An inter-vehicle distance detecting device comprising: a pair of image sensors on which an image of an object in front of a driving car is formed by a pair of optical systems; an image display means for displaying a first image information taken by one of the pair of image sensors; a window setting means for setting a plurality of windows partitioning a region of the image on the first image information; a distance detecting means for calculating respective distances from the driving car to the ...

A method and an apparatus for following a vehicle are disclosed by which the distance from a vehicle to a preceding target vehicle running ahead thereof can be exactly measured and, based on the thus measured distance, an appropriate vehicle following window can be automatically set with respect to a target image of the preceding vehicle at the start of vehicle following. Images of objects including the preceding vehicle are taken from two different points. The distance to the preceding vehicle ...

An inter-vehicle distance measuring device which can automatically set a tracing window for tracing an image of a fore-running vehicle to be measured for distance. A window setting unit sets plural numbers of windows at given locations on one of the images. An estimate member calculates a distance up to objects caught by those windows, detects the symmetry of the image, and estimates presence of a fore-running vehicle and its position on one of images, and the detected distance data as well. A t...

An inter-car distance detecting device of the invention includes an: image sensor for picking up the image of a car ahead through a pair of optical systems arranged substantially vertically; a display for displaying the image of the car ahead; a first window surrounding the image of the car ahead; an image tracker for tracking the image of the car ahead with the first window; a second window set in the first window; first and second distance detectors for calculating the distances from the objec...

A camera and a beam-scan type laser radar whose optical axes are coincident are mounted on a vehicle. A lane detector detects the vehicle's own lane on a display image by processing an image picked up by the camera. A coordinate transforming device transforms the coordinates of positional information of an object, most likely a vehicle, detected by the laser radar in conformity with coordinates on the image of the camera. Another detector compares a position of the vehicle's own lane with a posi...

An ignition control system is provided, which includes: an engine speed detector (101) for calculating an engine speed according to an engine crank angle signal (100); a current supply start controller (102) for outputting a proper current supply start timing signal corresponding to the engine speed to an ignition coil (5); a current supply finish controller (103) for outputting a proper current supply timing signal corresponding to the engine speed to an ignition coil; an ignition coil controll...

A method for forming a metal film on the surface of a substrate metal, which comprises soaking a substrate metal or a non-metal support carrying the substrate metal thereon in a solution of a metal salt in a high boiling point solvent under heating conditions, characterized in that the metal salt is a salt of the metal to be formed on the surface of the substrate metal with an acidic substance selected from an organic carboxylic acid, a rosin and a rosin derivative. The metal is precipitated fro...