Algorithm for monitoring head/eye motion for driver alertness with one camera
First Claim
1. A driver alertness system comprising:
- (a) a single camera within a vehicle aimed at a head region of a driver;
(b) means for simultaneously monitoring head rotation, yawning and full eye occlusion of the driver with said camera, the head rotation including nodding up and down, and moving left to right, and the full eye occlusion including eye blinking and complete eye closure, the monitoring means includes means for determining left to right rotation and the up and down nodding from examining approximately 10 frames from approximately 20 frames; and
(c) alarm means for activating an alarm in real time when a threshold condition in the monitoring means has been reached, whereby the driver is alerted into driver vigilance.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Visual methods and systems are described for detecting alertness and vigilance of persons under conditions of fatigue, lack of sleep, and exposure to mind altering substances such as alcohol and drugs. In particular, the intention can have particular applications for truck drivers, bus drivers, train operators, pilots and watercraft controllers and stationary heavy equipment operators, and students and employees during either daytime or nighttime conditions. The invention robustly tracks a person'"'"'s head and facial features with a single on-board camera with a fully automatic system, that can initialize automatically, and can reinitialize when it need'"'"'s to and provide outputs in realtime. The system can classify rotation in all viewing direction, detects'"'"' eye/mouth occlusion, detects'"'"' eye blinking, and recovers the 3D(three dimensional) gaze of the eyes. In addition, the system is able to track both through occlusion like eye blinking and also through occlusion like rotation. Outputs can be visual and sound alarms to the driver directly. Additional outputs can slow down the vehicle cause and/or cause the vehicle to come to a full stop. Further outputs can send data on driver, operator, student and employee vigilance to remote locales as needed for alarms and initiating other actions.
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Citations
40 Claims
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1. A driver alertness system comprising:
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(a) a single camera within a vehicle aimed at a head region of a driver;
(b) means for simultaneously monitoring head rotation, yawning and full eye occlusion of the driver with said camera, the head rotation including nodding up and down, and moving left to right, and the full eye occlusion including eye blinking and complete eye closure, the monitoring means includes means for determining left to right rotation and the up and down nodding from examining approximately 10 frames from approximately 20 frames; and
(c) alarm means for activating an alarm in real time when a threshold condition in the monitoring means has been reached, whereby the driver is alerted into driver vigilance. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A method of detecting driver vigilance, comprising the steps of:
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aiming a single camera at a head of a driver of a vehicle;
detecting frequency of up and down nodding and left to right rotations of the head within a selected time period of the driver with the camera;
determining frequency of eye blinkings and eye closings of the driver within the selected time period with the camera;
determining the left to right head rotations and the up and down head nodding from examining approximately 10 frames from approximately 20 frames;
detecting frequency of yawning of the driver within the selected time period with the camera; and
generating an alarm signal in real time if a frequency value of the number of the frequency of the up and down nodding, the left to right rotations, the eye blinkings, the eye closings, the yawning exceed a selected threshold value. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A vigilance monitoring system, comprising:
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means for detecting up and down head nodding, and left to right head rotation of a person to be monitored, the detecting means including a means for determining the left to right head rotation and the up and down nodding from examining approximately 10 frames from approximately 20 frames;
means for detecting eye blinkings and complete eye closures of the person;
means for detecting yawning of the person; and
means for simultaneously monitoring the up and down head nodding and the head rotation detecting means, the eye blinking and the closure detecting means and the yawning detecting means within one computer. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A method of monitoring attention vigilance, comprising the steps of:
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detecting head nodding and head rotation of a person to be monitored;
determining left to right rotation and up and down nodding from examining approximately 10 frames from approximately 20 frames;
detecting eye blinking and eye closures of the person;
detecting yawning of the person; and
simultaneously monitoring the head nodding and the head rotation, the eye blinking and eye closures and the yawning within one computer. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
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Specification