System and method for responding to driver state

• US 10,759,437 B2
• Filed: 05/22/2019
• Issued: 09/01/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• 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.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jeanglaude, Gertrude Arthur
• Application Number:
  US16/419,133
• Publication Number:
  US 20190300002A1
• Time in Patent Office: 468 Days
• Field of Search: 701 36
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 28/02 responsive to conditions relating to the driver
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/25 using biometry
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/22 Psychological state; Stress level or workload
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/08 related to drivers or passengers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2218/12 Classification; Matching
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/764 using classification, e.g. of video objects
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/82 using neural networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/597 Recognising the driver's state or behaviour, e.g. attention or drowsiness
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/15 Biometric patterns based on physiological signals, e.g. heartbeat, blood flow
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/45 Detection of the body part being alive
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/70 Multimodal biometrics, e.g. combining information from different biometric modalities
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/02 Registering or indicating driving, working, idle, or waiting time only apparatus forming part of taximeters G07B13/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/08 Registering or indicating performance data other than driving, working, idle, or waiting time, with or without registering driving, working, idle or waiting time
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/00309 operated with bidirectional data transmission between data carrier and locks
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/00563 using personal physical data of the operator, e.g. finger prints, retinal images, voicepatterns
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/37 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems

Abstract

A method for controlling vehicle systems includes receiving monitoring information from one or more monitoring systems and determining a plurality of driver states based on the monitoring information from the one or more monitoring systems. The method includes determining a combined driver state based on the plurality of driver states and modifying control of one or more vehicle systems based on the combined driver state.

Claims

1. A method of controlling a vehicle, comprising:

receiving monitoring information from a monitoring system;

detecting a hazard based on the monitoring information;

determining a driver state of a driver based on the monitoring information;

modifying a control parameter of a vehicle system based on the hazard and the driver state; and

modifying control of the vehicle system using the control parameter thereby suppressing at least one function of the vehicle system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring information includes physiological information, behavioral information, and vehicle information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the driver state includes determining a plurality of driver states based on the monitoring information, and modifying the control parameter of the vehicle system is based on the hazard and the plurality of driver states.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the driver state is determined based on analysis of the monitoring information relative to the hazard.

5. The method of claim 1, including determining whether the driver is attentive based on the driver state and modifying control of the vehicle system using the control parameter thereby suppressing the at least one function of the vehicle system when the driver is attentive.

6. The method of claim 1, including detecting a change in the driver state, modifying the control parameter based on the change, and modifying control of the vehicle system using the control parameter thereby reverting the at least one function of the vehicle system to a previous state.

7. The method of claim 1, including determining whether the hazard is confirmed by the driver based on the driver state.

8. The method of claim 7, including determining a risk level based on a probability that the vehicle will encounter the hazard.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein determining whether the hazard is confirmed by the driver is based on the risk level.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the hazard is unconfirmed if the driver state is attentive and the risk level is high.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the control parameter is an activation threshold for warnings emitted by the vehicle system.

12. A system of controlling a vehicle, comprising:

a monitoring system for receiving monitoring information; and

an electronic control unit including a processor, wherein the processor;

detects a hazard based on the monitoring information;

determines a driver state of a driver based on the monitoring information;

modifies a control parameter of a vehicle system based on the hazard and the driver state; and

modifies control of the vehicle system using the control parameter thereby suppressing at least one function of the vehicle system.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the monitoring information includes physiological information, behavioral information, and vehicle information.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the processor determines a plurality of driver states based on the monitoring information, determines a combined driver state based on the plurality of driver states, and modifies the control parameter of the vehicle system based on the hazard and the combined driver state.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the processor determines whether the driver is attentive based on the driver state and modifying control of the vehicle system using the control parameter thereby suppressing the at least one function of the vehicle system when the driver is attentive.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the processor determines whether the driver is aware of the hazard based on the driver state.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the processor determines a risk level based on a probability that the vehicle encounters the hazard.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor determines whether the driver is attentive based on whether the driver is aware of the hazard and the risk level.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the processor determines a change in the driver state after suppressing the at least one function of the vehicle system, and the processor modifies the control parameter based on the change and modifies control of the vehicle system using the control parameter to revert the at least one function of the vehicle system to a previous state.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the control parameter is an activation threshold for warnings emitted by the vehicle system.