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US 7,835,834 B2Granted
Method of mitigating driver distraction
AssigneeDelphi Technologies, Inc.
InventorsMatthew R. Smith, Gerald Witt, Harry Zhang
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A driver alert for mitigating driver distraction is issued based on a proportion of off-road gaze time and the duration of a current off-road gaze. The driver alert is ordinarily issued when the proportion of off-road gaze exceeds a threshold, but is not issued if the driver's gaze has been off-road for at least a reference time. In vehicles equipped with forward-looking object detection, the driver alert is also not issued if the closing speed of an in-path object exceeds a calibrated closing rate.
Claims6
A method of mitigating distraction of a driver of a vehicle, comprising the steps of:
- imaging an ocular profile of the driver and characterizing the ocular profile as off-road when detected ocular features of the ocular profile indicate that the driver's eyes are open and are not directed toward a forward view of the vehicle;
- determining a measure of driver distraction based on the ocular profile characterization;
- timing a current distraction interval that indicates a duration that the ocular profile is continuously characterized as off-road;
- and
- issuing a driver alert to mitigate driver distraction if the measure of driver distraction exceeds a threshold and the current distraction interval is less than a reference time.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.