Method and apparatus for early detection of dynamic attentive states for providing an inattentive warning

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9299237-B2
Application number	US-201414447752-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 31, 2014
Priority date	Jan 25, 2013
Publication date	Mar 29, 2016
Grant date	Mar 29, 2016

Abstract

A method and apparatus for determining an inattentive state of an operator of a vehicle and for providing information to the operator of the vehicle by obtaining face images of the operator of the vehicle, obtaining images of an environment of the vehicle, determining one or more areas of interest in the environment of the vehicle based on the images of the environment, obtaining, from a relevance and priority database, relevance and priority values corresponding to the one or more areas of interest, determining a probability of attention of the operator of the vehicle to the one or more areas of interest based on the images of the environment and the relevance and priority values, determining an attention deficiency based on the determined probability of attention and the face images, and providing the information to the operator of the vehicle based on the determined attention deficiency.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
determining one or more areas of interest in an environment of a vehicle;
obtaining, from a relevance and priority database, relevance and priority values corresponding to the one or more areas of interest;
determining a probability of attention of an operator of the vehicle to the one or more areas of interest based on the relevance and priority values;
determining an attention deficiency based on the determined probability of attention and eye movements of the operator of the vehicle; and
providing information to a warning or guidance device based on the determined attention deficiency.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more areas of interest includes at least one of a pedestrian, a cyclist, a traffic light, a traffic sign, an animal, an object, or another vehicle.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of determining the probability of attention includes:
determining linear distances of the one or more areas of interest from the vehicle;
determining saliencies of the one or more areas of interest;
detecting event frequencies within the one or more areas of interest; and
determining the probability of attention of the operator of the vehicle to the one or more areas of interest based on the linear distances, the saliencies, the event frequencies, and the relevance and priority values.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the step of determining the linear distances includes:
setting a linear distance of an area of interest to zero when an angle between a line of sight of the operator of the vehicle and the line of sight corresponding to the area of interest is greater than or equal to 90 degrees; and
setting the linear distance of the area of interest to a distance between the area of interest and the vehicle divided by a cosine of the angle between the line of sight of the operator of the vehicle and the line of sight corresponding to the area of interest when said angle is smaller than 90 degrees.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of determining the attention deficiency includes:
detecting facial features of the operator of the vehicle by feature point extraction algorithms based on face images, the facial features including one or more of eye corners, upper eyelids, or lower eyelids;
determining an iris location based on the detected facial features;
determining gaze pointers based on the iris location and the images of the environment of the vehicle;
determining gaze fixation dwell times based on the gaze pointers;
determining an observed attention level based on gaze fixation dwell times; and
determining the attention deficiency based on the observed attention level and the probability of attention.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of providing the information includes:
providing, based on the determined attention deficiency, one or more of a failed-to-look warning, a look-but-fail-to-see warning, an audio/visual warning, and guidance information.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the eye movements are detected based on face images of the operator.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more areas of interest in the environment of the vehicle are determined based on environmental images of the environment of the vehicle.

9. An apparatus comprising:
a relevance and priority database that stores a plurality of relevance and priority values corresponding to a plurality of areas of interest;
a warning or guidance device; and
controller circuitry configured to
determine one or more areas of interest in an environment of a vehicle;
obtain, from the relevance and priority database, relevance and priority values corresponding to the one or more areas of interest;
determine a probability of attention of an operator of the vehicle to the one or more areas of interest based on the relevance and priority values;
determine an attention deficiency based on the determined probability of attention and eye movements of the operator of the vehicle; and
provide information to a warning or guidance device based on the determined attention deficiency.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the eye movements are detected based on face images of the operator.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the one or more areas of interest in the environment of the vehicle are determined based on environmental images of the environment of the vehicle.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a program that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform a method, the method comprising:
determining one or more areas of interest in an environment of a vehicle;
obtaining, from a relevance and priority database, relevance and priority values corresponding to the one or more areas of interest;
determining a probability of attention of an operator of the vehicle to the one or more areas of interest based on the relevance and priority values;
determining an attention deficiency based on the determined probability of attention and eye movements of the operator of the vehicle; and
providing information to a warning or guidance device based on the determined attention deficiency.

13. The medium of claim 12 , wherein the eye movements are detected based on face images of the operator.

14. The medium of claim 12 , wherein the one or more areas of interest in the environment of the vehicle are determined based on environmental images of the environment of the vehicle.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd
• Central Michigan University

Inventors

• Gunaratne Pujitha
• Backs Richard W

Classifications

• G08G1/166

  for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes · CPC title

• A61B3/113

  for determining or recording eye movement · CPC title

• A61B5/163

  by tracking eye movement, gaze, or pupil change · CPC title

• G08G1/165

  for passive traffic, e.g. including static obstacles, trees · CPC title

• A61B5/1103

  Detecting muscular movement of the eye, e.g. eyelid movement · CPC title