VEHICLE DRIVING SUPPORT DEVICE, DETECTING METHOD OF SHOULDER OF ROAD ON WHICH VEHICLE TRAVELS, AND VEHICLE DRIVING SUPPORT METHOD BASED ON THE SAME

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a new vehicle driving support device capable of accurately detecting shoulders even in actual road environment where elliptical polarization is dominant.SOLUTION: After two polarization cameras are arranged in a vehicle axis direction of a vehicle (or a height direction of the vehicle) and a polarized image imaging system is constructed, polarization state feature amounts calculated from light intensity (H) of a polarization component in the vehicle axis direction and light intensity (V) of a polarization component in the height direction of the vehicle are compared for respective pixels making pairs in an image, and when the difference exceeds a predetermined threshold value, it is detected as a shoulder. By controlling steering control means, travel speed control means, and alarm means or the like on the basis of positional information of the detected shoulder, driving support for the vehicle is performed.