SAFETY-DRIVE ASSISTANCE DEVICE

• US 20090128311A1
• Filed: 12/04/2006
• Published: 05/21/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Kurokawa, Hisashi, Mochizuki, Makoto, Nishimura, Hirofumi
• Granted Patent: US 7,884,705 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/435
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/08 related to drivers or passengers
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/597 Recognising the driver's state or behaviour, e.g. attention or drowsiness
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/18 Eye characteristics, e.g. of the iris
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes

Abstract

The present invention is to provide a safety-drive assistance device that can judges whether a driver recognizes an object to which a driver should pay an attention or not even if an accuracy of detecting a visual-line direction is almost equal to one degree. A traffic environment detecting unit 11 detects an object such as an automobile, a pedestrian, a road mark and a traffic signal. A watched target judging unit 12 judges a watched target among the objects, to which a driver pays attention. A visual-line direction detecting unit 13 detects a visual-line direction of a driver. A visual recognition judging unit 14 judges whether a driver visually recognizes the watched target or not, based on the watched target and a fluctuation pattern of a direction of either or both eyes of the driver. A non-safety recognition judging unit 15 judges whether a driver recognizes non-safety or not, based on the result of visual recognition judged by the visual recognition judging unit 14. A presentation unit 16 informs the content of non safety, based on the result of judging non safety judged by the non-safety recognition judging unit 15.

Claims

1. A safety-drive assistance device comprising:

a traffic environment detecting unit operable to detect an existence or a state of an predetermined object;

a watched target judging unit operable to judge a watched target among the objects, to which a driver pays attention for safety driving;

a visual-line direction detecting unit operable to detect a direction defined as a line of sight a visual-line direction of two eyes or one eye of a driver;

a visual recognition judging unit operable to judge whether said driver visually recognizes the watched target or not, based on a relationship between the watched target and movement patterns defined as a locus of a line of sight of a visual line direction detected by said visual-line direction detecting unit;

a non-safety recognition judging unit operable to judge whether said driver recognizes non-safety or not, based on the result of visual recognition judged by said visual recognition judging unit; and

a presentation unit operable to inform the content of non safety based on the result of judging non safety judged by said non-safety recognition judging unit.

2. The safety-drive assistance device according to claim 1, wherein

said visual recognition judging unit judges that said driver visually recognizes the watched target if there is a relationship between a moving pattern of the watched target and a moving pattern of the visual-line direction during a predetermined period.

3. The safety-drive assistance device according to claim 2, wherein

said visual recognition judging unit extracts a predetermined changed point of a visual-line direction and judges a relationship between a moving pattern of the watched target and a moving pattern of the visual-line direction during a period between extracted changed points.

4. The safety-drive assistance device according to claim 1, wherein

said visual recognition judging unit judges that said driver visually recognizes the watched target if the visual-line direction is in the vicinity of the watched target and the amount of moving in a direction directing to the watched target or backing away from the watched target is changed from a predetermined amount, the moving amount relating to a moving pattern of the visual-line direction in the vicinity of the watched target.

5. The safety-drive assistance device according to claim 1, wherein

said visual recognition judging unit holds moving patterns of a visual-line direction in a case of the visual recognition every kinds of the objects and judges whether a driver visually recognizes the object or not depending on the degree of coincidence between a moving pattern of a visual-line direction in the case of visual recognition, and a moving pattern of a visual-line direction in the vicinity of an object which is a watched target.