Disclosed is a driver supporting device including: a warning timing control unit for setting a timing at which to output warning data in accordance with the existence or non-existence of a passenger when it is determined that a warning target which possibly collides with a driver's vehicle exists ahead of the driver's vehicle, and a warning data outputting unit for outputting the warning data in accordance with the timing set by the warning timing control unit.

An information processing apparatus includes a controller configured to acquire occupant information regarding an occupant in a vehicle trying to park in a parking lot, and identify a parking position appropriate for the vehicle in the parking lot based on the occupant information.

An air conditioning system for motor vehicles includes a plurality of infrared image sensors configured to take images of a vehicle room to detect infrared rays radiated from vehicle occupants, and an analysis unit configured to analyze vehicle occupant information based on the images taken by the infrared image sensors. The infrared image sensors are installed in front upper regions of the vehicle room so as to take images of different imaging areas.

An occupant service provision apparatus includes: a recognition unit configured to recognize an occupant and an object from an acquired image of the inside of a vehicle; a matching unit configured to match a specific part of a body of the occupant that is related to the object; a distance-tracking unit configured to track a distance between the matched specific part of the body of the occupant and the object; and a controller. The controller is configured to check whether the tracked distance satisfies a set service condition, to check whether an additional set service condition is present when the set service condition is satisfied, and to control a specific function of the vehicle, corresponding to the set service, when there is no additional set service condition.

Although persons on board in a driver's seat and a passenger seat can be detected, it is difficult to detect persons on board in a back seat and thus the number of passengers cannot be accurately measured. Image obtaining means 100 photographs the inside of a vehicle from the outside of the vehicle (a shoulder, etc.). View determining means 102 estimates the way in which the vehicle in the image photographed by the image obtaining means 100 is viewed, and outputs a view determination result. Person detecting means 101 performs front-face, side-face, and angled-face detection on the image photographed by the image obtaining means 100, to detect persons and outputs a person detection result. In-vehicle position estimating means 103 determines at which positions in the vehicle the detected persons are present, using the person detection information and the view determination result information, and outputs in-vehicle position estimation information. Result integrating means 104 integrates detection results obtained for a plurality of images which are photographed consecutively, to calculate the number of passengers.

A method, system, and apparatus for vehicle occupancy detection comprises collecting image data of a vehicle, creating a first value according to a plurality of characteristics of a driver position of the vehicle, and then creating at least one other value according to a plurality of characteristics of at least one other candidate occupant position in the vehicle. The characteristics of the driver position of the vehicle and candidate occupant position of the vehicle are compared in order to determine the vehicle occupancy.

An information processing device associated with a vehicle includes a processor. The processor is configured to presume that a person or an item has been left behind in a rear seat of the vehicle, based on whether a rear door was opened and closed in a predetermined period before running of the vehicle and whether the rear door was opened and closed in a predetermined period after running of the vehicle. The processor is configured to perform sensing of the rear seat based on a presumption result. The processor is configured to notify the user based on a sensing result.

Disclosed is a user interface device for vehicles, the user interface device including a communication device configured to wirelessly exchange a signal with at least one server, at least one display, and at least one processor configured to receive prior information of a service provided at a first point from a first server through the communication device while a vehicle moves to the first point, to output the prior information through the display, to acquire user input corresponding to the prior information, and to transmit user data based on the user input to the first server through the communication device.

A vehicular driver assist system includes a sensor disposed at a vehicle and a display disposed at the vehicle and viewable by a driver of the vehicle. An electronic control unit (ECU) includes a processor for processing sensor data captured by the sensor to detect presence of objects in the field of view of the sensor. The vehicular driver assist system, responsive to processing by the processor of sensor data captured by the sensor, determines presence of a driver of the vehicle and determines a position of the driver's head. The vehicular driver assist system, responsive to determining the position of the driver's head, adjusts an orientation of the display based on the determined position of the driver's head to increase visibility of the display for the driver.

A profile is automatically generated for an occupant of a vehicle. In one approach, data is collected from an interior of a vehicle to determine whether an occupant is present. If an occupant is present, a local profile is automatically generated. The local profile is sent to a remote computing device. The remote computing device links the local profile to a remote profile stored by the remote computing device. Configuration data is generated by the remote computing device based on linking the local and remote profiles. The configuration data is sent to the vehicle and used by the vehicle to control the operation of one or more components of the vehicle.