Method of and an apparatus for measuring a person's ability to perform a motor control task

• US 20030153846A1
• Filed: 04/19/2002
• Published: 08/14/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The University of Bristol
• Original Assignee: The University of Bristol
• Inventors: Marple-Horvat, Dilwyn Edwin
• Granted Patent: US 6,974,326 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/587
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/163 by tracking eye movement, gaze, or pupil change
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/18 for vehicle drivers or machine operators

Abstract

An apparatus is provided for assessing a persons ability to perform tasks requiring hand and eye co-ordination. A gaze tracker 6 images a person'"'"'s eye in order to determine their direction of look. In the context of a vehicle system, a steering wheel direction sensor 12 is provided to determine the direction of the steering wheel. Data from the steering wheel sensor and the gaze tracker is compared by a data processor 14 which looks for correlations between the data sets and uses this correlation to determine whether the person 2 is fit to drive or not.

Claims

1. A method of measuring a person'"'"'s ability to perform a task which require control of at least one of a person'"'"'s limbs, the method comprising:

measuring a first motion which comprises the movement of at least one of the person'"'"'s limbs or the movement of a device operated by the person;

measuring a second motion made by the person in order to acquire visual data in order to perform the first motion; and

comparing the first and second motions to obtain a measure of performance.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the measure of performance is compared with a historical measure of performance and a warning issued or action taken if the difference exceeds a predetermined threshold.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the second motion is the eye movement of the person.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first and second motions are cross-correlated.

5. A method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the cross-correlation is analysed to determine at least one of a correlation peak value and a time displacement.

6. A method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the results from a recent cross-correlation are compared with a historical measure, and a warning issued or other action taken if the correlation peak value is less than the historical measure by a threshold amount.

7. A method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the warning is issued or action taken when the value of the recent cross-correlation peak is less than the product of an acceptance coefficient and the historical value of the cross-correlation peak.

8. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the task is driving an automobile and the first motion is measured by measuring the motion of a steering control device.

9. A method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the steering control device is a steering wheel.

10. A method as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the results of a recent cross-correlation are compared with a historical measure by forming a non-overlapping integral and a warning is issued depending upon the size of th integral.

17. A computer program for causing a data processor to perform the method claimed in claim 1.

11. An apparatus for measuring a persons ability to perform a task requiring control of limb position the apparatus comprising:

a first input device responsive to motion of at least one limb;

an eye-tracker for determining the person'"'"'s direction of gaze; and

a data processor for comparing an output of the first input device with an output of the eye-tracker and for making the result of the comparison available.

12. An apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein the data processor is arranged to cross-correlate the output of the first input device and the eye-tracker.

13. An apparatus as claimed in claim 11 wherein the result of the comparison is compared with historical data, and a warning issued or a predetermined action taken if the difference exceeds a predetermined threshold.

14. An apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein the first input device is responsive to motion of a steering wheel.

15. An automobile including an apparatus as claimed in claim 11

16. An apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein the apparatus is located within a vehicle and the apparatus is provided with data concerning operation vehicle system which present stimuli to the driver, and the apparatus monitors driver performance to determine if the vehicle Systems are degrading a drivers performance.