The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 13, 2026
Filed:
Jun. 12, 2023
Subaru Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Hitoshi Niwa, Tokyo, JP;
SUBARU CORPORATION, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A contact object detection apparatus includes an on-road static object detector, a sonar sensor, a position estimator, a corrector, and a contact object determination unit. The on-road static object detector detects an on-road static object from an image of an environment behind a vehicle to calculate a position of the object. When the object is no longer detectable, the position estimator estimates a current position of the object based on the last position detected by the on-road static object detector, traveling speed data, and steering angle data, to calculate an angle between a center axis of the sonar sensor and the estimated current position. The corrector corrects a decrease in a sensor output value of the sonar sensor based on the calculated angle. The contact object determination unit determines whether the object has a possibility of contact with the vehicle, based on the corrected sensor output value.