JPH07117595A - Asleep driving prevention device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce a trouble of wearing by a driver, to improve practicability by making detection higher in precision and to certainly prevent asleep driving concerning an asleep driving prevention device. CONSTITUTION:This device is furnished with a detection means 2 installed on an earlobe of a driver and to detect a blood amount of a capillary, a pattern forming means 8 to successively form a changing pattern from the detected blood amount, a memory means 15 to store the changing pattern of the blood amount at the time of sleeping previously formed, a comparing means to compare both of the changing patterns with each other and an alarm means 4 to raise a warning to the driver at the time when the changing patterns match with each other or become approximate to each other, and detection precision of the state of sleeping is improved by comparing the changing patterns with each other.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a doze-driving prevention device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as this kind of drowsiness driving prevention apparatus, for example, there is one described in JP-A-5-96971. This device detects a driver's dozing driving based on a change in the steering angle and gives a stimulus to the driver. At this time, the effect of preventing the drowsy driving is improved by additionally using the method of detecting the biometric change of the driver and changing the detection level of the drowsy driving. In this case, the biological changes of the driver include body temperature, eye open state, and electroencephalogram, which are considered to be detected by thermography, image processing, and electroencephalogram electrodes, respectively.

[0003]

Since the detection of the body temperature by the thermography and the detection of the opened state of the eyeball by the image processing are non-contact type detection methods, there is no annoyance that may hinder driving. On the other hand, since such detection is a superficial measurement from the outside to the driver, it is susceptible to other external influences. That is, in detecting the body temperature, the indoor temperature, the sweating state of the driver, and the like, and in the eye-opening state detection, the body temperature of the driver, the posture at the time of sitting, etc. It is difficult to do.

Further, in the method of detecting an electroencephalogram, by wearing a hat to which an electroencephalogram electrode is attached, the electroencephalogram electrode is brought into direct contact with the scalp of the driver, so that detection can be performed with high accuracy, but the hat There is a hassle of having to wear. Therefore, it is not possible to expect a high wear rate for general drivers, and there is a problem that it is difficult to put it into practical use.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and reduces the troublesomeness of wearing to the driver and surely prevents the driver from falling asleep by performing highly accurate detection. It is an object of the present invention to provide a drowsy driving prevention device that can be used.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a detecting means which is attached to an ear tab of a driver and detects the blood volume of capillaries, and a variation pattern thereof from the detected blood volume. , A storage unit for storing a previously generated change pattern of the blood volume during dozing, and a comparison unit for comparing the change pattern stored in the storage unit with the detected change pattern. And a warning means for issuing a warning to the driver when the change patterns match or approximate to each other.

[0007]

According to the doze-driving prevention device of the present invention, the amount of blood in the capillaries in the ear tab is detected by the detecting means mounted on the ear tab by the driver. Then, the change pattern is sequentially generated from the blood volume detected by the operation of the pattern generating means. On the other hand, the storage means stores a previously generated change pattern of the blood volume when the driver falls asleep or a general change pattern of the blood volume when the driver falls asleep, and the pattern generation means is operated by the operation of the comparison means. When the change patterns are similar to each other, and the change patterns are close to each other, it is determined that the driver is in a dozing state, the warning means is activated, and the driver is warned.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the doze driving prevention apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.
As shown in FIG. 1, the doze-driving prevention device 1 according to the present embodiment detects whether the driver is in a dozing state according to a detector 2 attached to a driver's ear tab and a signal from the detector 2. And a warning device 4 for giving a warning to the driver when it is determined to be in a dozing state.

As shown in FIG. 2, the detector 2 includes a light emitting diode LED that emits light at a constant period and a photodiode PD that receives light from the light emitting diode LED. It is formed into a scissors shape that holds the ear tabs so that the PD is in close contact with the epidermis. Light emitting diode LED is 940
Those which emit infrared radiation having a wavelength of nm are used. Infrared rays of this wavelength are absorbed when the amount of oxygenated hemoglobin in the blood in the capillaries of the ear tab is large, that is, when the blood vessels are expanding, and when the amount of oxygenated hemoglobin is small, that is, the blood vessels contract. It is known that it is absorbed less when it is. Therefore, the fluctuation of the reflected light quantity represents the fluctuation of the volume of the blood vessel accompanying blood circulation. The detector 2 is connected to the apparatus body 3 through the seat 5 as shown in FIG. 3 so as not to hinder driving during driving. A connector 6 for connecting the detector 2 is attached to the upper part of the seat 5 so that the driver can attach the connector 6 at the time of use.

As shown in FIG. 1, the apparatus main body 3 includes an LED controller 7 for causing the light emitting diode LED of the detector 2 to emit light at a constant cycle, and an attractor (change pattern) described later based on an output signal from the photodiode PD. ) Is generated by the attractor generation unit 8 (pattern generation unit), and a determination unit 9 (comparison unit) that determines whether the generated attractor matches a reference attractor described later.

The attractor generator 8 includes an I / V converter 10 for converting a current signal output from the photodiode PD into a voltage signal and an A / D converter 11 for converting the converted voltage signal into a digital signal. To have. Also, A
The generator 12 is connected to the / D converter 11 and generates an attractor from a digital signal. An attractor is a Lissajous figure formed from two digital signals at regular intervals. Therefore, the generation unit 1
2 is provided with at least one memory 13 and an arithmetic unit 14. Then, the first digital signal input from the A / D converter 11 is stored in the memory 13 and the attractor is generated by the arithmetic unit 14 together with the second digital signal input after a fixed time.

The arithmetic unit 14 is also adapted to calculate the fractal dimension number of the attractor thus generated. The fractal dimensionality is a number that expresses the complexity of the attractor. In other words, the property that the attractor generated has a simple shape when the driver's concentration decreases and the fractal dimension number also decreases.

The determination unit 9 has a memory 15 (storage means) for storing the fractal dimension number A of the reference attractor. The reference attractor is an attractor in a dozing state of a specific driver, and is measured in advance for the person who will be the driver of the vehicle. The determination unit 9 includes a fractal dimension number A of the reference attractor stored in the memory 15 (hereinafter, simply referred to as a reference fractal dimension number) and a fractal dimension number B of the attractor generated by the attractor generation unit 8. An arithmetic unit 16 is provided to compare and determine (hereinafter, simply referred to as the generated fractal dimension number). The arithmetic unit 16 sequentially compares the two fractal dimension numbers A and B, and if it is determined that the comparison results are in agreement, outputs a signal to the warning device 4 to issue a warning. It is supposed to do.

In this case, since the method of storing the reference fractal dimension number A is adopted in the doze-driving prevention apparatus 1 of the present embodiment, it is applied especially when the driver can identify the vehicle. It is possible. For example, it may be applied to professional drivers such as taxi and bus drivers. In addition, for a general driver, if the user of the vehicle can be specified, the reference fractal dimension number A is registered for each user. It is considered that this can be applied by adopting a method of switching the setting.

The warning device 4 may be, for example, a device which emits a warning sound such as a buzzer or a device which displays a warning on a display panel of a vehicle and awakens the driver. In addition, in the above-mentioned occupational driver, notification to the establishment by radio,
It may be possible to give a warning from the business establishment. In addition, if the engine is not started even after a break, the engine may not be started.

According to the doze-driving prevention device 1 thus constructed, the LED control section 7 operates to drive the light-emitting diode LED of the detector 2 mounted on the ear tab of the driver at regular intervals, and the reflection thereof. The light is the photodiode PD
Detected by. The detection signal of the photodiode PD is supplied to the attractor generation unit 8 as blood volume information in the capillaries of the ear tab, and is sent to the generation unit 12 via the I / V converter 10 and the A / D converter 11.

In the generation unit 12, the sent digital blood volume information is temporarily stored in the memory 13, and when the next blood volume information is sent, the arithmetic unit 14 together with the stored blood volume information. And calculate the generated fractal dimension number B. The calculated generated fractal dimension number B is sent to the determination unit 9 and compared with the reference fractal dimension number A that is measured in advance and stored in the memory 15.

As a result, when the generated fractal dimension number B is equal to or smaller than the reference fractal dimension number A, it is determined that the driver's concentration is in the state of dozing. Then, the determination unit 9 sends a signal to the warning device 4 that a warning should be issued, and the warning from the warning device 4 causes the driver to awaken.

Therefore, according to the doze-driving prevention device 1 of the present embodiment, the detector 2 is attached to the ear tab of the driver, which gives the driver the trouble of attaching the brain wave electrode to the head. There is an advantage that there is no. In addition, since the method of sequentially comparing the information of blood changes during dozing measured in advance and the information of blood changes measured during driving is adopted, it is possible to perform highly accurate determination. . Moreover, since the information of blood change is captured as an attractor and the fractal dimension numbers A and B expressing the complexity thereof are compared and determined, the time required for the determination can be shortened and real-time processing can be performed. it can. Based on these advantages, the drowsy driving prevention apparatus 1 of the present embodiment increases the wearing rate of the driver and makes highly accurate determination in real time, so that it is highly practical and ensures drowsy driving. It can be prevented.

In the doze driving prevention apparatus 1 of the present invention, the determination unit 9 compares the fractal dimension numbers A and B of the attractor, but the attractor patterns themselves may be compared. In addition, in the determination unit 9, the attractor in the dozing state of the specific driver is used as the reference attractor, but instead of this, a general attractor in the dozing state may be used. Further, although it was decided to doze when the generated fractal dimension number B becomes equal to or smaller than the reference fractal dimension number A, for example, when the generated fractal dimension number B approximates within a certain range of the reference fractal dimension number A. The determination level may be adjusted by making a dozing determination or the like. Furthermore, the drowsy driving prevention apparatus 1 may be applied to the determination during drunk driving.

[0021]

As described above in detail, in the doze-driving prevention device according to the present invention, the detecting means is attached to the ear tab of the driver, so that the annoyance to the driver can be reduced. . Further, since the change pattern generated during driving is sequentially compared with the blood volume change pattern during drowsiness that is generated in advance, it is possible to improve the determination accuracy of the drowsy driving. As a result, it is possible to provide a highly practical drowsy driving prevention device and to reliably prevent drowsy driving.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a doze-driving prevention device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a detector of the doze-driving prevention device of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a device outline of the doze driving prevention device of FIG. 1.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ...- Drowsiness driving prevention device, 2 ... Detector (detection means), 4 ...- Warning device (warning means), 8 ... Attractor generation part (change pattern generation means), 9 .... Determination unit (comparison means), 15 ... Storage means

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A detection means (2) attached to an ear tab of a driver for detecting the blood volume of capillaries, a pattern generation means (8) for sequentially generating a variation pattern from the detected blood volume, Storage means (15) for storing the generated change pattern of the blood volume during dozing, comparison means (9) for comparing the change pattern stored in the storage means with the detected change pattern, and the change pattern And a warning means (4) for giving a warning to the driver when the two values match or approximate to each other.