Information processing apparatus and information processing method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11235783-B2
Application number	US-201816496657-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 27, 2018
Priority date	Mar 30, 2017
Publication date	Feb 1, 2022
Grant date	Feb 1, 2022

Abstract

A driving information generating section 20 successively generates as driving information diverse types of information indicative of a driving state of a vehicle. A dangerous driving determining section 31 determines whether dangerous driving is underway on the basis of the driving information generated by the driving information generating section 20. A supplementary information acquiring section 32 acquires state supplementary information manually or automatically upon determination of dangerous driving by the dangerous driving determining section 31, and associates the acquired state supplementary information with the result of the determination of dangerous driving. An information communication section 34 transmits the result of the determination of dangerous driving and the state supplementary information to an information management apparatus 40. The information management apparatus 40 can recognize the state of the case in which dangerous driving is underway based on the state supplementary information, and correctly determine validity of the result of the determination of dangerous driving.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An information processing apparatus, comprising:
a dangerous driving determining section configured to determine dangerous driving is underway based on driving information,
wherein the driving information includes a first image; and

a supplementary information acquiring section configured to:
recognize a subject from the first image;
issue an information acquisition instruction based on the determination of the dangerous driving by the dangerous driving determining section,
wherein the issuance of the information acquisition instruction includes presentation of the first image in which the recognized subject is provided with a tag; and

acquire, based on the presentation of the first image in which the recognized subject is provided with the tag, state supplementary information that indicates a user objection to the determination of the dangerous driving.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the supplementary information acquiring section is further configured to present the driving information at a time of the determination of the dangerous driving.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the supplementary information acquiring section is further configured to issue the information acquisition instruction at an instruction timing, and
the instruction timing comprises at least one of a time immediately after the determination of the dangerous driving, a time of vehicle stop after the determination of the dangerous driving, a time of traveling at a low level of driving difficulty, or a time of driving stop after the determination of the dangerous driving.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the supplementary information acquiring section is further configured to issue the information acquisition instruction to a passenger on board.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the state supplementary information corresponds to at least one of a second image, a sound, or a character.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the supplementary information acquiring section includes a communication section configured to:
communicate with an external device positioned nearby to the information processing apparatus; and
acquire the state supplementary information from the external device based on the communication.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein
the external device is a nearby vehicle, and
the supplementary information acquiring section is further configured to acquire the driving information associated with the nearby vehicle as the state supplementary information at a time of the determination of the dangerous driving.

8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising an information recording section configured to record the state supplementary information acquired by the supplementary information acquiring section in association with a result of the determination of the dangerous driving acquired by the dangerous driving determining section.

9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the supplementary information acquiring section is further configured to add the driving information, covering a time period in reference to a timing of the determination of the dangerous driving, to the result of the determination of the dangerous driving.

10. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an information recording section configured to record the state supplementary information; and
an information transmitting section configured to transmit, to an information management apparatus, a result of the determination of the dangerous driving and the state supplementary information recorded in the information recording section.

11. The information processing apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein
the information transmitting section is further configured to transmit the result of the determination of the dangerous driving and the state supplementary information associated with the result of the determination of the dangerous driving to the information management apparatus at a transmission timing, and
the transmission timing comprises at least one of a date and a time, a time upon elapse of a specific time period, a time at which an instruction is issued to request or transmit the result of the determination of the dangerous driving and the state supplementary information, or a time at which an amount of the state supplementary information recorded in the information recording section has reached a specific level.

12. An information processing method, comprising:
determining, by a dangerous driving determining section, dangerous driving is underway based on driving information,
wherein the driving information includes a specific image;

recognizing, by a supplementary information acquiring section, a subject from the specific image;
issuing, by the supplementary information acquiring section, an information acquisition instruction based on the determination of the dangerous driving by the dangerous driving determining section,
wherein the issuance of the information acquisition instruction includes presentation of the specific image in which the recognized subject is provided with a tag; and

acquiring, by the supplementary information acquiring section based on the presentation of the specific image in which the recognized subject is provided with the tag, state supplementary information that indicates a user objection to the determination of the dangerous driving.

13. The information processing apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein
the information processing apparatus is mountable on a vehicle,
the driving information indicates at least one of a steering angle of a steering wheel of the vehicle, an engine speed of the vehicle, or an acceleration of the vehicle, and
the dangerous driving determining section is further configured to add at least one of vehicle information or driver information to the result of the determination of the dangerous driving.

Assignees

• Sony Corp

Inventors

• Noda Atsushi
• OSATO Akihito
• Suzuki Hirotaka
• Matsunaga Hideyuki

Classifications

• B60W2540/229

  Attention level, e.g. attentive to driving, reading or sleeping · CPC title

• B60K28/06

  responsive to incapacity of driver · CPC title

• B60W2540/10

  Accelerator pedal position · CPC title

• B60W2540/18

  Steering angle · CPC title

• B60W2520/28

  Wheel speed · CPC title