초록

A method of estimating a time to collision (TTC) of a vehicle with an object comprising: acquiring a plurality of images of the object; and determining a TTC from the images that is responsive to a relative velocity and relative acceleration between the vehicle and the object.

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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

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; anddetermining 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; anddetermine 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; anddetermine motion of at least two features of the object relative to the vehicle from the images; anddetermine 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; anddetermine 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; anddetermine the time-to-collision (TTC) based on the function of the relative velocity and the relative acceleration.