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:
May. 01, 2001
Filed:
Mar. 22, 1999
Kirk Luckscheiter, Farmington Hills, MI (US);
Robert Lougheed, Ann Arbor, MI (US);
Veridian ERIM International, Inc., Ann Arbor, MI (US);
Abstract
A system assists the driver of a motor vehicle to travel within a designated driving lane defined by one or more lane boundaries. The lane boundary is sensed as the vehicle moves within the lane while monitoring the position of the vehicle relative to the lane boundary. The operation of the vehicle is then adjusted as a function of the proximity of the vehicle to the lane boundary. In one embodiment, the operation of the vehicle is affected by adjusting the functioning of the steering wheel, preferably by providing tactile feedback which causes the driver to experience a virtual change in lane elevation as the vehicle approaches the lane boundary. In the preferred embodiment, the tactile feedback causes the vehicle operator to experience the lane as having a depression with sloping sidewalls. Where the lane boundaries are defined by visual lane markers, the lane-boundary sensor preferably takes the form of a video camera to image the lane markers.