SYSTEM FOR FATIGUE DETECTION USING A SUITE OF PHYSIOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT DEVICES

• US 20160090097A1
• Filed: 09/29/2014
• Published: 03/31/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: GRUBE, Robert William, THOMAS, Lisa C., CRAIG, Kimberly Marie, GAST, Christopher Marc
• Granted Patent: US 9,771,081 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7264 Classification of physiological signals or data, e.g. using neural networks, statistical classifiers, expert systems or fuzzy systems neural networks per se G06N3/00; expert systems per se G06N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2040/0827 due to sleepiness
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/08 related to drivers or passengers
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/06 indicating a condition of sleep, e.g. anti-dozing alarms
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems

Abstract

A system, method, and computer program product for detecting, in real time, a fatigue level of a vehicle operator. Multiple physiological indicators of an individual vehicle operator can be monitored at different instances when the operator'"'"'s level of fatigue is known and can be quantified. A statistical model of the vehicle operator'"'"'s fatigue can be developed from the data from the multiple instances. In future instances, the statistical model can be applied to real-time physiological data collected from the operator during operation of the vehicle to determine a fatigue level. A warning can be provided when the statistically-calculated fatigue level exceeds a threshold level.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring vehicle operator fatigue, the method comprising:

receiving biometric data related to a vehicle operator from a plurality of biometric sensors during operation of the vehicle;

calculating a fatigue level for the operator by applying the received biometric data to a statistical model of fatigue, wherein the statistical model outputs an indication of fatigue level; and

outputting the indication of fatigue level for the vehicle operator.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the received biometric data comprises at least one of:

electroencephalography (EEG) data;

electrooculography (EOG) data;

electromyography (EMG) data;

electrocardiography (EKG) data;

heart rate data;

blink rate data;

voice data;

head posture data;

body posture data;

eye movement data;

eye closure data;

body temperature data;

galvanic skin response data; and

video data.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating the statistical model by:

recording biometric data about the vehicle operator from the plurality of biometric sensors during a plurality of operations of the vehicle, wherein, for each of the plurality of operations, a corresponding fatigue level of the operator relative to a numerical scale is at least one of known, assumed, and self-reported by the operator; and

performing statistical analysis on the recorded biometric data to determine a statistical model that results in a best fit of the recorded biometric data to the corresponding fatigue levels for the plurality of operations.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising, upon determining that the output indication of fatigue level exceeds a threshold level, outputting a first signal.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the statistical model includes an uncertainty interval for the indication of fatigue level output by the statistical model;

and further comprising;

upon the output indication of fatigue level exceeding a threshold level, outputting a first signal to the vehicle operator; and

upon a lower end of the uncertainty interval of the indication of fatigue level exceeding the threshold level, outputting a second signal to the vehicle operator.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising outputting the indication of fatigue level to a computer system.

7. A system for monitoring fatigue of a vehicle operator in real time, the system comprising:

memory on board a vehicle, the memory storing executable code and a statistical model for providing an indication of fatigue level for the vehicle operator;

a plurality of biometric sensors arranged relative to controls for the vehicle that are operated by the vehicle operator, wherein the biometric sensors detect a plurality of different biometric data for the vehicle operator in real time; and

a processor which, when programmed by the executable code, applies the detected biometric data to the statistical model to calculate a indication of fatigue level of the vehicle operator.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the plurality of biometric sensors comprises at least one of:

an electroencephalography (EEG) sensor;

an electrooculography (EOG) sensor;

an electromyography (EMG) sensor;

an electrocardiography (EKG) sensor;

a heart rate sensor;

a blink rate sensor;

a voice sensor;

a head posture sensor;

a body posture sensor;

an eye movement sensor;

an eye closure sensor;

a body temperature sensor;

a galvanic skin response sensor; and

a video sensor.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the statistical model comprises a plurality of coefficients, based on the different biometric data, wherein the coefficients are set to values that result in a best fit of recorded historical biometric data for the vehicle operator to corresponding historical fatigue levels of the vehicle operator.

10. The system of claim 7, further comprising a warning indicator arranged relative to the controls and configured to display at least one warning indication;

and

wherein the processor is further configured to output a warning indication to the warning indicator upon determining that the indication of fatigue level of the vehicle operator exceeds a threshold level.

11. The system of claim 7, further comprising a warning indicator arranged relative to the controls, wherein the warning indicator is configured to display a first warning indication and a second warning indication;

wherein the memory further stores an uncertainty interval for the indication of fatigue level output by the statistical model;

wherein the processor is further configured to;

output a first warning signal to the warning indicator upon determining that the indication of fatigue level of the vehicle operator exceeds a threshold level, wherein the warning indicator displays the first warning indication in response to the first warning signal; and

output a second warning signal to the warning indicator upon determining that a lower end of the uncertainty interval of the indication of fatigue level for the vehicle operator exceeds the threshold level, wherein the warning indicator displays the second warning indication in response to the second warning signal.

12. The system of claim 7, further comprising a transmitter in communication with the processor, wherein the processor is configured to output the indication of fatigue level to the transmitter for transmission to a computer system.

13. A computer-program product for monitoring, in real time, vehicle operator fatigue, the computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-readable program code embodied therewith, the computer-readable program code configured to;

receive biometric data related to a vehicle operator from a plurality of biometric sensors during operation of a vehicle;

calculate an indication of fatigue level for the operator by applying the received biometric data to a statistical model of fatigue, wherein the statistical model outputs a indication of fatigue level; and

output the indication of fatigue level for the vehicle operator.

14. The computer-program product of claim 13, further comprising computer-readable program code configured to create the statistical model by:

recording data about the vehicle operator from the plurality of biometric sensors during a plurality of operations of the vehicle, wherein, for each of the plurality of operations, a corresponding fatigue level of the operator relative to a numerical scale is at least one of known, assumed, and self-reported by the operator; and

performing statistical analysis on the recorded data to determine coefficients related to data from each of the plurality of biometric sensors that results in a best fit of the recorded data to the corresponding fatigue levels for the plurality of operations.

15. The computer-program product of claim 14, wherein the computer-readable program code is further configured to calculate an uncertainty interval for the indication of fatigue level output by the statistical model.