Apparatus for detecting feature of driver's face

• US 20090147080A1
• Filed: 11/20/2008
• Published: 06/11/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Inada, Junya
• Granted Patent: US 8,218,832 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/77
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/19 Sensors therefor

Abstract

An apparatus for detecting a gaze direction of a driver is mounted on an automotive vehicle. An image of the driver'"'"'s face on which infrared rays are incident is reflected on a windshield, and the reflected image is fed into a camera. An outside view entering through the windshield may be subtracted from the image of the driver'"'"'s face taken into the camera to obtain a clearer image of the driver'"'"'s face. A gaze direction of the driver is detected by a known method (refer to the Specification) based on the image taken by the camera. A mirror for further reflecting the image reflected on the windshield may be added to the apparatus to position the camera freely in the vehicle. A band-pass filter for allowing only the infrared rays to pass through may be disposed before the camera to suppress an image of outside view entering through the windshield. The gaze direction of the driver is correctly detected without placing the camera in a direct front of the driver.

Claims

1. An apparatus for detecting a feature of a driver'"'"'s face, the apparatus comprising:

an irradiator for irradiating rays to a face of a driver;

a camera for taking a photograph of the face of the driver; and

a controller for detecting the feature of the driver'"'"'s face based on the photograph of the driver'"'"'s face, wherein;

the camera takes the photograph of the driver'"'"'s face from an image reflected on a windshield of an automotive vehicle.

2. The apparatus as in claim 1, wherein the feature of the driver'"'"'s face is a gaze direction of the driver.

3. The apparatus as in claim 1, wherein the feature of the driver'"'"'s face is a direction of the driver'"'"'s face.

4. The apparatus as in claim 1, wherein the feature of the driver'"'"'s face is blinks of driver'"'"'s eyes.

5. The apparatus as in claim 1, wherein the feature of the driver'"'"'s face is a facial expression of the driver.

6. The apparatus as in claim 1 further including a mirror for further reflecting the image reflected on the windshield, wherein the camera takes a photograph of the image reflected on the mirror.

7. The apparatus as in claim 6, wherein the mirror compensates distortion of the image reflected on the windshield to obtain a correct image.

8. The apparatus as in claim 1, wherein the camera includes a lens that compensates distortion of the image reflected on the windshield to obtain a correct image.

9. The apparatus as in claim 1, wherein the rays irradiated by the irradiator is infrared rays.

10. The apparatus as in claim 9 further including a band-pass filter for passing rays having wavelengths close to those of the irradiated infrared rays.

13. The apparatus as in claim 9, wherein the infrared rays are near-infrared rays.

11. A method of detecting a feature of a driver'"'"'s face, the method comprising:

taking a photograph of an image of a driver'"'"'s face reflected on a windshield of an automotive vehicle; and

detecting the feature of the driver'"'"'s face based on the photograph taken.

12. The method as in claim 11 including a step of further reflecting the image of the driver'"'"' face reflected on the windshield on a mirror.

14. The method as in claim 11 further including a step of subtracting an outside view entering through the windshield from the photograph of the image of the driver'"'"'s face.