Consciousness judging apparatus

• US 20050219057A1
• Filed: 03/28/2005
• Published: 10/06/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi FUSO Truck & Bus Corporation (Daimler Truck Holding AG), Matsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi FUSO Truck & Bus Corporation (Daimler Truck Holding AG)
• Inventors: Yamamoto, Keiichi, Ihara, Toru
• Granted Patent: US 7,190,274 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/575
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 28/06 responsive to incapacity of driver
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/14 Clutch pedal position
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/20 Direction indicator values
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/06 indicating a condition of sleep, e.g. anti-dozing alarms

Abstract

A consciousness judging apparatus, which detects a vehicle driving state and judges consciousness of a driver, comprising a monotonousness detection section to obtain monotonousness, a camera which captures an image of a road surface in the vehicle running direction, a meander quantity detection section which detects the meander quantity based on the road surface image taken by the camera, a correction section which corrects and increases the monotonousness when the meander quantity detected this time by the meander quantity detection section is larger than the meander quantity detected last time by the meander quantity detection section by the value greater than a predetermined value α, and a fuzzy inference section which infers a driver'"'"'s consciousness based on the monotonousness corrected by the correction section and meander quantity.

Claims

1. A consciousness judging apparatus, which detects a vehicle driving state and judges consciousness of a driver, comprising:

a monotonousness detection section configured to obtain monotonousness;

an image pickup unit configured to capture an image of a road surface in the vehicle running direction;

a meander quantity detection section configured to detect the meander quantity based on the road surface image captured by the image pickup unit;

a correction section configured to correct and increase the monotonousness when the meander quantity detected this time by the meander quantity detection section is larger than the meander quantity detected last time by the meander quantity detection section by the value greater than a predetermined value; and

a fuzzy inference section configured to infer a driver'"'"'s consciousness based on the monotonousness corrected by the correction section and meander quantity.

2. The consciousness judging apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a steering quantity detection section configured to obtain a steering quantity from the vehicle steering angle, wherein the steering quantity obtained by the steering quantity detection section is input to the fuzzy inference section as input data.

3. The consciousness judging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the monotonousness detection section detects monotonousness based on operations of clutch, exhaust brake and winker.

4. A consciousness judging apparatus, which detects a vehicle driving state and judges consciousness of a driver, comprising:

a monotonousness detection section configured to obtain monotonousness;

an image pickup unit configured to capture an image of a road surface in the vehicle running direction;

a meander quantity detection section configured to detect the meander quantity based on the road surface image captured by the image pickup unit;

a learned meander quantity calculation section configured to learn a meander quantity within a predetermined time and calculates a learned meander quantity;

a correction section configured to correct and increase the monotonousness when the meander quantity detected this time by the meander quantity detection section is larger than the leaned meander quantity by the value greater than a predetermined value; and

a fuzzy inference section configured to infer a driver'"'"'s consciousness based on the monotonousness corrected by the correction section and meander quantity.

5. The consciousness judging apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising a steering quantity detection section configured to obtain a steering quantity from the vehicle steering angle, wherein the steering quantity obtained by the steering quantity detection section is input to the fuzzy inference section as input data.

6. The consciousness judging apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the monotonousness detection section detects monotonousness based on operations of clutch, exhaust brake and winker.

7. A consciousness judging apparatus, which detects a vehicle driving state and judges consciousness of a driver, comprising:

a monotonousness detection section configured to obtain monotonousness;

an image pickup unit configured to capture an image of a road surface in the vehicle running direction;

a meander quantity detection section configured to detect the meander quantity based on the road surface image captured by the image pickup unit;

a learned meander rate calculation section which learns a meander quantity within a first predetermined time, and calculates a learned meander quantity;

an average meander quantity detection section configured to obtain an average value of a meander quantity within a second predetermined time;

a fuzzy inference section configured to infer a driver'"'"'s consciousness based on the monotonousness and meander quantity within a third predetermined time shorter than the second predetermined time, when the meander quantity detected this time by the meander quantity detection section is larger than the meander quantity detected last time by the meander quantity detection section by the value greater than a predetermined value, or when the meander quantity detected this time by the meander quantity detection section is larger than the leaned meander quantity detected by the learned meander quantity calculation section by the value greater than a predetermined value.

8. The consciousness judging apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising a steering quantity detection section configured to obtain a steering quantity from the vehicle steering angle, wherein the steering quantity obtained by the steering quantity detection section is input to the fuzzy inference section as input data.

9. The consciousness judging apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the input data within the third predetermined time is calculated based on the steering quantity and meander quantity, the learned data within the first predetermined time is calculated based on the data calculated within the third predetermined time, and the average data within the second predetermined time is calculated based on the average of the data calculated within the third predetermined time.