Communications: electrical – Land vehicle alarms or indicators – Of collision or contact with external object
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-27
2001-08-21
Lefkowitz, Edward (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Land vehicle alarms or indicators
Of collision or contact with external object
C340S435000, C340S438000, C340S439000, C340S457100, C340S903000, C180S281000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06278360
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION AND RELATED ART STATEMENT
The present invention relates to a system for judging a possibility of collision to an obstacle in front of its own vehicle, and warning the vehicle of the possible collision.
Conventionally, there have been filed many patent applications, for example, Japanese Patent Publications No. H05-181529 and No. H08-254577, for disclosing a collision avoiding system for avoiding a possible collision between vehicles, and disclosing a collision predictive system for alerting a vehicle driver of a possible collision. Most of these applications disclose systems for judging a possible collision to the obstacle in front of its own vehicle and alerting the vehicle driver to take an action for preventing the collision.
All of the systems automatically actuate engine brakes of its own vehicle and alert the driver of the subject or its own vehicle of an emergency. As it is alerted, the driver may turn a steering wheel and/or rapidly press a brake pedal for collision preventive action. Thereafter, the driver may turn on hazard warning lights to warn a driver of a following vehicle. Accordingly, there is a delay of time for the collision preventive action of the driver of the subject vehicle to the driver of the following vehicle to aware an emergency ahead, so that the driver of the following vehicle sometimes can not take a proper action for the emergency braking and/or the emergency steering. As mentioned, since the emergency warning to the following vehicle is delayed, even if the collision between the subject vehicle and a preceding vehicle, i.e. Obstacle, can be avoided, there is still a possibility of a collision between the subject vehicle and the following vehicle.
The present invention has been made to solve such a problem and an object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle collision warning system which estimates the possibility of vehicle collision and alerts a driver of a following vehicle to take an action for avoiding a collision when the possibility of vehicle collision is high.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To achieve the above object, a vehicle collision warning system of a first aspect of the present invention comprises distance measuring means for measuring a distance from a subject or its own vehicle to an obstacle or preceding vehicle in front of the subject vehicle by utilizing millimeter wave, laser radiation, or ultrasonic wave, speed detecting means for detecting the speed of the subject vehicle, estimation or control means which receives signals from the distance measuring means and the speed detecting means and estimates the possibility of collision to the obstacle based on the received signals, and alerting means which receives a signal and emits an alarm when the control means determines that there is a possibility of collision, wherein the alerting means emits an alarm to a following vehicle without awaiting the action of a driver of the subject vehicle.
When it is estimated that the possibility of collision of the subject vehicle is high, the following vehicle is automatically alerted, so that the following vehicle can consider the action of the subject vehicle for avoiding a collision. This alerting action can be taken without interrupting the action of the subject vehicle's driver, such as emergency braking and/or emergency steering.
In this present invention, the alarm to the following vehicle is at least one of the following: lighting a stop lamp of the subject vehicle, lighting a hazard lamp of the subject vehicle, alerting through radio communication with the following vehicle, sending a signal to the following vehicle for increasing the tension on a seat belt of the following vehicle, and sending a signal to the following vehicle for automatically braking the following vehicle.
Therefore, a driver of the following vehicle can be securely notified that the subject vehicle is in emergency.
Further, the level of the alarm can be selected in accordance with the degree of the possibility of collision estimated by the control means.
In this case, when it is estimated that the possibility of collision is medium, the alerting means emits a first level alarm including signals for lighting the stop lamp and for alerting through radio communication, and when it is estimated that the possibility of collision is high, the alerting means emits a second level alarm including signals for lighting the stop lamp and the hazard lamp, and for alerting through radio communication.
The driver of the following vehicle can notice the degree of the danger of the subject vehicle.
Furthermore, when the following vehicle receives the alarm from the subject vehicle, an occupant in the following vehicle can be notified by slightly increased tension on a seat belt in case of medium possibility of collision or by significantly increased tension on the seat belt in case of high possibility of collision.
The occupant can be notified by slightly or significantly increased tension on the seat belt, thereby providing secure and early alerting to the occupant as compared to the way using sound or light.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5278764 (1994-01-01), Iizuka et al.
patent: 5424726 (1995-06-01), Beymer
patent: 5684473 (1997-11-01), Hibino et al.
patent: 5805103 (1998-09-01), Doi et al.
patent: 5926114 (1999-07-01), Andrews
patent: 6121896 (2000-09-01), Rahman
patent: 2 262 829 (1993-06-01), None
patent: 8-254577 (1996-10-01), None
Goins Davetta
Kanesaka & Takeuchi
Lefkowitz Edward
Takata Corporation
LandOfFree
Vehicle collision warning system does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Vehicle collision warning system, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Vehicle collision warning system will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2520817