Safety-drive assistance device

• US 7,884,705 B2
• Filed: 12/04/2006
• Issued: 02/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Kurokawa, Hisashi, Mochizuki, Makoto, Nishimura, Hirofumi
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehmood; Jennifer
• Application Number:
  US12/096,673
• Publication Number:
  US 20090128311A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,527 Days
• Field of Search: 340/436, 180/271, 180/272, 180/274, 701/301
• US Class Current: 340/436
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/08 related to drivers or passengers
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/597 Recognising the driver's state or behaviour, e.g. attention or drowsiness
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/18 Eye characteristics, e.g. of the iris
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes

Abstract

The present invention is to provide a safety-drive assistance device that can judge whether a driver recognizes an object to which a driver should pay an attention or not even if an accuracy of detecting a visual-line direction is almost equal to once degree. A traffic environment detecting unit 11 detects an object such as an automobile, a pedestrian, a road mark and a traffic signal. A watched target judging unit 12 judges a watched target among the objects, to which a driver pays attention. A visual-line direction detecting unit 13 detects a visual-line direction of a driver. A visual recognition judging unit 14 judges whether a driver visually recognizes the watched target or not, based on the watched target and a fluctuation pattern of a direction of either or both eyes of the driver. A non-safety recognition judging unit 15 judges whether a driver recognizes non-safety or not, based on the result of visual recognition judged by the visual recognition judging unit 14. A presentation unit 16 informs the content of non safety, based on the result of judging on safety judged by the non-safety recognition judging unit 15.

Claims

1. A safety-drive assistance device for assisting a driver in driving a vehicle under a traffic environment, said vehicle having a first camera for taking an image of an outside of said vehicle, and a second camera for taking an image of an inside of said vehicle, comprising:

a traffic environment detecting unit operable to detect a watched target in said traffic environment from said image taken by said first camera;

a visual-line direction detecting unit operable to detect a direction of a visual line of said driver on the basis of said image of two eyes or one eye of said driver taken by said second camera; and

a visual recognition judging unit for making a judgment whether said driver visually recognizes said watched target or not,

wherein

said visual recognition judging unit is;

operable to calculate a first vector of a moving pattern, during a predetermined period, regarding said watched target mapped on a two dimensional space intersected by a line between the position of an eye of said driver and said watched target;

operable to calculate a second vector of a moving pattern, during said predetermined period, of an intersection point of said two dimensional space with said visual line of said driver detected by said visual-line direction detecting unit; and

operable to make said judgment based on an inner product of said first vector with said second vector and a magnitude of said first vector.

2. The safety-drive assistance device according to claim 1, wherein

said visual recognition judging unit judges that said driver visually recognizes said watched target if said intersection point is in the vicinity of said watched target and the amount of moving of said second vector in a direction directing to said watched target or backing away from said watched target is changed larger or equal to a predetermined amount.

3. The safety-drive assistance device according to claim 1, further comprising a watched target judging unit operable to judge said watched target, on the basis of a predetermined threshold, from objects detected by said traffic environment detecting unit.

4. The safety-drive assistance device according to claim 1, further comprising a non-safety recognition judging unit operable to judge whether said driver recognizes non-safety or not on the basis of the result of said judgment made by the visual recognition judging unit.

5. The safety-drive assistance device according to claim 4, further comprising a presentation unit operable to present information corresponding to said watched target when said non-safety recognition judging unit judges that said driver does not recognize non-safety.

6. The safety-drive assistance device according to claim 1, wherein said visual recognition judging unit is operable to calculate said first vector on the basis of said watched target mapped to said two dimensional space at starting time and ending time of said predetermined period, and operable to calculate said second vector on the basis of the position of said intersection point at starting time and ending time of said predetermined period.