JP2004314750A - Vehicle instrument operation control device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vehicle instrument operation control device enabling a driver to concentrate on driving of the vehicle in poor physical condition. <P>SOLUTION: The vehicle instrument operation control device is provided with a physical condition detection means for detecting the physical condition of the driver of the vehicle. The device is connected to the physical condition detection means and is connected to a non-traveling peripheral instrument having no relationship with a traveling operation of the vehicle. When the physical condition detection means detects the poor physical condition of the driver, the device making the operation of the non-traveling peripheral instrument invalid is provided. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a vehicle device operation control device that detects a physical condition of a driver in a vehicle and invalidates operations of peripheral devices unrelated to driving of the vehicle.
[0002]
[Prior art]
During driving of the vehicle, the result of monitoring the driver's heart rate, pulse waveform, blood pressure, etc. using the image recognition of the driver's physical condition using a CCD camera, or various sensors, or the driver's blinking state, steering 2. Description of the Related Art There are many known techniques for detecting a driver's physical condition abnormality or a drowsy driving based on disturbance, meandering state of a vehicle, and the like.
[0003]
For example, in Patent Literature 1, information on skin potential, in Patent Literature 2, information on skin temperature, and in Patent Literature 3, a driver measures a heart rate, a pulse waveform, a blood pressure, a sweating state, and the like from a sensor and a CCD camera. Detects changes in physical condition.
[0004]
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-96767 [Patent Document 2]
JP-A-7-275210 [Patent Document 3]
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-104031
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In the related art, even when a poor physical condition of a driver is detected, only a warning is issued and a forced operation such as a stop of the driving is not performed. Therefore, the driver can operate the navigation device, the audio device, and the like even when the vehicle is running in the same manner as in the normal state, despite the poor physical condition. As a result, there is a problem that the driver loses his concentration on driving more than usual, and the risk of a traffic accident increases.
[0006]
In view of the above circumstances, an object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle device operation control device that enables a driver to concentrate on driving a vehicle in a state of poor physical condition.
[0007]
Means for Solving the Problems and Effects of the Invention
In order to solve the above problems, the vehicle device operation control device of the present invention is
A physical condition detecting means for detecting a physical condition of a driver of the vehicle, and a physical condition detecting device connected to the physical condition detecting device and connected to a non-traveling peripheral device unrelated to the driving operation of the vehicle, wherein the physical condition detecting device detects the physical condition of the driver; Peripheral device operation invalidating means for invalidating the operation of the non-traveling peripheral device when the operation is performed.
[0008]
Specifically, the physical condition detecting means for detecting the physical condition of the driver of the vehicle is connected to the physical condition detecting means, and is connected to the navigation device and / or the audio device of the vehicle. And a peripheral device operation invalidating means for invalidating the operation of the navigation device and / or the audio device of the vehicle when the physical condition is detected.
[0009]
The above-described vehicle device operation control device includes a vehicle traveling detection unit that detects whether the vehicle is traveling, it is determined that the vehicle is in a traveling state, and the physical condition detecting unit detects a poor physical condition of the driver. In this case, the peripheral device operation invalidating means executes the invalidation control.
[0010]
More specifically, the vehicle device operation control device of the present invention includes:
Physical condition detecting means for detecting the physical condition of the driver of the vehicle;
Vehicle travel detection means for detecting whether the vehicle is traveling,
Operation invalidation message output means connected to the physical condition detecting means for outputting a message to invalidate the operation of the navigation device and / or the audio device of the vehicle due to the physical condition when the physical condition of the driver is detected; and ,
The vehicle is connected to the physical condition detecting means and is connected to a navigation device and / or an audio device of the vehicle, the physical condition detecting means detects a poor physical condition of the driver, and the vehicle is traveling by the vehicle running detecting means. Peripheral device operation disabling means for executing control for disabling the operation of the navigation device and / or the audio device of the vehicle when this is detected.
[0011]
The physical condition detecting means includes an image camera for photographing the driver, a skin temperature sensor for detecting the driver's skin temperature, a skin potential sensor for detecting the driver's skin potential, and a voice sensor for detecting the driver's voice. It includes a detector made of one or a combination of two or more selected, and physical condition determining means for determining whether the driver is in poor physical condition based on an output signal from the detector.
[0012]
With the above configuration, in a situation where the driver is driving despite the poor physical condition, when the vehicle is running, other than the basic running functions (run, turn, stop) of the navigation device, the audio device, the mobile phone, the on-board ETC device, and the like. By disabling the operation of the vehicle device, the driver can concentrate on driving even when the physical condition is poor, without being distracted by things other than driving.
[0013]
Further, the operation of the vehicle equipment is invalidated only when the vehicle is running, and when the vehicle is stopped, the operation of the vehicle equipment can be performed. It is possible to switch off.
[0014]
As for the skin temperature, it is known that the skin temperature not only changes under the influence of the environmental temperature but also increases, for example, when the blood flow increases due to the action of autonomic nervous system. Here, the autonomic nervous system is roughly classified into a sympathetic nervous system and a parasympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system works mainly in a state of tension and excitement, and the parasympathetic nervous system works in normal times and when the body and mind are relaxed. Therefore, if the rise or fall of the skin temperature is detected, the function of the autonomic nervous system at that time can be known, and the state of the physical condition can be determined.
[0015]
It is known that skin potential decreases during sleep as compared to when awake. This makes it possible to determine whether or not the vehicle is in the dozing driving state.
[0016]
In addition, the nasal or faint voice when a cold is caught has a different frequency component and voice level (amplitude of voice waveform) from the voice when the physical condition is normal, and is distinguished from the voice when the physical condition is normal by using a well-known voice recognition technology. Since it is possible, the health condition can be detected from the voice condition of the driver.
[0017]
Further, when the driver is in poor physical condition, the driver is notified that he / she is in poor physical condition by outputting a message indicating that operations other than the basic traveling function cannot be performed, and the driver is urged to pay attention to driving. It becomes possible.
[0018]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to examples shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of a vehicle device operation control device 1 as one embodiment of the present invention. The vehicle equipment operation control device 1 includes a CCD camera 2, a skin temperature sensor 3, a skin potential sensor 4, a voice recognition device 5, an operation switch group 6, an external memory 7, a vehicle speed sensor 9, a speaker 10, a display 11, and It is configured by a control circuit 8 connected thereto.
[0019]
The CCD camera 2 captures a driver's face image and performs image processing to detect the driver's posture, eye position, face inclination, blink frequency, blink speed, eye opening, and eye closing time. I do. This makes it possible to determine whether the vehicle is in an inattentive or dozing state. These signals are input to the control circuit 8 as physical information.
[0020]
The skin temperature sensor 3 is attached mainly to the grip portion of the steering wheel, and a situation in which the skin temperature of the driver is increasing due to heat generation or a situation in which the skin temperature of the driver is decreasing due to some circumstances. Can be detected. The measurement result is input to the control circuit 8 as physical information. A wristband-type sensor wound around the driver's wrist may be used. Further, a device such as a thermo tracer that measures the surface temperature of the object from the reflection state of the infrared light emitted to the object may be used.
[0021]
The skin potential sensor 4 is attached mainly to the grip of the steering wheel, measures the skin potential of the driver, and inputs the measurement result to the control circuit 8 as physical information. A wristband-type sensor wound around the driver's wrist may be used.
[0022]
The voice recognition device 5 determines a physical condition from a voice state of a driver. FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram showing one example. The voice is input to the unspecified speaker-specific word voice recognition IC 50 via the microphone 51. The speaker-independent word speech recognition IC 50 includes an amplifier 52 for amplifying a speech signal to an appropriate level, an A / D converter 53 for analog / digital (A / D) conversion of the amplified speech signal, An audio signal processing device (hereinafter, referred to as DSP; DSP: Digital Signal Processor) 54 for identifying audio from the A / D converted audio data by a predetermined algorithm, and a readable and writable memory 55 such as an E ² PROM. It is configured. The stored contents of the memory 55 are retained even when the power of the vehicle device operation control device 1 or the voice recognition device 5 is turned off.
[0023]
In this embodiment, a commercially available product is used as the unspecified speaker-specific word speech recognition IC 50 in FIG. Therefore, since a well-known method is used for the detailed voice recognition processing of the DSP 54, the description thereof is omitted. The main speech recognition processing methods include a hidden Markov model (HMM: Hidden Markov Model), frequency analysis, difference analysis, linear algebra technology, a method using spectral distortion, a time distortion method, and the like.
[0024]
By the way, it is considered that humans perform spectrum analysis when distinguishing voices. For this reason, short-time spectrum analysis is also required in speech recognition. It is known that information necessary for discriminating phonological properties important in speech recognition is concentrated on a spectral envelope which is a component that changes slowly in accordance with articulation due to the shape of the vocal tract. Therefore, it is important to extract a spectrum envelope from a short-time spectrum, and examples of the method include a fast Fourier transform, a linear predictive analysis method, and a LPC (Linear Predictive Coefficient) cepstrum method.
[0025]
In addition to the sensor shown in FIG. 1, a sensor for detecting perspiration may be attached to the grip of the steering wheel, or a sensor for measuring the pulse may be attached to the seat belt. Further, a sensor for measuring blood pressure, sweating, and pulse by inserting a finger into the driver may be attached to a position near the driver's seat.
[0026]
Returning to FIG. 1, the speaker 10 and the display 11 display and output various messages according to the operation state of the vehicle device operation control device 1.
[0027]
The control circuit 8 is configured as a normal computer, and includes a well-known CPU 81, a ROM 82, a RAM 83, an I / O 84, and a bus line 85 connecting these components, as shown in FIG. CPU 81 performs control according to programs and data stored in ROM 82 and RAM 83. As shown in FIG. 2, the ROM 82 stores an operating system (hereinafter referred to as OS) 82s and a vehicle equipment operation control device program 82p that operates on the OS 82s. The vehicle equipment operation control device program 82p operates on the OS 82s in such a manner that the work memory 83w for the vehicle equipment operation control device program is used as a work area. Further, a work memory 83s of the OS 82s is formed in the RAM 83.
[0028]
The external memory 7 stores normal condition information 7a as shown in FIG. The normal condition information 7a includes a driver number and data obtained from the CCD camera 2, skin temperature sensor 3, and skin potential sensor 4 corresponding to the driver number, and can store data of a plurality of drivers. The external memory 7 also stores information and data necessary for the operation of the vehicle device operation control device 1, and the stored contents are retained even when the ignition switch of the vehicle is turned off.
[0029]
In FIG. 1, devices such as a navigation device 12 and an audio device 13 to which the vehicle device operation control device 1 wishes to instruct the operation to be invalidated are connected to the vehicle device operation control device 1. The vehicle device operation control device 1 may be connected to a device that can be commanded by the vehicle device operation control device 1, such as an automobile telephone or an on-board ETC device. The command method is a method of connecting the I / O 84 of the control circuit 8 to an external signal input unit of the device and directly issuing a command from the CPU 81, or a vehicle device operation control device by a communication means such as an in-vehicle LAN (Local Area Network). 1 sends command data to the device.
[0030]
With such a configuration, when the ignition switch is turned on and the CPU 81 of the control circuit 8 starts the vehicle device operation control device program 82p, the vehicle device operation control device 1 performs a necessary initialization process. After that, the CCD camera 2, the skin temperature sensor 3, the skin potential sensor 4, and the voice recognition device 5 are activated to start the physical condition monitoring process.
[0031]
First, it is necessary to measure and store data when the driver is in a normal condition, which is a reference for determining the condition. This processing executed by the vehicle equipment operation control device program 82p of the CPU 81 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. By operating the operation switch group 6, the driver number is designated, and the state shifts to the data measurement state when the physical condition is normal (S1: YES). At this time, the driver is instructed by the speaker 10 or the display 11 to hold the steering wheel and take a normal sitting posture. This process does not need to be performed every time the vehicle is driven.
[0032]
When the driver takes a normal sitting posture and is ready to measure data when the physical condition is normal, the physical condition data is sequentially measured by the CCD camera 2, the skin temperature sensor 3, the skin potential sensor 4, and the voice recognition device 5. At this time, the guidance message and the data measurement status are notified by the speaker 10 and the display 11. In this case, when the driver takes a normal sitting posture and is ready to measure data, the driver himself may operate the operation switch group 6 to instruct the start of data measurement.
[0033]
First, the driver's face is photographed by the CCD camera 2 and captured as image data (S2). At this time, the driver's posture, eye position, face inclination, blink frequency, blink speed, eye opening, and eye closing time are measured. Either a method of obtaining predetermined data from moving image data shot for a certain period of time, or a method of shooting a predetermined number of still images at certain intervals and obtaining predetermined data from the still images may be used.
[0034]
Next, skin temperature and skin potential of the driver are sampled by skin temperature sensor 3 and skin potential sensor 4 (S3, S4). Sampling is performed at a predetermined cycle and frequency. The skin temperature and skin potential are determined by calculating the average value of the sampled data.
[0035]
The normal condition data obtained by the measurement by the CCD camera 2, the skin temperature sensor 3 and the skin potential sensor 4 are stored in a predetermined area indicated by the driver number of the normal condition information 7a (S7). For example, in the case of the driver 1, data measured by the CCD camera 2, the skin temperature sensor 3, and the skin potential sensor 4 are stored in FG1, TS1, and VS1, respectively.
[0036]
When the skin temperature is measured, a method may be adopted in which correction is performed based on the temperature inside the vehicle, the temperature outside the vehicle, the operation of the air conditioner in the vehicle, and the state of solar radiation.
[0037]
Next, the voice recognition device 5 fetches voice data as a reference for physical condition determination (S5). It is desirable to select a short phrase that does not hinder driving in consideration of the fact that the phrase (s) of the voice data serving as a reference is in a vehicle (that is, driving). It is also desirable to select words so that all vowels of "A", "I", "U", "E", and "O" are included.
[0038]
The vehicle device operation control device 1 notifies the guidance message through the speaker 10 or the display 11 and urges the driver to speak the specified phrase. When a voice is input to the DSP 54 via the microphone 51, the amplifier 52, and the A / D converter 53, the DSP 54 uses a well-known LPC cepstrum method or the like to generate an acoustic signal including a voice frequency and a voice amplitude for recognizing the speaker voice. Extract important features. Then, a speech model is created by modeling the characteristics of the input speech and the statistical information of the speech. The created voice model is stored in a predetermined area of the memory 55 specified by the driver number input from the operation switch group 6 and transmitted from the control circuit 8. For example, in the case of the driver 1, it is stored in VDATA1.
[0039]
The data measurement when the physical condition is normal may be a method in which the processing from S2 to S5 is repeated a predetermined number of times (for example, three times) and the average value is stored as normal physical condition information.
[0040]
In a situation where the driver seems to be driving in a calm state, such as when the vehicle is stopped or running at a constant speed, the CCD camera 2, skin temperature sensor 3, skin potential sensor 4 and the data from the voice recognition device 5, and if the taken data is within a certain range from the normal condition information 7a and the data already stored in the memory 55, the taken data and the driver's A method of calculating an average value or a weighted average value with data of a normal physical condition and storing the calculation result as data of a new driver in a normal physical condition may be adopted.
[0041]
Next, the physical condition monitoring process executed by the vehicle device operation control device program 82p of the CPU 81 will be described using the flowchart of FIG. After turning on the ignition switch, the driver operates the operation switch group 6 to specify the driver number in which his / her physical condition data is registered. Thereafter, the state of the driver is periodically captured by the CCD camera 2, the skin temperature sensor 3, the skin potential sensor 4, and the voice recognition device 5 (S11 to S14), and the information is sent to the control circuit 8. If the driver number is not specified, the driver number at the time of starting the vehicle device operation control device 1 last time may be used.
[0042]
The method of measuring the physical condition data of the driver during driving is implemented as follows. In the case of image data from the CCD camera 2, the driver's posture, eye position, face inclination, blink frequency, blink speed, eye opening, and eye closing time are measured from the moving image data or still image data group. .
[0043]
The skin temperature and the skin potential are sampled by the skin temperature sensor 3 and the skin potential sensor 4 at predetermined time intervals (for example, 5 minute intervals) and at predetermined intervals (for example, 100 msec intervals) for a predetermined number of times (for example, 8 times). The average value of the sampled data is used as the measured value.
The control circuit 8 compares the information received from each sensor with the normal condition information 7a stored in the external memory 7 (S15). In the case of image data obtained by the CCD camera 2, for example, when the driver 1 is the driver 1, the position of the face, the inclination of the head, the frequency of blinking, the speed of blinking, the degree of opening of the eyes, and the time when the eyes are closed are normal when compared with FG1. If the data does not fall within a predetermined range, or if the rate of change of these measurement data over time exceeds a predetermined value, it is determined that the physical condition is poor; otherwise, the physical condition is determined to be normal.
[0045]
In the case of the skin temperature sensor 3 and the skin potential sensor 4, for example, in the case of the driver 1, the values are compared with TS1 and VS1, respectively, and when the measured value is not within a predetermined range from the value when the physical condition is normal, or If the rate of change with time exceeds a predetermined value, it is determined that the physical condition is poor, and otherwise, it is determined that the physical condition is normal. Also, when the skin temperature is measured by a device such as a thermo tracer, the temperature of the measurement target part is not within the predetermined range of the data when the physical condition is normal, or the temperature distribution data of the measurement target part and the physical condition If the difference from the normal temperature distribution data is not within the predetermined range, it is determined that the physical condition is poor, and otherwise, it is determined that the physical condition is normal.
[0046]
When it is determined that the vehicle is stopped at a predetermined speed (for example, 5 km / h) or less so as not to hinder driving, the voice recognition device 5 leaves a certain time or more (for example, 30 minutes). It takes in the driver's voice data. In order to capture voice data, a guidance message is notified by the speaker 10 or the display 11, and the driver is prompted to speak a specified phrase. In the voice recognition device 5, as described above, a voice model is created from the uttered voice, and the reference voice model stored in a predetermined area of the memory 55 designated by the driver number sent from the control circuit 8 (Eg, VDATA1 for driver 1) to determine the physical condition and send the result to control circuit 8.
[0047]
The speech model comparison method in the speech recognition device 5 can be selected from the following.
(1) A method for comparing whether or not a voice frequency distribution (voice quality) is within a predetermined range of a voice frequency distribution of a voice model serving as a criterion for determining a physical condition. (2) A voice amplitude (voice volume) ) Is a method for comparing whether or not が is within a predetermined range of the sound amplitude of a sound model serving as a reference for determining a physical condition. (3) A method for performing both (1) and (2). If the voice model is not within the predetermined range of the voice frequency distribution and / or voice amplitude of the voice model serving as the reference for physical condition determination, the physical condition is determined to be poor. Judge as normal.
[0048]
Since the determination of poor physical condition depends on the cause of poor physical condition, for example, dozing driving is determined by the CCD camera 2 and the skin potential sensor 4, and a cold is determined by the skin temperature sensor 3 and the voice recognition device 5. The determination is made by changing the combination of sensors depending on the factors.
[0049]
When the control circuit 8 determines that the physical condition of the driver is normal (S15: NO), the navigation device 12 and the audio device 13 are brought into a state where they can be operated normally. On the other hand, if the control circuit 8 determines that the driver's physical condition is poor (S15: YES), a message to the effect that the operation of the device is invalid due to poor physical condition is displayed on the display 11 (S16), A message having the same content is output as voice from the speaker 10 (S17). At this time, if the vehicle is running at a predetermined speed (for example, 5 km / h) or more based on information from the vehicle speed sensor 9 and the like (S18: YES), the control circuit 8 operates the navigation device 12 and the audio device 13 Is sent (S19, S20).
[0050]
If it is determined that the vehicle is in a stopped state at a predetermined speed (for example, 5 km / h) or less (S18: NO), the navigation device 12 and the audio device 13 can be operated even when the physical condition is poor, and the control circuit 8 Does not send a command to the navigation device 12 and the audio device 13 to invalidate the operation.
[0051]
In the case of using sensors for measuring blood pressure, sweating, and pulse in addition to the sensors used in the present embodiment, similarly to the present embodiment, first, the data of each sensor when the driver is in normal condition is used as reference data, If the data value measured during driving is not within the predetermined range of the reference data, it is determined that the physical condition is poor; otherwise, it is determined that the physical condition is normal.
[0052]
The vehicle device operation control device 1 of the present invention may be incorporated in another device, or may be shared with another device. For example, if incorporated in the navigation device 12, the operation switch group 6, the speaker 10, and the display 11 can use those of the navigation device 12.
[0053]
Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, these are merely examples, and the present invention is not limited to these, and may be understood by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the claims. Various modifications based on the above are possible.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a vehicle device operation control device as one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a control circuit.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an external memory.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a process of collecting driver data when the physical condition is normal.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing poor physical condition determination processing.
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a speech recognition device.
[Explanation of symbols]
REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 vehicle equipment operation control device 2 CCD camera 3 skin temperature sensor 4 skin potential sensor 5 voice recognition device 6 operation switch group 7 external memory 8 control circuit 9 vehicle speed sensor 10 speaker 11 display 12 navigation device 13 audio device

Claims (5)

Physical condition detecting means for detecting the physical condition of the driver of the vehicle;
Connected to the physical condition detecting means and connected to non-traveling peripheral devices not related to the driving operation of the vehicle, and invalidating the operation of the non-traveling peripheral devices when the physical condition detecting device detects poor physical condition of the driver. Peripheral device operation disabling means for
A vehicle equipment operation control device comprising: Physical condition detecting means for detecting the physical condition of the driver of the vehicle;
The navigation device and / or audio device of the vehicle is connected to the physical condition detecting means and connected to a vehicle navigation device and / or audio device, and when the physical condition detecting device detects a poor physical condition of the driver. Peripheral device operation disabling means for disabling
A vehicle equipment operation control device comprising: The vehicle further includes a vehicle traveling detecting unit that detects whether the vehicle is traveling, and disables the peripheral device operation when the vehicle is determined to be in a traveling state and the physical condition detecting unit detects a poor physical condition of the driver. 3. The vehicle equipment operation control device according to claim 1, wherein the means executes the invalidation control. Physical condition detecting means for detecting the physical condition of the driver of the vehicle;
Vehicle travel detection means for detecting whether the vehicle is traveling,
Operation invalidation message output means connected to the physical condition detecting means for outputting a message to invalidate the operation of the navigation device and / or the audio device of the vehicle due to the physical condition when the physical condition of the driver is detected; and ,
The vehicle is connected to the physical condition detecting means and is connected to a navigation device and / or an audio device of the vehicle, the physical condition detecting means detects a poor physical condition of the driver, and the vehicle is traveling by the vehicle running detecting means. Peripheral device operation disabling means for executing control for disabling the operation of the navigation device and / or the audio device of the vehicle when it is detected;
A vehicle equipment operation control device comprising: The physical condition detecting means is selected from an image camera for photographing the driver, a skin temperature sensor for detecting the driver's skin temperature, a skin potential sensor for detecting the driver's skin potential, and a voice sensor for detecting the driver's voice. A detector comprising one or a combination of two or more;
Physical condition determining means for determining whether the driver is in poor physical condition based on the output signal from the detector;
The vehicle equipment operation control device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, comprising:

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