US 12,013,254 B2
Control device
Hiroto Nishida, Kobe (JP); Kanon Suzuki, Kobe (JP); and Taiki Nakamura, Nagoya (JP)
Assigned to MICWARE CO., LTD., (JP); and TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA, (JP)
Filed by MICWARE CO., LTD., Kobe (JP); and TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA, Toyota (JP)
Filed on Sep. 11, 2020, as Appl. No. 17/018,068.
Claims priority of application No. 2019-170780 (JP), filed on Sep. 19, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2021/0088352 A1, Mar. 25, 2021
Int. Cl. B60R 1/00 (2022.01); B60W 50/14 (2020.01); G01C 21/36 (2006.01); G02B 27/01 (2006.01); G08G 1/0968 (2006.01); G08G 1/16 (2006.01); G09G 5/377 (2006.01)
CPC G01C 21/365 (2013.01) [G08G 1/096861 (2013.01); G08G 1/167 (2013.01)] 12 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A control device for controlling a projection device configured to project an image onto a windshield of a vehicle so that the image is displayed superimposed on a real view that is visible to a driver of the vehicle through the windshield, the control device comprising
at least one processor,
the at least one processor being configured to perform:
projection control processing for causing, in a case where a driving lane of the vehicle is a reduced lane, the projection device to project a guidance image for prompting a lane change;
lane shape identifying processing for, in a case where the driving lane is the reduced lane, identifying a gradient shape of the reduced lane in the real view that is visible to a driver of the vehicle through the windshield on the basis of a current location of the vehicle,
the reduced lane being a lane on which it becomes impossible for the vehicle to run within a predetermined distance ahead of the current location on a traveling route of the vehicle,
in the projection control processing, the at least one processor being configured to cause the projection device to project a colored image such that the colored image is superimposed on a position at which the reduced lane is provided in the real view that is visible to a driver of the vehicle through the windshield,
the colored image being the guidance image which is colored and, when projected onto the windshield, has the same shape as the gradient shape, identified in the lane shape identifying processing, of the reduced lane in the real view that is visible to the driver of the vehicle through the windshield,
wherein the reduced lane disappears when integrated into another lane within the predetermined distance ahead of the vehicle, and
wherein, the reduced lane includes the real view and an actual view which comes into sight of the driver through the windshield, and is not an image generated by electromagnetic editing image data which is a captured image of the real view.