Driving evaluation system and server

• US 8,010,283 B2
• Filed: 02/28/2006
• Issued: 08/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Taki, Masayuki, Yoshida, Ichiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Keith; Jack
• Assistant Examiner(s): PIPALA, EDWARD J
• Application Number:
  US11/363,282
• Publication Number:
  US 20060200277A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,009 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701 23- 25, 701/28, 701 35- 36, 701/70, 701116-117, 701200-202, 701/205, 701/208, 701/211, 701/300, 340/901, 340/988, 340/990, 340/995.1, 340/995.16, 340/995.17, 340/995.18, 340/995.22, 702/1, 702/127, 702/187, 702/188
• US Class Current: 701/205
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 9/05 the view from a vehicle being simulated G09B9/052, G09B9/058 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 9/052 characterised by provision for recording or measuring trainee's performance devices for psychotechnics, e.g. for vehicle drivers A61B5/16, A61B5/18

Abstract

Travel information of a target vehicle is stored in time sequence and, on the basis of the travel information and pre-stored travel information of a professional driver'"'"'s vehicle, a travel position of the target vehicle and a travel position of the professional driver'"'"'s vehicle are displayed in animation. In such a manner, the driver can visually recognize the travel positions of the displayed target vehicle and the reference vehicle and understand how much the target vehicle is deviated from the ideal travel position.

Claims

1. A driving evaluation apparatus comprising:

an input information storing unit that stores, as input information in time sequence based on an instruction, the input information including (i) travel information of a target vehicle, and (ii) driving operation information of a driver of the target vehicle;

a reference information storing unit that stores reference information in time sequence, the reference information including (i) travel information of a reference vehicle, and (ii) driving operation information of a driver of the reference vehicle;

a display unit that includes a plurality of pixels and displays information in accordance with states of the pixels; and

a control unit that

outputs a start instruction and an end instruction of input of the travel information to the input information storing unit and,

displays on the display unit both a travel locus of travel positions of the target vehicle in time sequence and a travel locus of travel positions of the reference vehicle in time sequence, thereby allowing easy recognition of a deviation in a lateral direction of the target vehicle between the travel locus of the target vehicle and the travel locus of the reference vehicle, based on the input information stored in the input information storing unit and the reference information stored in the reference information storing unit, to allow a user to compare the travel positions,

wherein;

when the travel locus of the target vehicle and the travel locus of the reference vehicle are displayed on the display unit, the control unit also displays the driving operations of the drivers corresponding to the travel locus of the target vehicle and the travel locus of the reference vehicle on the display unit based on the driving operation information stored in the input information storing unit and the driving operation information stored in the reference information storing unit;

the control unit simultaneously displays superimposable vehicle models corresponding to the target vehicle and the reference vehicle in positions in the display unit according to the travel positions while expressing a size of the deviation in the lateral direction of the target vehicle with respect to the reference vehicle,

the vehicle models being displayed such that at least two of the vehicle models corresponding to the target vehicle and the reference vehicle are superimposed in a three-dimensional space and seen from a viewpoint position at a predetermined distance rearward of the target vehicle; and

the control unit further changes a display color of the vehicle model of the target vehicle based on whether the travel position of the target vehicle is on a right side or a left side in a travel direction with respect to the travel locus of the reference vehicle.

2. The driving evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a superimposing-degree information accepting unit for accepting information on a superimposing degree of each of the vehicle models from the user, wherein

the control unit displays each of the vehicle models on the display unit based on the information on the superimposing degree received by the superimposing-degree information accepting unit.

3. The driving evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the control unit changes a display color of the vehicle model of the target vehicle in accordance with a steering operation start timing of the driver of the target vehicle with respect to a steering operation start timing of the driver of the reference vehicle.

4. The driving evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the control unit changes a display color of the vehicle model of the target vehicle in accordance with an acceleration/deceleration start timing of the driver of the target vehicle with respect to an acceleration/deceleration start timing of the driver of the reference vehicle.

5. The driving evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a viewpoint position information accepting unit for accepting viewpoint position information of a viewpoint position in virtual three-dimensional display from the user, wherein

the control unit displays the vehicle model displayed on the display unit by a virtual three-dimensional method using, as a viewpoint, a viewpoint position corresponding to the viewpoint position information accepted by the viewpoint position information accepting unit.

6. The driving evaluation apparatus according to claim 5, wherein

the viewpoint position information accepting unit selectively accepts the viewpoint position information corresponding to a viewpoint position of a driver of a vehicle following the target vehicle.

7. The driving evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

a unit in a time base control for pixel states in the display unit is a frame,

the apparatus further comprises a rewrite information accepting unit for accepting information on speed of rewriting frames in the display unit and a rewriting direction on a time base from the user, and

the control unit controls a display frame to be displayed on the display unit based on the information accepted by the rewrite information accepting unit.

8. The driving evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a position information obtaining unit for obtaining position information for specifying a present position of the target vehicle, wherein

based on the position information obtained by the position information obtaining unit, the control unit outputs the start instruction when the target vehicle reaches a start point of a predetermined section and outputs the end instruction when the target vehicle reaches an end point of the predetermined section.

9. The driving evaluation apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising:

a section information storing unit for storing a plurality of pieces of information of the predetermined section used when the control unit determines the start instruction and the end instruction; and

a specific information accepting unit for accepting specific information for specifying information in the plurality of pieces of information of the predetermined section stored in the section information storing unit from the driver of the target vehicle, wherein

the control unit uses a section corresponding to the specific information accepted by the specific information accepting unit as the predetermined section used when the start instruction and the end instruction are determined.

10. The driving evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a communication unit for performing communication with a server,

wherein based on the input information stored in the input information storing unit and the reference information stored in the reference information storing unit, the control unit evaluates competency of the driver of the target vehicle and transmits an evaluation result together with information specifying the target vehicle or information specifying the driver of the target vehicle to the server via the communication unit.

11. The driving evaluation apparatus according to claim 10, wherein

the control unit receives ranking information based on the evaluation result from the server via the communication unit and displays information on the display unit.

12. A server comprising:

a server-side communication unit that performs communication with the driving evaluation apparatus according to claim 11;

a competency evaluation result holding unit that holds a list of competency evaluation results of drivers; and

a server-side control unit that

adds a competency evaluation result of a driver, which is received via the server-side communication unit to the competency evaluation result holding unit,

determines a rank to which the received evaluation result corresponds, and

transmits a determination result as ranking information to the driving evaluation apparatus via the server-side communication unit.

13. The driving evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an input image storing unit that stores input images in time sequence based on an instruction, the input images including (i) front images of the target vehicle and (ii) driving operation images of the driver of the target vehicle; and

a reference image storing unit that stores reference images in time sequence, the reference images including (i) front images of the reference vehicle and (ii) driving operation images of the driver of the reference vehicle;

the control unit being configured to

output a start instruction and an end instruction of input of the front image to the input image storing unit and

display the input images stored in the input image storing unit and the reference images stored in the reference image storing unit in time sequence on the display unit while expressing a deviation in a lateral direction with respect to a travel direction of the target vehicle between the target vehicle and the reference vehicle, to allow a user to compare the images,

wherein

when front images of the vehicles are displayed on the display unit, the control unit also displays the driving operation image stored in the input image storing unit and the driving operation image stored in the reference image storing unit on the display unit so as to be associated with the front image of each of the vehicles by synthesizing in a semi-permeable state.

14. The driving evaluation apparatus according to claim 13, wherein

the control unit corrects the front image of the reference vehicle so that a horizon position of the front image of the target vehicle and that of the front image of the reference image coincide with each other, and displays resultant images on the display unit.

15. The driving evaluation apparatus according to claim 13, wherein

a unit in a time base control for pixel states in the display unit is a frame,

the apparatus further comprises a rewrite information accepting unit for accepting information on speed of rewriting frames in the display unit and a rewriting direction on a time base from the user, and

the control unit controls a display frame to be displayed on the display unit based on the information accepted by the rewrite information accepting unit.

16. The driving evaluation apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising

a position information obtaining unit for obtaining position information for specifying a present position of the target vehicle, wherein

based on the position information obtained by the position information obtaining unit, the control unit outputs the start instruction when the target vehicle reaches a start point of a predetermined section and outputs the end instruction when the target vehicle reaches an end point of the predetermined section.

17. The driving evaluation apparatus according to claim 16, further comprising:

a section information storing unit for storing a plurality of pieces of information of the predetermined section used when the control unit determines the start instruction and the end instruction; and

a specific information accepting unit for accepting specific information for specifying information in the plurality of pieces of information of the predetermined section stored in the section information storing unit from the driver of the target vehicle, wherein

the control unit uses a section corresponding to the specific information accepted by the specific information accepting unit as the predetermined section used when the start instruction and the end instruction are determined.

18. The driving evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the control unit acquires a road range for evaluating a driving operation of the target vehicle, and

the control unit outputs the start instruction and the end instruction of input of the travel information to the input information storing unit based on the road range acquired by the driving evaluation road range acquisition unit.

19. A driving evaluation apparatus for displaying on a display unit a driving evaluation of a target vehicle driven by a target driver, the apparatus comprising:

an input information storing unit that stores, as input information in time sequence based on an instruction, the input information including (i) travel information of the target vehicle, and (ii) driving operation information of the target driver;

a reference information storing unit that stores reference information in time sequence, the reference information including (i) travel information of a reference vehicle, and (ii) driving operation information of a reference driver of the reference vehicle; and

a control unit that

outputs a start instruction and an end instruction of input of the travel information to the input information storing unit, and

displays on the display unit

(i) both a target travel locus of the target vehicle and a reference travel locus of the reference vehicle simultaneously, thereby allowing easy recognition of a deviation in a lateral direction of the target locus against the reference locus based on the stored travel information of the target vehicle and the reference vehicle,

(ii) both driving operations of the target driver corresponding to the target travel locus and driving operations of the reference driver based on the stored driving operation information of the target driver and the reference driver, and

(iii) superimposable vehicle models corresponding to the target vehicle and the reference vehicle in positions in the display unit according to certain travel positions, the vehicle models being displayed such that at least two of the vehicle models corresponding to the target vehicle and the reference vehicle are superimposed in a three-dimensional space and seen from a viewpoint position at a predetermined distance rearward of the target vehicle,

the control unit being further configured to

express a size of the deviation in the lateral direction between the target vehicle and the reference vehicle when the superimposable vehicle modes are displayed while changing a display color of the vehicle model of the target vehicle based on whether the travel position of the target vehicle is on a right side or a left side in a travel direction with respect to the travel locus of the reference vehicle.