DRIVER DISTRACTION AND DROWSINESS WARNING AND SLEEPINESS REDUCTION FOR ACCIDENT AVOIDANCE
First Claim
1. A method for a driver drowsiness warning and accident avoidance system for a vehicle, comprising the steps of:
- a) determining speed of said vehicle;
b) calculating a maximum allowed drowsiness time in accordance with speed of said vehicle and allowed drowsiness travel distance;
wherein said maximum allowed drowsiness time is a non-linear function of said speed of said vehicle;
c) determining a score of confidence of detecting driver'"'"'s face and facial features;
d) determining driver'"'"'s level of the driver'"'"'s left eye closed and the driver'"'"'s right eye closed, if said score is larger than a first threshold value;
e) calculating level of eyes closed as maximum of said driver'"'"'s left eye closed level and said driver'"'"'s right eye closed level;
f) filtering said calculated level of eyes closed;
g) issuing a driver drowsiness alarm, if said filtered calculated level of eyes closed exceed a second threshold value persist longer than said maximum allowed drowsiness time; and
h) illuminating the driver'"'"'s face with approximately 460 nm dim blue light to increase alertness of driver when said driver drowsiness alarm is issued at night time.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention relates to a vehicle telematics device for driver monitoring for accident avoidance for drowsiness and distraction conditions. The distraction and drowsiness is detected by facial processing of driver'"'"'s face and pose tracking as a function of speed and maximum allowed travel distance, and issuing a driver alert when a drowsiness or distraction condition is detected. The mitigation includes audible alert, as well as other methods such as dim blue night to perk up the driver. Adaptation center of driver'"'"'s gaze direction and allowed maximum time for a given driver and camera angle offset as well as temporary offset for cornering for shift of vanishing point and other conditions is also performed.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for a driver drowsiness warning and accident avoidance system for a vehicle, comprising the steps of:
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a) determining speed of said vehicle; b) calculating a maximum allowed drowsiness time in accordance with speed of said vehicle and allowed drowsiness travel distance; wherein said maximum allowed drowsiness time is a non-linear function of said speed of said vehicle; c) determining a score of confidence of detecting driver'"'"'s face and facial features; d) determining driver'"'"'s level of the driver'"'"'s left eye closed and the driver'"'"'s right eye closed, if said score is larger than a first threshold value; e) calculating level of eyes closed as maximum of said driver'"'"'s left eye closed level and said driver'"'"'s right eye closed level; f) filtering said calculated level of eyes closed; g) issuing a driver drowsiness alarm, if said filtered calculated level of eyes closed exceed a second threshold value persist longer than said maximum allowed drowsiness time; and h) illuminating the driver'"'"'s face with approximately 460 nm dim blue light to increase alertness of driver when said driver drowsiness alarm is issued at night time. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method for a driver distraction warning system for a vehicle for accident avoidance and driver analytics, comprising the steps of:
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a) capturing images of the driver'"'"'s face region using a high-dynamic range (HDR) image sensor under varying illumination conditions; b) removing noise components using MATF and MASF filtering from said captured images; c) determining a current speed of the vehicle, and using a past average speed value if said current speed cannot be determined; d) calculating a maximum allowed distraction time in accordance with a maximum allowed distracted travel distance, wherein the maximum allowed distraction time is a non-linear function of said maximum allowed distracted travel distance; e) determining a score of confidence of detecting the driver'"'"'s face and facial features from said filtered captured images; f) determining the driver'"'"'s face gaze direction, if said score is larger than a predetermined score threshold; g) filtering said driver'"'"'s face gaze direction values over multiple frames of said filtered captured images; h) determining if the driver'"'"'s filtered face gaze direction is outside a non-distraction window of view; i) calculating a time duration when the driver'"'"'s filtered face gaze direction stays outside the non-distraction window; and j) issuing an at least one alert warning to the driver when the time duration of filtered face gaze direction exceeds a time threshold value if the current speed of the vehicle is larger than a low speed threshold value. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method for a driver assistance for accident avoidance, comprising the steps of:
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a) determining a speed of a vehicle; b) performing the following steps only when said vehicle speed exceeds a predetermined speed threshold; c) selecting a maximum allowed distracted driving distance; d) determining said driver'"'"'s face gaze direction; e) filtering said driver'"'"'s face gaze direction over multiple captured video frames; f) calculating a maximum allowed distraction time in accordance with the speed of said vehicle and said selected maximum allowed distracted driving distance; g) determining if the driver'"'"'s filtered face gaze direction is outside the non-distraction window of driver'"'"'s normal view of road ahead, wherein taking into account of camera angle offset with respect to said driver'"'"'s face; h) calculating a time duration during which said driver'"'"'s filtered face gaze direction is outside the non-distraction window; and i) Issuing an alert warning to said driver when the time duration of said filtered face gaze direction exceeds said maximum allowed distraction time. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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Specification