A rear view camera based tailgate warning system

Abstract

On-vehicle rear view cameras have been widely in the market. Main purpose of rear view camera is to provide the driver with a good view to rear scenes, especially the blind spot areas. Rear view camera is automatically turned on when reverse gear is engaged and turned off when vehicle moves forward. In general, a rear view camera is only used in back-over and parking manoeuvres. In most of driving scenarios, a vehicle moves forward and the rear view camera stays idle and not used. In this paper, rear-end pre-crash safety system utilizing onvehicle rear view camera is presented. The system detects vehicles approaching from behind and calculate TTC (time to collision) of approaching vehicle to host vehicle. Based on the calculated TTC, if the system judges that there is high possibility of collision, the system can give a warning to approaching vehicle by flashing hazard light. In addition, the system can also issue a warning to the driver of host vehicle and automatically take some actions to minimize injury caused by collision. For example, pre-tensing seat belt, move headrests forward etc. © Springer-Verlag 2013.