System and method for responding to driver state

• US 10,308,258 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2017
• Issued: 06/04/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Fung, Kin C., Dick, Timothy J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Arthur Jeanglaud, Gertrude
• Application Number:
  US15/720,489
• Publication Number:
  US 20180022358A1
• Time in Patent Office: 613 Days
• Field of Search: 701 36
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 28/02 responsive to conditions relating to the driver
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/25 using biometry
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/22 Psychological state; Stress level or workload
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/08 related to drivers or passengers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2218/12 Classification; Matching
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/764 using classification, e.g. of video objects
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/82 using neural networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/597 Recognising the driver's state or behaviour, e.g. attention or drowsiness
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/15 Biometric patterns based on physiological signals, e.g. heartbeat, blood flow
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/45 Detection of the body part being alive
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/70 Multimodal biometrics, e.g. combining information from different biometric modalities
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/02 Registering or indicating driving, working, idle, or waiting time only apparatus forming part of taximeters G07B13/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/08 Registering or indicating performance data other than driving, working, idle, or waiting time, with or without registering driving, working, idle or waiting time
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/00309 operated with bidirectional data transmission between data carrier and locks
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/00563 using personal physical data of the operator, e.g. finger prints, retinal images, voicepatterns
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/37 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems

Abstract

A method for controlling vehicle systems includes receiving monitoring information from one or more monitoring systems and determining a plurality of driver states based on the monitoring information from the one or more monitoring systems. The method includes determining a combined driver state based on the plurality of driver states and modifying control of one or more vehicle systems based on the combined driver state.

Claims

1. A method of controlling a vehicle system in a vehicle, comprising:

receiving monitoring information from one or more monitoring systems of the vehicle;

determining a first driver state of a driver and a second driver state of the driver based on the monitoring information from the one or more monitoring systems, wherein the first driver state is a behavioral driver state of the driver and the second driver state is a physiological driver state of the driver;

determining a combined driver state index by evaluating the first driver state and the second driver state together;

modifying a system status of the vehicle system as a function of the combined driver state index to increase alertness of the driver;

determining a third driver state of the driver based on the monitoring information from the one or more monitoring systems, wherein the third driver state is a vehicular sensed driver state;

determining a change in the combined driver state index based on the third driver state; and

modifying the vehicle system as a function of the third driver state.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first driver state is determined based on eye movement information received from the one or more monitoring systems, and the second driver state is determined based on heart rate information received from the one or more monitoring systems.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more monitoring systems includes a portable device associated with the driver, wherein the portable device stores user data about the driver tracked over time.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the second driver state is based on the user data about the driver tracked over time.

5. The method of claim 1, including determining a vehicle state of the vehicle based on the monitoring information from the one or more monitoring systems, wherein the vehicle state is the system status of the vehicle system.

6. The method of claim 5, including upon determining the driver is distracted based on the combined driver state index and upon determining the vehicle system is ON based on the system status, modifying the system status of the vehicle system as a function of the combined driver state index to increase alertness of the driver includes modifying the system status of the vehicle system to OFF.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the change in the combined driver state index based on the third driver state includes determining an increase in alertness of the driver from the combined driver state index.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the third driver state is an information transfer rate between the driver and the vehicle.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein determining the change in the combined driver state index based on the third driver state includes determining an increase in alertness of the driver based on determining a high information transfer rate between the driver and the vehicle.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein upon determining the driver is alert based on the change in the combined driver state index, modifying the vehicle system as a function of the third driver state includes modifying the system status to ON.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein upon determining the driver is distracted based on the change in the combined driver state index, modifying the vehicle system as a function of the third driver state includes modifying the system status of the vehicle system to OFF for a period of time.

12. The method of claim 11, determining a fourth driver state of the driver, wherein the fourth driver state is a physiological driver state of the driver, and the fourth driver state is based on stored monitoring information about the driver tracked over time received from a portable device of the driver.

13. The method of claim 12, including determining the driver is alert based on the fourth driver state and modifying the system status of the vehicle system to ON.

14. A method of controlling a vehicle system in a vehicle, comprising:

receiving monitoring information from one or more monitoring systems of the vehicle;

determining a first driver state of a driver and a second driver state of the driver based on the monitoring information from the one or more monitoring systems;

determining a combined driver state index by evaluating the first driver state and the second driver state together;

modifying a system status of the vehicle system as a function of the combined driver state index to increase attention of the driver;

determining a third driver state of the driver based on the monitoring information from the one or more monitoring systems;

determining a second combined driver state index based on the third driver state; and

modifying the vehicle system by evaluating the combined driver state index and the second combined driver state index together.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the first driver state is a behavioral driver state based on behavioral information received from the one or more monitoring systems, the second driver state is a physiological driver state based on physiological information received from the one or more monitoring systems, and the third driver state is a vehicular sensed driver state based on vehicle information from the one or more monitoring systems.

16. The method of claim 14, including identifying the driver based on the monitoring information from the one or more monitoring systems and receiving stored user data about the driver tracked over time from a wearable device associated with the driver.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the second driver state is based on the stored user data.

18. The method of claim 14, including determining a vehicle state of the vehicle based on the monitoring information from the one or more monitoring systems, wherein the vehicle state is an auto control mode status indicating whether the vehicle is enabled for operating under automatic control.

19. The method of claim 18, including upon determining the auto control mode status is ON and upon determining the combined driver state index indicates an inattentive driver, modifying the system status of the vehicle system as a function of the combined driver state index to increase attention of the driver includes modifying the system status to OFF.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein modifying the system status of the vehicle system as a function of the combined driver state index to increase attention of the driver includes modifying the system status of the vehicle system to increase active driving of the vehicle by the driver.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein determining the third driver state of the driver is based on vehicle information from the one or more monitoring systems, wherein the vehicle information is an information transfer rate between the driver and the vehicle in response to the driver transmitting information to the vehicle during active driving of the vehicle by the driver.

22. The method of claim 14, wherein modifying the system status of the vehicle system as a function of the combined driver state index to increase attention of the driver includes modifying the system status of the vehicle system to increase manual control of the vehicle by the driver.

23. The method of claim 14, wherein modifying the system status of the vehicle system as a function of the combined driver state index to increase attention of the driver includes modifying the system status of the vehicle system to OFF, and upon determining an increase in attention based on evaluating the combined driver state index and the second driver state together, modifying the vehicle system includes reactivating the vehicle system.

24. The method of claim 14, including determining a fourth driver state of the driver based on the monitoring information from the one or more monitoring systems, wherein the fourth driver state is a behavioral driver state, and the fourth driver state is determined based on eye movement information received from the one or more monitoring systems.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein determining the second combined driver state index based on the third driver state includes determining the second combined driver state index based on the third driver state and the fourth driver state.

26. The method of claim 14, wherein modifying the vehicle system by evaluating the combined driver state index and the second combined driver state index together includes determining a change in the combined driver state index.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein determining the change in the combined driver state index includes determining an increase in attention of the driver by comparing the combined driver state index to the second combined driver state index.

28. The method of claim 14, including upon determining the attention of the driver meets a predetermined level based evaluating the combined driver state index and the second combined driver state index together, modifying the vehicle includes modifying the system status of the vehicle system to ON.

29. The method of claim 14, including upon determining the driver is distracted by evaluating the combined driver state index and the second combined driver state index together, modifying the vehicle system includes disabling the vehicle system for a period of time.

30. A system for controlling a vehicle system in a vehicle, comprising:

a monitoring system for receiving monitoring information; and

an electronic control unit including a processor, wherein the processor;

determines a first driver state of a driver and a second driver state of the driver based on the monitoring information from the monitoring system, wherein the first driver state is a behavioral driver state of the driver and the second driver state is a physiological driver state of the driver;

determines a combined driver state index by evaluating the first driver state and the second driver state together;

modifies a system status of the vehicle system based on the combined driver state index to improve alertness of the driver;

determines a third driver state of the driver based on the monitoring information from the monitoring system, wherein the third driver state is a vehicular sensed driver state;

determines a change in the combined driver state index based on the third driver state; and

modifies the vehicle system as a function of the third driver state.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the monitoring system includes a wearable device associated with the driver, and wherein the wearable device tracks and stores user data patterns about the driver over time.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the processor determines the second driver state based on the user data patterns.

33. The system of claim 30, wherein the processor modifies the system status of the vehicle system as a function of the combined driver state index by setting the system status of the vehicle system to require an increase in active driving of the vehicle by the driver to improve alertness of the driver.

34. The system of claim 30, wherein the monitoring information indicates a flow of information from the driver to the vehicle, the processor calculates an information transfer rate based on the flow of information from the driver to the vehicle, and the processor determines the third driver state of the driver based on the information transfer rate.

35. The system of claim 30, wherein upon the processor determining the driver is alert based on the change in the combined driver state index, the processor modifies the system status of the vehicle system to ON.

36. The system of claim 30, wherein upon the processor determining the driver is distracted based on the change in the combined driver state index, the processor modifies the system status of the vehicle system to OFF for a period of time.

37. The system of claim 31, wherein the processor determines a fourth driver state of the driver, wherein the fourth driver state is a physiological driver state of the driver, and the fourth driver state is based on the user data patterns received from the wearable device.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein the processor determines the driver is alert based on the fourth driver state and the processor modifies the system status of the vehicle system to ON based on the fourth driver state.