System and method for determining the information transfer rate between a driver and vehicle

• US 9,352,751 B2
• Filed: 12/17/2014
• Issued: 05/31/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Fung, Kin C., Dick, Timothy J., Hall, Charles William Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): ARTHUR JEANGLAUD, GERTRUDE
• Application Number:
  US14/573,778
• Publication Number:
  US 20150367858A1
• Time in Patent Office: 531 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701/36, 701/41, 701/70, 701/29.1, 705/4, 340/439, 340/901, 180/272
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 9/00 Reinforcements or ply arrangement of pneumatic tyres inserts having reinforcing means B60C5/08; bead structure, e.g. turnup or overlap construction, B60C15/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/178 Warnings
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2370/178 Warnings
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/28 characterised by the type of the output information, e.g. video entertainment or vehicle dynamics information; characterised by the purpose of the output information, e.g. for attracting the attention of the driver
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 9/00 Arrangement or adaptation of signal devices not provided for in one of main groups B60Q1/00 - B60Q7/00 , e.g. haptic signalling
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/8006 for monitoring and displaying scenes of vehicle interior, e.g. for monitoring passengers or cargo
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/00 Input parameters relating to occupants
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/30 Driving style
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/04 Monitoring the functioning of the control system
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/13 Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/42 Determining position

Abstract

A method and a system for determining an information transfer rate between a driver and a vehicle, where the information transfer rate is calculated using driver information measured directly from the driver and vehicle information measured directly from the vehicle. The method also includes retrieving a baseline information transfer rate for maintaining control of the vehicle from a baseline information transfer rate database. A driver safety factor is calculated using the information transfer rate and the baseline information transfer rate.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for determining an information transfer rate between a driver and a vehicle, the method comprising:

measuring driver information directly from the driver;

measuring vehicle information directly from the vehicle;

calculating an information transfer rate between the driver and the vehicle using the driver information measured directly from the driver and the vehicle information measured directly from the vehicle, wherein the information transfer rate is calculated as a transfer entropy from the driver information to the vehicle information;

retrieving a baseline information transfer rate for maintaining control of the vehicle from a baseline information transfer rate database; and

calculating a driver safety factor using the information transfer rate between the driver and the vehicle and the baseline information transfer rate.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

comparing the driver safety factor and a predetermined driver safety alert threshold; and

alerting the driver using a driver alert device if the driver safety factor does not exceed the predetermined driver safety alert threshold.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1,

wherein measuring the driver information directly from the driver includes calculating a driver time series according to the following equation:

D_x={d_x1,d_x2 . . . d_xN}

where;

D_x is a time series which is an ordered collection of real values of driver information measured directly from the driver, and d_x is a time series segment of a real value of driver information measured directly from the driver; and

wherein measuring the vehicle information directly from the vehicle includes calculating a vehicle time series according to the following equation;

V_y={v_y1,v_y2 . . . v_yN}

where;

V_y is a time series which is an ordered collection of real values of vehicle information measured directly from the vehicle, and v_y is a time series segment of a real value of vehicle information measured directly from the vehicle.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein the information transfer rate between the driver and the vehicle is calculated using conditional entropies according to the following equation:

T<sub>Dx→

Vy</sub>=H(v_yi|v_y(i-t)^(l))−

H(v_yi|v_y(i-t)^(l),d<sub>x(i-τ

)</sub>^(k))

where;

T<sub>Dx→

Vy</sub> is a transfer entropy from a driver measurement x to a vehicle measurement y,

H(v_yi|v_y(i-t)^(l)) is the conditional entropy between v_yi and a prior segment of V_y that is l points long and delayed by t points, and

H(v_yi|v_y(i-t)^(l),d<sub>x(i-τ

)</sub>^(k)) is the conditional entropy between v_i and a prior segment of V_y further conditioned on a prior segment of D_x that is k points long and delayed by τ

time points.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein parameters t, τ

, k, l are adjusted to determine the maximum information transfer rate between the driver and vehicle.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the driver information measured directly from the driver includes at least one of driver biometric data and direct driver control input device data.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein calculating the information transfer rate between the driver and the vehicle includes using external measurements, wherein the external measurements are obtained using at least one of a camera system, an inter-vehicular communication system, or an ultrasonic proximity sensor.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further including normalizing the information transfer rate between the driver and the vehicle based on at least one of a type of driver information measured directly from the driver and driving conditions.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 8, wherein normalizing further includes a GPS of the vehicle being used to normalize the information transfer rate between the driver and the vehicle for the type of driver information measured directly from the driver and driving conditions,

wherein the driving conditions include at least one of a particular road condition, a weather condition, a time of day, and a traffic condition.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the baseline database contains at least two baseline information transfer rates for the driver, and wherein each of the baseline information transfer rates is for a different road condition.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable code for determining an information transfer rate between a driver and a vehicle, the code when executed performs the steps comprising:

measuring driver information directly from the driver;

measuring vehicle information directly from the vehicle;

calculating an information transfer rate between the driver and the vehicle using the driver information measured directly from the driver and the vehicle information measured directly from the vehicle wherein the information transfer rate is calculated by comparing a time series of the driver information to a time series of the vehicle information;

retrieving a baseline information transfer rate for maintaining control of the vehicle from a baseline information transfer rate database; and

calculating a driver safety factor using the information transfer rate between the driver and the vehicle and the baseline information transfer rate.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, the code when executed further performs the steps comprising:

comparing the driver safety factor and a predetermined driver safety alert threshold; and

alerting the driver using a driver alert device if the driver safety factor does not exceed the predetermined driver safety alert threshold.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11,

wherein measuring the driver information directly from the driver includes calculating the time series or the driver information as a driver time series according to the following equation:

D_x={d_x1,d_x2 . . . d_xN}

where;

D_x is a time series which is an ordered collection of real values of driver information measured directly from the driver, and d_x is a time series segment of a real value of driver information measured directly from the driver; and

wherein measuring the vehicle information directly from the vehicle includes calculating the time series of the vehicle information as a vehicle time series according to the following equation;

V_y={v_y1,v_y2 . . . v_yN}

where;

V_y is a time series Which is an ordered collection of real values of vehicle information measured directly from the vehicle, and v_y is a time series segment of a real value of vehicle information measured directly from the vehicle.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the information transfer rate between the driver and the vehicle is calculated using conditional entropies according to the following equation:

T<sub>Dx→

Vy</sub>=H(v_yi|v_y(i-t)^(l))−

H(v_yi|v_y(i-t)^(l),d<sub>x(i-τ

)</sub>^(k))

where;

T<sub>Dx→

Vy</sub> is a transfer entropy from a driver measurement x to a vehicle measurement y,

H(v_yi|v_y(i-t)^(l)) is the conditional entropy between v_yi and a prior segment of V_y that is l points long and delayed by t points, and

H(v_yi|v_y(i-t)^(l),d<sub>x(i-τ

)</sub>^(k)) is the conditional entropy between v_i and a prior segment of V_y further conditioned on a prior segment of D_x that is k points long and delayed by τ

time points.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the driver information measured directly from the driver includes at least one of driver biometric data and direct driver control input device data.

16. An information transfer rate system for determining an information transfer rate between a driver and a vehicle, the system comprising:

a computer processor; and

a computer readable storage medium storing executable code when executed by the computer processor performs the steps comprising;

measuring driver information directly from the driver using a driver information sensing device;

measuring driver information directly from the vehicle using a vehicle information sensing device of the vehicle;

calculating an information transfer rate between the driver and the vehicle using the driver information measured directly from the driver and the vehicle information measured directly from the vehicle, wherein the information transfer rate is calculated using an information transfer rate module of the information transfer rate system;

retrieving a baseline information transfer rate for maintaining control of the vehicle from a baseline information transfer rate database of the information transfer rate system; and

calculating a driver safety factor using the information transfer rate between the driver and the vehicle and the baseline information transfer rate, wherein the driver safety factor is calculated using a driver safety factor module of the information transfer rate system.

17. The information transfer rate system of claim 16, the code when executed by the computer processor further performs the steps comprising:

comparing the driver safety factor and a predetermined driver safety alert threshold using a driver alert module of the information transfer rate system; and

alerting the driver using a driver alert device of the vehicle if the driver safety factor does not exceed the predetermined driver safety alert threshold.

18. The information transfer rate system of claim 16,

wherein measuring the driver information directly from the driver includes calculating a driver time series according to the following equation:

D_x={d_x1,d_x2 . . . d_xN}

where;

D_x is a time series which is an ordered collection of real values of driver information measured directly from the driver using the driver information Sensing device, and d_x is a time series segment of a real value of driver information measured directly from the driver using the driver information sensing device; and

wherein measuring the vehicle information directly from the vehicle includes calculating a vehicle time series according to the following equation;

V_y={v_y1,v_y2 . . . v_yN}

where;

V_y is a time series which is an ordered collection of real values of vehicle information measured directly from the vehicle using the vehicle information sensing device, and v_y is a time series segment of a real value of vehicle information measured directly from the vehicle using the vehicle information sensing device.

19. The information transfer rate system of claim 18, wherein the information transfer rate between the driver and the vehicle is calculated using conditional entropies according to the following equation:

T<sub>Dx→

Vy</sub>=H(v_yi|v_y(i-t)^(l))−

H(v_yi|v_y(i-t)^(l),d<sub>x(i-τ

)</sub>^(k))

where;

T<sub>Dx→

Vy</sub> is a transfer entropy from a driver measurement x to a vehicle measurement y,

H(v_yi|v_y(i-t)^(l)) is the conditional entropy between v_yi and a prior segment of V_y that is l points long and delayed by t points, and

H(v_yi|v_y(i-t)^(l),d<sub>x(i-τ

)</sub>^(k)) is the conditional entropy between v_i and a prior segment of V_y further conditioned on a prior segment of D_x that is k points long and delayed by τ

time points.

20. The information transfer rate system of claim 16, wherein the driver information measured directly from the driver using the driver information sensing device includes at least one of driver biometric data and direct driver control input device data.