JP2012050690A - Visual capability training device for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve visual capability in a peripheral vision of a driver.SOLUTION: A visual capability training device for a vehicle includes LEDs 50L, 50C and 50R for generating light stimulation to extracting visual recognition of a driver on light emitting positions arranged at respectively left front side, adjacent to a front side, and right front side of the sat driver, a driving environment determination section 12 for determining whether or not the obtained driving environment is a predetermined driving environment to allow generation of light stimulation while a driving environment of a vehicle is obtained, and a training control section 14 for controlling the generation timing of the light stimulation by the LEDs and conversion of the light emitting positions when the predetermined driving environment is determined by the driving environment determination section 12.

Description

  The present invention relates to an apparatus for training a driver's visual ability while driving a vehicle.

  In recent years, frequent accidents caused by vehicles driven by elderly people have become a problem. As one of the factors, it has been pointed out that the effective viewing angle narrows with aging. Therefore, a technique for detecting an object with a risk of collision and notifying the driver has been developed.

  For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a vehicle driving support device that alerts a driver based on the possibility of collision of the host vehicle. This device determines whether or not the driver is paying attention to an object or area to which attention should be paid based on the driver's line-of-sight direction. Alert the driver.

JP 2006-231962 A

  Although it is effective to call attention to an object or area to which attention should be paid as in Patent Document 1, it is more desirable to improve the driver's own visual recognition ability from the viewpoint of accident prevention.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a technique for training the visual perception ability of the driver's peripheral vision while the vehicle is running.

  One embodiment of the present invention is a visual ability training apparatus for a vehicle. This apparatus acquires light emitting means for generating a light stimulus for drawing out a driver's visual recognition at a light emitting position set at least on the left front and right front of a seated driver, and obtains the driving environment of the vehicle, Determining means for determining whether or not a predetermined traveling environment for permitting the generation of a stimulus, and when the determining means determines that the driving environment is a predetermined traveling environment, generation timing of light stimulation by the light emitting means; Control means for controlling switching of the light emitting position.

  According to this aspect, since the visual training for generating the light stimulus in front of the left and right when the driver is driving the vehicle is executed, the visual ability of the driver in the left and right peripheral vision can be trained.

  The determination means may include, as the predetermined traveling environment, the presence of a preceding vehicle that is opened more than a predetermined inter-vehicle distance. According to this, visual training is performed with the driver paying attention to the preceding vehicle, so that the cognitive ability in the peripheral vision can be efficiently trained without turning the driver's line of sight in the direction of the light stimulus. .

  The control means may randomly generate a light stimulus from the light emitting means. This prevents the driver from getting used to training.

  You may further provide the operation reception means which receives the confirmation operation performed using a predetermined | prescribed input device, when the driver recognizes the light stimulus by the said light emission means. Thereby, the information about whether the driver actually recognizes the light stimulus can be obtained.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the visual recognition ability in the peripheral visual field of the driver who is driving | running | working a vehicle can be trained.

It is a mimetic diagram of a visual ability training device concerning one embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the installation place of LED. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a visual ability training apparatus. It is a flowchart which determines the conditions for performing visual training. It is a schematic diagram which shows the structure of the vehicle which implemented the recognition rate test. It is a figure which shows the result of the recognition rate test with respect to the test subject of 20s after the training using a visual ability training apparatus. It is a figure which shows the result of the recognition rate test with respect to the test subject in the 50s after the training using a visual ability training apparatus.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a visual ability training apparatus 100 for a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 shows a state in which the front of the vehicle is observed from the passenger compartment. The visual ability training device 100 is installed in a vehicle interior of a vehicle, and generates light stimuli at a plurality of locations in front of the driver, in particular, the left front, the vicinity of the front, and the right front to increase the driver's front cognitive ability. The purpose is to strengthen. In the following description, the training for improving the visual ability of the driver by random light stimulation by the visual ability training apparatus 100 is referred to as “visual training”.

  The light stimulus is generated at the light emission positions 60L, 60C, and 60R on the windshield 70 set at the left front, front, and right front of the driver 80 seated on the right-hand drive vehicle 72, respectively. The light emitting means for light stimulation is, for example, an LED (Light Emitting Diode) 50, and is installed above a dashboard 78 of the vehicle as shown in FIG. The left LED 50L (see FIG. 3) corresponds to the left light emission position 60L, the center LED 50C corresponds to the center light emission position 60C, and the right LED 50R corresponds to the right light emission position 60R. The light emitted from each LED is reflected at a corresponding light emission position on the windshield and observed by the driver 80. By adopting such a reflection system, it is not necessary to attach the LED directly to the windshield, and the front view is not obstructed when training is not performed. The three LEDs 50L, 50C, and 50R are controlled by a visual training ECU (Electronic Control Unit) as described later.

The light emission positions 60L, 60C, and 60R are set to the following positions, for example.
Left light emission position 60L: direction 40 ° to the left with respect to the driver's front line of sight Center light emission position 60C: direction to 1.3 ° with respect to the driver's front line of sight leftward right light emission position 60R: with respect to the driver's front line of sight Right 20 ° direction The left and right light emission positions are set with the intention of observing the left end 76L and the right end 76R of the lane about 3 m ahead of the driver 80. This position is suitable for detecting an interruption of another vehicle from the left and right. The central light emission position is set with the intention of observing the center of the preceding vehicle 74 traveling about 1 second before the own vehicle. In the case of a left-hand drive vehicle, the light emission position is reversed left and right.

  In addition, although the color of each LED is arbitrary, it is preferable that it is a color which is hard to be influenced by background environment. The color and brightness of the left, center and right LEDs may be the same or different.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the visual ability training device 100 according to the present embodiment. Each block of the visual training ECU 10 can be realized in terms of hardware by an element and a mechanical device such as a CPU and a memory of a computer, and can be realized by a computer program in terms of software. It is drawn as a functional block realized by. Therefore, those skilled in the art will understand that these functional blocks can be realized in various forms by a combination of hardware and software.

  The traveling environment determination unit 12 determines whether the environment in which the vehicle is traveling is an appropriate environment for executing the visual training described above. Specifically, the traveling environment determination unit 12 receives information about whether or not the traveling road is a dedicated road from the navigation device 30 and the vehicle speed from the vehicle speed sensor 32. In addition, the traveling environment determination unit 12 receives information from the inter-vehicle radar 34 that transmits an infrared laser, a millimeter wave, or the like to detect a reflected wave from the preceding vehicle, determines whether there is a preceding vehicle, and has a preceding vehicle. If so, the distance between the vehicles is estimated. The traveling environment determination unit 12 receives information from the brake pedal sensor 36 and the accelerator pedal sensor 38 as to whether or not each pedal is operated. And the driving | running | working environment determination part 12 determines whether it is a suitable environment for performing visual training based on such information. This determination is performed from the viewpoint of preventing the driver's attention to the front from being removed even when visual training is performed. If the environment is appropriate for performing visual training, the traveling environment determination unit 12 permits the training control unit 14 to start visual training.

  The training control unit 14 performs visual training. Specifically, the switching of the light emission position by the left LED 50L, the center LED 50C, and the right LED 50R installed in front of the driver and the respective light emission timings are controlled. The light emission of the left, center and right LEDs is preferably switched randomly.

  The visual ability training device 100 may optionally include an input device 40 for confirming that the driver has recognized the light stimulus. In this case, the visual training ECU 10 includes an operation reception unit 16, an operation determination unit 18, and a result display unit 20.

  The operation receiving unit 16 receives a driver's confirmation operation input using the input device 40. The input device 40 may be a button, lever, or the like dedicated to training, but is preferably used also as a button, lever, or the like provided in a normal vehicle. For example, buttons for navigation devices and audio devices, wiper levers, steering switches, and the like can be considered. During the execution of visual training, the original functions of these input devices are configured to be canceled.

  The following confirmation operation by the driver using the input device 40 can be considered. For example, when the left LED and the right LED are turned on, it may be confirmed with two input devices that the respective light stimuli can be recognized. Alternatively, only one of the left LED and the right LED may be turned on to confirm that the light stimulus has been recognized with one input device. As will be described later, since the recognition rate of the left LED is generally low in a right-hand drive vehicle, the confirmation operation may be performed only when the left LED is lit, or the driver can select either the left LED or the right LED. You may do it.

  The operation determination unit 18 determines whether the confirmation operation by the driver is correct. Specifically, when information indicating which of the left, center, and right LEDs has been lit is received from the training control unit 14, and a corresponding confirmation operation has been received by the operation reception unit 16 within a predetermined time from that point It is determined that the driver has correctly recognized the light stimulus.

  The result display unit 20 displays, for example, a training result such as a correct answer rate on the navigation device or the display 42 on the instrument panel based on the determination result of the confirmation operation by the operation determination unit 18. As a result, the driver can immediately know the result of the visual training.

  Instead of or in addition to the result display unit 20, a result output unit for outputting the training result to an external memory or the like may be provided so that the training result can be confirmed with a personal computer or the like after getting off the vehicle.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a process for determining conditions for executing visual training by the traveling environment determination unit 12. This flow is repeatedly executed at predetermined intervals (for example, every few seconds) while the vehicle is traveling.

  The traveling environment determination unit 12 determines whether the traveling road is an automobile-only road based on information from the navigation device 30 (S10). Whether or not the road is a car-only road can be determined based on attribute data of the road that is running. The reason for judging an automobile road is that if it is an automobile road, the vehicle will turn less frequently and the steering operation will be less. Because it is. Alternatively, it may be determined whether the steering angle of the steering wheel acquired by the steering angle sensor is equal to or smaller than a predetermined angle, that is, whether the vehicle is traveling straight ahead.

  Subsequently, the traveling environment determination unit 12 determines whether or not the vehicle speed is equal to or higher than a predetermined value V (for example, 30 km / h) based on information from the vehicle speed sensor 32 (S12). This determination is made in order to carry out training when the vehicle is cruising, considering that there are many subjects to pay attention to such as traffic lights and turning left and right when the vehicle speed is reduced.

  Based on information from the inter-vehicle radar 34, the traveling environment determination unit 12 determines whether there is a preceding vehicle that is more than a predetermined inter-vehicle distance D (for example, a distance separated by 1 second at the vehicle speed of the host vehicle). (S14). This is because the visual training of the present embodiment is preferably executed in a state where the driver is gazing at the preceding vehicle.

  Further, the traveling environment determination unit 12 determines whether or not rapid deceleration or rapid acceleration has been performed based on information from the brake pedal sensor 36 and the accelerator pedal sensor 38 (S16). The reason for making this determination is that it is considered undesirable to direct the driver's attention to visual training because the environment around the vehicle changes greatly during sudden deceleration or acceleration.

  When the determination is negative in any of S10 to S16, the traveling environment determination unit 12 does not permit visual training. Accordingly, the training control unit 14 does not start the visual training or immediately interrupts it when it is in progress (S24). When any determination of S10 to S16 is affirmative, the traveling environment determination unit 12 permits visual training. In response to this, the training control unit 14 starts visual training or continues if it is already being executed (S18).

  The traveling environment determination unit 12 measures the time from the time when visual training is permitted, and instructs the training control unit 14 to end the visual training when a predetermined time (for example, 10 minutes) has elapsed (Y in S20) ( S22). The visual training is preferably performed once a day, for example, and it is preferable that the running environment determination unit 12 does not execute the flow of FIG. 4 until the date changes after the training ends.

  As described above, it is possible to prevent the driver's attention from being distracted from the front (particularly the preceding vehicle) by performing visual training only when the driving environment is appropriate.

  Below, the experimental result which verified the effectiveness of the visual ability training apparatus which concerns on the above-mentioned embodiment is demonstrated.

In this experiment, first, visual training was performed on subjects in their 20s and 50s under predetermined conditions, and then a test for confirming an improvement in recognition rate was performed. The conditions of visual training are as follows.
Light emission position: Three places, left, center, and right, similar to the visual ability training device in FIG. 1 LED color: Green Single lighting time: Approximately 50 milliseconds Control: Three LEDs light randomly at intervals of approximately 2 seconds

  FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of a vehicle 72 ′ that has undergone a recognition rate test. In this test vehicle 72 ′, the LEDs 62 </ b> L, 62 </ b> C, and 62 </ b> R for the recognition rate test are installed on three poles that stand on the hood 76 of the vehicle. However, the installation positions of the poles were adjusted so that the intersections between the line of sight from the driver 80 to the LEDs 62L, 62C, and 62R and the vicinity of the windshield 70 correspond to the light emission positions 60L, 60C, and 60R in FIG.

The visual training described above was performed once a day for 5 days, and a recognition rate test was performed after each training. In this test, an input device that can input operation in three ways, left, center, and right, was used, and a correct answer was determined when a confirmation operation was made by the driver within a predetermined time after the LED was turned on. The recognition rate test was performed in the straight section while running the test course, and the LED was turned on a total of 10 times per lap for 5-6 laps. Other test conditions are as follows.
LED color: Red One lighting time: 1 second Control: Three LEDs are lighted randomly at 5-7 second intervals (average 6 second intervals)

  FIG. 6 shows the results of the recognition rate test for subjects in their 20s, and FIG. 7 shows the results of the recognition rate test for subjects in their 50s. In either case, the horizontal axis represents the number of times of training execution, and the vertical axis represents the correct answer rate of the driver's answer operation with respect to the light stimulus from the left LED, the center LED, and the right LED.

  In the case of subjects in their 20s, the correct answer rate for the central and right light stimuli is high before training and hardly changes even after repeated training. Compared to this, the correct answer rate for the left light stimulus is considerably low before the training, but it can be seen that it is greatly improved by the two trainings. For subjects in their 50s, the correct answer rate for the central light stimulus is high before training, whereas the correct answer rate for the left and right light stimuli before training is much lower than in the 20s. However, it can be seen that as the training is repeated, the accuracy rate gradually increases. In the 50s, the fact that the correct answer rate after the second training is lower than the first is considered to be due to the influence of habituation. However, the accuracy rate has been recovered by continuing training thereafter.

  As described above, according to the visual ability training apparatus of the present embodiment, when the driver is driving the vehicle, the visual training that instantaneously generates the light stimulus is executed in front of the driver. Thereby, the visual ability in the driver's left and right peripheral vision can be trained. The left and right peripheral visions are important for early detection of vehicles entering from the right or left direction at intersections, etc., and vehicles that are overtaking and interrupting.

  Moreover, since visual training is permitted only when the driving environment determination unit is in a predetermined driving environment, it is possible to prevent the driver's attention from being distracted by the training. In particular, since visual training is performed when there is a preceding vehicle with an inter-vehicle distance greater than or equal to a predetermined value, the driver pays attention to the preceding vehicle and makes sure that the line of sight is directed toward the light stimulus. Can be prevented. Therefore, the peripheral vision can be efficiently trained.

The present invention has been described based on the embodiments. These embodiments are merely examples, and modifications such as any combination of the embodiments, each component of the embodiment, and any combination of each processing process are also within the scope of the present invention. It will be understood by those skilled in the art.
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications such as design changes can be added based on the knowledge of those skilled in the art. The configuration shown in each drawing is for explaining an example, and can be appropriately changed as long as the configuration can achieve the same function.

  In the embodiment, it has been described that light stimulation is generated at three places, left, center, and right. However, the visual ability training device may be configured to generate a light stimulus only in two places, left and right, or only one place on the left or right. Moreover, you may make the generation | occurrence | production location of light stimulation into four or more places as needed.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Visual training ECU, 12 Running environment determination part, 14 Training control part, 16 Operation reception part, 18 Operation determination part, 20 Result display part, 30 Navigation apparatus, 32 Vehicle speed sensor, 34 Inter-vehicle radar, 36 Brake pedal sensor, 38 Accelerator Pedal sensor, 40 input device, 42 display, 50 LED, 60 light emitting position, 100 visual ability training device.

Claims (4)

A light emitting means for generating a light stimulus for eliciting visual perception of the driver at a light emitting position set at least on the left front and right front of the seated driver;
Determining means for acquiring a traveling environment of the vehicle and determining whether or not a predetermined traveling environment for permitting generation of the light stimulus;
Control means for controlling the generation timing of the light stimulus by the light emitting means and the switching of the light emitting position when it is determined by the determining means that the driving environment is predetermined;
A visual ability training apparatus for a vehicle comprising:   2. The visual ability training device for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the determination means includes, as the predetermined traveling environment, that there is a preceding vehicle that is opened more than a predetermined inter-vehicle distance.   The vehicular visual ability training device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit randomly generates a light stimulus from the light emitting unit.   4. The vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising: an operation receiving unit that receives a confirmation operation performed using a predetermined input device when a driver recognizes the light stimulus by the light emitting unit. 5. Visual ability training device.

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