Appeal No. 1998-0728
Application 08/468,231
BACKGROUND
The disclosed invention is directed to a vehicle
surroundings monitor which detects the sizes and positions of
obstacles and ditches to provide the driver with sufficient
information for safe driving. Reference data representing the
location of the supporting surface when the vehicle is
unloaded is corrected for the change in vehicle height due to
addition of a load by a height correction means.
Claim 1, the sole independent claim, is reproduced below.2
1. A surroundings monitor for a vehicle moving over
a supporting surface comprising:
a two-dimensional dot matrix pattern light projector
which receives a laser beam and projects a
two-dimensional light spot matrix pattern downward onto a
monitored area within said supporting surface located in
close proximity to said vehicle;
a camera for photographing the light spot matrix
pattern; and
a data processor which processes image signals
supplied from the camera to detect the presence of
obstacles and depressions in the monitored area within
said supporting surface, wherein said data processor
further comprises:
a reference data generating means which extracts a
light spot pattern from pixel data and generates
"Baricenter" in claim 1 and in the specification2
should probably be spelled "barycenter."
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