US 12,029,551 B2
Drowsiness sign notification system
Takuya Sakata, Tokyo-to (JP); Koichiro Yamauchi, Tokyo-to (JP); Masataka Sano, Tokyo-to (JP); Hiromi Nemoto, Tokyo-to (JP); and Shunichiroh Sawai, Tokyo-to (JP)
Assigned to TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA, Toyota (JP)
Filed by TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA, Toyota (JP)
Filed on Jun. 18, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/351,394.
Claims priority of application No. 2020-114155 (JP), filed on Jul. 1, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2022/0000394 A1, Jan. 6, 2022
Int. Cl. A61B 5/18 (2006.01); A61B 5/11 (2006.01)
CPC A61B 5/1103 (2013.01) [A61B 5/18 (2013.01)] 5 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A drowsiness sign notification system that gives a drowsiness sign notice to a driver that shows a drowsiness sign,
the drowsiness sign notification system comprising:
a driver monitor configured to detect a driver state being a state of the driver; and
a controller configured to provide notification via an HMI unit based on the driver state, wherein the controller is configured to:
execute a drowsiness level estimation process in which a drowsiness level of the driver is estimated based on the driver state from a plurality of drowsiness levels, each of which shows a degree of drowsiness and is classified by the degree of drowsiness by detecting a drowsiness action from among a plurality of detectable drowsiness actions, each drowsiness action corresponding to a single discrete drowsiness level;
execute an accumulation process in which a drowsiness point that is a numerical value corresponding to the discrete drowsiness level estimated in the drowsiness level estimation process is accumulated; and
execute a drowsiness sign determination process in which it is determined that the driver shows the drowsiness sign when an accumulation value of the drowsiness point calculated in the accumulation process exceeds a predetermined threshold;
wherein:
the accumulation process comprises accumulating the drowsiness point sequentially at predetermined time intervals;
the drowsiness point is negative if the driver has no signs of drowsiness;
when the accumulated drowsiness points are negative, they are set to zero; and
the predetermined threshold is set to be smaller than a drowsiness point corresponding to a drowsiness level that means the driver has no drowsiness.