Method for determining a drowsiness level of a motor vehicle driver
AssigneesContinental Automotive France, Continental Automotive GmbH
InventorsAlain Giralt, Martin Petrov
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for determining a level of drowsiness of a driver of a motor vehicle on the basis of a predetermined image analysis algorithm, the vehicle including a camera and a computer, the computer implementing the predetermined algorithm on the basis of a set comprising at least one parameter relating to the attitude of the driver, the method, implemented by the computer, including a phase of learning and a phase of monitoring the state of the driver.
Claims11
A method for determining a level of drowsiness of a driver of a vehicle, in particular a motor vehicle, on the basis of a predetermined image analysis algorithm, said vehicle comprising a camera and a computer, said computer implementing said predetermined algorithm on the basis of a set comprising at least one parameter relating to the attitude of the driver, the method, implemented by the computer, comprising:
- a) a learning phase performed for a predetermined duration, comprising the steps of:
- i) the camera generating a sequence of consecutive images of the driver,
- ii) determining at least one characteristic point of the images of the sequence of images generated,
- iii) running the predetermined algorithm on the at least one characteristic point of the images of the sequence of images generated in a plurality of implementations performed in parallel by the computer in order to perform a plurality of diagnostics, each implementation using a different set of predetermined parameters and/or of predetermined ranges of values of parameters, so as to determine a plurality of values for each parameter of said set,
- iv) determining a different degree of relevance for each implementation performed, the degrees of relevance being different from one another, the highest degree of relevance being assigned to the set of predetermined parameters and/or of predetermined ranges of values of parameters that is used for which the determined values of the parameters vary the least,
- b) once the learning phase has ended, a phase of monitoring the state of the driver, comprising the steps of:
- i) the camera generating a sequence of images of the driver,
- ii) running the predetermined algorithm on said sequence of images generated in at least one implementation performed by the computer on the basis of at least the set of parameters and/or of values of parameters having the highest degree of relevance, so as to determine a plurality of values for each parameter of said set,
- iii) determining a level of drowsiness of the driver on the basis of the plurality of values determined for each parameter of said set and of at least one predetermined threshold relating to said at least one parameter.
A computer of a vehicle, making it possible to determine a level of drowsiness of a driver of said vehicle on the basis of a predetermined image analysis algorithm, the vehicle comprising a camera, said computer implementing said predetermined algorithm on the basis of a set comprising at least one parameter relating to the attitude of the driver, the computer being configured to:
- a) in a learning phase performed for a predetermined period, preferably after each starting of the engine/motor of the vehicle:
- i) receive a sequence of images of the driver generated by the camera,
- ii) run the predetermined algorithm on said sequence of images generated in a plurality of implementations performed in parallel, each implementation using a different set of predetermined parameters and/or of predetermined ranges of values of parameters, so as to determine a plurality of values for each parameter of said set,
- iii) determine a different degree of relevance for each implementation performed, the highest degree of relevance being assigned to the set of predetermined parameters and/or of predetermined ranges of values of parameters that is used for which the determined values of the parameters vary the least,
- b) once the learning phase has ended, in a phase of monitoring the state of the driver:
- i) receive a sequence of images of the driver generated by the camera,
- ii) run the predetermined algorithm on said sequence of images generated in at least one implementation on the basis of at least the set of parameters and/or of values of parameters having the highest degree of relevance, so as to determine a plurality of values for each parameter of said set,
- iii) determine a level of drowsiness of the driver on the basis of the plurality of values determined for each parameter of said set and of at least one predetermined threshold relating to said at least one parameter.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.