Abstract: Apparatus for detecting misalignment of a radar unit (2) of a vehicle (3), the apparatus comprising: an accelerometer (4) arranged to determine the acceleration of the radar unit (2) along three axes, and having an output for a signal indicative of the acceleration; and a processor arranged coupled to the output of the accelerometer; in which the processor is arranged to determine the misalignment based on the acceleration measured by the accelerometer (4), and in which the determination of the misalignment is made: about two axes, if the vehicle (3) is stationary; and about a third axis perpendicular to the two axes when the vehicle is moving.

Abstract: A sensing apparatus for a host vehicle or the like, the apparatus comprises sensing means arranged to capture a first dataset of digital data comprising a set of data points representative of an image of a scene around the host vehicle, said image including at least one salient feature; first data processing means arranged to identify a subset of the data points which correspond to the at least one salient feature, and second data processing means arranged to apply a transformation to the subset of data points to produce a processed subset which corresponds to a digital image of the salient features in the scene that has been corrected for at least one type of distortion in the image.

Abstract: A lane detection apparatus for a host vehicle, the apparatus comprising: a first sensing means, which provides a first set of data dependent upon features of a part of the road ahead of the host vehicle; a second sensing means, which provides a second set of data dependent upon features of a part of the road ahead of the host vehicle; and a processing means arranged to estimate the location of lane boundaries by interpreting the data captured by both sensing means. The second sensing means may have different performance characteristics to the first sensing means. One or more of the sensing means may include a pre-processing means, which is arranged to process the “raw” data provided by the sensing means to produce estimated lane boundary position data indicative of an estimate of the location of lane boundaries.

Abstract: A rain detection apparatus and method, comprising a camera adapted to view a surface and a processor adapted to capture at least one image from the camera, in which the processor is further adapted to generate at least one signal indicative of the presence of rain on the surface from information contained in the at least one captured image and to, optionally drive surface cleaning apparatus in response thereto, in which the apparatus is adapted to capture images focussed at a plurality of distances; in which the processor includes edge detection means adapted to detect edges visible in the at least one captured image and difference means adapted to calculate the difference between the number of edges visible between differing images; and in which the edge detection means is further adapted to disregard edges close to areas of light larger than the largest raindrop that is desired or expected to be detected.