Importance

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Abstract

An inter-vehicle distance detecting device displays the images of preceding vehicles, sets a tracking window surrounding one of the images and tracks it, calculates the distance from the driving vehicle to the preceding vehicle, and sets a plurality of shadow windows which are not displayed and which are different from the tracking window, at predetermined positions in the image taken by one of top and bottom image sensors. Distances from the driving vehicle to objects caught by the respective shadow windows are detected from the deviation between top and bottom corresponding image signals, and a symmetry determining means reads image signals in an arbitrary domain in the shadow windows and surroundings and determines horizontal symmetry. A cut-in vehicle or lane change of the one of the preceding vehicles which is image-tracked by predicting movements thereof in front of the driving vehicle is detected based on distance information from the driving vehicle to the objects in the shadow windows, an output of the symmetry determining means, and information provided by a calculation based on the preceding vehicle tracked by the tracking window.

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First Claim