US 5,386,285 · Granted 1995-01-31
Mitsubishi's Dual-Vision Obstacle Detector: The 1995 Patent That Saw Double
Imagine a car that watches the world around it with two different types of eyes—one pair uses cameras to spot objects, and the other uses laser radar to measure distances. This patent lets the car pick whichever method works best to warn you of obstacles. It's the tech ancestor of today's self-driving car sensors.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The patent covers a system that combines two separate obstacle-detection methods: optical sensors (cameras) that capture images and measure distances to objects in specific regions, and laser radar that bounces beams off surrounding objects to detect them. What's protected is the combination of these two detection systems working together on the same vehicle, plus the ability to automatically choose which detection method to trust for each obstacle.
Why it matters
In 1995, autonomous and semi-autonomous driving was mostly theoretical. This patent staked out territory in the sensor-fusion approach—the idea that a vehicle needs multiple types of sensors working in harmony to safely detect obstacles. Rather than relying on a single sensing technology, Mitsubishi's design anticipated the redundancy and cross-checking that real safety-critical systems demand. It's a foundational concept for modern driver-assistance systems.
Real-world use
Modern cars with adaptive cruise control or automatic braking use similar dual-sensor strategies—cameras watch lanes while radar measures distance to the car ahead, allowing the system to work safely even in fog or darkness.
Original USPTO abstract
An obstacle detecting device for a vehicle comprises a pair of image sensors for taking an image of an object surrounding a vehicle, a display image plane for displaying an image data taken by said pair of image sensors as an image, and a plurality of windows designating regions of said image on said display image plane. The device further comprises an optical obstacle detecting device for detecting distances from said vehicle to said object in said regions of the image designated by said plurality of windows for the respective windows to thereby detect an obstacle, a laser radar device mounted on the vehicle for radiating a radar beam to the object surrounding the vehicle to thereby detect said obstacle, and an obstacle selecting device for selecting either the obstacle detected by said optical obstacle detecting device or the obstacle detected by said laser radar device mounted on the vehicle.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 5,386,285
- Filing date
- 1993-02-03
- Grant date
- 1995-01-31
- Assignee
- Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha
- Inventor(s)
- ASAYAMA; YOSHIAKI
- CPC class
- G06T7/593
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