Device for judging degree of awakening and method for judging degree of awakening
First Claim
1. A device for judging a degree of awakening, the device comprising:
- signal acquiring means for acquiring a biological signal of a person in action;
index acquiring means for acquiring a physiological index indicating a strength of a state of acting against sleepiness from the biological signal;
judging means for judging the degree of awakening of the person according to the physiological index;
stimulus providing means for imparting a stimulus for raising the degree of awakening of the person; and
timing setting means for setting a timing for providing the stimulus before a predetermined time passes after the physiological index exceeds a predetermined value, whereinthe biological signal is a heartbeat signal, andthe physiological index comprises an amplitude spectral power of a heartbeat fluctuation low frequency component acquired from the heartbeat signal.
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Abstract
A device for judging a degree of awakening and a method for judging a degree of awakening which can more reliably detect weak sleepiness of people in action. The device for judging a degree of awakening in accordance with the present invention comprises a heartbeat sensor for acquiring a heartbeat signal from a driver and an ECU for detecting sleepiness of the driver by processing the heartbeat signal. In the ECU, a heartbeat signal preprocessing section for acquiring a heartbeat period time series from the heartbeat signal, a feature amount extracting section for acquiring a heartbeat fluctuation low frequency component power from the heartbeat period time series, a sleepiness detecting section for judging whether sleepiness occurs in the driver or not according the heartbeat fluctuation low frequency component power, a stimulus timing setting section for setting a timing for imparting a stimulus for removing sleepiness to the driver according to the heartbeat fluctuation low frequency component power, and a sleepiness removing stimulus output section for imparting the stimulus to the driver at thus set timing.
8 Citations
24 Claims
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1. A device for judging a degree of awakening, the device comprising:
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signal acquiring means for acquiring a biological signal of a person in action; index acquiring means for acquiring a physiological index indicating a strength of a state of acting against sleepiness from the biological signal; judging means for judging the degree of awakening of the person according to the physiological index; stimulus providing means for imparting a stimulus for raising the degree of awakening of the person; and timing setting means for setting a timing for providing the stimulus before a predetermined time passes after the physiological index exceeds a predetermined value, wherein the biological signal is a heartbeat signal, and the physiological index comprises an amplitude spectral power of a heartbeat fluctuation low frequency component acquired from the heartbeat signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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7. A device for judging a degree of awakening, the device comprising:
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signal acquiring means for acquiring a biological signal of a person in action; index acquiring means for acquiring a physiological index indicating a strength of a state of acting against sleepiness from the biological signal; judging means for judging the degree of awakening of the person according to the physiological index; stimulus providing means for imparting a stimulus for raising the degree of awakening of the person; and timing setting means for setting a timing for providing the stimulus before the amplitude spectral power of the heartbeat fluctuation low frequency component attains the nearest local minimum after exceeding a predetermined value, wherein the biological signal is a heartbeat signal, and the physiological index is an amplitude spectral power of a heartbeat fluctuation low frequency component acquired from the heartbeat signal.
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8. A method for judging a degree of awakening, the method comprising:
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a signal acquiring step of acquiring a biological signal of a person in action; an index acquiring step of acquiring a physiological index indicating a strength of a state of acting against sleepiness from the biological signal; a judging step of judging the degree of awakening of the person according to the physiological index; a stimulus providing step of imparting a stimulus for raising the degree of awakening of the person; and a timing setting step of setting a timing for providing the stimulus before a predetermined time passes after the physiological index exceeds a predetermined value, wherein the biological signal is a heartbeat signal, and the physiological index comprises an amplitude spectral power of a heartbeat fluctuation low frequency component acquired from the heartbeat signal. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method for judging a degree of awakening, the method comprising:
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a signal acquiring step of acquiring a biological signal of a person in action; an index acquiring step of acquiring a physiological index indicating a strength of a state of acting against sleepiness from the biological signal; a judging step of judging the degree of awakening of the person according to the physiological index; a stimulus providing step of imparting a stimulus for raising the degree of awakening of the person; and a timing setting step of setting a timing for providing the stimulus before the amplitude spectral power of the heartbeat fluctuation low frequency component attains the nearest local minimum after exceeding a predetermined value, wherein the biological signal is a heartbeat signal; and the physiological index is an amplitude spectral power of a heartbeat fluctuation low frequency component acquired from the heartbeat signal.
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Specification