Importance

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Abstract

An adaptive cruise control system for motor vehicles uses a video camera and digital processing techniques to enable one vehicle to follow another at a substantially constant or safe distance on a highway under favorable weather conditions. Video detection apparatus is located aboard the following vehicle, along with means for storing in memory a reference image of the followed vehicle, means for storing in memory periodic repetitive live images of the followed vehicle, means for shifting the scale of each of the stored images in discrete steps over a predetermined range to obtain a plurality of scaled images, means for shifting the horizontal and vertical positions of the stored reference image over a predetermined range to obtain a plurality of shifted images, a correlation detector for selecting, for each of the live images, the one of the scaled images and the one of the shifted images which best match one another, and means for modifying either the speed or the steering or both of the following vehicle under the control of the correlation detector. Steering control modifications are, advantageously, delayed in the time domain to permit vehicle operation around highway curves.

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First Claim