Communications: electrical – Condition responsive indicating system – Specific condition
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-17
2001-06-05
Hofsass, Jeffery (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Condition responsive indicating system
Specific condition
C340S575000, C382S117000, C382S118000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06243015
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a drowsy driver warning system and, more particularly, to the driver's drowsiness detection method for determining whether driver is drowsy or not.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Recently, much research and development has been conducted on the advanced safety vehicle (ASV) for preventing road accidents and minimizing damage when collisions occur. The basic concept of the ASV is a safety-guaranteed and accident-preventive vehicle. To achieve these objectives, many safety technologies are adapted in the ASV. These technologies includes a drowsy driving warning system, a nighttime pedestrian monitoring and warning system, a fire alarm system, and so on.
Among them, the drowsy driving warning system helps prevent accidents caused by a drowsy driver at the wheel by means of sounding an alarm, shaking the seat, increasing the audio volume, or emitting a strong stimulating gas. Thus, prior to activating an alarm, there is needed to detect the driver's condition as to whether or not he is drowsy, by analyzing his face image and signals from electrical switches such as a brake switch, a directional signal switch, a wiper switch, and so on.
In such a drowsy driving warning system, image-processing technology is used to analyze the driver's face image, particularly his eyes, taken with a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera. If the driver's eyes are frequently kept closed over a predetermined period, a drowsiness detection unit determines that the driver is drowsy so as to sound an alarm.
In the prior art, since the driver's condition is determined by simple drowsiness factor on the basis of the duration and frequency of the closing of the driver's eyes, the reliability of the driver's condition assessment deteriorates if there is noise in the driver's face image data.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in an effort to solve the above problems.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for accurately detecting the driver's condition on the basis of the driver's eye closing/opening without interference from exterior noise.
To achieve the above object, a driver's drowsiness detection method according to the present invention comprises the steps of determining a vertical width of a driver's eye from a driver's face image input from a CCD camera, presetting a standard vertical width and a standard drowsiness factor on the basis of the average vertical width of the driver's eye, comparing an actual vertical width of the driver's eyes with the standard vertical width, increasing or decreasing a drowsiness factor depending on the vertical widths of the driver's eyes, and determining as to whether the driver is drowsy or not by comparing the drowsiness factor increased or decreased to the standard drowsiness factor.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5570698 (1996-11-01), Liang et al.
patent: 5729619 (1998-03-01), Puma
patent: 5805720 (1998-09-01), Suenaga et al.
patent: 5859921 (1999-01-01), Suzuki
patent: 5878156 (1999-03-01), Okumura
Christie Parker & Hale LLP
Hofsass Jeffery
Hyundai Motor Company
Tweel , Jr. John
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