Abstract: A vehicle periphery monitoring apparatus is comprised of a camera installed in the front or rear of a vehicle, for picking up images of side view of the vehicle; a feature point detecting section that detects feature points in the side images and calculates the motion vectors of the detected feature points; a moving object detecting section that detects a set of a plurality of feature points approaching the vehicle in the side images as an approaching object based on the calculated motion vectors of the feature points; a feature point tracking section that tracks the feature points of the detected approaching object; and a passage time calculating section that calculates the time at which the approaching object passes the front or rear of the vehicle from the feature points of the approaching object tracked by the feature point tracking section.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a nose-view monitoring apparatus, and it is an object of the invention to detect an approaching object existing in lateral regions relative to a nose portion of a vehicle with high accuracy for notifying the information on the approaching object to an occupant. The nose-view monitoring apparatus comprises an image pickup unit provided on a nose of the vehicle for picking up a side-view image with respect to the vehicle, an optical flow vector calculating unit for calculating an optical flow vector on the basis of the image, an approaching object detecting unit for detecting the approaching object on the basis of, of the optical flow vectors calculated by the optical flow vector calculating unit, an optical flow vector having a vector component along a traveling direction of the vehicle in the image, and a notification unit for displaying the image and further for notifying the fact of the detection of the approaching object.

Abstract: A vehicle periphery monitoring apparatus is comprised of a camera installed in the front or rear of a vehicle, for picking up images of side view of the vehicle; a feature point detecting section that detects feature points in the side images and calculates the motion vectors of the detected feature points; a moving object detecting section that detects a set of a plurality of feature points approaching the vehicle in the side images as an approaching object based on the calculated motion vectors of the feature points; a feature point tracking section that tracks the feature points of the detected approaching object; and a passage time calculating section that calculates the time at which the approaching object passes the front or rear of the vehicle from the feature points of the approaching object tracked by the feature point tracking section.

Abstract: A parking assistance apparatus for assisting a driver to once stop a vehicle at a predetermined reference position where the driver can view a target parking position in a lateral direction of the vehicle and then to perform parking operation from the reference position to the target parking position. The parking assistance apparatus includes: a camera being installed on the front of the vehicle and configured to capture an image from a side of the vehicle; an image display unit installed in a cabin of the vehicle and configured to display the image captured by the camera; and an image information control unit configured to control image information on the image display unit and to superimpose indicators to guide the vehicle to the reference position on the image.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a nose-view monitoring apparatus, and it is an object of the invention to detect an approaching object existing in lateral regions relative to a nose portion of a vehicle with high accuracy for notifying the information on the approaching object to an occupant. The nose-view monitoring apparatus comprises an image pickup unit provided on a nose of the vehicle for picking up a side-view image with respect to the vehicle, an optical flow vector calculating unit for calculating an optical flow vector on the basis of the image, an approaching object detecting unit for detecting the approaching object on the basis of, of the optical flow vectors calculated by the optical flow vector calculating unit, an optical flow vector having a vector component along a traveling direction of the vehicle in the image, and a notification unit for displaying the image and further for notifying the fact of the detection of the approaching object.

Abstract: A parking assistance apparatus for assisting a driver to once stop a vehicle at a predetermined reference position where the driver can view a target parking position in a lateral direction of the vehicle and then to perform parking operation from the reference position to the target parking position. The parking assistance apparatus includes: a camera being installed on the front of the vehicle and configured to capture an image from a side of the vehicle; an image display unit installed in a cabin of the vehicle and configured to display the image captured by the camera; and an image information control unit configured to control image information on the image display unit and to superimpose indicators to guide the vehicle to the reference position on the image.