JPH0374231A - Lighting device for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate troublesome manual changeover operation to high-beam by a driver, when the driver's eyes are upon a traffic-control sign, a destination guide plate, and the vicinity of a road side part, by detecting these and automatically controlling to light a sub-lamp and the like. CONSTITUTION:The face of a driver is detected as a face image with a TV- camera 11 by an image detecting means 9, an eyeball position is detected from the face image by an eyeball position detecting means 15, and an iris center position is detected from the eyeball position by an iris center position detecting means 23. As a specific line of sight direction prescribed form the iris center position is previously memorized by a line of sight direction memory means 25, the present iris center position detected by the detecting means 23 and the above-stated memory value are collated with each other by a line of sight direction discriminating means 27, and the present line of sight direction is discriminated. When the line of sight direction is corresponded to a specific line of sight direction, a subsidiary lighting means 45 is driven by a lighting control means 51 and the outside of a vehicle is lighted along the specific line of sight direction.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Objective of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention is directed to a vehicle that detects the driver's line of sight direction and, when this direction is a specific line of sight direction, illuminates the specific line of sight direction. Regarding lighting devices.

(Prior technology) Automobile headlights are equipped with high beams and low beams, and when driving at night in areas where there are many oncoming or preceding vehicles, the headlights of automobiles are usually set to low beams so as not to dazzle oncoming vehicles. The system switches to high beams when necessary, such as when looking at traffic signs, destination information boards, or when checking for obstacles on the side of the road.

(Anonymous problem that the invention aims to solve) As mentioned above, it is very laborious to have to look at traffic signs, destination information boards, etc., and to operate switches etc. each time to switch to high beam. and
This is one of the factors that accelerates driver fatigue. Also,
When there is an oncoming vehicle, it is impossible to turn on the high beam because it dazzles the vehicle, making it difficult to check traffic signs.

On the other hand, as a prior art, a proposal was made in JP-A-60-158303 aimed at detecting the position of the driver's eyes in order to appropriately set the position of the seat, etc. relative to the driver.
@, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 1983-. No. 158304, etc.

However, these techniques cannot detect the direction of the driver's line of sight, and therefore cannot serve as a clue for solving the problem of the present invention.

Therefore, this invention detects when the driver's line of sight is directed toward a traffic sign, destination information board, roadside area, etc., and automatically controls the lighting of auxiliary lamps, etc. , conventional luck III/i? This is intended to eliminate the troublesome manual switching operation to high beam due to 'i' and the difficulty of confirming when there is a vehicle heading towards you.

[Structure J of the Invention (Means for Solving the Problems) The structure of the present invention for solving the above problems includes an image detection means for detecting the driver's face as a facial image, and an image detection means for detecting the position of the eyeballs from both images of the face. eyeball position detection means for detecting the position of the eye; iris center position detection means for detecting the iris center position of the eye from the eyeball position;
? A visual line direction storing means for storing a fixed visual line direction, an auxiliary lighting means for illuminating the outside of the vehicle, and a visual line direction determining means for comparing the detected iris center position with a value stored in the visual line direction storing means. and illumination control means for driving the auxiliary illumination means when the line of sight direction corresponds to a specific line of sight direction.

(Operation) The image detection means detects the driver's face as a facial image, the eyeball position detection means detects the eyeball position from the face image, and the iris center position detection means detects the iris center position from the eyeball position.

Since the specific line-of-sight direction defined by this iris center position is stored in advance by the line-of-sight direction storage means, the current iris center position detected by the iris center position detection means and the memory 1fi'i are the line-of-sight direction. The existing line of sight direction is determined by the discrimination means, and if the determined line of sight direction corresponds to a specific line of sight direction, the auxiliary lighting means is driven by the lighting control means to illuminate the outside of the vehicle along the specific line of sight direction. is illuminated.

In this way, when the driver looks in a specific line of sight direction, the same direction is automatically illuminated by the auxiliary lighting means, making it convenient for checking traffic signs etc.
This eliminates the hassle of switching to high beam.

(Example) Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be briefly described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a functional configuration diagram of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart.

For example, an infrared strobe 5 as an irradiation means 3 for irradiating the face of the driver 1 is provided on, for example, an instrument panel of a car, and the strobe irradiation control section 7 executes the irradiation at regular intervals (for example, 1 second). Stir.

A TV camera 11 as an image detection means for detecting the reflected light from the face as a facial image by the irradiation is installed, for example, on the instrument panel, and is synchronized with the cycle of the irradiation and is activated by a signal from the strobe irradiation control section 7. A facial image taken by a TV camera 11 is input into an image storage section 13.

A facial image is composed of horizontal lateral lines and vertical pixels.

Eyeball position detection means 15 is provided for detecting the eyeball position from the detected facial image.

This detection of the eyeball position may be performed using an LED image obtained by a light emitting diode 21 provided in the frame 19 of the glasses 17 illustrated in FIG. 3 that the driver 1 is wearing.
Alternatively, although not shown, an LED image from a light emitting diode attached to a headrest or the like is used.
Alternatively, bright spot images due to mirror irregularities may be extracted, and the region where the eyeball exists is extracted from these LED images, bright spot images, etc.

An iris center position detection means 23 is provided for detecting the iris center position based on the detected eyeball position.

The detected iris center position is stored in the line-of-sight direction storage means 25 described below.
A line-of-sight direction determination means 27 is provided for determining the driver's current line-of-sight direction by comparing it with a stored value stored in advance.

The line-of-sight direction storage means 25 stores, when the driver sets the seat position and sits down before driving, the field of view 29 as illustrated in FIG. 35 is appearing〉
, along with the left and right door mirrors 37, 39 and the instrument panel, the A section or B of the front window 31
When the driver 1 looks at the camera and directs his/her line of sight toward the object, the driver 1 presses the switch/41 to determine the specific direction of the line of sight relative to the iris center position in the form of coordinates based on angle regression shown in Figure 4. be remembered.

Regarding parts A and B, for example, by looking at several points in part A or part 8, the line of sight direction is stored as FA or FB.

When the driver 1 is looking at a specific line of sight direction FA or FB, the corresponding parts outside the vehicle are patterned and illustrated in a side view in FIG. 5 and a plan view in FIG. 6, respectively. This becomes the illumination area 1-1A or 1-1B. These areas L
A or LB is an area that does not dazzle oncoming vehicles.

The front end of the vehicle 43 has this lighting area 1. -A,
An auxiliary lamp 47 as an auxiliary lighting means 45 that illuminates the LB.
There are 49.

Then, the illumination control means 51 determines whether or not the current gaze direction determined by the gaze direction determining means 27 substantially matches the specific gaze direction FA or FB stored in advance; When it is determined that they match, the auxiliary lamp 71.7 or 49 is turned on for a predetermined period of time.

Strobe irradiation control section 7, image storage section 13, eyeball (fNf
? ? In addition to the detection means 15, each of the above-mentioned means is constituted by, for example, a microcomputer.

While driving, the iris generally moves rapidly, so if the auxiliary lamp 47.49 blinks each time in response to this movement,
Concerning this, there is a risk of dazzling foreign cars, so in this embodiment, for example, the facial image image interval (reading interval) is set to about once every second, and n=3 times in 2 seconds in a specific line of sight direction. F
Continuously look towards A or FB (if the driver is blind, turn on the auxiliary lamp 47°7-49 (in the case of B, turn on the auxiliary lamp 47°7-49, which may cause dazzling) limited).

When the driver is seated in the driver's seat, in the two fields of view illustrated in FIG. When I hit li'Ill,
The driver 1 presses the switch 41 to cause the line-of-sight direction determining means 27 to store the line-of-sight direction Fn with respect to the iris center position at this time.

At this time, a facial image is input from the TV camera 11 to the image storage section 13 in synchronization with the firing of the infrared strobe 5 according to a signal from the strobe irradiation control section 7 .

The light emitted by the infrared strobe 5 hits the face of the driver 1, but because it is infrared light, the driver does not feel dazzled.

The eyeball position level is detected by the eyeball position detection means 15 from the L-ED image of the glasses 17 etc. in the facial image, and the iris center position is detected by the light shadow position detection means 23, and by operating the switch 4.1, Vision 8 This is stored in the visual line direction determining means 27 in association with the line direction Fn.

Next, the operation during driving will be explained.

First, set n-O in step S1>, for example, step S2> when the reading interval has passed after 1 second, set mouth=1 in step S3>, irradiate the infrared strobe 5,
The direction of line of sight El is detected by the TV camera 11, the eyeball position detecting means 15, and the like, as described above (step 34).

Then, by the determination operation of the illumination control means 51, if this line-of-sight direction El matches the specific line-of-sight direction "A" in the storage section (step 85), n=2, and the line-of-sight direction F2.
is detected (step 86°82.33), and the viewing directions Fl and F2 are detected three times in a row.

If F3 coincides with the specific line-of-sight direction "A", the auxiliary lamp 47 in the direction is turned on (steps S6 and S7), and the illumination area LA is illuminated.
and the condition of the road shoulder.

This illumination area IA is low as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, and
Since the outside of the front of the vehicle is illuminated, the lighting operation is performed regardless of whether there is an oncoming vehicle.

Then, after the auxiliary lamp 47 has been turned on and a predetermined time has elapsed (step S8), the auxiliary lamp 47 is turned off (step 89).

In step S5, when F1~[A, whether or not F1 coincides with one specific line of sight direction FB is determined as 1(
() Open control means '17C determined (snop 5IO)
, Fl! If vFB, n=Q is returned (step S
7>.

If F1=FB, n=2 (step 813.811.812), and the line of sight direction F2 is detected.
Continuously Fl, F2. When F3 matches the specific line of sight direction "B", the laser radar 53 is launched in the forward direction of the vehicle 43 in response to a command from the lighting control means 51 (steps 813 and 814), and if there is no oncoming vehicle or preceding vehicle, 1B Four direction auxiliary lamps are lit (step 31).
5.816), the illumination region LB is illuminated, thereby
For example, the destination information board 55 above the road is clearly displayed, and after a predetermined time has elapsed (step S8), the light is turned off (step S8).
9).

If there is an oncoming vehicle or a preceding vehicle in step 815,
In order to avoid dazzling these vehicles, the auxiliary lamp 49 is not turned on (step S9).

However, even if there is no oncoming vehicle, if the occupant is looking in the FB direction, the auxiliary lamp 49 is turned on by executing the above steps.

In steps 85 and 810, for example, both Fl and F
If it does not match either A or FB, it is returned to n-〇 (step S1), and further, if ``2 or F3 is FA, FB
If it does not match, that is, even if it matches a specific line of sight twice in a row, it does not match the third time, then n=
It is returned to 0 (step S1).

In the above embodiment, the auxiliary lamp 47 that faces downward and illuminates the outer side in the direction of travel and the auxiliary lamp 49 that faces upward and does not illuminate the center of the vehicle in the direction of travel may be constructed by separately fixed lamps, or, A single lamp may be configured to rotate in each of these directions by oscillation 11.

Furthermore, the line of sight direction "3 is any one specific line of sight direction F
A or l''B, both auxiliary lamps 47
and 49 may be controlled so that they are both turned on.

The reading interval and the number of n can be set to appropriate values in addition to those in the above embodiments depending on the situation.

In the previous embodiment, the facial image was detected from the reflected light of the face by an infrared strobe, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the facial image can also be directly detected using a camera. Furthermore, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the auxiliary lighting means was always turned off when there was an oncoming vehicle or a preceding vehicle, but if it was determined that the distance would not dazzle the preceding or oncoming vehicle beyond a predetermined distance, the auxiliary lighting means would be turned off. It can also be made to turn on.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above, according to the configuration of this invention,
Detects the center of the light shadow of the driver's eyeballs (17 positions) from the driver's face image and determines the driver's line of sight direction based on this.
Auxiliary lighting 12- means corresponding to this line of sight direction is automatically driven, thereby clearly indicating upper roadside areas, traffic signs, etc. that are difficult to see when the low beam is on.

As a result, traffic 1? ils, destination information boards, roadside areas, and above, can be illuminated simply by the driver turning his/her line of sight in these directions, reducing the burden on the driver such as changing the lighting, thereby promoting safe driving. It was promised.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a flowchart of the embodiment, Fig. 3 is a perspective view of glasses used for eye/ball position detection, and Fig. 4 shows the field of view in the driver's seat. FIG. 5 is a front view, FIG. 5 is an explanatory side view of the auxiliary illumination, and FIG. 6 is an explanatory plan view of the auxiliary illumination. 1... Driver 3... Irradiation means 9... Image detection means 15... Eyeball position detection means 23... Iris center position detection means 25... Gaze direction storage means 14 2 7... Line-of-sight direction determining means 5...Auxiliary lighting means...Lighting control means

Claims (1)

[Claims] An image detection means for detecting the driver's face as a facial image, an eyeball position detection means for detecting the eyeball position from the face image, an iris center position detection means for detecting the iris center position of the eye from the eyeball position, and an iris center position a line-of-sight direction storage means for storing a specific line-of-sight direction of the driver defined in advance by a line-of-sight direction, an auxiliary lighting means for illuminating the outside of the vehicle, and a line-of-sight for comparing the detected iris center position with the value stored in the line-of-sight direction storage means. A lighting device for a vehicle, comprising: a direction determining means; and a lighting control means for driving an auxiliary lighting means when the determined line-of-sight direction corresponds to a specific line-of-sight direction.