KIND OF VEHICLE DISCRIMINATING DEVICE

PURPOSE:To surely discriminate the kind of a vehicle through comparatively simple constitution by obtaining a picture to show the temperature distribution of a passing vehicle by combining a strip-shaped heater, an infrared ray sensor and an outside air temperature sensor. CONSTITUTION:When the vehicle 6 passes on a road 8, detection data from the vehicle 6 and the strip-shaped heater 2 detected by the infrared ray sensors 4a, 4b is fetched in a control unit 16 by time division system. In this case, since the unit 16 controls the input levels of the heater 2 and the sensors 4a, 4b according to the detection data of the outside air temperature sensor 12, the overall temperature of a car body is different from the reference temperature of the heater 2. Therefore, the picture to show the temperature distribution of the passing car 6 based on the background of the temperature of the heater 2 is obtained by this temperature. This picture includes not only the contour of the vehicle 6 but the picture of an engine and a driver, etc., mounted on the vehicle. Accordingly, the kind of the vehicle can be discriminated by extracting the feature of the vehicle like the length and the width of the vehicle, the position of the engine, the number of axles, etc., on based the basis of this picture.