DE102013013227A1 - Car with display unit and protection against a driver distraction - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a motor vehicle (10) with a display unit (24) arranged in the passenger compartment (12), which is designed to display a display content (26) only for such a room area (30) on a driver seat (16) of the vehicle Motor vehicle (10) with a predetermined standard posture seated driver excludes, and with a monitoring device (36), which is designed to monitor a current posture of the driver and to interrupt the display of the display content (26) in the event that the driver tries to view the display unit (24) from the room area (30). The monitoring device (36) comprises a 3D camera unit (38) and a calculation unit (40), wherein at least one optical sensor unit (48) of the 3D camera unit (38) is arranged above the passenger compartment (12) and adapted to at least one of the Head of the driver to generate 3D image data (V) from above, and wherein the calculation unit (40) is adapted to determine based on the 3D bit data (V) a position of the head (12) and / or movement of the head ,

Description

The invention relates to a motor vehicle with a display unit which is arranged in a passenger compartment of the motor vehicle, for example on a dash panel or a center console of the motor vehicle. By means of the display unit, a video film, or generally a display content can be displayed. The display unit is designed such that the driver while driving this display content can not be considered. This is the case, for example, with dual view screens for passenger display content. If the driver nevertheless tries to view this display content, the display contents will be interrupted upon detection of this attempt.

Such a car is for example from the EP 2 218 606 A1 known. This car has a monitoring device that detects by means of a Gurtabwicklung or based on an image analysis of camera shots, whether the driver has taken the default default posture for driving the car, or if his current posture indicates the attempt to over to the passenger over bend to look at the display content intended for the passenger from there. In order to detect this posture of the driver on the basis of the camera shots, a complex image analysis is necessary, detects the head or eye movements of the driver and then in advance detects whether there is a specific interest of the driver in the passenger side presentation. In particular, in the context of incident sunlight, when drop shadows cause a strong contrast in the camera images, such image analysis may fail and the desired protection of the driver from being distracted by the display content is then not given.

The invention has for its object to reliably prevent a driver in a motor vehicle from looking at the display content of a display unit that is not intended for him or her.

The object is achieved by a motor vehicle according to claim 1. Advantageous developments of the invention are given by the dependent claims.

The motor vehicle according to the invention has the principle according to the known combination of the display unit and a monitoring unit. The display unit is thus designed to display a display content only for such a viewing area that excludes the driver sitting in the driver's seat. It is assumed that the driver has taken a predetermined standard posture, as it is necessary for safe driving of the motor vehicle, so for example sitting upright on the driver's seat. The monitoring device monitors the current posture of the driver and interrupts the display of the display content in the event that the current posture indicates that the driver just has not taken the standard posture, but tries to look at the display unit out of the viewing area, ie to catch a glimpse of the display content.

In order to prevent the driver from succumbing to the temptation to view the display content, it is provided according to the invention that the monitoring device for monitoring the current posture comprises a 3D camera unit and a calculation unit. The calculation unit can, for. B. be provided as a program module for an infotainment system. In this case, the 3D camera unit is designed in a special way, namely by having at least one optical sensor unit which is arranged above the passenger compartment and is designed to generate 3D image data from above at least from the driver's head. The calculation unit is designed to determine from these 3D image data a position of the head in space and / or a movement of the head. In other words, the actual posture is not evaluated on the basis of 2D image data, ie color intensity values or brightness intensity values, but the object tracking of the head is carried out on the basis of depth information. This results in the advantage that a color or illumination intensity of the observed objects can change and yet reliably the depth information used can be determined. The 3D image data can be z. B. in a conventional manner be coordinates of surface elements at which the modulated light was reflected back.

The display unit is arranged in the motor vehicle passenger compartment according to the invention, but unlike in the prior art, it does not necessarily have to be a dual-view screen, which is arranged on a dash panel or a center console of the motor vehicle. However, this is the preferred embodiment of the motor vehicle. It may alternatively also be a display unit with a screen, which is arranged, for example, in front of the passenger seat or even a display unit with a screen for passengers in a back seat. The viewing area of the display unit are all those spatial areas or volume areas from which one can see the display content completely or at least partially.

The optical sensor unit may be, for example, a stereo camera. Preferably, however, it is provided that the Sensor unit comprises a time-of-flight sensor (ToF sensor) of a photonic mixing device camera (PMD camera). A PMD camera has the advantage that intensity-modulated light, in particular infrared light, with a light source of the PMD camera is radiated into it in the passenger compartment, and the light of the light source reflected from the body, in particular the driver's head, reliably from the light of other light sources , For example, from sunlight, a distinction. This results in particularly low-noise 3D image data.

In order to be able to reliably detect, with particularly little computational effort, whether the driver is bending over into the viewing area of the display unit, an advantageous development of the motor vehicle provides that the calculation unit of the monitoring device determines from the 3D image data whether an object is in a predetermined spatial area of the vehicle Passenger compartment or moves in there. In the room area, it may be z. B. to act the viewing area of the display unit. However, it may also be part of the viewing area or even an at least partially different area, if it is clear that this area must be crossed by the driver's head in order to get into the viewing area. Thus, for example, a light barrier effect can be realized, by which whenever the driver moves his head, for example, beyond the center console out to the passenger seat, the display of the display content is interrupted. Since 3D image data with depth information are used as the basis, monitoring can be restricted to a certain height range, that is to say that only a space region in which the head is located can be monitored along the vehicle's vertical axis. This avoids that the display content is blocked even if the driver, for example, with one hand over the center console away in the direction of the passenger seat.

In order to be able to recognize even more reliably whether an object depicted in the 3D image data is actually the driver's head and not, for example, an object which the driver passes over to the passenger, an advantageous development of the motor vehicle provides the calculation unit for monitoring a position of the head and / or an orientation of the head fits a body model of the driver into the 3D image data. In particular, at least one shape of the head is reproduced by the body model. By fitting the body model into the 3D image data, it is meant that the head modeled by the body model is altered in its spatial orientation by varying parameters of the body model until a surface of the modeled head with a surface recognizable in the 3D image data covers or at least according to a predetermined error criterion an adjustment error is less than a predetermined threshold value. For example, such a least mean square distance measurement between surface elements of the modeled head and surface elements of a surface imaged in the 3D image data can be minimized. Changing the parameters can, for. B. the coordinates of the head-center of gravity, d. H. the spatial position, and the orientation of the facial surface in the room, d. H. the viewing direction, concern. If the body model is fitted, the driver's posture can be deduced very reliably from parameters of the body model, for example the eye position, even if, for example, the eyes themselves are not shown in the 3D image data.

To obtain favorable for the observation of the current posture 3D image data, provides an advantageous development of the motor vehicle, that the sensor unit is arranged in a roof node of the motor vehicle, ie in that area above the center console or the control panel, in which also the rearview mirror of Motor vehicle can be arranged. This provides the advantage that, from this perspective, the driver's head is that part of the driver's body closest to the sensor unit. This prior knowledge or a priori knowledge can be used to simplify the detection of the head in the 3D image data in an advantageous manner. For example, an analysis of the 3D image data may be limited to those portions of the 3D image data in which a coordinate of, for example, a surfel indicates a location having a distance to the sensor unit that is less than a predetermined maximum distance.

A further advantageous embodiment provides that the calculation device determines a movement trajectory of the head. The movement trajectory describes a temporal course of a position of at least the head, wherein the position can be defined for example by the geometric center of gravity of the head. In other words, there is a head tracking over time. This has the advantage that in the 3D image data, the head of the driver can be reliably distinguished from the head of the passenger. By retracing the movement trajectory, it is possible to ensure that an object detected in the 3D image data at a previous point in time has been located in the area of the driver's side and has been moved from there into the viewing area.

Even more robust against false detection is the monitoring, if the calculation unit is designed to check if a Face surface of the driver's head is directed to the display unit. In other words, it is checked whether the driver turns his face to the display unit at all or looks in a different direction. Thus, for example, a misrecognition can be avoided, which can result if the driver throws a shoulder glance to the passenger side backwards during an overtaking maneuver. In order to determine the orientation of the face surface, it is provided in particular to extrapolate a surface normal of a head-shaped object recognized in the 3D image data in the direction of the display unit and to check whether the extended or extrapolated surface normal points into a predetermined area which covers the surface of the face Display content.

A further advantage results if the calculation unit is designed to issue a warning to the driver in addition to interrupting the display of the display content. If the display is interrupted, the driver will immediately know why. Otherwise, it may be that vehicle occupants are surprised why the playback of, for example, a video film is occasionally interrupted, if they do not know the connection with the posture of the driver.

In the following, the invention is explained once again with reference to a concrete embodiment. For this purpose, the single FIGURE (FIG.) Shows a schematic representation of an embodiment of the motor vehicle according to the invention. For the sake of better orientation, a coordinate system is shown for the further explanations in the FIGURE, wherein the X axis is aligned parallel to the vehicle transverse axis, the Y axis parallel to the vehicle longitudinal axis and the Z axis parallel to the vehicle vertical axis.

The exemplary embodiment explained below is a preferred embodiment of the invention. In the exemplary embodiment, however, the described components of the embodiment each represent individual features of the invention, which are to be considered independently of each other, which also develop the invention independently of one another and thus also individually or in a different combination than the one shown as part of the invention. Furthermore, the described embodiment can also be supplemented by further features of the invention already described.

In the figure is of a motor vehicle 10 a passenger compartment 12 shown, so the interior of a passenger compartment. Shown are a steering wheel 14 , a seat of a driver's seat 16 and a seat of a passenger seat 18 , Between the driver's seat 16 and the passenger seat 18 There is a center console 20 and part of a control panel 22 , on which in the example concavely curved dual-view screen or short screen 24 is arranged.

With dual-view technology, two different contents can be displayed simultaneously on one display, ie one screen, depending on the viewing angle. For example, the driver may display the navigation while the passenger is watching a movie from a DVD (Digital Video Disc). The screen 24 forms a display unit and can be configured as known per se from the prior art. On the screen 24 is in the example given for a (not shown) front passenger in the passenger seat 18 a display content 26 , For example, a video, presented. A radiation direction 28 the light of the display content 26 points in a passenger room area 30 , which in the figure by a vertically and along the vehicle longitudinal axis (Y-axis) extending parting plane 32 to the driver's seat 16 is limited. The radiation direction 28 is oriented such that a driver (not shown) in the driver's seat 16 the picture content 26 can not see or recognize when he is normally upright in the driver's seat 16 sits and the car 10 by means of the steering wheel 14 directs. This is also the case when he heads to the screen 24 turns.

In the car 10 becomes the screen 24 , in particular the presentation of the display content 26 , by a control unit 34 Of the screen 24 controlled. For example, it may be at the control unit 34 to a control unit or a component of an infotainment system of the motor vehicle 10 act.

The passenger informs the driver about a display content 26 on its face, the driver's attention to the road could be greatly reduced by aroused interest and efforts to reach the passenger's point of view. Nowadays, a dual-view screen is not allowed for product liability reasons many car manufacturers. The control unit 34 on the other hand, the display content is interrupted 26 on the screen 24 whenever the driver tries to get to the passenger seat 18 lean over and from there, so from the room area 30 out, on the screen 24 to look to the display content 26 to be able to see.

This will be in the car 10 by a monitoring device 36 causes. The monitoring device 36 includes a 3D camera unit 38 , which may in particular be a PMD camera. Furthermore, the monitoring device comprises 36 a calculation unit 40 , which may be, for example, a program module of a controller or the infotainment system. The 3D camera unit 38 For example, a light source 42 which intensity-modulated light 44 in the passenger compartment 12 radiates. The light reflected from objects 46 can be from a sensor unit 48 be recorded and evaluated. From this, 3D image data V can be generated, which is sent to the calculation unit 40 be transmitted. The 3D image data V includes 3D location information on different surface elements, each of which has a portion of the light 44 was reflected. The calculation unit 40 determines based on the 3D image data V, where the head of the driver in the passenger compartment 12 located and / or which movement the head performs. This is by the calculation unit 40 Recognized that the driver's head in the room area 30 has moved or moved, a control signal S to the control unit 34 which signals that the driver is trying to display content not intended for him 26 consider. The control unit 34 interrupts the display content in response to the control signal S. 26 , In other words, for example, the playback of a movie is interrupted. The driver will soon realize that there is no point trying to bend over to the passenger seat 18 insight into the not intended for him display content 26 To provide.

If the driver, however, with one hand on the center console 20 or, moreover, to the passenger seat 18 will play back the display content 26 not necessarily interrupted. For this purpose, it can be provided, for example, that the 3D location information, ie in particular depth information, in the 3D image data V is then examined as to whether the object, which is from the passenger seat 16 out through the dividing plane 32 through to the passenger seat 18 has moved above a horizontal plane 50 located. For this purpose, it can be checked, for example, whether a geometric center of the object has coordinates that have a Z component that is greater than the Z component of the plane 50 is. In this case, it can be assumed that it is an object that is far enough above to be most likely the head of the driver. Through the plane 50 and the dividing plane 32 is thus a surveillance room area 52 educated. Located in this surveillance room area 52 an object, it can be provided when recognizing this object in the surveillance space area 52 through the calculation unit 40 to generate the control signal S based on the 3D image data V.

In order to enable a reliable detection and in particular to avoid a cover by other objects in the room, it is preferably provided that the 3D camera unit 38 on a vehicle roof 54 of the motor vehicle 10 which the passenger compartment 12 limited to the top, to arrange. In particular, the 3D camera unit 38 in a roof node of the motor vehicle 10 be arranged.

An even more robust detection can be achieved if in the 3D image data V a body model one on the driver's seat 16 sitting person is fitted. For this, for example, the function library of the product "Kinect" of the company Microsoft can be used.

To check the plausibility of a recognition result, ie to prevent the control signal S from being unnecessarily output due to misrecognition, it is additionally possible to check on the basis of such a body model whether the driver has assumed a shoulder position, which is an indication for the attempt, of the display content 26 consider. For this purpose, parameters of the body model can be checked to see if their parameter values are at predetermined intervals. Which intervals make sense for the individual parameter values can be determined by observing test persons when configuring the calculation unit 40 be determined.

By means of the monitoring device 36 enabled physical immaculate immobility of the occupant (in particular by a time-of-flight camera) or body parts of the occupant is a movement of the occupant and his body parts reliably classifiable, so that can be classified as to whether the driver makes a typical movement when driving or whether the makes the attempt to display content 26 consider. By tracking the driver's head in particular, the dual-view screen can be used 24 with appropriate effort of the driver to reach the perspective of the passenger, so be switched off in time.

By the shown systematic cancellation of the display content 26 in the driver's attempt, this display content 26 Likewise, it allows for a dual-view screen 26 use, without this product liability problems may arise. Avoiding the distraction of the driver through a dual-view screen 26 is effectively avoided.

In the motor vehicle according to the invention can be used as a suitable sensor 38 for measuring the vehicle interior including occupants also be a 3D camera unit, not only for the monitoring device 26 is used. In particular, may already be due to other devices provided sensor units are used. The calculation unit 40 can pick up and evaluate the signals, and then the result of the evaluation to respond to other devices in the car 10 provide. For example, the control signal S can also be transmitted to a plurality of receivers via a communication bus, for example a CAN bus.

QUOTES INCLUDE IN THE DESCRIPTION

This list of the documents listed by the applicant has been generated automatically and is included solely for the better information of the reader. The list is not part of the German patent or utility model application. The DPMA assumes no liability for any errors or omissions.

Cited patent literature

• EP 2218606 A1 [0002]

Claims (11)

Car ( 10 ) with one in the passenger compartment ( 12 ) arranged display unit ( 24 ), which is adapted to display content ( 26 ) only for such a room area ( 30 ), one on a driver's seat ( 16 ) of the motor vehicle ( 10 ) excludes a driver sitting with a predetermined standard posture, and with a monitoring device ( 36 ) for monitoring a current posture of the driver and for interrupting the display of the display content ( 26 ) is designed in the event that the current posture indicates that the driver is attempting to use the display unit ( 24 ) from the room area ( 30 ), characterized in that the monitoring device ( 36 ) for monitoring the current posture a 3D camera unit ( 38 ) and a calculation unit ( 40 ), wherein at least one optical sensor unit ( 48 ) of the 3D camera unit ( 38 ) above the passenger compartment ( 12 ) and is adapted to generate 3D image data (V) from above at least from the driver's head, and wherein the calculation unit ( 40 ) is adapted to, based on the 3D bit data (V), a position of the head in the passenger compartment ( 12 ) and / or to detect a movement of the head. Car ( 10 ) according to claim 1, wherein the calculation unit ( 40 ) is designed to determine, based on the 3D image data (V), whether an object in the spatial region (FIG. 30 ) of the passenger compartment ( 12 ) or to move in there, and in this case to stop displaying the display content. Car ( 10 ) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the calculation unit ( 40 ) is adapted for monitoring a position of the head and / or an orientation of the head, a body model which simulates at least one shape of the head, in the 3D image data (V). Car ( 10 ) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the sensor unit ( 48 ) a time-of-flight sensor ( 48 ) of a photonic mixing device camera ( 38 ). Car ( 10 ) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the sensor unit ( 38 ) in a roof node ( 54 ) of the motor vehicle ( 10 ) is arranged. Car ( 10 ) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the calculation unit ( 40 ) is designed to determine a movement trajectory of the head, which describes a time course of a position of the head. Car ( 10 ) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the calculation unit ( 40 ) is designed to check whether a face of the driver's head is on the display unit ( 36 ), and, for this purpose, a surface normal of a head-shaped object recognized in the 3D image data (V) in the direction of the display unit ( 26 ) to extrapolate and check whether the extrapolated surface normal points in a predetermined area, which the display unit ( 24 ). Car ( 10 ) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the calculation unit ( 40 ) is adapted to issue a warning to the driver in addition to interrupting the displays. Car ( 10 ) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the display unit ( 24 ) is designed as the display content ( 26 ) to display a video movie. Car ( 10 ) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the display unit ( 24 ) comprises a dual-view screen connected to a control panel ( 22 ) or a center console ( 20 ) of the motor vehicle ( 10 ) and which is designed to be used simultaneously with the display content ( 26 ) yet another different display content for a viewing angle, the on the driver's seat ( 16 ) of the motor vehicle ( 10 ) includes driver sitting with the predetermined standard posture. Car ( 10 ) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the monitoring device ( 36 ) is designed to interrupt the display only if a driving speed of the motor vehicle ( 10 ) is greater than a predetermined minimum speed.

Images