JPH0769139A - Preventing device for inattentive drive - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To avoid the danger of carelessness and a doze, by extracting the left and right eye images from an image data memory means which takes in a face image from a camera, calculating the eye distance, and judging the inattentive drive when the difference between the standard eye distance and the eye distance at this time exceeds an allowable value. CONSTITUTION:The front surface image of the face of a driver is taken photograph by the camera 3 of an instrument panel 2, and inputted into an image processing device 5. The image processing device 5 is provided with the functions as an image data memory means A1 and an image processing means A2 for obtaining the coordinates of the left and right eye images. A controller 6 for the alarm for inattentive drive is constituted of a microcomputer, and calculates the distance of the left and right eyes on the basis of the coordinate information of the left and right eye images, as an eye distance calculating means A3. Further, the standard eye distance is calculated as a standard eye distance calculating means A4. Further, the difference between the standard eye distance and the eye distance at this time is obtained by the controller 6 for the alarm for inattentive drive as a control means A5 for the alarm for inattentive drive, and when the difference exceeds an allowable value, a buzzer 4 is operated for the alarm for inattentive drive.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a look-ahead driving prevention device which issues an alarm and warns the driver when he / she starts a look-ahead driving while driving.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a vehicle is traveling, a driver sitting in the driver's seat always looks forward through the front window to check the safety on the road surface in the forward field of view of the vehicle. I am continuing to drive while checking. However, when the vehicle is traveling, the driver needs to understand changes in conditions other than outside the vehicle, or changes in conditions inside the vehicle, and sometimes the line of sight is out of the front view.
In particular, in many cases, the meters in the vehicle are checked and the switches of the equipments in the vehicle are switched. In such a case, the line of sight is inevitably out of the forward field of view. However, in such a case, to remove the line of sight from the forward sight is
All of them are short in duration, and the driver confirmed in advance that the vehicle speed was relatively low and the road conditions were relatively empty, and that the safety on the road surface ahead was sufficiently confirmed. In many cases, there is no problem in returning the line of sight to the forward field of view.

[0003]

However, when the line of sight is out of the front view for a long time even if the vehicle speed is relatively low, or when the vehicle speed is relatively high, if the line of sight is removed from the front view, the traveling direction is changed. It is not preferable because it is likely to slip or come into contact with other vehicles or dangerous materials, and it is not possible to deal with a sudden change in the road surface in front, which is dangerous. Further, even when the driver leans into the face due to lack of sleep or the like and starts to fall asleep while driving, there is a risk as in the side-looking driving, which is a problem. Conventionally, a drowsy driving preventive device is disclosed, for example, in the application of Japanese Patent Application No. 1-113811 by the present applicant.
As disclosed in the specification and the drawings, there has been proposed a device that determines dozing based on displacement of a steering angle and issues an alarm. However, there is no known device that detects the side-view driving immediately and avoids the danger due to this, and in particular, it is not possible to reliably determine whether or not the driver's face is facing the front of the vehicle. , Was a problem.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a side-view driving prevention device that can reliably generate an alarm during side-view driving.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a camera, which is supported on an instrument panel in a passenger compartment and captures a driver's facial image, and a camera installed in the passenger compartment. An alarm means for issuing an alarm, an image data storage means for selectively capturing a face image from the camera as an inspection image, and a driver's left and right eye images are extracted based on the inspection image from the image data storage means. An image processing means for obtaining the coordinates of the eye image, an eye distance calculation means for calculating the distance between the left and right eyes based on the coordinates of the left and right eye images, and a driver's eyes on the front by capturing the eye distance data a predetermined number of times. Reference eye distance calculation means for calculating the reference eye distance, which is the distance between the left and right eyes when viewing, and the side-view determination when the difference between the reference eye distance and the current eye distance exceeds the allowable value,
And a side-view warning control means for driving the warning means.

[0006]

According to the present invention, the image data storage means selectively fetches the face image from the camera as an inspection image, and the image processing means produces the left and right eye images of the driver based on the inspection image from the image data storage means. The eye distance calculation means calculates the distance between the left and right eyes based on the coordinates of the left and right eye images, and the reference eye distance calculation means fetches the eye distance data a predetermined number of times, whereby the driver looks at the front. Since the reference eye distance, which is the distance between the left and right eyes, is calculated, the look-aside warning control unit can perform a look-ahead determination when the difference between the reference eye distance and the current eye distance exceeds the allowable value, and drive the warning unit. it can.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows a side-view driving prevention apparatus as an embodiment of the present invention. This side-view driving prevention device is shown in FIG.
And a camera 3 which is supported on the instrument panel 2 of the passenger compartment 1 shown in FIG. 2 and which shows a facial image of the driver seated on the driver's seat 7, and which is supported in the instrument panel 2 to warn the driver. Buzzer 4 as a warning means
Then, the face image from the camera 3 is taken in as an inspection image,
An image processing device 5 that obtains and saves coordinate information of left and right eye images of the driver, and a distance Li between the left and right eyes based on the coordinates (see FIG. 5) of the left and right eye images connected to the image processing device.
And a reference eye distance Lib are sequentially calculated, and a side view alarm controller 6 for driving the buzzer 4 at the time of looking aside by performing a side view determination based on the reference eye distance and the current eye distance is provided. A seat cushion 10 is attached to a floor 9 of a vehicle seat 7 via a seat adjuster 8, and a seat back 11 is attached to the seat cushion 10 via a reclining device (not shown).
The seat cushion 10 is equipped with a slide actuator 12 for adjusting the front and rear slide amount and a height actuator 13 for adjusting the height amount, and these two actuators are drive-controlled by a power seat controller 14. The power seat controller 14 controls the seat 7 to return to a predetermined reference position when receiving an OFF signal from a main switch (not shown) of the vehicle from the main control unit 15, and responds to an ON operation of a manual switch (not shown). Automatically adjust the seat back and forth and up and down.

A camera 3 mounted with an opening on the upper skin of the instrument panel 2 is equipped to display a front face image of a driver seated on a seat 7 in a screen A shown in FIG. 5, for example. The face image from the camera 3 is input to the image processing device 5. The image processing apparatus 5 has a well-known image processing function. In particular, an image data storage unit A1 that sequentially captures and stores a face image from a camera as a still inspection image and an inspection image from the image data storage unit A1. It has a function as an image processing unit A2 for extracting the left and right eye images of the driver on the basis of these, and obtaining the coordinates (X _L , Y _i ) and (X _R , Y _i ) of the left and right eye images. That is, the image data storage unit A1 selectively fetches the face image data from the camera 3 as a stationary inspection image p1 at every predetermined time, and sequentially acquires the image data of the inspection image p1 as the latest inspection in the predetermined image storage device. File in the image data storage area.

The image processing means A2 fetches the data of the latest inspection image (see FIG. 5) from the accommodating area of the latest inspection image data in a timely manner. Then, based on the characteristics as shown in FIG. 3, a region E1 other than the face that is lower than the predetermined density value β1, a boundary line other than the face having the predetermined density value β1 and the boundary line other than the face, and a boundary region E3 that becomes a shadow in the face. Are processed separately. In this case, the face region E2 and the face-to-non-face boundary region E3 occupying in the inspection image p1 here have been previously determined to be about 30% of the whole, and a value significantly different from this ratio is calculated. When this is done, the area indicated by that value is assumed to be an area other than the face, and is processed as "noise". Then, the predetermined density value β1
In the above area, the maximum area portion is determined as the face portion (FIG. 6A shows an example of an image that can be regarded as represented by the image signal obtained by the processing at that time), and the density value A portion including a low eye is extracted and a background area other than the image area is removed (FIG. 6B shows an example of an image that can be considered as represented by the image signal obtained by the processing at that time). After that, the maximum width Lf (see FIG. 5) of the confirmed face portion is obtained, and an area above the center line Y ₀ (face center line) in the vertical direction of the image including eyes is left (FIG. 6C). Shows an example of an image that can be considered to be represented by the image signal obtained by the processing at that time), and further, a small area which is smaller than an area occupied by a normal eye by a predetermined amount or smaller than 1/10 of the maximum width Lf. Further, the small areas at positions where the amount of deviation from the center line X ₀ in the lateral direction of the face deviates more than the amount of deviation at the normal eye position are deleted, and left and right eye candidates are extracted. After this,
Two sets of Y coordinate position and a combination having a small relative width difference are extracted, and each of the regions located under each of the two sets of regions is defined as the left and right eye regions (FIG. 6D). (An example of an image that can be considered to be represented by the image signal obtained by the above) is determined, and the coordinates (X _L , Y _i ) of the left and right eye images, (X _R ,
Y _i ) (see FIG. 5) is output to the side-view alarm controller 6.

A main part of the side-view alarm controller 6 is composed of a microcomputer, and as the eye distance calculating means A3, the left and right eye images are calculated based on the coordinates (X _L , Y _i ) and (X _R , Y _i ) information of the left and right eye images. calculating the distance of the eye Li a (= X _R -X _L). Further, as the reference eye distance calculation means A4, eye distance data L
i (= X _R −X _L ) is sequentially taken in, and the reference eye distance Lib, which is the distance between the left and right eyes when the driver is looking at the front, is calculated according to the following equation (1), and a predetermined eye distance Lib is calculated. Store in storage area. Lib ← Lib × (1−α) + Lin × α (1) In this case, the driver has a large ratio of facing the front in order to secure a front view. Thus, the reference eye distance Lib can be calculated. On the other hand, when the driver looks aside, it is considered that the face turns diagonally and at the same time the distance between the left and right eyes narrows as seen from the camera 3, and the reference eye distance L
When the distance Lin between the left and right eyes smaller than ib is detected,
It can be determined that the driver is looking aside. Furthermore,
Side view alarm controller 6 is a side view alarm control means A5
As the difference d between the reference eye distance Lib and the current eye distance Lin
e (= Lib-Lin) is obtained, and when the difference de exceeds the allowable value dea, it is determined to be a look-aside, and the buzzer 4 is driven. Here, in setting the allowable value dea, the average value of the difference between the left and right eye distances when the normal driver is facing the front and the left and right eye distances narrowed when the driver looks aside is calculated. A small fixed value is preset as the allowable value dea.

The image processing device 5, the side-view warning controller 6, and the power seat controller 14 are connected to the main control unit 15 of the vehicle so that signals can be transmitted and received. Next, the peep warning control processing written in the ROM (not shown) of the peep warning controller 6 will be described with the control flow of FIG. 7.
Here, the armpit warning control process of FIG. 7 is performed by the armarm warning controller 6 at every predetermined control cycle. Here, in steps s1 to s3, it is determined whether or not the key is on, and when the key is on, the presence or absence of seat sitting information is fetched from the power seat controller 14. At the time of sitting, the gear position information of the transmission (not shown) is fetched from the main control unit 15 and it is judged whether or not the reverse R range is set at this time. If it is not the reverse R range, step s
Go to 4.

If the key is not turned on, the driver is not seated on the seat, or the vehicle is in the reverse R range, the control in this cycle ends. In step s4,
Eye extraction, that is, the image processing device 5 sequentially takes in the face images of the driver sitting on the seat 7 as inspection images,
The left and right eye images are specified. Further, in step s5, the coordinates (X _L , Y _i ) and (X _R , Y _i ) of the latest left and right eye images are obtained from the specified left and right eye images, and the distance Lin (= X _R −X _L ) is calculated. When step s6 is reached, the current vehicle speed is fetched from the main control unit 15 and this value is 10 km.
/ H or more and whether the shift speed is in the D range or not, and both are Yes, that is, when the vehicle starts to move forward, step s7, otherwise, that is, there is no danger of looking aside while not starting or moving backward. The control this time is ended without any problem.

In step s7, the current base distance Lb is fetched, a difference de from the latest left and right eye distances Lin, is obtained, and it is judged whether or not the difference de exceeds an allowable value dea, that is, the difference de is exceeded. If it is determined that the driver's face has entered the awkward state, the process proceeds to step s9, if it is determined that the change falls below the step s9, that is, if the driver's face is not considered to be a awkward change. If the driver does not look aside and reaches step s8, it is considered that the driver is looking at the front, and the distance Li between the left and right eyes of the driver when facing the front is obtained by the equation (1). In this case, the distance Lin between the left and right eyes of this time is taken in with the taking rate α (= 0.1) with respect to the reference eye distance Lib up to the previous time, and the current reference eye distance Lib is corrected. The reference eye distance Lib may be stored in a non-volatile memory (not shown) in the side-view alarm controller 6 when the key is off. The control may be continued by setting a fixed value as the reference eye distance Lib at the initial stage of key-on.

When step s9 is reached, the timer TIM that counts the allowable time Tc according to the vehicle speed is started here, and the count is continued after the start.
In this case, first, the vehicle speed is the main control unit 1
5, the permissible time Tc is calculated from the ROM stored in the ROM (not shown) of the side-view warning controller 6, the permissible time Tc is set in the timer TIM, and the start processing is performed. Here, the permissible time calculation map M1 is set in advance, and the permissible width of the side-view time Tc is set to be relatively large in the low speed range, whereby the driver looks aside when operating the in-vehicle device. Allow that,
The permissible width of the look-aside time Tc is set to be relatively small at high speeds, thereby avoiding danger due to look-aside at high speeds.

When step s10 is reached, it is judged here whether the counting of the timer TIM is completed, and whether the side-view time Tc has elapsed. If not, steps s1 to s7,
Repeat s9 and s10. When the time has passed, step s12
In this case, the steering wheel angle θs of the steering wheel (not shown) is fetched from the main control unit 15, and it is determined whether or not the steering wheel angle θs exceeds the set value θs1. If the answer is Yes, the steering wheel angle is large, and the course is being changed. Then, the side alarm is stopped and the control is ended. On the other hand, when the result in step s13 is No, the buzzer 4 while moving forward is continued for the buzzer 4
Is driven, an alarm is issued to the driver to stop looking aside, danger is prevented during traveling, and one control cycle is ended. In the above description, the warning means is the buzzer 4, but instead of this, a warning light or a seat vibrating means may be driven to stop the driver from looking aside.

[0016]

As described above, according to the present invention, the face image of the driver is used as the inspection image, the left and right eye images of the driver are extracted based on the inspection image, and the distance between the left and right eyes is calculated. The reference eye distance is calculated from the eye distance data, the side view determination is made when the difference between the reference eye distance and the current eye distance exceeds the allowable value, the alarm means is driven, and the driver can be warned. It is possible to immediately judge the driver's carelessness while moving forward or to look aside when falling asleep, thereby avoiding the danger of aside driving.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic overall configuration diagram of a side-view driving prevention apparatus as an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a main part inside a vehicle equipped with the side-view driving prevention device of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a distribution characteristic of a face image according to density values performed by the image processing apparatus in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a characteristic diagram of a permissible time Tc calculation map equipped in the side-view driving prevention device in FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining eye coordinates and eye distances in an inspection image performed by the side-view driving prevention apparatus of FIG. 1.

6A and 6B are diagrams of the inspection image processed by the side-view driving prevention device of FIG. 1 after each processing, wherein FIG. 6A is a diagram when a driver's face image is determined, and FIG. Figure of the time
(C) is a diagram when a small area is excluded, and (d) is a diagram when an eye image is extracted.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a side-view warning control process performed by the side-view driving prevention apparatus of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Vehicle Cabin 2 Instrument Panel 3 Camera 4 Buzzer 5 Image Processing Device 6 Side-view Alarm Controller 7 Seat 9 Floor 12 Slide Actuator 13 Height Actuator 14 Power Seat Controller 15 Main Controller A1 Image Data Storage A2 Image Processing A3 Eye Distance Calculation means A4 Reference eye distance calculation means A5 Side-view alarm control means

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A camera, which is supported on an instrument panel in a vehicle cabin, for displaying a face image of a driver, an alarm means provided in the vehicle cabin for issuing an alarm to the driver, and a face image from the camera is selectively. Image data storage means that captures an image as an inspection image, image processing means that extracts the left and right eye images of the driver based on the inspection image from the image data storage means, and obtains the coordinates of the left and right eye images, and the left and right eye images Eye distance calculation means for calculating the distance between the left and right eyes based on the coordinates of, and a reference eye distance that is the distance between the left and right eyes when the driver is looking at the front by taking in the eye distance data a predetermined number of times. A side-view driving prevention device including a reference eye-distance calculation means for calculating the above-mentioned, and a side-view warning control means for driving the alarm means to perform a side-view determination when the difference between the reference eye-distance and the current eye distance exceeds an allowable value.