System for recognizing image

• US 5,008,946 A
• Filed: 09/09/1988
• Issued: 04/16/1991
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/1987
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd. (Aisin Corp.), Kabushiki Kaisha Shinsangyokaihatsu
• Original Assignee: Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd. (Aisin Corp.)
• Inventors: Ando, Mitsuhiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Razavi, Michael
• Application Number:
  US07/242,441
• Time in Patent Office: 949 Days
• Field of Search: 382/2, 382/1, 382/23, 382/24, 340/825.03, 358/103, 434/62, 434/43, 434/44, 244/222, 244/76 R, 244/194, 244/195, 244/3.11, 244/3.14, 414/901, 180/167, 180/272, 180/271
• US Class Current: 382/104
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 1/00757 by the input of sound, e.g. by using a voice synthesizer
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/21 using cameras
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/168 Feature extraction; Face representation

Abstract

There is disclosed a system which permits an automobile driver to control electrical devices installed on an automobile by moving his or her pupils and mouth intentionally. The system includes a TV camera, a light, a first microprocessor which controls the electrical devices according to the changes in the shape of the driver'"'"'s mouth, a second microprocessor for performing various arithmetic operations, and memories. Reference values have been previously assigned to various elements of the driver'"'"'s face and stored in one of the memories. The second microprocessor normalizes the distances between the elements of the face with the distance between the pupils of the eyes and compares the normalized distances with the reference values to calculate the degrees of similarity of the elements.

Claims

1. A system for recognizing an image of a vehicle driver'"'"'s face, comprising:

camera means which converts optical information obtained from a first facial image into an electrical signal;

position-detecting means for detecting three or more elements of the first facial image and their positions according to the electrical signal;

distance-detecting means for detecting the distances between the detected elements;

normalizing means for normalizing data about the detected distances with the distance between given two of the detected elements;

storage means which hold reference values previously assigned to the elements of the first facial image, said reference values being standard values previously determined from a plurality of facial images similar to said first facial image;

similarity degree-calculating means which compares the normalized data about the distances with the reference values of similarity to the elements and produces data about the degrees of a reference image by employing a weighting system; and

determining means which determines whether the facial image has been successfully detected, from the data about the degrees of similarity of the detected elements, wherein, after the determining means determines that the first facial image has been successfully detected, a second facial image is read, and changes in conditions of the second facial image are detected by comparison to the first facial image, and that electrical devices are controlled based on the detected changes in conditions.