US Patent 10983188 Object notification apparatus

An obstacle notification apparatus of the embodiment is mounted in a vehicle, and includes a probing result acquiring section that sequentially acquires reception intensity of a reflected wave corresponding to a probing wave reflected back by an object, the reflected wave being received by a probing wave transmitting and receiving apparatus transmitting the probing wave in a traveling direction of the vehicle and receiving the reflected wave; an obstacle determining section that determines whether or not an obstacle, which is an object presence of which a driver of the vehicle is to be notified of, is present in the traveling direction of the vehicle, by using the reception intensity of the reflected wave acquired by the probing result acquiring section; a notification processing section that performs a notification process for notifying the driver of the presence of the obstacle based on determination of the presence of the obstacle by the obstacle determining section; an image data acquiring section that acquires image data taken by a camera including, within an image taking range, an arrival range of the probing wave transmitted by the probing wave transmitting and receiving apparatus; and a noise element detecting section that detects presence of a noise element by analyzing the image data acquired by the image data acquiring section, the noise element being an element which is able to reflect the probing wave and which is preset as an element of which the driver need not be notified. The obstacle determining section determines whether or not the obstacle is present by using a less easily satisfied condition in a case where the noise element detecting section has detected the noise element than that used in a case where the noise element detecting section has not detected the noise element.