GB2129989A - Sleep-preventing alarm device - Google Patents

Sleep-preventing alarm device Download PDF

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Publication number
GB2129989A
GB2129989A GB08232147A GB8232147A GB2129989A GB 2129989 A GB2129989 A GB 2129989A GB 08232147 A GB08232147 A GB 08232147A GB 8232147 A GB8232147 A GB 8232147A GB 2129989 A GB2129989 A GB 2129989A
Authority
GB
United Kingdom
Prior art keywords
transistor
photo
led
driving circuit
buzzer
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
GB08232147A
Inventor
Swei Wen Cheo
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Individual
Original Assignee
Individual
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Individual filed Critical Individual
Priority to GB08232147A priority Critical patent/GB2129989A/en
Publication of GB2129989A publication Critical patent/GB2129989A/en
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • GPHYSICS
    • G02OPTICS
    • G02CSPECTACLES; SUNGLASSES OR GOGGLES INSOFAR AS THEY HAVE THE SAME FEATURES AS SPECTACLES; CONTACT LENSES
    • G02C5/00Constructions of non-optical parts
    • G02C5/001Constructions of non-optical parts specially adapted for particular purposes, not otherwise provided for or not fully classifiable according to technical characteristics, e.g. therapeutic glasses
    • GPHYSICS
    • G02OPTICS
    • G02CSPECTACLES; SUNGLASSES OR GOGGLES INSOFAR AS THEY HAVE THE SAME FEATURES AS SPECTACLES; CONTACT LENSES
    • G02C11/00Non-optical adjuncts; Attachment thereof
    • GPHYSICS
    • G08SIGNALLING
    • G08BSIGNALLING OR CALLING SYSTEMS; ORDER TELEGRAPHS; ALARM SYSTEMS
    • G08B21/00Alarms responsive to a single specified undesired or abnormal condition and not otherwise provided for
    • G08B21/02Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons
    • G08B21/06Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons indicating a condition of sleep, e.g. anti-dozing alarms

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  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • Ophthalmology & Optometry (AREA)
  • Optics & Photonics (AREA)
  • Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
  • Emergency Management (AREA)
  • Emergency Alarm Devices (AREA)

Abstract

A sleep-preventing alarm device, for vehicle operators, gives a warning acoustic signal to awaken a drowsy operator when his eyelids close for more than a predetermined time interval, by means of an LED (3) which projects a beam of light on a photo- transistor (4). The LED (3) and the photo-transistor (4) are so positioned that the beam is intercepted by the eyelash when the operator closes his eyes, thereby Cutting the illumination on the photo-transistor. If the interruption of illumination exceeds a predetermined time interval, a driving circuit will be actuated to sound a buzzer. The actuated circuit is disabled when the interception of the light on the photo-transistor resumes below the predetermined value. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Sleep-preventing alarm device This invention relates to a device which can be carried by a user who must concentrate his attention at every moment, such as a vehicle operator to prevent him from falling asleep.
More and more smoothly paved, straight express highways are built to communicate cities and towns. However, this is a mixed blessing, because a car operator is prone to relax his attention in such easy, comfortable and monotonous driving, especially when he gets tired from a long journey. As a result, he is liable to nod or fall alseep, with the attendant risk of a disastrous accident.
Accordingly, it is the primary object of this invention to provide a warning device to prevent the operator from nodding or falling asleep.
According to the present invention there is proposed a sleep-preventing device comprising the following components: a buzzer, an LED, a driving circuit to actuate said buzzer, a phototransistor illuminated by said LED control means in response to the interception of said illumination of said LED on said photo-transistor to energise or disable said driving circuit, said LED glowing continuously during the use of said device and said LED and photo-transistor being so positioned that the beam of the illumination LED can reach said photo-transistor, and is only intercepted by the eyelash of the user when he closes his eye, said control means, LED, buzzer, driving circuit, and photo-transistor being such that an interception of the illumination on said phototransistor exceeding a first predetermined time energises said driving circuit and an interception of the illumination on said photo-transistor below a second predetermined time disables the actuated driving circuit.
Thus, the invention provides a buzzer controlled by the photo-electrical effect of a photo-transistor in association with an LED and triggered when the operator's eyelids close for more than a predetermined time to give an acoustic alarm to awake the drowsy operator and cause him to focus his mind on the road condition.
This invention will be better understood when read in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein: Fig. 1 is a wiring diagram of a preferred embodiment of this invention; Fig. 2 is a graphical representation of a preferred embodiment of this invention in the form of a pair of eyeglasses with a pocketable box-type pack; Fig. 3 is a circuit diagram of another preferred embodiment; Fig. 4 is an enlarged external view of a pack according to this invention, and Fig. 5 is a graphical representation showing various ways to carry this invention.
Referring to Fig. 2, the closing of the eyelids is detected by a photo-electric transistor (4) which receives the emission from an every-glowing LED (3). The transistor (4) and LED (3) are positioned so that emission from LED (3) can reach the transistor, and the beam of light is intercepted by the eyelash when the eye closes.
A normal blink causes no more than, say 0.3 miliseconds of stay of the eyelashes at their lowest position where the beam passes. In a practical embodiment such a transient interruption of illumination on the photo-transistor must not cause any response. However, if the break of illumination exceeds the upper limit of the time of human's natural blink, the alarm device will be triggered to give an acoustic alarm. This function is carried out by an astable multivibrator (1 ) (outlined by dash lines), which gives periodical pulses. If the interval of interruption of illumination on the transistor, which corresponds to the shutdown time of the eyelids, exceeds that of a pulse, the circuit will be energised to give a signal, which is, in turn, amplified and sent to the buzzer to actuate it to give an audible warning.When the operator is awakened, there is no longer any need for the audible warning. Thus the driving circuit of the buzzer must be disabled when the interruption interval resumes below 0.3 miliseconds. There are many ways to trigger and disable the driving circuit in response to the interruption of illumination, and I only use non-restrictive examples to describe this invention.
In Fig. 1, the energising or disabling of the driving circuit of the buzzer depends on the high/low output of the collector of transistor Q8 of astable multivibrator (1 ) (the area outlined by dash-line). The high/low output depends on the conducting or nonconducting state of the transistor. The upper limit of the interruption interval of the light required to energise the driving circuit of buzzer is T8 = 0.69 R2C3, while the lower limit of interruption to disable the actuated buzzer isT7=0.69 R,C,. For example, the values T8, T7 can be respectively set at 0.6 miliseconds and 0.3 miliseconds so a buzzer can be triggered when the eye closes for more than 0.6 miliseconds, and when the operator is awakened and his blink duration returns to normal 0.3 miliseconds, the buzzer will be disabled.When the operator starts to nod, an interruption of illumination of more than 0.6 miliseconds results, thus the transistor Q is conducted to give a signal, which is then amplified by a plurality of amplifying stages consisting of transistors, from the input transistor (6) to the output transistor (5), to actuate buzzer (7). The buzz persists until the sleepy driver is awakened and his blink duration resumes its normal period of 0.3 miliseconds, at which stage the buzzer is de energised.
In practice, as shown in Fig. 2, LED (3) is mounted inside the frame of eyeglasses, whereas the photo-transistor (4) is installed inside the rim of the lens at proper position where it can receive the emission from LED (3) and the beam is only intercepted by the eyelash when the eye closes. A small box (17) is provided to receive the driving circuit (13). The box can be hung down the bosom, like a necklace. The leads (15, 5,16) of photo-transistor (4) and LED (3) extend out of the box and are secured along the framework (9), (10) of the spectacles. Power is supplied by a dry cell (12). If necessary, buzzer (7) can be mounted to the buckle (1 4A) or (1 4B). The variable resistance can be adjusted to change the corresponding energising and disabling time value of this device.
Fig. 3 is another operable driving circuit, and works even better than that of Fig. 1.
Practically, the box containing the driving circuit and batteries can be carried in the form of various pocket-type compactly built packs as shown in Fig. 4, on which there are provided adjusting knobs, and power switches.

Claims (3)

1. A sleep-preventing device comprising the following components: a buzzer, an LED, a driving circuit to actuate said buzzer, a photo-transistor illuminated by said LED control means in response to the interception of said illumination of said LED on said photo-transistor to energise or disable said driving circuit, said LED glowing continuously during the use of said device, and said LED and photo-transistor being so positioned that the beam of the illumination LED can reach said photo-transistor, and is only intercepted by the eyelash of the user when he closes his eye, said control means, LED, buzzer, driving circuit, and photo-transistor being such that an interception of the illumination on said photo-transistor excceding a first predetermined time energises said driving circuit and an interception of the illumination on said photo-transistor below a second predetermined time disables the actuated driving circuit.
2. The device according to Claim 1, wherein said LED and photo-transistor are respectively mounted on the frame and the rim of lens of an eyeglasses.
3. The device according to Claim 1 or 2, wherein said control means, driving circuit and buzzer are installed in a compactly built box in pocketable form.
GB08232147A 1982-11-10 1982-11-10 Sleep-preventing alarm device Withdrawn GB2129989A (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GB08232147A GB2129989A (en) 1982-11-10 1982-11-10 Sleep-preventing alarm device

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GB08232147A GB2129989A (en) 1982-11-10 1982-11-10 Sleep-preventing alarm device

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
GB2129989A true GB2129989A (en) 1984-05-23

Family

ID=10534174

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
GB08232147A Withdrawn GB2129989A (en) 1982-11-10 1982-11-10 Sleep-preventing alarm device

Country Status (1)

Country Link
GB (1) GB2129989A (en)

Cited By (7)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
GB2145262A (en) * 1983-08-17 1985-03-20 Gunson S Colorplugs Limited Sleep onset detector
GB2146468A (en) * 1983-08-18 1985-04-17 Swyer Gerald Isaac M Monitoring attention
GB2215040A (en) * 1988-02-13 1989-09-13 William George David Ritchie A method and apparatus for monitoring the driver of a vehicle
EP0624858A1 (en) * 1993-05-14 1994-11-17 Michael Josef Lantschner Method and device for detecting irregular movements of a person
GB2285681A (en) * 1994-01-07 1995-07-19 Robert Joseph Terry Sleep warning-alarm spectacle frames
GB2385451A (en) * 2002-02-13 2003-08-20 Loadpoint Ltd Monitoring drowsiness
US7301465B2 (en) 2005-03-24 2007-11-27 Tengshe Vishwas V Drowsy driving alarm system

Cited By (7)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
GB2145262A (en) * 1983-08-17 1985-03-20 Gunson S Colorplugs Limited Sleep onset detector
GB2146468A (en) * 1983-08-18 1985-04-17 Swyer Gerald Isaac M Monitoring attention
GB2215040A (en) * 1988-02-13 1989-09-13 William George David Ritchie A method and apparatus for monitoring the driver of a vehicle
EP0624858A1 (en) * 1993-05-14 1994-11-17 Michael Josef Lantschner Method and device for detecting irregular movements of a person
GB2285681A (en) * 1994-01-07 1995-07-19 Robert Joseph Terry Sleep warning-alarm spectacle frames
GB2385451A (en) * 2002-02-13 2003-08-20 Loadpoint Ltd Monitoring drowsiness
US7301465B2 (en) 2005-03-24 2007-11-27 Tengshe Vishwas V Drowsy driving alarm system

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Legal Events

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WAP Application withdrawn, taken to be withdrawn or refused ** after publication under section 16(1)