending orthogonally to a traveling direction of said motor vehicle substantially with equidistance among said predetermined regions as viewed in the traveling direction of said motor vehicle.