Driving mental condition detecting apparatus

• US 5,813,989 A
• Filed: 11/15/1995
• Issued: 09/29/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/1994
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Pioneer Electronic Corporation (Pioneer Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Pioneer Electronic Corporation (Pioneer Corporation)
• Inventors: Akiyama, Kazuhiro, Saitoh, Satoshi, Yasushi, Mitsuo, Yanagidaira, Masatoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Bahr, Jennifer
• Assistant Examiner(s): HUANG, STEPHEN D
• Application Number:
  US08/559,273
• Time in Patent Office: 1,049 Days
• Field of Search: 128/671, 128/731, 128/733, 128/732, 128/898, 340/575, 340/576, 340/990, 340/995, 600/484, 600/544, 600/545, 600/546, 600/898
• US Class Current: 600/484
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/024 Detecting, measuring or recording pulse rate or heart rate A61B5/0205, A61B5/021 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/18 for vehicle drivers or machine operators
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4035 Evaluating the autonomic nervous system
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7257 using Fourier transforms
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/741 using synthesised speech
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 1/00742 by detection of the vehicle occupants' presence; by detection of conditions relating to the body of occupants, e.g. using radiant heat detectors
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 3/00 Other air-treating devices
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 3/0035 characterised by the control methods for adding the substance

Abstract

A driving mental condition detecting apparatus for detecting a deterioration state of driving mental conditions such as sleepiness, fatigue, and impatience occurring in a driver on the basis of physiological data detected from the driver and road travel data of a vehicle derived from a navigation system, thereby generating an alarm.

Claims

1. A driving mental condition detecting apparatus comprising:

physiological data detector for detecting physiological data of a driver of a vehicle;

navigator for obtaining travel data of said vehicle;

driving mental condition judger for judging a mental condition of a driver by multiplying each of said physiological data and said travel data by predetermined judgment coefficients, adding the products of the multiplications and comparing the sum of the products to a predetermined judgement threshold value; and

alarm generator for generating an alarm when the sum of the products is greater than the predetermined judgement threshold value, thereby indicating that said driver has a deteriorated driving mental condition.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said physiological data detector detects a number of heartbeats of said driver, an RSA (Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia) value, and an MWSA (Mayer wave related Sinus Arrhythmia) value as said physiological data.

3. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said navigator obtains an accumulated travel distance of said vehicle, an azimuth change situation and a speed change situation of said vehicle, and present running road information corresponding to a road on which said vehicle is running as said travel data.

4. An apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said present running road information is information indicating whether said vehicle is running on an ordinary road or a freeway.

5. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said driving mental condition judger performs at least two of the following functions:

(a) multiplies a first sleepiness judgment coefficient by a continuous driving time to obtain a first sleepiness judgment value;

(b) multiplies a second judgment coefficient by a sum of an azimuth distribution parameter and a speed distribution parameter to obtain a second sleepiness judgment value representing monotonousness of driving;

(c) obtains a third sleepiness judgment value by using a third judgment coefficient based on a driving time zone;

(d) multiplies a fourth judgment coefficient by a quotient of an RSA (Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia) value divided by an MWSA (Mayer wave related Sinus Arrhythmia) value to obtain a fourth sleepiness judgment value representing an autonomic nervous state of the driver; and

(e) multiplies a fifth judgment coefficient by present running road information to obtain a fifth sleepiness judgment value representing a running road situation.

6. An apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said driving mental condition judging means adds at least two of said first through fifth judgment coefficients to obtain a total sleepiness judgment value, and determines whether said total sleepiness judgment value is larger than a predetermined sleepiness judgment threshold value.

7. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said driving mental condition is a state indicative of sleepiness.

8. An apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said driving mental condition judger multiplies a first sleepiness judgment coefficient by a continuous driving time to obtain a first sleepiness judgment value.

9. An apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said driving mental condition judger multiplies a second judgment coefficient by a sum of an azimuth distribution parameter and a speed distribution parameter to obtain a second sleepiness judgment value representing monotonousness of driving.

10. An apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said driving mental condition judging means obtains a third sleepiness judgment value by using a third judgment coefficient based on a driving time zone.

11. An apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said driving mental condition judger multiplies a fourth judgment coefficient by a quotient of an RSA (Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia) value divided by an MWSA (Mayer wave related Sinus Arrhythmia) value to obtain a fourth sleepiness judgment value representing an autonomic nervous state of the driver.

12. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said driving mental condition judger multiplies a fifth judgment coefficient by present running road information to obtain a fifth sleepiness judgment value representing a running road situation.

13. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said driving mental condition is a state indicative of fatigue.

14. An apparatus according to claim 13, wherein said driving mental condition judger multiplies a continuous driving time by a first fatigue judgment coefficient to obtain a first fatigue judgment value.

15. An apparatus according to claim 14, wherein said driving mental condition judger subtracts a present heartbeat rate from an initial heartbeat rate and multiplies the result by a second fatigue judgment coefficient to obtain a second fatigue judgment value representing a change in heartbeat rate.

16. An apparatus according to claim 15, wherein said driving mental condition judger divides an MWSA (Mayer wave related Sinus Arrhythmia) value by an RSA (Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia) value and multiplies the quotient by a third fatigue judgment coefficient to obtain a third fatigue judgment value representing an autonomic nervous state of the driver.

17. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said driving mental condition is a state indicative of impatience.

18. An apparatus according to claim 17, wherein said driving mental condition judger divides a continuous driving time by a movement distance and multiplies the quotient by a first impatience judgment coefficient to obtain a first impatience judgment value representing an inverse of movement distance per unit time.

19. An apparatus according to claim 18, wherein said driving mental condition judger divides an RSA (Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia) value by an MWSA (Mayer wave related Sinus Arrhythmia) value and multiplies the quotient by a second impatience judgment coefficient to obtain a second impatience judgment value representing an autonomic nervous state of the driver.

20. A driving mental condition detecting apparatus comprising:

physiological data detecting means for detecting physiological data of a driver of a vehicle;

navigation means for obtaining travel data of said vehicle;

driving mental condition judging means for judging whether said driver feels sleepy based on said physiological data and said travel data; and

alarm generating means for generating an alarm when it is judged that said driver feels sleepy,

wherein said driving mental condition judging means judges sleepiness of said driver in accordance with said physiological data and said travel data during a predetermined driving period of time.

21. A driving mental condition detecting apparatus according to claim 20, wherein said predetermined driving period of time is a sleepiness time zone during which said driver may feel sleepy.

22. A driving mental condition detecting apparatus according to claim 20, wherein said predetermined driving period of time is from 12 a.m. to 5 a.m.

23. A driving mental condition detecting apparatus according to claim 20, wherein said predetermined driving period of time is from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

24. A driving mental condition detecting apparatus according to claim 20, wherein said predetermined driving period of time is from T-1/2 hour to T+1/2 hour, where T is a time selected by the driver.