System and method for responding to driver state

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10308258-B2
Application number	US-201715720489-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 29, 2017
Priority date	Mar 15, 2013
Publication date	Jun 4, 2019
Grant date	Jun 4, 2019

Abstract

A method for controlling vehicle systems includes receiving monitoring information from one or more monitoring systems and determining a plurality of driver states based on the monitoring information from the one or more monitoring systems. The method includes determining a combined driver state based on the plurality of driver states and modifying control of one or more vehicle systems based on the combined driver state.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of controlling a vehicle system in a vehicle, comprising:
receiving monitoring information from one or more monitoring systems of the vehicle;
determining a first driver state of a driver and a second driver state of the driver based on the monitoring information from the one or more monitoring systems, wherein the first driver state is a behavioral driver state of the driver and the second driver state is a physiological driver state of the driver;
determining a combined driver state index by evaluating the first driver state and the second driver state together;
modifying a system status of the vehicle system as a function of the combined driver state index to increase alertness of the driver;
determining a third driver state of the driver based on the monitoring information from the one or more monitoring systems, wherein the third driver state is a vehicular sensed driver state;
determining a change in the combined driver state index based on the third driver state; and
modifying the vehicle system as a function of the third driver state.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first driver state is determined based on eye movement information received from the one or more monitoring systems, and the second driver state is determined based on heart rate information received from the one or more monitoring systems.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more monitoring systems includes a portable device associated with the driver, wherein the portable device stores user data about the driver tracked over time.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the second driver state is based on the user data about the driver tracked over time.

5. The method of claim 1 , including determining a vehicle state of the vehicle based on the monitoring information from the one or more monitoring systems, wherein the vehicle state is the system status of the vehicle system.

6. The method of claim 5 , including upon determining the driver is distracted based on the combined driver state index and upon determining the vehicle system is ON based on the system status, modifying the system status of the vehicle system as a function of the combined driver state index to increase alertness of the driver includes modifying the system status of the vehicle system to OFF.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the change in the combined driver state index based on the third driver state includes determining an increase in alertness of the driver from the combined driver state index.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the third driver state is an information transfer rate between the driver and the vehicle.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein determining the change in the combined driver state index based on the third driver state includes determining an increase in alertness of the driver based on determining a high information transfer rate between the driver and the vehicle.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein upon determining the driver is alert based on the change in the combined driver state index, modifying the vehicle system as a function of the third driver state includes modifying the system status to ON.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein upon determining the driver is distracted based on the change in the combined driver state index, modifying the vehicle system as a function of the third driver state includes modifying the system status of the vehicle system to OFF for a period of time.

12. The method of claim 11 , determining a fourth driver state of the driver, wherein the fourth driver state is a physiological driver state of the driver, and the fourth driver state is based on stored monitoring information about the driver tracked over time received from a portable device of the driver.

13. The method of claim 12 , including determining the driver is alert based on the fourth driver state and modifying the system status of the vehicle system to ON.

14. A method of controlling a vehicle system in a vehicle, comprising:
receiving monitoring information from one or more monitoring systems of the vehicle;
determining a first driver state of a driver and a second driver state of the driver based on the monitoring information from the one or more monitoring systems;
determining a combined driver state index by evaluating the first driver state and the second driver state together;
modifying a system status of the vehicle system as a function of the combined driver state index to increase attention of the driver;
determining a third driver state of the driver based on the monitoring information from the one or more monitoring systems;
determining a second combined driver state index based on the third driver state; and
modifying the vehicle system by evaluating the combined driver state index and the second combined driver state index together.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the first driver state is a behavioral driver state based on behavioral information received from the one or more monitoring systems, the second driver state is a physiological driver state based on physiological information received from the one or more monitoring systems, and the third driver state is a vehicular sensed driver state based on vehicle information from the one or more monitoring systems.

16. The method of claim 14 , including identifying the driver based on the monitoring information from the one or more monitoring systems and receiving stored user data about the driver tracked over time from a wearable device associated with the driver.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the second driver state is based on the stored user data.

18. The method of claim 14 , including determining a vehicle state of the vehicle based on the monitoring information from the one or more monitoring systems, wherein the vehicle state is an auto control mode status indicating whether the vehicle is enabled for operating under automatic control.

19. The method of claim 18 , including upon determining the auto control mode status is ON and upon determining the combined driver state index indicates an inattentive driver, modifying the system status of the vehicle system as a function of the combined driver state index to increase attention of the driver includes modifying the system status to OFF.

20. The method of claim 14 , wherein modifying the system status of the vehicle system as a function of the combined driver state index to increase attention of the driver includes modifying the system status of the vehicle system to increase active driving of the vehicle by the driver.

21. The method of claim 20 , wherein determining the third driver state of the driver is based on vehicle information from the one or more monitoring systems, wherein the vehicle information is an information transfer rate between the driver and the vehicle in response to the driver transmitting information to the vehicle during active driving of the vehicle by the driver.

22. The method of claim 14 , wherein modifying the system status of the vehicle system as a function of the combined driver state index to increase attention of the driver includes modifying the system status of the vehicle system to increase manual control of the vehicle by the driver.

23. The method of claim 14 , wherein modifying the system status of the vehicle system as a function of the combined driver state index to increase attention of the driver includes modifying the system status of the vehicle system to OF

Assignees

• Honda Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Fung Kin C
• Dick Timothy J

Classifications

• G06V40/70

  Multimodal biometrics, e.g. combining information from different biometric modalities · CPC title

• G06V40/45

  Detection of the body part being alive · CPC title

• G06V10/82 Primary

  using neural networks · CPC title

• G06V10/764

  using classification, e.g. of video objects · CPC title

• G06F2218/12

  Classification; Matching · CPC title