Vehicle Door Hazard Detection Using Side-View Camera Monitoring
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current safety technologies for powered vehicle doors are limited in preventing accidents, such as clothing or fingers getting caught, due to reliance on motion and pressure sensors that can misinterpret forces and fail to detect obstructions.
Innovation Solution
A safety exit assisting device that uses a camera monitoring system (CMS) to capture side-view images of the vehicle, processing these images to detect dangerous situations associated with the doors and control the door operations or vehicle movements accordingly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If motion sensors or pressure sensors are used to detect door closing obstructions, then safety detection capability is improved, but device complexity and cost increase due to additional hardware requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The camera monitoring system (CMS) originally designed for other vehicle functions is made multi-functional by adding image processing algorithms that detect door closing obstructions. The existing camera hardware is reused and configured to capture side-view images during door closing, eliminating the need for dedicated sensors while expanding the camera's functional capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces mechanical sensor-based detection systems with an optical imaging system (camera) combined with digital image processing. Instead of using motion sensors or pressure sensors that require physical contact or proximity detection, the system uses visual information from the camera to detect obstructions, converting a mechanical sensing problem into an optical processing problem.
2Reliability
If motion sensors are used to detect door area obstructions, then safety detection is improved, but detection precision deteriorates because motion sensors can only detect movement inside the vehicle and miss clothing or fingers caught on the outside
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces motion sensor-based detection with camera-based visual detection. The camera captures images of the door area, and image processing algorithms analyze these images to detect obstructions. This optical approach provides superior precision by visually identifying obstructions regardless of whether they are moving or stationary, and regardless of their location relative to the vehicle interior.
3Reliability
If pressure sensors are used with low thresholds to detect door obstructions, then sensitivity is improved, but reliability deteriorates due to incorrect pressure sensing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces pressure sensor-based detection with camera-based visual detection. Instead of measuring physical pressure forces that require careful threshold calibration, the system uses optical imaging to directly visualize obstructions. This eliminates the pressure threshold calibration problem entirely, as the camera captures visual evidence of obstructions without requiring force measurement.
4Measurement precision
If pressure sensors are used with high thresholds to avoid false detection, then false positive rate is reduced, but detection capability deteriorates as strong pressure cases like pinching a finger or clothes are not sensed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces pressure sensor detection with camera-based visual detection. The camera system captures images during door closing, and image processing algorithms identify obstructions by analyzing visual features in the captured images. This approach detects all types of obstructions regardless of the force they exert, eliminating the trade-off between threshold sensitivity and false positive rates that plagues pressure sensor systems.
Data Source
AI summary
An embodiment safety exit assisting device of a vehicle includes a camera and a processor electrically connected to the camera, wherein the processor is configured to obtain a side-view image of the vehicle captured by the camera, determine whether a dangerous situation associated with a door of the vehicle occurs based on the side-view image, and control the door of the vehicle or an operation of the vehicle in response to a determination that the dangerous situation occurs.