A superficial foreign bodies detecting system for ultrasonic sensor is disclosed. The system comprises a micro controller which comprises a main controlling unit, a driving signal generating unit, a signal receiving unit, and a residual vibration detecting unit. The driving signal generating unit is controlled by the main controlling unit so as to transmit a first sensor driving signal to the ultrasonic sensor, thereby making the sensing head to output an ultrasonic wave. In case of the transmission of the first sensor driving signal is stopped, the residual vibration detecting unit is enabled to apply a residual vibration measuring process to the ultrasonic sensor. Consequently, according to a residual vibration signal received from the residual vibration detecting unit, the main controlling unit is able to judge whether there is at least one foreign body attached on the surface of the sensing head.

A sensor for outputting a first measurement signal that is dependent on a measurement variable to be detected in a vehicle, including: a sensor circuit having a measuring sensor for generating the first measurement signal on the basis of the measurement variable, and a magnetic field probe for outputting a second measurement signal that is dependent on a magnetic field to be detected.

An image display system includes: an external environment information acquiring device configured to acquire external environment information around a mobile body; a display device configured to display the external environment information; and a control device configured to control a display of the external environment information on the display device, wherein the control device is configured to generate a virtual viewpoint image in which the mobile body and an object around the mobile body are viewed from a virtual viewpoint, cause the display device to display the virtual viewpoint image, move the virtual viewpoint along a trajectory set around the mobile body, set a restricted section in the trajectory such that the restricted section is arranged in front of the mobile body in a plan view, and execute viewpoint restricting control to restrict a display of the virtual viewpoint image from the virtual viewpoint in the restricted section.

Disclosed are a parking alignment adjustment apparatus and method. The parking alignment adjustment apparatus comprises a first sensor configured to sense driving information of a host vehicle, a second sensor configured to sense surrounding environment information of the host vehicle, and a control unit. In this case, the control unit is configured to receive the driving information and the surrounding environment information from the first sensor and the second sensor, configured to determine whether the host vehicle is being parked on the basis of the received driving information, configured to calculate a target parking position on the basis of the received surrounding environment information when the host vehicle is being parked, configured to compare a current parking position to the target parking position and determine whether it is possible to improve parking alignment after the host vehicle is parked by a driver, configured to show, to the driver, that the improvement of the parking alignment is possible when it is possible to improve parking alignment, and configured to control the host vehicle such that the host vehicle is parked at the target parking position when a parking alignment improvement command is entered by the driver.

The invention relates to an ultrasonic transducer (10) of the type comprising a housing (16) provided with an electrical connector (17), at least one ultrasonic transducer (15) and an electronic card (13) for controlling the transducer and which is arranged inside the housing and consists of a printed circuit board (14) on which active components (11) and passive components (12) are mounted. According to the invention, the active components include integrated active components (11) which are completely embedded in a substrate of the printed circuit board and the passive components include integrated passive components (12) which are completely embedded in the substrate. According to another feature, the active components and the passive components include surface-mounted components (7) arranged solely on one side of the printed circuit board and the transducer is mounted on an opposite side.

A detection system includes: a detection portion that has an output function outputting a detection wave toward surroundings of a vehicle, and a detection function detecting an object around the vehicle based on a reflected wave; a determination section that determines that the object is definitely present around the vehicle when a number of times of detection of the object by the detection function exceeds a predetermined number of times; a control section that causes operation of the detection function without operation of the output function when the vehicle travels at a predetermined speed or higher; and an adjustment section that adjusts and increases the predetermined number of times designated for the determination section when the object is detected by the detection function operated by the control section during traveling of the vehicle at the predetermined speed or higher.

A method of detecting a signal with a sensor. The method includes obtaining a plurality of signals with a sensor. A correlation is performed to determine if any of the plurality of signals correlate to at least one predefined signal. The at least one predefined signal corresponds to identifying the occurrence of a specific event.

An obstacle detection device includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire path information to a parking position and range information representing a position and a range of an object existing around an own vehicle, an operation control unit configured to generate a driving signal, for operating a traveling driving device that travels a vehicle, according to the path information and outputs the generated driving signal to the traveling driving device, an inside/outside determination unit configured to determine, when receiving surroundings information representing a situation around the own vehicle, whether a target object included in the received surroundings information is an object positioned inside the range represented by the range information or an object positioned outside the range, and an obstacle determination unit configured to determine whether or not the object that has been determined to be positioned outside the range is an obstacle to the own vehicle traveling in a parking path.

A method for monitoring the surroundings of a vehicle, the surroundings behind the vehicle being detected with the aid of ultrasonic sensors and with the aid of at least one imaging sensor, a warning signal being output when an object that has a distance to the vehicle smaller than a predefined minimum distance is detected with the aid of ultrasonic sensors, a trailer of the vehicle being recognized with the aid of the imaging sensor, and the warning signal not being output when the object is the trailer recognized by the imaging sensor.

An illustrative controller includes: a transmitter to drive the acoustic transducer to generate a series of acoustic bursts; a receiver coupled to the acoustic transducer to sense a response for each acoustic burst in the series; and a processing circuit to derive output data from said responses in part by determining a difference between one of the responses and at least a portion of another one of the responses. Another illustrative controller includes: a transmitter to drive the acoustic transducer to generate a series of acoustic bursts with signature sequence of frequency displacements; a receiver coupled to the acoustic transducer to sense a response for each acoustic burst in the series; and a processing circuit to derive output data from said responses in part by suppressing any peaks not conforming to the signature sequence.