Vehicle occupant monitoring using infrared imaging
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method for monitoring a vehicle occupant of a vehicle, the method comprising, via one or more processors:
- receiving, from one or more sensors disposed within the vehicle, sensor data regarding the vehicle occupant, wherein the vehicle occupant is distinct from a vehicle operator;
determining one or more vehicle occupant characteristics for the vehicle occupant based upon the received sensor data, wherein the one or more vehicle occupant characteristics include one or more skeletal characteristics of the vehicle occupant;
determining whether an abnormal situation exists based upon the one or more determined vehicle occupant characteristics associated with the vehicle occupant, wherein the abnormal situation relates to one or more of the following types of abnormal situations;
a medical emergency, a health risk, an accident risk, an impairment of the vehicle occupant, or a security threat;
determining one or more responses to the abnormal situation based upon the determined type of the abnormal situation; and
causing the one or more responses to the abnormal situation to be implemented.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and systems for monitoring vehicle occupants using infrared and other sensors are disclosed. The systems may use infrared sensor data to identify each vehicle occupant using biometric signatures (such as heartbeat or facial recognition). Vehicle occupant characteristics may be determined that include skeletal characteristics of the occupants. Further monitoring of the occupants using sensor data may occur until an abnormal situation is detected. Abnormal situations may include medical emergencies, driver impairment, security threats, or similar situations requiring correcting action. The system may then determine and implement an appropriate response to the abnormal situation. Such responses may include generating alerts, adjusting vehicle environmental controls, taking control of operation of the vehicle (such as an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle), or initiating wireless communication with an outside party, such as an emergency service.
-
Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A computer-implemented method for monitoring a vehicle occupant of a vehicle, the method comprising, via one or more processors:
-
receiving, from one or more sensors disposed within the vehicle, sensor data regarding the vehicle occupant, wherein the vehicle occupant is distinct from a vehicle operator; determining one or more vehicle occupant characteristics for the vehicle occupant based upon the received sensor data, wherein the one or more vehicle occupant characteristics include one or more skeletal characteristics of the vehicle occupant; determining whether an abnormal situation exists based upon the one or more determined vehicle occupant characteristics associated with the vehicle occupant, wherein the abnormal situation relates to one or more of the following types of abnormal situations;
a medical emergency, a health risk, an accident risk, an impairment of the vehicle occupant, or a security threat;determining one or more responses to the abnormal situation based upon the determined type of the abnormal situation; and causing the one or more responses to the abnormal situation to be implemented. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A computer system for monitoring a vehicle occupant of a vehicle, the computer system comprising:
-
one or more processors; one or more sensors disposed within the vehicle and communicatively connected to the one or more processors; and a program memory coupled to the one or more processors and storing executable instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the computer system to; receive sensor data regarding the vehicle occupant from the one or more sensors, the vehicle occupant being distinct from a vehicle operator; determine one or more vehicle occupant characteristics for the vehicle occupant based upon the received sensor data, wherein the one or more vehicle occupant characteristics include one or more skeletal characteristics of the vehicle occupant; determine whether an abnormal situation exists based upon the one or more determined vehicle occupant characteristics associated with the vehicle occupant, wherein the abnormal situation relates to one or more of the following types of abnormal situations;
a medical emergency, a health risk, an accident risk, an impairment of the vehicle occupant, or a security threat;determine one or more responses to the abnormal situation based upon the determined type of the abnormal situation; and cause the one or more responses to the abnormal situation to be implemented. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
-
-
20. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions for monitoring a vehicle occupant of a vehicle that, when executed by at least one processor of a computer system, cause the computer system to:
-
receive sensor data regarding the vehicle occupant from one or more sensors disposed within the vehicle, wherein the vehicle occupant is distinct from a vehicle operator; determine one or more vehicle occupant characteristics for the vehicle occupant based upon the received sensor data, wherein the one or more vehicle occupant characteristics include one or more skeletal characteristics of the vehicle occupant; determine whether an abnormal situation exists based upon the one or more determined vehicle occupant characteristics associated with the vehicle occupant, wherein the abnormal situation relates to one or more of the following types of abnormal situations;
a medical emergency, a health risk, an accident risk, an impairment of the vehicle occupant, or a security threat;determine one or more responses to the abnormal situation based upon the determined type of the abnormal situation; and cause the one or more responses to the abnormal situation to be implemented.
-
Specification