TW201339991A - Method and system for detecting head movement of vehicle driver - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and system for detecting head movement of vehicle driver, in which a camera device and an auxiliary device are correspondingly arranged at the front upper side and the rear side of a driver's head. The camera device is used to capture the image of the region surrounding the head and including the auxiliary device for performing an analysis, so as to utilize the image change state of the auxiliary device to determine whether the head movement state of the driver is normal or not, thereby warning the driver.

Description

Vehicle driving head movement detecting method and system

The invention relates to a vehicle driving fatigue detecting technology, and more particularly to a vehicle driving head movement detecting method and system.

According to driving fatigue, driving fatigue is an important factor that causes traffic accidents. When driving is tired, the ability to sense the surrounding environment, the ability to determine traffic conditions, and the ability to control the vehicle will decrease at the same time, which may easily lead to traffic accidents. Therefore, driving fatigue Monitoring the development of warning systems is important to avoid traffic accidents and reduce the loss of life and property. In fact, the auto companies of various brands are also investing in the research and development of such systems, and there are many related patents and researches, such as the invention of the public, No. 201119897, "Driving Monitoring and Methods", No. 200948647, "Detection and Warning Traffic Deviation" Method, Invention No. I337144, "Method and Apparatus for Detecting Vehicle Deviation", No. I336457, "Lighting Device, Driving Support System, and Helmet" and No. 436,436, "Method and Apparatus for Continuously Monitoring Vehicle Drivers" The detection of preventing the driver from falling asleep is shown in the patents of the new M363417 "Car Warning Device" and M329584 "Safety Monitoring Device".

According to relevant research and patents, the current methods of detecting driving fatigue to increase vehicle safety can be summarized into the following four categories:

(1) Using contact instruments to measure driving physiological signals such as driving brain waves, ECG signals, heartbeat, pulse, and breathing. This method can faithfully obtain the physiological state of driving, but it must be attached to the driving for measuring physiological signals. The sensor, the biggest drawback to the interference of driving also limits the practicality of this method. For example, the new M363417 "vehicle warning device" and other patents, or MIT Smart Car and Toyota ASV (Advanced Safety Vehicle).

(2) Detection of head movement, blink rate, eye closure, eyelid movement, eye gaze direction, mouth shape, pupil change, facial expression change, etc. To monitor these changes, you can do so with a non-contact camera. Image recognition technology can also be applied to such methods. The inventions are shown in the inventions of the Republic of China Inventions No. 436,436, No. M329,584, and No. M. 363, and Publication No. 201119897, "Driving Monitoring Devices and Methods". Because during the driving process, the light will change greatly at different times, and the ratio of the area of the eyes, pupils and mouth to the total area of the face is small, it is a challenge to monitor the changes of these small areas and how to overcome the change of light. In contrast, the background behind the head can be controlled, and the movement of the head with the change of the background behind the head will be the direction with great potential to overcome the light change factor.

(3) Judging whether it is reasonable to drive or to announce driving via vehicle behavior such as the lateral position of the vehicle, the distance to the preceding vehicle, the use of the throttle and brakes, the direction of movement of the vehicle, or whether there is an obstacle in front of the vehicle. However, there are still two problems with this type of method: (i) the results will vary with the road surface, road quality, and light, and (ii) when the drowsy driving sleeps on a straight road for a few seconds without changing these Vehicle behavior, traffic accidents may still occur. For example, inventions No. I337144, No. I336457, and Publication No. 200948647 are shown.

(4) In combination with the above method, the European Union has completed the AWAKE (System for Effective Assessment of Driver Vigilance and Warning According to Traffic Risk Estimation) program. AWAKE combines the driving state of measuring eyelid movement and lane tracking, the use of throttle and brakes, Vehicle behavior such as steering wheel position.

Although various techniques have been proposed for driving safety monitoring as described above, there are still some problems that must be overcome, for example, dramatic changes in light in the vehicle. Among them, measuring the movement of the head is a direction that has great potential to overcome the light change factor in the vehicle.

The main object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle driving head movement detecting method and system, which can overcome the drastic changes of light in the vehicle, and can easily and effectively detect the moving state of the driving head, thereby effectively improving the safe driving system. Or the effect of controlling the appliance.

Therefore, in order to achieve the foregoing object, the present invention provides a vehicle head movement detection method, which mainly utilizes a camera device disposed above the driving front to capture and analyze the surrounding area of the head for use. The change state of the background image behind the head of the head determines whether the head movement state of the driving is normal.

Further, a corresponding one of the photographing device and the auxiliary device are respectively disposed above and behind the driving head for capturing the image of the surrounding area of the head including the auxiliary device by using the photographing device, and performing image analysis.

Further, the photographing device is disposed above the front windshield of the vehicle, and the auxiliary device is disposed on the headrest of the vehicle.

Further, the auxiliary device includes a plurality of color blocks, and the color blocks are arranged in such a manner that the color block is blocked when the driving head moves.

Further, the steps of image analysis are as follows: capturing a picture: capturing an image of a region surrounding the head of the auxiliary device; and assisting the background of the background in the image: using the image processing technology to capture the image according to the characteristics of the auxiliary device image The auxiliary device in the background is partially separated; the image of the auxiliary device is separated and analyzed: the image processing technology is used to analyze the image of the auxiliary device and the change between the front and back images; the direction and degree of the head movement are measured: the image is used for the auxiliary device As a result of the analysis, the moving direction and the degree of movement of the head are measured; and whether the movement of the driving head is normal is determined: according to the measurement result, it is judged whether the driving head movement is normal, and if abnormal, a warning signal is issued to the driving.

Further, the auxiliary device comprises a plurality of lamps, and each of the lamps is arranged in such a manner that the direction and degree of deflection of the driving head are reflected when the driving head moves.

In addition, the present invention further provides a vehicle head movement detection system, comprising an auxiliary device disposed on a headrest of a driving head in a vehicle; and a photographing device disposed above the driving head of the vehicle for capturing The image of the surrounding area of the head of the auxiliary device is included; an analyzing unit is connected to the photographing device for receiving the image data captured by the photographing device, performing calculation and analysis, and determining whether the movement of the driving head is normal.

Further, the auxiliary device comprises a plurality of lamps, and each of the lamps is arranged in such a manner that the direction and degree of deflection of the driving head are reflected when the driving head moves.

Hereinafter, several preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described, and further detailed descriptions will be made in conjunction with the drawings:

First, referring to FIG. 1 to FIG. 3, a vehicle head movement detection method according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention can be mainly performed by using a vehicle head movement detection system 10, and the vehicle driving head movement is performed. The detecting system 10 includes a photographing device 12, an auxiliary device 14 and an analyzing unit 16, which is disposed above the front windshield of the vehicle, such as a position below the sun visor, and the auxiliary device 14 is disposed on the vehicle. The headrest 22 includes three blocks of red 24, green 26 and blue 28, and the colors (R, G, B) are (255, 0, 0), (0, 255, 0), (0, 0, 255), respectively. The color blocks 24, 26, and 28 are arranged side by side. The imaging device 12 can capture the image of the surrounding area of the head including the auxiliary device 14. The analyzing unit 16 is connected to the imaging device 12 and can be built in. A device such as a processor or a wafer for calculation and analysis receives the image data captured by the photographing device 12, performs calculation and analysis, and further determines whether the movement of the driving head is normal.

Therefore, the vehicle driving head movement detecting method of the present invention can use the photographing device 12 to capture an image of the surrounding area of the head including the auxiliary device 14 and analyze the same by using the analyzing unit 16 to utilize the driving head. The state of the change of the rear background image determines whether the head movement state of the driving is normal, and as shown in FIG. 4, the steps of the image analysis of the analyzing unit 16 are as follows:

Capture screen 110: The image of the surrounding area of the head including the auxiliary device 14 is captured by the imaging device 12.

The auxiliary device 120 for dividing the background in the picture is divided into three color blocks of red 24, green 26, and blue 28. As shown in FIG. 5, in the red pattern, the red color component is much larger than the green and blue color components. The green and blue patterns have similar characteristics. Based on these characteristics, we can segment the red, green, and blue patterns.

The image 130 of the auxiliary device is analyzed and analyzed: the area of each color block and the change between the front and back images are analyzed, that is, the pixels of the red 24, green 26 and blue 28 tris are respectively calculated, wherein, the green The number of pixels in the 26 color patches can be used as a measure.

Measuring the moving direction and degree of the head 140: Calculating the sum of the absolute values of the pixel difference before and after the three color blocks of the red 24, green 26 and blue 28 between the current picture and the previous picture to obtain another measurement metric.

Determining whether the driving head movement is normal 150: determining whether the driving head movement is normal by using the two measurement metrics, and determining whether the head movement is normal or not is the absolute value of the difference between the current pixel and each color block of the previous picture and whether it is greater than 1000 or The green 26 color block has a pixel greater than 12000. If the head movement is judged to be abnormal, then: a warning signal 160 is issued: a warning signal is issued to the driver, and the warning signal may be a signal such as sound, light or vibration.

In order to confirm the validity of the previous image analysis, the present invention simulates the algorithm by using a simulation software: first recording the video for about one minute, then capturing 1012 pictures for the video, and then dividing the red color of each image frame. Green 26, blue 28 color blocks. Then, calculate the pixels contained in the three color blocks 24, 26, and 28, and calculate the pixel difference between the current picture and the three color blocks of red 24, green 26, and blue 28 in the previous picture, FIG. 6 and FIG. 7. Figure 8 shows the difference between the pixels of the red 24, green 26, and blue 28 tri-color blocks (the curve above) and the number of pixels between the front and the back (the lower curve). Figure IX shows a measurement metric (the sum of the absolute values of the pixel differences between each color block and the current picture) and the warning picture contained in the red rectangle; the 129th picture shows the warning with the red square in the upper right corner, and the result is displayed in the figure. ten.

In other words, when the driving head moves to his left side, the blue 28 pixel increases and the red 24 pixel decreases, and when the driving head moves to his right side, the blue 28 pixel decreases and the red 24 pixel Increase, and when the head is tilted forward, the green 26 pixels will increase. In addition, when the head moves in all directions, the green 24 pixels will increase rapidly. Therefore, these curves will cause dramatic changes when driving the snooze head. The absolute value and the measured metric of the pixel difference between each color block and the current picture shown in Fig. 8 can also clearly reflect the head swing phenomenon of driving. Determine whether the head has abnormal movement by using the absolute value of the difference between the pixel and the pixel of each color block of the previous picture and whether the pixel is greater than 1000 or the green 26 color block is greater than 12000, indicating that the head swings when driving and dozing Can be successfully detected and alerted.

As can be seen from the above, the vehicle driving head movement detecting method and system of the present invention utilizes the photographing device to capture an image of the surrounding area of the head including the auxiliary device and perform image analysis, and can be shielded by the driving head by the auxiliary device. The image changes to determine whether the driving head is moving normally. Based on this, an active driving safety system can be provided.

As shown in FIG. 11 , an auxiliary device 32 according to another preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a plurality of lamps arranged in a vertical column 34 and a row 36, each of which is an LED lamp. The vertical and horizontal luminaires show the direction and extent of the yaw of the driving head. Thereby, the vehicle head movement detection system 10 can also use the number of shades of the heads 34 and 36 to be shaded by the driver's head to determine whether the head movement state of the driver is normal.

In summary, the vehicle driving head movement detecting method and system provided by the present invention can use the photographing device to capture the image of the surrounding area of the head of the auxiliary device and perform image analysis, and can surely determine the driving head. Whether the mobile state is normal, and the vehicle driving safety system issues warning signals (such as sound, light, vibration, etc.) to the driver to improve the safety of the vehicle driving; the reason is that the invention does meet the requirements of the invention patent, submit application.

10. . . Vehicle driving head movement detection system

12. . . Photography device

14. . . assisting equipments

16. . . Analysis unit

twenty two. . . Headrest

twenty four. . . red

26. . . green

28. . . blue

110. . . Capture picture

120. . . Auxiliary device for dividing the background in the picture

130. . . Analyze the image of the auxiliary device

140. . . Measuring the direction and extent of head movement

150. . . Determine if the driving head movement is normal

160. . . Send a warning signal

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a system diagram of a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a schematic view showing the space of a photographing device, an auxiliary device and a headrest in a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 3 is a diagram showing the relationship between the head of the photographing apparatus and the three color blocks of red, green and blue in a photographing apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a flow chart of a method of another preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of dividing a red, green, and blue color block in another preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 to Fig. 8 show the graphs of the difference between the pixels of the red, green and blue three color blocks (the upper curve) and the number of pixels between the front and the back (the lower curve).

Figure IX shows a graph of a measured metric (the sum of the absolute values of the pixel differences between each patch and the current picture) and the warned picture contained in the red rectangle.

Figure 10 shows a schematic diagram of the warning of the driving head offset.

Figure 11 is a schematic illustration of an auxiliary device in another preferred embodiment of the present invention.

10. . . Vehicle driving head movement detection system

12. . . Photography device

14. . . assisting equipments

16. . . Analysis unit

Claims (10)

A vehicle head movement detection method mainly performs image analysis after capturing an image of a surrounding area of the head, and uses the state of change of the background image behind the driving head to determine whether the head movement state of the driving is normal. The vehicle driving head movement detecting method according to claim 1, wherein a corresponding one of the photographing device and an auxiliary device are respectively disposed above and behind the driving head for capturing the inclusion by the photographing device. The area around the head of the auxiliary device is imaged and analyzed for image changes of the auxiliary device. The vehicle driving head movement detecting method according to claim 2, wherein the photographing device is disposed above a front windshield of the vehicle, and the auxiliary device is disposed on a headrest of the vehicle. The vehicle driving head movement detecting method according to claim 2, wherein the auxiliary device comprises a plurality of lamps, and each of the lamps is arranged to display a yaw of the driving head when the driving head moves Direction and degree are principles. The vehicle driving head movement detecting method according to claim 2, wherein the auxiliary device comprises a plurality of color blocks, and the color blocks are arranged in a manner that the color block is blocked when the driving head moves. For the principle. The vehicle driving head movement detecting method according to claim 5, wherein the auxiliary device comprises three color blocks of red, green and blue. The method for detecting a head movement of a vehicle according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the step of image analysis is as follows: capturing a picture: capturing an image of a surrounding area of the head including the auxiliary device by using a photographing device; Background auxiliary device: separating the auxiliary device part of the captured image; analyzing and dividing the image of the auxiliary device: analyzing the image of the auxiliary device and the change between the front and rear images; measuring the moving direction and degree of the head: calculating The sum of the absolute values of the pixel differences between the frames before and after the continuous image to obtain another measurement metric; determining whether the movement of the driving head is normal: using the two measurement metrics to determine whether the movement of the driving head is normal; and issuing a warning signal: If the head movement is judged to be abnormal, a warning signal is issued to the driver. A vehicle head movement detection system includes: a photographing device disposed above a driving head of the vehicle for capturing an image of a surrounding area of the head; and an auxiliary device disposed at the head of the driving head of the vehicle a pillow for the camera to capture an image of a region surrounding the head of the auxiliary device, the movement of the head causes a change in the area where the auxiliary device is covered; and an analyzing unit connected to the camera for receiving The image data captured by the photographing device is calculated, analyzed, and used to determine whether the movement of the driving head is normal. The vehicle head movement detection system according to claim 8, wherein the auxiliary device comprises a plurality of lamps, and each of the lamps is arranged to reflect a yaw of the driving head when the driving head moves. Direction and degree are principles. The vehicle head movement detection system of claim 8, wherein the auxiliary device comprises a plurality of color blocks, and the color block is configured to display a color block when the driving head moves. For the principle.