JP2010203887A - Operation support device and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an operation support device and method for uplifting a degree of concentration of an occupant even in a monotonous operating condition. <P>SOLUTION: The operation support device includes an operating condition detection means 101 for detecting the operating condition of the occupant, an operation load determination means 102 for determining a multitude of an operation load related to the operating condition detected by the operating condition detection means, an information storage and generation means 103 for storing or generating first information to be presented to the occupant, and an information conversion means 104 for converting the first information to be presented to the occupant from the information storage and generation means into second information which differs in the occupant's load of thought and interpretation according to the multitude of the operation load. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a driving support apparatus and method for a vehicle or the like.

  A technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 is known as a voice guidance device for a vehicle that issues voice guidance to a passenger such as a driver. This is to create a voice guidance with the contents of the expression according to the mental state such as the occupant's play, distraction, and consciousness reduction, and when the mental state is normal, the voice guidance is carried out with standard expressions, If there is, the voice is changed to stop speaking or slowly express, and when the occupant is distracted or unconscious, voice guidance is given to alert the occupant.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-288532

  However, if a monotonous driving task in which the driver's mental state is constant is continued, it is difficult to prevent random driving behavior simply by providing repeated voice guidance with the same expression content.

The problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a driving support apparatus and method that can enhance the concentration of passengers even in a monotonous driving state.

The present invention solves the above problem by converting and presenting the first information presented to the occupant into the second information having a different occupant interpretation load according to the driving load of the occupant. .

  According to the present invention, since the information with different thinking interpretation load according to the driving load of the occupant is presented, the occupant concentration can be enhanced even in a monotonous driving state.

It is a block diagram which shows the driving assistance device which concerns on one embodiment of invention. It is a top view which shows the driving course of a verification experiment. It is a graph which shows the result (distribution of vehicle speed) of a verification experiment. It is a graph which shows the result (average vehicle speed) of a verification experiment. It is a flowchart which shows the control procedure of the driving assistance device which concerns on 1st Embodiment of invention. It is a figure explaining the effect | action of the driving assistance apparatus which concerns on 1st Embodiment of invention. It is a figure explaining the effect | action of the driving assistance apparatus which concerns on 1st Embodiment of invention. It is a figure explaining the effect | action of the driving assistance apparatus which concerns on 1st Embodiment of invention. It is a figure explaining the effect | action of the driving assistance apparatus which concerns on 1st Embodiment of invention. It is a figure explaining the effect | action of the driving assistance apparatus which concerns on 1st Embodiment of invention. It is a figure explaining the effect | action of the driving assistance apparatus which concerns on 1st Embodiment of invention. It is a figure explaining the effect | action of the driving assistance apparatus which concerns on 1st Embodiment of invention. It is a figure explaining the effect | action of the driving assistance apparatus which concerns on 1st Embodiment of invention. It is a figure explaining the effect | action of the driving assistance apparatus which concerns on 1st Embodiment of invention. It is a flowchart which shows the control procedure of the driving assistance device which concerns on 2nd Embodiment of invention. It is a figure explaining the effect | action of the driving assistance device which concerns on 2nd Embodiment of invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

<< First Embodiment >>
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a driving support apparatus according to an embodiment of the invention.

  The driving support measure 10 of this example includes a driving state detection device 101, a driving load determination device 102, an information device 103, an information conversion device 104, and an information output device 105.

  The driving state detection device 101 includes a vehicle speed sensor, a navigation device (having map information, GPS information, VICS information, CAN information, and the like), various signals S from a vehicle control unit, a travel time, a travel distance, It detects the current driving state of the driver, such as vehicle speed, accelerator opening, steering angle, brake pedal force, travel location, and vehicle equipment operated by the driver.

  The driving load determination device 102 determines the driving state of the driver detected by the driving state detection device 101 based on a threshold value obtained empirically or experimentally in advance.

  For example, when the vehicle speed detected by the driving state detection device 101 is medium or high, the traveling time is long, and the rate of change of the accelerator opening or steering angle is small, the driving state is relatively stable. It is determined that the operation load is small because of this state. On the other hand, when the vehicle speed detected by the driving state detection device 101 is medium or high, the traveling time is short, and the rate of change of the accelerator opening or the steering angle is large, the driving state is relatively poor. Since it is stable, it is determined that the operation load is large.

  The information device 103 stores first symbol information that needs to be output, and dynamically creates the first symbol information to be output depending on the driving state of the driver. The first symbol information includes information recognized by hearing such as voice information and information recognized visually such as character information and graphic information. Further, the first symbol information includes, for example, route instruction information output from the navigation device such as “500 m ahead is in the right direction” and a vehicle output from the vehicle control device such as “the remaining fuel is 20 liters”. Contains information.

  The information conversion device 104 converts the first symbol information output to the driver into the second symbol information according to the result determined by the driving load determination device 102 or without converting the first symbol information. Symbol information is used.

  The information output device 105 outputs the second symbol information converted by the information conversion device 104 or the first symbol information that has not been converted to the driver.

  In particular, in the information conversion device 104 of this example, when the driving load determination device 102 determines that the driving load is smaller than a predetermined threshold, the first symbol information to be output is the first symbol information that has a large driver's thought interpretation load. It is converted into symbol information 2 and presented to the driver. On the other hand, when it is determined that the driving load is larger than the predetermined threshold, the first symbol information to be output is presented to the driver as it is without being converted.

  In other words, when the driving load is large, the driver concentrates on the driving task, so the degree of concentration is high, but when driving on a freeway with few curves at a constant speed for a long time, the driving load is small. The driver's concentration becomes low. In such cases, presenting information to the driver with a large thought process load required to understand the information increases the driver's concentration and leads to inattention to the front. To prevent.

  The second symbol information obtained by converting the first symbol information refers to information having a greater thought interpretation load, that is, a thought load for the driver to interpret than the first symbol information. Although a specific embodiment will be described later, since it is not used more commonly than the first symbol information, it needs to be converted in the head from the first used symbol information.

  For example, the presentation information “500 m ahead on the right” by the navigation device is a scale that is commonly used when presenting route guidance to the destination in units of meters, so Applicable. For this first information of "500m", the route guidance such as "It is 50000cm ahead to the right" is a unit scale that is not commonly used, so the driver cannot immediately imagine the distance, Convert to a meter that is easy to imagine in your head. By adding this conversion thought, it can be said that the second symbol information has a higher thought interpretation load than the first symbol information.

  The idea of this example is based on the following knowledge.

That is, when a monotonous driving task continues, driving may be distracted, which may lead to forward carelessness. This is expected to occur in an environment with little irritation, such as when driving on a highway.

Therefore, the present inventors have studied to prevent driving indiscriminately by giving an appropriate stimulus to the driver. As means for realizing this, in this example, it was verified that the degree of concentration or attention to driving behavior can be improved by presenting symbol information by voice or the like as a stimulus to the driving driver.

[Verification experiment]
As shown in FIG. 2, a course in which a course was set in advance was prepared, and the subject was allowed to drive at a speed not exceeding 10 km / h. At the same time, voice symbol information (question information) was presented and verbal responses were made to the symbol information instructions. There are two types of symbol information: simple addition and content that encourages memory of words. The number of running was 3 times / person (however, only subject B was twice), and the subjects were 5 males A to E who had driving experience.

  Then, in the driving scene of FIG. 2, vehicle speed information and the like during the narrow road driving (area surrounded by a circle in the same figure) are collected, and the vehicle speed variance and average are attached according to the condition of presence / absence of symbol information by voice. The vehicle speed was calculated and compared.

[Experimental result]
FIG. 2 shows the dispersion value of the vehicle speed for each trial. In the figure, the horizontal axis represents the subject and the vertical axis represents the vehicle speed variance during travel. The bar graph with the light color on the left shows the result when the stimulus of the symbol information is given, and the bar graph with the dark color on the right shows the result when the stimulus of the symbol information is not given.

  As a result of this experiment, when symbol information, that is, voice information was given, a phenomenon was observed in which the variance greatly decreased depending on the subject. If the vehicle speed variance is small, it is assumed that the driver is likely to concentrate on driving behavior. From this, it can be expected that the degree of concentration on driving can be enhanced by presenting symbol information such as voice to the user.

On the other hand, by presenting symbol information, the driving load on the driver may become excessively high. When the driving load becomes high, it is predicted that the driver unconsciously takes measures such as reducing the driving load by reducing the vehicle speed in driving behavior. Therefore, in order to know the degree of the driver's driving load, the average vehicle speed when the symbol information was presented and when the symbol information was not presented was compared.

FIG. 3 shows the average vehicle speed for each trial. In the figure, the horizontal axis represents the subject, and the vertical axis represents the average vehicle speed [km / h] during travel. The thin bar graph on the left side shows the result when the stimulus of the symbol information is given, and the dark bar graph on the right side shows the result when the stimulus of the symbol information is not given.

In the trial time (1) of the subject A in FIG. 2 described above, the variance decreased by about 5, whereas in the trial time (1) of the subject A in FIG. 3, the average vehicle speed decreased by about 2 km / h. From this result, it is inferred that in the driving operation of the trial time (1) by the subject A, the concentration of the driver was increased by giving the stimulus of the symbol information, but the driving load was excessive.

On the other hand, in the trial times (3) of the subject A in FIG. 2, the variance decreased by about 15 or more, whereas in the trial times (3) of the subject A in FIG. 4, the average vehicle speed only decreased by about 1 km / h. . This result suggests that the degree of concentration has improved since the variance has decreased significantly compared to the previous result, and the decrease in average vehicle speed is smaller than in the trial (1), so the driver This suggests that the driving load has not increased. Note that the difference between the results of the trial times (1) and (3) is considered to be caused by the influence of the stimulus task and the habituation presented at that time.

Therefore, it was verified that the degree of concentration can be increased by giving the driver appropriate driving load that is not excessive using symbol information.

  The driving state detection device of this example corresponds to the driving state detection unit of the present invention, the driving load determination device of this example corresponds to the driving load determination unit of the present invention, and the information device of this example corresponds to the information of the present invention. The information conversion apparatus of this example corresponds to the storage generation means, the information conversion apparatus of this example corresponds, and the information output apparatus of this example corresponds to the output means of the present invention.

  Next, the contents of control will be described.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the control procedure of this embodiment.

  In step S51, vehicle information such as map information, various sensor information, GPS information, VICS information, and character information is acquired directly or via a navigation device or a vehicle control device.

  In step S52, based on the vehicle information acquired in step S51, driving conditions such as travel time, travel distance, vehicle speed, accelerator opening, steering angle, and brake depression force are extracted.

  In step S53, parameters of the driving state such as an average value and a variance value are calculated from the extracted vehicle information regarding the driving state.

  In step S54, the driving load of the driver is determined by comparing the driving state parameter calculated in step S53 with a preset threshold value. If it is determined that the driving load is large, the process proceeds to step S55. If it is determined that the driving load is small, the process proceeds to step S56.

  In step S55, the first symbol information to be output is presented as it is from the information output device 105 to the driver without conversion.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S54 that the operating load is small, if the first symbol information to be output in step S56 is stored in the information device 103, the first symbol information is information. When the first symbol information is not stored in the information device 103, the first symbol information is generated by the information device 103 and then output to the information conversion device 104.

  In subsequent step S57, the information conversion apparatus 104 adds unit information included in the first symbol information, for example, if the first symbol information is "500m ahead" to the right direction, the unit information is "500m". In step S58, the unit information tag extracted in step S57 is converted and replaced with the corresponding tag portion of the first symbol information to obtain second symbol information. For example, “500 m” included in the first symbol information is set to “50000 cm” or “0.5 km”.

  In the next step 59, the second symbol information converted in step S58 is presented to the driver via the information output device 105, and then the process returns to step S51 to repeat the above processing. Since the driver who has received the second symbol information unconsciously performs the scale unit conversion to “500 m”, the brain operation is activated and the driver's concentration can be increased.

  Since the processing of steps S51 to S59 in FIG. 5 is executed at predetermined time intervals, the second symbol information is presented to the driver because it is determined that the driving load is small in step S54 a few minutes ago. Even in the case where it is determined that the driving load is large in the present step S54, the process proceeds to step S55, so that it is switched from the second symbol information so far to the first symbol information and presented to the driver. Is done.

  As described above, according to the driving support apparatus of the present embodiment, information obtained by analyzing the driving state of the driver using the map database, sensing information, and externally received information (for example, GPS, VICS information, character information, etc.). The driving load acting on the driver is determined based on the estimation result such as the average value and the variance of the driver, and the first symbol information is presented when the driving load is large, and the driving symbol is displayed to the driver when the driving load is large. Since the second symbol information on which a driving load larger than one symbol information is applied is presented, the driver's degree of concentration with respect to driving can be enhanced by the stimulus given from the symbol information.

  In other words, when the driving load is large, no further driving load acts, but when the driving load is small, the driving load is increased, so that the driving state becomes high and avoids the driving state that leads to carelessness etc. Can do.

  Note that the first symbol information and the second symbol information of the above-described embodiment are not only audio information such as navigation route guidance, information presentation, and various recommendations, but also text information and graphic information displayed on the display. You can also.

  Further, as the conversion from the first symbol information to the second symbol information in the above-described embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6, the first symbol information “500 m ahead is in the right direction” is the second symbol information. Although the example of “50000 cm ahead is to the right” or “0.5 km ahead is to the right” has been described, units such as inches, yards, miles or scales that are not commonly used in Japan may be used.

  Further, the following example may be used.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 7, for the required time, the first symbol information “about 1 hour 20 minutes to the destination” is changed to the second symbol information “about 80 minutes to the destination” or “to the destination”. About 1.3 hours ”, as shown in FIG. 8, the first symbol information“ 20 liters of fuel remaining ”for the remaining amount of fuel is the second symbol information“ 20,000 liters of remaining fuel ”. ”Or“ The remaining fuel is 0.02 kiloliters ”, or although the illustration is omitted, the remaining amount of fuel may be the travelable distance taking into account the fuel consumption“ the remaining fuel is about 200 km of travel ” . Alternatively, “20 liters” may be used as unusable gallons, ccs, and straws.

  In addition, as shown in FIG. 9, the first symbol information “current speed is 60 km / h” is used as the second symbol information “current speed is 60000 m / h” or “current speed”. Is 1 km / min, ”as shown in FIG. 10, the first symbol information“ current fuel consumption is 10 km / liter ”is the second symbol information“ current fuel consumption is 10,000 m / liter ”or“ currently ” The fuel consumption can be 10 m / ml.

  Also, the first symbol information “500m ahead is to the right” is the second symbol information converted from the unit of expression “6 minutes on foot to the right”, “50m pool 5 round trips to the right Directions ”,“ Tokyo Tower is 1.5 roads to the right ”,“ 25 trains are ahead to the right ”,“ 50 Buses are to the right ”,“ Land Track ” 100m ahead is to the right. "

  In addition, the first symbol information “about 1 hour and 20 minutes to the destination” is “to the destination between Tokyo and Aomori”, “to the destination is this song 16 times”, “the destination From Odakyu Shinjuku to Shin-Matsuda by express, it is also possible to say "It is about 6.4km on foot to the destination."

  Alternatively, the first symbol information “remaining fuel is 20 liters”, “remaining fuel is 10 liters of 2 liter PET bottles”, and “remaining fuel is 20 liters of milk cartons” may be used.

Further, the first symbol information may be expressed by a countdown or countup method. For example, as shown in FIG. 11, the first symbol information “500m ahead is right” is “the third signal is right” or “30 seconds later is right”, FIG. As shown, the first symbol information “90km to the destination” is “5% closer to the destination” or “90% from the departure place”,
As shown in FIG. 13, the first symbol information “scheduled to arrive at the destination around 12:00” is the second symbol information “scheduled to arrive at the destination about 1 hour and 10 minutes” or “The destination is scheduled to arrive 70 minutes later”, as shown in FIG. 14, the first symbol information “10 km ahead traffic jam” is displayed as the second symbol information “No. You can also say "It's a traffic jam ahead" or "It ’s a traffic jam if you count 600 more."

  When converted to the count-down or count-up method in this way, the driver who has received the second symbol information is “third”, “second”, “next intersection ...”, “first”, “ Since it counts in the head unconsciously, such as "2nd", "3rd ...", etc., the driver's concentration can be increased.

<< Second Embodiment >>
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a control procedure of the driving support apparatus according to the second embodiment of the invention. Since the hardware configuration of the driving support device 10 of this example is the same as that of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the description thereof is incorporated herein.

  In this example, the processes from step S151 to S155 in FIG. 15 are the same as steps S51 to S55 shown in FIG. 5, and the processes after step S156 are different.

  That is, if it is determined in step S154 that the driver's driving load is small, the process proceeds to step S156 to acquire the first symbol information. In the next step S157, the information conversion apparatus 104 performs the first symbol information. , For example, if the first symbol information is “300m ahead is to the right”, the tag attached to the language information “300m ahead is to the right” is extracted, and the next step S158 is performed. In step S157, the language information tag extracted in step S157 is translated and converted to replace the corresponding tag portion of the first symbol information to obtain second symbol information. For example, as shown in FIG. 16, “It's the 300m ahead right direction” of the entire first symbol information is “It's the 300m ahead right direction.” Or “It is 300m ahead traffic jam” is “It's 300m” ahead traffic jam. "

  In the next step 159, after the second symbol information converted in step S158 is presented to the driver via the information output device 105, the process returns to step S151 and the above processing is repeated. The driver who has received the second symbol information unconsciously converts the presented other language into Japanese, so that the brain operation is activated and the driver's concentration can be increased.

  As described above, according to the driving support apparatus of the present embodiment, information obtained by analyzing the driving state of the driver using the map database, sensing information, and externally received information (for example, GPS, VICS information, character information, etc.). The driving load acting on the driver is determined based on the estimation result such as the average value and the variance of the driver, and the first symbol information is presented when the driving load is large, and the driving symbol is displayed to the driver when the driving load is large. Since the second symbol information on which a driving load larger than one symbol information is applied is presented, the driver's degree of concentration with respect to driving can be enhanced by the stimulus given from the symbol information.

  In other words, when the driving load is large, no further driving load acts, but when the driving load is small, the driving load is increased, so that the driving state becomes high and avoids the driving state that leads to carelessness etc. Can do.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Driving assistance device 101 ... Driving state detection apparatus (driving state detection means)
102: Driving load determination device (driving load determination means)
103. Information device (information storage generating means)
104. Information conversion device (information conversion means)
105 ... Information output device (output means)

Claims (9)

Driving state detection means for detecting the driving state of the occupant;
Driving load determination means for determining the magnitude of the driving load related to the driving state detected by the driving state detection means;
Information storage generating means for storing or generating first information to be presented to the occupant;
Information conversion means for converting the first information presented to the occupant from the information storage generation means into second information having a different thinking interpretation load of the occupant according to the magnitude of the driving load; A driving support device provided. The driving support device according to claim 1,
The information conversion means converts the first information into the second information when the driving load is smaller than a predetermined threshold value, and converts the first information into the second information when the driving load is larger than the predetermined threshold value. A driving support device that does not convert the second information. In the driving assistance device according to claim 1 or 2,
The information conversion means is a driving support device that converts unit information included in the first information into unit information of a different scale to obtain the second information. In the driving assistance device according to claim 1 or 2,
The information conversion means is a driving support device that converts unit information included in the first information into different unit information corresponding to the unit information and uses the unit information as the second information. In the driving assistance device according to claim 1 or 2,
The information conversion means is a driving support device that converts unit information included in the first information into unit information by countdown or countup corresponding to the unit information, and uses the unit information as the second information. In the driving assistance device according to claim 1 or 2,
The information conversion means is a driving support device that converts the first information into a different language corresponding to the first information to obtain the second information. In the driving assistance device according to any one of claims 1 to 6,
The first information and the second information include audio information;
A driving support apparatus comprising output means for outputting the voice information. In the driving assistance device according to any one of claims 1 to 6,
The first information and the second information include character information;
A driving support apparatus comprising output means for outputting the character information.   When the driving load estimated based on the driving state of the occupant is smaller than a predetermined threshold, the content corresponding to the content of the first information presented to the occupant when the driving load is larger than the predetermined threshold A driving support method characterized by presenting second information that is second information and has a greater occupant interpretation load than the first information.

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