IMAGE RECOGNITION APPARATUS, DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEM AND IMAGE RECOGNITION METHOD

An image recognition apparatus comprises an image information acquirer that acquires image information in a given cycle by capturing an image of a traveling path along which an own vehicle travels, a road sign recognizer that recognizes a road sign based on the image information and a traffic lane recognizer that recognizes traffic lanes located in the traveling path based on the image information. A memory is provided in the image recognition apparatus to store traffic lane information about a traffic lane recognized by the traffic lane recognizer in a time series. A determiner is also provided to determine if the road sign recognized by the road sign recognizer is for an own traffic lane by choosing a most suitable traffic lane among the traffic lanes recognized for a given period based on the traffic lane information stored in the time series.