Device and method for determining drowsiness and non-transitory storage medium

• US 9,821,814 B2
• Filed: 06/16/2016
• Issued: 11/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/23/2015
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Mochizuki, Makoto, Arai, Yuko
• Primary Examiner(s): BEE, ANDREW W.
• Application Number:
  US15/183,814
• Publication Number:
  US 20170021836A1
• Time in Patent Office: 523 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1114 Tracking parts of the body
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/18 for vehicle drivers or machine operators
• 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 28/066 actuating a signalling device B60K28/063 takes precedence
• 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: B60W 2040/0827 due to sleepiness
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/00 Input parameters relating to overall vehicle dynamics
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/14 Yaw
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/16 Pitch
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/18 Roll
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/08 related to drivers or passengers
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/06 indicating a condition of sleep, e.g. anti-dozing alarms
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 29/183 Single detectors using dual technologies G08B13/1672, G08B13/2448, G08B13/2494 take precedence

Abstract

A drowsiness determination device includes an input unit that receives vehicle information indicating the amount of variation in an attitude of a vehicle with respect to a road surface and head information indicating the amount of movement of a head of an occupant with respect to a predetermined position and a determination unit that determines whether the occupant is drowsy, on the basis of the vehicle information and the head information. The determination unit determines that the occupant is drowsy, on the conditions that when the vehicle attitude varies, the occupant head moves in the same direction as the direction in which the vehicle attitude has varied and that a delay time between the timing when the vehicle attitude has varied and the timing when the occupant head has moved is longer than a predetermined time.

Claims

1. A drowsiness determination device comprising:

a receiver, which in operation, receives vehicle information indicating an amount of variation in an attitude of a vehicle with respect to a road surface and body information indicating an amount of displacement movement of an upper body or a head of an occupant from a predetermined position in response to the variation in the attitude of the vehicle; and

a determiner, which in operation, determines whether the occupant is drowsy, based on the vehicle information and the body information,

wherein the determiner determines that the occupant is drowsy, when the vehicle attitude varies while moving in a traveling direction, the occupant upper body or the occupant head moves in a same direction as the traveling direction and a delay time between a first timing when the vehicle attitude has varied and a second timing when the occupant upper body or the occupant head has moved is longer than a first predetermined time,

wherein at least one of the receiver and the determiner is included in a processor,

wherein the displacement movement is a change in distance away from the predetermined position, and

wherein the change in distance is measured by a movement sensor.

2. The drowsiness determination device of claim 1, wherein the determiner determines whether the occupant is drowsy, using a plurality of drowsiness levels corresponding to ranges of the delay time.

3. The drowsiness determination device of claim 1, wherein if the determiner determines that the occupant is drowsy, the determiner controls an alarm to be executed for awaking the occupant.

4. The drowsiness determination device of claim 1, wherein the delay time is a time corresponding to a time difference between a timing when the amount of variation in the vehicle attitude has reached a peak and a timing when the amount of displacement movement of the occupant upper body or the occupant head has reached a peak.

5. The drowsiness determination device of claim 1, wherein the determiner determines whether the occupant is drowsy, when an operation input to a vehicle-mounted device is not been detected within a second predetermined time from the first timing when the vehicle attitude has varied.

6. The drowsiness determination device of claim 1, wherein the delay time is calculated based on a correlation between the amount of variation in the attitude of the vehicle and the amount of displacement movement of the upper body or the head of the occupant.

7. A method for determining drowsiness, comprising:

receiving vehicle information indicating an amount of variation in an attitude of a vehicle with respect to a road surface and body information indicating an amount of displacement movement of an upper body or a head of an occupant from a predetermined position in response to the variation in the attitude of the vehicle;

determining whether the occupant is drowsy, based on the vehicle information and the body information; and

determining that the occupant is drowsy, when the vehicle attitude varies while moving in a traveling direction, the occupant upper body or the occupant head moves in a same direction as the traveling direction and a delay time between a first timing when the vehicle attitude has varied and a second timing when the occupant upper body or the occupant head has moved is longer than a predetermined time,

wherein the displacement movement is a change in distance away from the predetermined position, and

wherein the change in distance is measured by a movement sensor.

8. A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium storing a drowsiness determination program executed by a computer of a drowsiness determination device in a drowsiness determination system, the drowsiness determination device comprising an input that receives vehicle information indicating an amount of variation in an attitude of a vehicle with respect to a road surface and body information indicating an amount of displacement movement of an upper body or a head of an occupant from a predetermined position in response to the variation in the attitude of the vehicle, and a determiner that determines whether the occupant is drowsy, based on the vehicle information and the body information, the program causing the computer of the drowsiness determination device to perform

a process of determining that the occupant is drowsy, when the vehicle attitude varies while moving in a traveling direction, the occupant upper body or the occupant head moves in a same direction as the traveling direction and a delay time between a first timing when the vehicle attitude has varied and a second timing when the occupant upper body or the occupant head has moved is longer than a predetermined time,

wherein the displacement movement is a change in distance away from the predetermined position, and

wherein the change in distance is measured by a movement sensor.

9. A drowsiness determination device comprising:

a receiver, which in operation, receives body information indicating an amount of displacement movement of an upper body of an occupant from a first predetermined position in response to a variation in an attitude of a vehicle, and head information indicating an amount of displacement movement of a head of the occupant from a second predetermined position in response to the variation in the attitude of the vehicle; and

a determiner, which in operation, determines whether the occupant is drowsy, based on the body information and the head information,

wherein the determiner determines that the occupant is drowsy, when the vehicle attitude varies while moving in a traveling direction, the occupant head moves in a same direction as a direction in which the occupant upper body has moved, and a delay time between a first timing when the occupant upper body has moved and a second timing when the occupant head has moved is longer than a predetermined time,

wherein at least one of the receiver and the determiner is included in a processor.