On-board system, information processing apparatus, and program product

• US 9,702,712 B2
• Filed: 02/09/2015
• Issued: 07/11/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Kitagawa, Nozomi
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, KHOI H
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rink, Ryan
• Application Number:
  US14/617,104
• Publication Number:
  US 20150239477A1
• Time in Patent Office: 883 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/34 Route searching; Route guidance
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3407 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/362 received from an external device or application, e.g. PDA, mobile phone or calendar application

Abstract

An on-board system includes at least one execution unit executing an operation for eliminating an inattentive state of a driver of a vehicle, an information acquiring section acquiring driver state information, a state determination section determining whether the driver is in the inattentive state, a position specifying section specifying a present position of the vehicle, a searching section searching for a resting place at which the driver can have a rest based on the present position and information stored in a resting place database when the driver is in the inattentive state, and an execution unit control section calculating a necessary travel time to the resting place and activates at least one target execution unit to start operation when the necessary travel time is equal to or longer than a predetermined threshold period.

Claims

1. An on-board system comprising:

a controller, the controller is configured to

execute, by at least one execution unit, an operation adapted to eliminate an inattentive state or a drowsy state of a driver who drives a vehicle;

acquire, from an information acquiring section, driver state information indicating a state of the driver;

determine, in a state determination section, whether the driver is in the inattentive state or in the drowsy state based on the driver state information;

specify, using a position specifying section, a present position of the vehicle;

search, by a searching section, for a resting place at which the driver can have a rest based on the present position of the vehicle and information stored in a resting place database when the state determination section determines that the driver is in the inattentive state or in the drowsy state, the information stored in the resting place database being related to places at which the driver can have a rest;

calculate, by an execution unit control section, a necessary travel time required for the vehicle to travel from the present position to the resting place, and activate, by the execution unit control section, at least one target execution unit to start the operation adapted to eliminate the inattentive state or the drowsy state of the driver when the necessary travel time is equal to or longer than a threshold period that is preliminarily determined, the at least one target execution unit being a part of the at least one execution unit; and

notify the driver, by a notification section, of information of a guidance route to the resting place determined by the searching section by at least outputting an audio guidance to execute a route guidance from the present position to the resting place,

wherein, during a period from a start to an end of the route guidance by the notification section, the execution unit control section activates the at least one target execution unit at a time which does not overlap the audio guidance that is being output in order to start the operation that is adapted to eliminate the inattentive state or the drowsy state of the driver, and

the operation to eliminate the inattentive state or the drowsy state of the driver which is started by the at least one target execution unit is an operation which is pre-defined in a user information database as being correlated to the drive who is a specific driver of a plurality of drivers.

2. The on-board system according to claim 1, wherein

the execution unit control section increases the threshold period by an amount based on a necessary guidance period that is necessary for the notification section to notify the guidance route to the driver.

3. The on-board system according to claim 1, wherein

the at least one execution unit includes two or more execution units, each of the two or more execution units having an execution duration, and

when the necessary travel time is equal to or longer than the threshold period, the execution unit control section (i) selects the at least one target execution unit so that a total sum of at least one execution duration of the at least one target execution unit is equal to or shorter than the necessary travel time and (ii) activates the at least one target execution unit to start the operation in a predetermined order.

4. The on-board system according to claim 3, further comprising

the user information database, the user information database further storing a plurality of information records related to the plurality of drivers including the driver, wherein

the controller is further configured to

identify, in a driver identification section, the driver;

and

each of the information records has information item indicating an effect of each of the two or more execution units to the corresponding driver, and

the execution unit control section selects the at least one target execution unit that is more effective to the driver identified by the driver identification section compared with the execution unit which remains.

5. The on-board system according to claim 2, wherein

the state determination section determines a level of the inattentive state of the driver or a level of the drowsy state of the driver based on the driver state information acquired by the information acquiring section, and

the execution unit control section activates the at least one target unit with a higher priority than the notifying of the guidance route by the notification section when the level of the inattentive state or the level of the drowsy state is higher than a predetermined level.

6. The on-board system according to claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to

when the at least one target execution unit is activated by the execution unit control section,

require, by the at least one target execution unit, the driver to perform a predetermined motion adapted to eliminate the inattentive state or the drowsy state.

13. The on-board system according to claim 1, further comprising

an inattentiveness elimination database storing information regarding a plurality of different operations adapted to eliminate the inattentive state or the drowsy state of the driver, including the operation adapted to eliminate the inattentive state or the drowsy state of the driver,

the controller is further configured to

select one of the plurality of different operations in the inattentiveness elimination database which is pre-defined in the user information database as being correlated to the driver among the plurality of drivers, based on an identification of the driver, and

the at least one target execution unit starts the selected one of the plurality of different operations as being specific to the driver.

7. An information processing apparatus equipped to a vehicle, the vehicle including at least one execution unit executing an operation that eliminates an inattentive state or a drowsy state of a driver who drives the vehicle, the information processing apparatus comprising:

a controller, the controller is configured to

determine, in a state determination section, whether the driver is in the inattentive state or in the drowsy state based on driver state information acquired by an information acquiring section, the driver state information indicating a state of the driver;

search, by a searching section, for a resting place at which the driver can have a rest based on a present position of the vehicle and information stored in a resting place database when the state determination section determines that the driver is in the inattentive state or in the drowsy state, the present position of the vehicle being specified by a position specifying section and the information stored in the resting place database being related to places at which the driver can have a rest;

calculate, by an execution unit control section, a necessary travel time required for the vehicle to travel from the present position to the resting place, the execution unit control section activating at least one target execution unit to start an operation adapted to eliminate the inattentive state or the drowsy state of the driver when the necessary travel time is equal to or longer than a threshold period that is preliminarily determined, the at least one target execution unit being a part of the at least one execution unit; and

notify the driver, by a notification section, of a guidance route to the resting place determined by the searching section by at least outputting an audio guidance to execute a route guidance from the present position to the resting place,

wherein, during a period from a start to an end of the route guidance by the notification section, the execution unit control section activates the at least one target execution unit at a time which does not overlap the audio guidance that is being output in order to start the operation that is adapted to eliminate the inattentive state or the drowsy state of the driver, and

the operation to eliminate the inattentive state or the drowsy state of the driver which is started by the at least one target execution unit is an operation which is pre-defined in a user information database as being correlated to the driver who is specific driver of a plurality of drivers.

9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein

the execution unit control section increases the threshold period by an amount based on a necessary guidance period that is necessary for the notification section to notify the guidance route to the driver.

10. The information processing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein

the state determination section determines a level of the inattentive state of the driver or a level of the drowsy state of the driver based on the driver state information acquired by the information acquiring section, and

the execution unit control section activates the at least one target unit with a higher priority than the notifying of the guidance route by the notification section when the level of the inattentive state or the level of the drowsy state is higher than a predetermined level.

8. A program product stored in a non-transitory tangible computer readable storage medium, the program product to be executed by a computer included in an information processing apparatus equipped to a vehicle, the vehicle including controller configured with at least one execution unit that executes an operation adapted to eliminate an inattentive state or a drowsy state of a driver of the vehicle, the program product comprising instructions for implementing:

determining whether the driver is in the inattentive state or in the drowsy state based on driver state information, the driver state information indicating a state of the driver;

searching for a resting place at which the driver can have a rest based on a present position of the vehicle and information stored in a resting place database when determining that the driver is in the inattentive state or in the drowsy state, the present position of the vehicle being specified by a position detecting device and the information stored in the resting place database being related to places at which the driver can have a rest;

calculating a necessary travel time required for the vehicle to travel from the present position to the resting place;

activating at least one target execution unit to start an operation adaption to eliminate the inattentive state or the drowsy state of the driver when the necessary travel time is equal to or longer than a threshold period that is preliminarily determined, the at least one target execution unit being a part of the at least one execution unit configured in the controller; and

notifying the driver of information of a guidance route to the resting place that was determined, by at least outputting an audio guidance to execute a route guidance from the present position to the resting place, wherein

during a period from a start to an end of the route guidance, the at least one target execution unit is activated at a time which does not overlap the audio guidance that is being output in order to start the operation that adapted to eliminate the inattentive state or the drowsy state of the driver, and

the operation to eliminate the inattentive or the drowsy state of the driver which is started by the at least one target execution unit is an operation which is pre-defined in a user information database as being correlated to the driver who is a specific driver of a plurality of drivers.

11. The program product according to claim 8, further comprising

increasing the threshold period by an amount based on a necessary guidance period that is necessary for notifying the guidance route to the driver.

12. The program product according to claim 11, further comprising

determining a level of the inattentive state of the driver or a level of the drowsy state of the driver based on the driver state information, and

activating the at least one target unit with a higher priority than the notifying of the guidance route by the notification section when the level of the inattentive state or the level of the drowsy state is higher than a predetermined level.