System and method for responding to driver state

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9751534-B2
Application number	US-201514851753-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 11, 2015
Priority date	Mar 15, 2013
Publication date	Sep 5, 2017
Grant date	Sep 5, 2017

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 vehicle systems in a motor vehicle, comprising:
receiving monitoring information from one or more monitoring systems;
determining a plurality of driver states of a driver based on the monitoring information from the one or more monitoring systems;
determining a combined driver state index based on the plurality of driver states, wherein the combined driver state index is a variable dependent on a result of evaluating each of the plurality of driver states together; and
modifying control of one or more vehicle systems as a function of the combined driver state index.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the combined driver state index is based on a first driver state selected from the plurality of driver states and a second driver state selected from the plurality of driver states.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein determining the combined driver state index is further based on a third driver state selected from the plurality of driver states.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the plurality of driver states being at least one of the following driver state types: a physiological driver state, a behavioral driver state, or a vehicular-sensed driver state.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the physiological driver state is based on physiological information, the behavioral driver state is based on behavioral information, and the vehicular-sensed driver state is based on vehicle information.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the first driver state selected from the plurality of driver states is a physiological driver state, the second driver state selected from the plurality of driver states is a behavioral driver state, and the third driver state selected from the plurality of driver states is a vehicular-sensed driver state.

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein the first driver state selected from the plurality of driver states and the second driver state selected from the plurality of driver states are the same driver state type.

8. The method of claim 4 , wherein the first driver state is a physiological driver state and the second driver state is a behavioral driver state.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the one or more monitoring systems include a sensor for receiving physiological information and behavioral information, and the physiological driver state is based on the physiological information and the behavioral driver state is based on the behavioral information received from the sensor.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the physiological information is heart rate information and the behavioral information is head movement information.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the sensor is an optical sensor for receiving the physiological information and the behavioral information.

12. The method of claim 3 , wherein determining a combined driver state index further includes determining if the combined driver state index indicates a distracted driver state or a non-distracted driver state based on the plurality of driver states.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein upon determining at least one of the first driver state selected from the plurality of driver states state or the second driver state selected from the plurality of driver states indicates a distracted driver state, the combined driver state index is determined to indicate the distracted driver state.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein upon determining at least one of the first driver state selected from the plurality of driver states or the second driver state selected from the plurality of driver states indicates a non-distracted driver state, the combined driver state index is determined to indicate the non-distracted driver state.

15. The method of claim 14 , further including upon determining the third driver state selected from the plurality of driver states indicates a distracted driver state, the combined driver state index is determined to indicate the distracted driver state.

16. A method of controlling vehicle systems in a motor vehicle, comprising:
receiving monitoring information from one or more monitoring systems;
determining a plurality of driver states selected from one of the following types of driver states: physiological driver state, behavioral driver state, and vehicular-sensed driver state, wherein the plurality of driver states are based on the monitoring information from the one or more monitoring systems;
determining a combined driver state index based on the plurality of driver states, wherein the combined driver state index is a physiological, a behavioral, and a vehicular-sensed measurement of the driver resulting from combining the plurality of driver states; and
modifying control of one or more vehicle systems based on the combined driver state index.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein determining the combined driver state index is based on at least a first driver state selected from the plurality of driver states, a second driver state selected from the plurality of driver states and a third driver state selected from the plurality of driver states, wherein the first driver state, the second driver state and the third driver state are each a different type of driver state.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein determining the combined driver state index is based on at least a first driver state selected from the plurality of driver states, a second driver state selected from the plurality of driver states and a third driver state selected from the plurality of driver states, wherein the first driver state and the second driver state are the same type of driver state and the third driver state is a different type of driver state than the first driver state and the second driver state.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein determining the combined driver state index further includes comparing at least one of the first driver state, the second driver state and the third driver state to respective thresholds, and determining the combined driver state index based on the comparison.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein upon determining the first driver state meets a first driver state threshold and the second driver state meets a second driver state threshold, the combined driver state index is based on the first driver state and the second driver state.

21. The method of claim 17 , wherein determining the combined driver state index further includes confirming the first driver state selected from the plurality of driver states with the second driver state selected from the plurality of driver states.

22. The method of claim 21 , further including confirming the first driver state selected from the plurality of driver states and the second driver state selected from the plurality of driver states with the third driver state selected from the plurality of driver states.

23. The method of claim 22 , wherein confirming the first driver state selected from the plurality of driver states with the second driver state selected from the plurality of driver states further includes comparing the first driver state selected from the plurality of driver states to a first driver state threshold and comparing the second driver state selected from the plurality of driver states to a second driver state threshold.

24. The method of claim 23 , wherein upon determining the first driver state selected from the plurality of driver states meets the first driver state threshold and the second driver state selected

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