US-20260124911-A1 - VEHICLE CONTROL APPARATUS

US20260124911A1US 20260124911 A1US20260124911 A1US 20260124911A1US-20260124911-A1

Abstract

A vehicle control apparatus includes a controller and an imager that captures an image of an interior of a vehicle. The controller acquires the image from the imager, detects an object from the image using an object detection technique, calculates a movement amount of the object from the image, estimate a depth difference between a depth from the imager to a hand of the object and a depth from the imager to posture stabilization equipment when at least a part of the hand is located within a detection area including the posture stabilization equipment and the movement amount is not greater than a movement amount threshold, and turns on a flag indicating that a posture of the object is a safe posture when the depth difference is not greater than the depth difference threshold, and turns off the flag when the depth difference is greater than the depth difference threshold.

Inventors

Masayuki Yamazaki

Assignees

TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20251030
Priority Date: 20241105

Claims (9)

1 . A vehicle control apparatus comprising a controller; and an imager configured to capture an image of an interior of a vehicle, wherein the controller is configured to: acquire the image of the interior of the vehicle from the imager; detect an object from the image using an object detection technique; calculate a movement amount of the object from the image; estimate a depth difference between a depth from the imager to a hand of the object and a depth from the imager to posture stabilization equipment in a case in which at least a part of the hand of the object is located within a detection area including the posture stabilization equipment and the movement amount of the object is equal to or less than a movement amount threshold; and turn on a flag indicating that a posture of the object is a safe posture in a case in which the depth difference is equal to or less than the depth difference threshold, and turn off the flag in a case in which the depth difference is greater than the depth difference threshold.
2 . The vehicle control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to turn off the flag in a case in which at least a part of the hand of the object is not located within the detection area, or in a case in which the movement amount of the object is greater than the movement amount threshold.
3 . The vehicle control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the vehicle is an automated driving vehicle.
4 . The vehicle control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the posture stabilization equipment is a handrail or a strap.
5 . The vehicle control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to: permit the vehicle to start in a case in which the flag is turned on for all objects in the vehicle; and not permit the vehicle to start in a case in the flag is turned off for at least one object in the vehicle.
6 . The vehicle control apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the controller is configured to: permit the vehicle to start in a case in which the flag is turned on for all objects in the vehicle; and not permit the vehicle to start in a case in the flag is turned off for at least one object in the vehicle.
7 . The vehicle control apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the controller is configured to: permit the vehicle to start in a case in which the flag is turned on for all objects in the vehicle; and not permit the vehicle to start in a case in the flag is turned off for at least one object in the vehicle.
8 . The vehicle control apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the controller is configured to: permit the vehicle to start in a case in which the flag is turned on for all objects in the vehicle; and not permit the vehicle to start in a case in the flag is turned off for at least one object in the vehicle.
9 . A method, by a processor, for improving travel mobility as a service (MaaS), comprising processing steps executed by the vehicle control apparatus according to claim 1 .

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2024-193978 filed on Nov. 5, 2024, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to a vehicle control apparatus. BACKGROUND Technology for estimating the posture of an object is known. For example, Patent Literature (PTL) 1 discloses technology related to a method and apparatus that can simultaneously predict object recognition and position posture using machine learning. CITATION LIST Patent Literature PTL 1: JP 2019-029021 A SUMMARY When posture judgment is used to determine permission to start a vehicle, it is desirable to determine that the posture of an occupant in the vehicle is a safe posture, for example, a grasping posture in which a handrail or the like is grasped. Judgment of the grasping posture by image recognition is mainly performed using machine learning. However, judgment by machine learning may require a large amount of training data and high computational costs to adapt to changes in patterns of gloves and handrails, as well as environmental characteristics such as the vehicle's interior. It would be helpful to improve technology for estimating the posture of an object. A vehicle control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes: a controller; andan imager configured to capture an image of an interior of a vehicle, and the controller is configured to: acquire the image of the interior of the vehicle from the imager;detect an object from the image using an object detection technique;calculate a movement amount of the object from the image;estimate a depth difference between a depth from the imager to a hand of the object and a depth from the imager to posture stabilization equipment in a case in which at least a part of the hand of the object is located within a detection area including the posture stabilization equipment and the movement amount of the object is equal to or less than a movement amount threshold; andturn on a flag indicating that a posture of the object is a safe posture in a case in which the depth difference is equal to or less than the depth difference threshold, and turn off the flag in a case in which the depth difference is greater than the depth difference threshold. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, technology for estimating the posture of an object is improved. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the accompanying drawings: FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; and FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating operations of a vehicle control apparatus according to the present embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below, with reference to the drawings. Outline of Present Embodiment With reference to FIG. 1, an overview of the vehicle control apparatus 1 according to the embodiment of the present disclosure will be described. The vehicle control apparatus 1 is an electronic device mounted on the vehicle, such as a computer. The vehicle control apparatus 1 detects an object from an image inside the vehicle using any object detection technique. The image may be a still image or a moving image. The object is an occupant inside the vehicle. The vehicle is any vehicle capable of carrying one or more occupants, such as an automobile, bus, or shuttle bus. The vehicle may be an automated driving vehicle capable of automated driving at levels 1 to 5 as defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). The vehicle may be a manually operated vehicle at level 0. The vehicle may be monitored remotely by an observer outside the vehicle. The vehicle may be a Mobility as a Service (MaaS) dedicated vehicle. First, an outline of the present embodiment will be described, and details thereof will be described later. The vehicle control apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment includes a controller 10 and an imager 12 that captures images inside the vehicle. The controller 10 acquires images inside the vehicle from the imager 12. The controller 10 detects an object from the image using an object detection technique. The controller 10 calculates the movement amount of the object from the image. When at least a part of the object's hand is positioned within a detection area that includes posture stabilization equipment, and the movement amount of the object is equal to or less than a movement amount threshold, the controller 10 estimates the depth difference between the object's hand and the imager 12, and the depth from the imager 12 to the posture stabilization equipment. If the depth difference is equal to or less than the depth difference threshold, the controller 10 turns ON a flag indicating that the posture of the object is a safe posture, and if the depth difference is greater than the depth difference threshold