Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Holdings Corporation

Kyushu Institute of Technology

Tsuyoshi Ueno

Hiroaki Sudo

Shintaro Muramatsu

Hideki Yasukawa

Yuuki Oka

Yoshiyuki Okubo

Yoshihiro Noguchi

Nobunari Tsukamoto

Masaki Hoshida

Yoshimasa Shirosaki

Seiya Abe

Satoshi Tanaka

Tadashi Nakamura

Atsushi Sakai

Naoto Jikutani

Shuichi Suzuki

Masato Ishikawa

Yasufumi Yamada

Motokazu Hasegawa

Tetsuya Satoh

Kazuma Izumiya

Masataka Akaishi

Masahito Sugahara

Yoichi Nakagawa

Atsufumi Omori

Takao Isogawa

Masayuki Fujishima

Weijie Liu

Makoto Yasugi

Junichi Konishi

Kazumasa Gomyo

Toshiyuki Ikeoh

Fumiyuki Kato

Yutaka Tomioka

Masayuki Numata

Takumi Satoh

Jun Ishida

Tatsuya Shimokawa

Hayashi Itou

Masayuki Yanagihashi

Koichi Aihara

A movable device includes a movable portion including a reflecting surface; a pair of drive beams to support the movable portion rotatably around a predetermined rotation axis with the movable portion disposed between the pair of drive beams; and a support portion configured to support the pair of drive beams. The support portion has a light passing portion on each of both sides of the movable portion in a direction intersecting with the rotation axis in a plane along the reflecting surface in a state in which the movable portion is not rotated, the light passing portion allowing light reflected by the reflecting surface to pass through the light passing portion.

Movable device, distance measurement device, image projection apparatus, vehicle, and mount

Provided is a system which can reduce load on a travel controller that performs a danger avoidance operation by preliminarily detecting a significant event without increasing an amount of ITS communications, thereby providing suitable assistance for travel control of autonomous vehicles. When a vehiclepasses through a certain section of a road after an in-vehicle terminalhas detected a significant event while the vehicleis traveling in the section, the in-vehicle terminaltransmits event data (images and other information related to the event) to a roadside apparatusat an end point of the section. The roadside apparatustransmits the event data to another roadside apparatusat a start point of the section, which in turn transmits the event data to an in-vehicle device in another vehicle entering the section so that the device can perform travel control based on the event data.

Travel assistance method, road captured image collection method, and roadside device

The present invention relates to a pedestrian device and a traffic safety assistance method which can effectively and properly support pedestrian's safety confirmation by utilizing vehicle-to-pedestrian communications and an AR device. A pedestrian device of the present invention includes: an ITS communication device(pedestrian-vehicle communication device) configured to perform vehicle-to-pedestrian communications with an in-vehicle terminal; a processorconfigured to determine if there is a risk of collision based on information transmitted to and received from the in-vehicle device, and control provision of an alert to a user of the pedestrian device; and an AR displayfor displaying a virtual object overlaid on a real space which can be seen by the user, wherein the processor controls display of the virtual object (virtual terminal) on the AR display as an alert operation to provide an alert to the user.

Pedestrian device and traffic safety assistance method

An optical device includes a light source provided with a plurality of surface-emitting laser elements to emit a laser beam, a scanner to scan the laser beam emitted from the light source, and an optical system disposed in an optical path between the light source and the scanner and to guide the laser beam to the scanner. The optical system includes a first optical element to control a divergence angle of the laser beam emitted from the light source and a second optical element to concentrate the laser beam that has passed through the first optical element onto a to-be-scanned surface of the scanner.

Optical device, range sensor using optical device, and mobile object

A system for guiding an autonomous vehicle to a target location includes a pedestrian terminal carried by a user of the vehicle; an in-vehicle terminal mounted in the vehicle; and a wearable terminal worn on the user's body to detect a sight focusing status of the user. The pedestrian terminal is configured to transmit and receive information to and from the in-vehicle terminal, determine if there is a risk of collision between the vehicle and the user, and provide an alert to the pedestrian. The in-vehicle terminal is configured to transmit and receive information to and from the pedestrian terminal, determine if there is a risk of collision between the vehicle and the user based on the information received from the pedestrian terminal, and cause an autonomous driving ECU to perform cruise control so as to avoid the collision.

Pedestrian device, vehicle-mounted device, mobile body guidance system, and mobile body guidance method

The object of the present invention is to enable presentation of information on a target object (vehicle) located on a road to a pedestrian at an appropriate time and such that the information includes appropriate information for the pedestrian's statues. A pedestrian device transmits position data of a pedestrian to an in-vehicle device, which determines whether or not the pedestrian approaches a vehicle based on the position data. When determining that the pedestrian approaches the vehicle, the in-vehicle device transmits guidance direction information to the pedestrian device. The pedestrian device performs control based on the guidance direction information so as to guide the pedestrian to look toward the vehicle, and the pedestrian device acquires sight status information of the pedestrian from a wearable terminal and transmits the sight status information to the in-vehicle terminal. Then, the in-vehicle terminal determines whether or not the pedestrian sees the vehicle. When determining that the pedestrian does not see the vehicle, the in-vehicle terminal transmit alert information to the pedestrian terminal, and the pedestrian terminal performs control based on the alert information so as to provide an alert to the pedestrian.

Pedestrian device, communication device, and information distribution method

A distance measuring apparatus includes a light source to emit light beams, an optical scanner to scan the light beams output from the light source over a predetermined range, a light receiver to receive reflected light obtained as a result of the light beams being reflected by a target object, and to output detection signals, and a control circuit to measure a distance to the target object based on the detection signals. The light source including a plurality of light-emitting device groups that are arranged in a scan direction of a scan performed by the optical scanner, and the control circuit being to make the plurality of light-emitting device groups emit light at respective different timings in a single scan, and to measure the distance to the target object based on a sum of the detection signals.

Distance measuring apparatus and mobile body including the same

A lighting module includes a voltage-current controller to control power externally supplied, a capacitor charged with power supplied from the voltage-current controller, a laser light source to emit laser light driven by a current from the capacitor, first and second FETs electrically connected in series to the laser light source, and circuitry that controls a first voltage value applied to the first FET and a second voltage value applied to the second FET, to control a resistance value of the second FET. The first FET controls a pulse width of the current flowing through the laser light source in accordance with the first voltage value applied to a gate thereof. The second FET changes in resistance value in accordance with the second voltage value applied to a gate thereof and controls, with the resistance value, a peak value of the current flowing through the laser light source.

Lighting module, distance measuring device, movable body, and light source drive circuit

A drive circuitincludes a power source; current control units-to-configured to control the amount of currents supplied to a light emitting element in accordance with a pulse modulation signal; and a calculation unitconfigured to change a duty ratio of a pulse modulation signal. The current control units-to-include a first switching elementconfigured to be switched on/off in accordance with a pulse modulation signal; and a second switching elementconfigured to be switched on/off in accordance with an inversion signal of the pulse modulation signal input to the first switching element; and an inductor. The first switching elementand the inductorare serially connected between the power source and the light emitting element. The second switching elementis connected between groundand a contact pointof the first switching elementand the inductor. The two or more current control units-to-are connected in parallel.

Drive circuit and light emitting device

To enable a risk of collision between moving objects such as a pedestrian and a vehicle to be quickly and accurately determined in a roadside device, when the roadside device receives a message including state information indicating that a pedestrian is in a risky state from a pedestrian terminal, the roadside device acquires position information of a vehicle present around the pedestrian in the risky state based on a result of detecting vehicles on roads by a radar, determines a risk of collision between the pedestrian in the risky state and the vehicle based on the position information of the vehicle, and when the risk of collision exists, transmits a message including alarm information indicating that the risk of collision exists to the terminal.

Roadside device, communication system, and danger detection method

A terminal device includes: a pedestrian-to-vehicle communication device configured to communicate with an in-vehicle terminal by using a first communication method, in which direct communication is performed as pedestrian-to-vehicle communication; a wireless LAN communication device configured to communicate with the in-vehicle terminal by using a second communication method, in which indirect communication is performed via a roadside device disposed on or near a road; and a controller configured to determine whether or not the terminal device is in a risky state based on state information indicating a state of the terminal device, and select either one of the first communication method, in which direct communication is used and the second communication method, in which indirect communication is used, based on a result of the determination.

Terminal device, roadside device, communications system, and communications method

A pedestrian terminal transmits a message including pedestrian information to a roadside machine. In a case where the message transmitted from the pedestrian terminal is received, the roadside machine accumulates the pedestrian information included in the message as passage history information, detects occurrence of an abnormal event for a person possessing the pedestrian terminal based on the passage history information, and transmits the message including information indicating that the abnormal event occurs for the person possessing the pedestrian terminal to a nearby pedestrian terminal.

Roadside device, pedestrian device, communication system, abnormality detection method, and abnormality communication method

A pedestrian terminal device receives pedestrian information transmitted from another pedestrian terminal device which is present in the vicinity of the pedestrian terminal device. A location of the pedestrian terminal device is acquired, and it is determined whether or not a pedestrian who carries the pedestrian terminal device is located inside a pedestrian group based on the location of the pedestrian terminal device and a location of the other pedestrian terminal device included in the pedestrian information. When the pedestrian is located inside the pedestrian group, pedestrian-vehicle communication is stopped.

Pedestrian terminal device, vehicle-mounted terminal device, pedestrian-to-vehicle communication control device, pedestrian-to-vehicle communication system, and pedestrian-to-vehicle communication method

In order to enable a driver in driving a vehicle to quickly and assuredly recognize a pedestrian having a collision risk with the vehicle even when it is difficult for the driver to recognize the pedestrian by eyes, such as during night time, an in-vehicle terminal device is configured to: determine a collision risk based on pedestrian position information and vehicle position information; generate turn-on instruction information which, when the pedestrian is determined to have the collision risk with the vehicle, causes an indicator light carried by the pedestrian to be turned on in a prescribed light color; and transmit the turn-on instruction information to a pedestrian terminal device via pedestrian-vehicle communication, and wherein the pedestrian terminal device is configured to: receive the turn-on instruction information transmitted from the in-vehicle terminal device; and turn on the indicator light based on the turn-on instruction information.

Pedestrian-vehicle communication system, in-vehicle terminal device, pedestrian terminal device and safe-driving assistance method

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Tsuyoshi Ueno