Apparatus and method for alerting machine operator responsive to the gaze zone
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method for generating alerts comprising:
- responsive to an occurrence of an event, identifying a current gaze zone in a plurality of gaze zones associated with a current view of an operator;
identifying a desired gaze zone in the plurality of gaze zones for the event, wherein the desired gaze zone contains a source location for the event;
determining whether the current gaze zone is inside the desired gaze zone; and
responsive to a determination that the current gaze zone is outside the desired gaze zone, generating an alert, wherein the alert comprises a prompt for user input to perform an action, and wherein the action is selected from stopping a first movement of a vehicle in which the operator is located, stopping a second movement of a follower vehicle following the vehicle, activating a first safety system on the vehicle, and activating a second safety system on the follower vehicle.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The different illustrative embodiments provide a method, apparatus, and computer program product for generating alerts. Responsive to an occurrence of an event, a current gaze zone in a plurality of gaze zones associated with a current view of an operator is identified. A desired gaze zone in the plurality of gaze zones is identified for the event. The desired gaze zone contains a source location for the event. A determination is made whether the current gaze zone is inside the desired gaze zone. Responsive to a determination that the current gaze zone is outside the desired gaze zone, an alert is generated.
39 Citations
25 Claims
-
1. A method for generating alerts comprising:
-
responsive to an occurrence of an event, identifying a current gaze zone in a plurality of gaze zones associated with a current view of an operator; identifying a desired gaze zone in the plurality of gaze zones for the event, wherein the desired gaze zone contains a source location for the event; determining whether the current gaze zone is inside the desired gaze zone; and responsive to a determination that the current gaze zone is outside the desired gaze zone, generating an alert, wherein the alert comprises a prompt for user input to perform an action, and wherein the action is selected from stopping a first movement of a vehicle in which the operator is located, stopping a second movement of a follower vehicle following the vehicle, activating a first safety system on the vehicle, and activating a second safety system on the follower vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
-
-
10. A method for generating alerts comprising:
-
responsive to an occurrence of an event, identifying a current gaze zone in a plurality of gaze zones associated with a current view of an operator; identifying a desired gaze zone in the plurality of gaze zones for the event, wherein the desired gaze zone contains a source location for the event; determining whether the current gaze zone is inside the desired gaze zone; responsive to a determination that the current gaze zone is outside the desired gaze zone, generating an alert; prior to generating the alert, identifying a type for the alert based on the event, wherein the type for the alert is imaging data of the source location, wherein the operator is located in a vehicle, and the imaging data of the source location is generated by an imaging system located on a follower vehicle of the vehicle, and wherein the occurrence of the event comprises the follower vehicle completing an operation being performed by the follower vehicle.
-
-
11. A method for generating alerts comprising:
-
responsive to an occurrence of an event, identifying a current gaze zone in a plurality of gaze zones associated with a current view of an operator; identifying a desired gaze zone in the plurality of gaze zones for the event, wherein the desired gaze zone contains a source location for the event; determining whether the current gaze zone is inside the desired gaze zone; responsive to a determination that the current gaze zone is outside the desired gaze zone, generating an alert, wherein the step of generating the alert comprises presenting imaging data of the source location; and prior to presenting the imaging data of the source location, identifying an imaging system from a collection of imaging systems that generates the imaging data for the source location. - View Dependent Claims (12)
-
-
13. An apparatus comprising:
-
an event monitoring system configured to identify an occurrence of an event and identify a desired gaze zone in the plurality of gaze zones for the event, wherein the desired gaze zone contains a source location for the event; a gaze zone monitoring system configured to identify a current gaze zone in a plurality of gaze zones associated with a current view of an operator responsive to an occurrence of an event; a controller configured to determine whether the current gaze zone is within the desired gaze zone; and an alert system configured to generate an alert responsive to a determination that the current gaze zone is outside the desired gaze zone, wherein the alert system is further configured to generate the alert within the desired gaze zone. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
-
-
23. An apparatus comprising:
-
an event monitoring system configured to identify an occurrence of an event and identify a desired gaze zone in the plurality of gaze zones for the event, wherein the desired gaze zone contains a source location for the event; a gaze zone monitoring system configured to identify a current gaze zone in a plurality of gaze zones associated with a current view of an operator responsive to an occurrence of an event; a controller configured to determine whether the current gaze zone is within the desired gaze zone; an alert system configured to generate an alert responsive to a determination that the current gaze zone is outside the desired gaze zone; and a location monitoring system configured to identify the source location for the event, wherein the location monitoring system is associated with a follower vehicle of a vehicle operated by the operator and the source location is the location of the follower vehicle; wherein the location monitoring system comprises a first global positioning system receiver associated with the vehicle and a second global positioning system receiver associated with the follower vehicle.
-
-
24. An apparatus comprising:
-
an event monitoring system configured to identify an occurrence of an event and identify a desired gaze zone in the plurality of gaze zones for the event, wherein the desired gaze zone contains a source location for the event; a gaze zone monitoring system configured to identify a current gaze zone in a plurality of gaze zones associated with a current view of an operator responsive to an occurrence of an event; a controller configured to determine whether the current gaze zone is within the desired gaze zone; an alert system configured to generate an alert responsive to a determination that the current gaze zone is outside the desired gaze zone; and a location monitoring system configured to identify the source location for the event, wherein the location monitoring system is associated with a follower vehicle of a vehicle operated by the operator and the source location is the location of the follower vehicle; wherein the location monitoring system comprises a radio frequency identification receiver associated with the vehicle and a radio frequency identification tag associated with the follower vehicle.
-
-
25. A computer program product comprising:
-
computer readable program code, stored on a computer readable storage medium, for identifying a current gaze zone in a plurality of gaze zones associated with a current view of an operator responsive to an occurrence of an event; computer readable program code, stored on the computer readable storage medium, for identifying a desired gaze zone in the plurality of gaze zones for the event, wherein the desired gaze zone contains a source location for the event; computer readable program code, stored on the computer readable storage medium, for determining whether the current gaze zone is inside the desired gaze zone; and computer readable program code, stored on the computer readable storage medium, for generating an alert responsive to a determination that the current gaze zone is outside the desired gaze zone, wherein the alert comprises a prompt for user input to perform an action, and wherein the action is selected from stopping a first movement of a vehicle in which the operator is located, stopping a second movement of a follower vehicle following the vehicle, activating a first safety system on the vehicle, and activating a second safety system on the follower vehicle.
-
Specification