JP2009244959A - Driving support device and driving support method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a driving support device and a driving support method capable of precisely detecting the state of a driver in a driving support device in a driving support device for supporting a driver according to the movement of the line of sight of the driver. <P>SOLUTION: The driving support device 100 for supporting a driver based on the movement of the line of sight of a driver includes: a vehicle speed sensor 12 for detecting a vehicle speed; and a support determination means 14 for determining whether to support the driver based on the scale of the movement of the line of sight. The support determination means 14 suppresses the amounts of support by permitting the movement of the line of sight to be smaller according as the vehicle speed is small. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a driving support apparatus and a driving support method for controlling a vehicle in accordance with a driver's line-of-sight movement.

  It is known that a driver's consciousness state affects driving operation, and a technique for alerting a driver by detecting sleep of a driver who is traveling or casual driving is known. Also, in a state where the state of consciousness has declined due to absurd driving, etc., the driver's response to the driving situation tends to be delayed, so when the absurd driving is detected, it is more likely to be an obstacle than when the absurd driving is not detected A driver state determination device that warns the driver at an early stage in this relationship has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  In patent document 1, a rough driving is detected based on the stationary state of a gaze direction. However, because the stopping time in the line-of-sight direction is long, it does not always mean that the driver is driving freely, and there is an inconvenience that an unnecessary alarm is increased when it is determined whether or not the driver is driving only in the line-of-sight direction.

About this point, in the vague driving detection device that warns the driver when the movement range of the driver's line of sight is narrow, the range of movement of the line of sight that determines whether to warn when the vehicle speed is high than when the vehicle speed is low An abrupt driving detection device that reduces the threshold value has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 2). Since the threshold value is easily exceeded during high-speed driving, even if the moving range of the line of sight is inevitably narrowed by moving at a high speed, it is possible to prevent erroneous determination as a rough driving.
JP-A-6-251273 JP-A-8-178712

  However, although the mischievous driving detection device described in Patent Document 2 can prevent misjudgment as mischievous driving in a high-speed driving situation, there is a risk of misjudging as mischievous driving in a low-speed driving situation. For example, if the vehicle is in a traffic jam, the driver of the own vehicle performs a driving operation while grasping the movement state of the preceding vehicle or the preceding vehicle, so that the range of movement of the line of sight tends to be narrow. Therefore, the random driving detection device described in Patent Document 2 has a problem that it may be erroneously determined to be a random driving when traveling at a low speed.

  In view of the above problems, the present invention provides a driving support device and a driving support method that detect a driver's state accurately and reduce erroneous determination in a driving support device that supports the driver according to the driver's line of sight movement. The purpose is to provide.

  In view of the above problems, the present invention provides a vehicle speed sensor that detects a vehicle speed and assistance for determining whether to assist based on the magnitude of the line of sight movement in a driving assistance device that assists the driver based on the line of sight movement of the driver. Determination means (for example, warning determination unit 14), and the support determination means is characterized in that the smaller the vehicle speed is, the smaller the movement of the line of sight is allowed, and the smaller the support amount is.

  According to the present invention, as the vehicle speed is smaller, it is determined that the movement of the line of sight is smaller and the assistance is not performed, and the assistance can be prohibited in a low-speed traveling state in which the distance between the preceding vehicle and the preceding vehicle is shortened. Can be reduced.

  In addition, the present invention provides a vehicle state determination that includes a vehicle speed sensor that detects a vehicle speed and determines whether or not the vehicle speed is a low-speed traveling state that is equal to or lower than a predetermined value in a driving assistance device that assists the driver based on movement of the driver's line of sight. And a support determination unit (for example, an alarm determination unit 14) that determines whether or not to support based on the magnitude of the line of sight movement, and the support determination unit has the line of sight stopped in the front direction. If it is determined, and the vehicle state determination means determines that the vehicle is in a low-speed traveling state, the amount of support is suppressed.

  According to the present invention, since assistance is prohibited when it is determined that the vehicle is traveling at a low speed, the assistance can be prohibited in a low-speed traveling state in which the distance between the preceding vehicle and the preceding vehicle is short, and the driver feels bothered. Can be reduced.

  In a driving support device that supports a driver in accordance with the movement of the driver's line of sight, a driving support device and a driving support method that accurately detect the state of the driver can be provided.

  Hereinafter, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is an example of a diagram for schematically explaining stopping in the sight line direction. The host vehicle 30 travels in a part of the traffic jam column, and the preceding vehicle and the preceding vehicle travel in the forward direction while repeating slowing down and stopping. While driving in a traffic jam, the driver of the host vehicle 30 tends to narrow the range of line of sight in order to maintain an appropriate inter-vehicle distance from the preceding vehicle. In some cases, the range of movement of the line of sight becomes narrower because the vehicle travels while gazing at the car.

  By the way, the driving assistance device 100 determines whether or not the line of sight is stopped based on the mode of movement of the line of sight, and if it is determined that the line of sight is stopped, the driver may be driving loosely. judge. The line-of-sight movement is, for example, the maximum horizontal angle of the line of sight within a predetermined time, the stopping time for each angle range when divided for each predetermined angle, and the line of sight moving from left to right (or right to left) It is indexed by the average time to complete. When the maximum horizontal angle is used as an index, if the determination threshold (angle) is decreased, it is difficult to determine that the line of sight is stopped. When the stop time for each angle range is used as an index, the determination threshold (time) is increased. Then, it is difficult to determine that the line of sight is stopped, and when the average time until the line of sight moves is used as an index, it is difficult to determine that the line of sight is stopped if the determination threshold (time) is increased.

  In this way, a determination threshold can be set for each line-of-sight movement mode. In this embodiment, as an example, the stop of the line-of-sight is determined by the maximum horizontal angle of the line of sight within a predetermined time (hereinafter referred to as a movement range). And In this case, when the vehicle is traveling at a low speed, the moving range of the line of sight hardly exceeds the determination threshold, and it may be erroneously determined that the driver is driving freely even if the driver is not driving freely. If it is erroneously determined, for example, the driver is provided with assistance such as sounding an alarm sound, which makes the driver feel bothered.

  Therefore, the driving support device 100 according to the present embodiment makes the driver feel bothered by prohibiting the support even when the line of sight is stopped when a spontaneous driving operation that causes low-speed driving is detected. To prevent that.

  FIG. 2 shows an example of a functional block diagram of the driving support device 100. The driving support device 100 is controlled by the control unit 20. The control unit 20 has a predetermined electronic control unit (ECU) as an entity, and a driver monitor sensor 11, a vehicle speed sensor 12, a traffic information reception unit 13, a stop lamp via an in-vehicle LAN such as a dedicated line or a CAN (controller area network). The switch 14 and the alarm actuator 18 are connected.

  The control unit 20 includes a computer having a CPU, an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), a RAM, a ROM, a switch element, an input / output interface, and the like, and the CPU executes a program or by hardware such as an ASIC. The visual line direction detection unit 15, the warning determination unit 16, and the vehicle state determination unit 17 are realized. Each of these functions does not have to be realized by only one ECU, and may be realized by being distributed to a plurality of ECUs.

[Detection of gaze direction]
The detection of the gaze direction will be described. The gaze direction detection unit 15 detects the driver's gaze direction from the driver's face image captured by the driver monitor sensor 11. The driver monitor sensor 11 is a photographing unit disposed on a steering column, for example, with the optical axis directed toward the rear and slightly above the host vehicle 30. The driver monitor sensor 11 integrally includes a camera and an infrared projector, and the camera lens is arranged on a vertical axis passing through the center of the steering wheel to photograph the driver's face from the front.

  The same number of infrared projectors are arranged on the left and right sides of the camera. The infrared projector is an LED lamp that projects near-infrared light toward the driver's face, and facilitates shooting of the driver's face and detection of the pupil at night.

  The camera is composed of CCD (Charge Coupled Device), CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor), etc., and is sensitive to the infrared light emitted by the infrared projector. Digital data (face image). In addition, the light emitted from the infrared projector enters the driver's pupil, and the luminance of the pupil portion becomes different from the luminance of the surrounding eyes, so that the position and size of the pupil are detected.

  The detection of the driver's face orientation will be described. Face images captured by the driver monitor sensor 11 are sequentially input to the line-of-sight direction detection unit 15 and stored in the memory.

  First, the gaze direction detection unit 15 detects the approximate position of the face (face outline) from the face image. For example, pixel values (luminance) at the same pixel position are compared between sequentially input face images, and the difference between pixel values of pixels having pixel values different from a predetermined value or more is stored together with the pixel position. Then, if the difference in pixel values at the same pixel position is counted for a predetermined number of face images, the number of pixel positions counted in the contour portion increases. Although the face image shows the background, etc., the background is stationary, so the left and right edges of the face have the largest number of counts. It becomes the contour position of the face in the horizontal direction. In this way, the left and right ends of the face position are determined.

  Next, the line-of-sight direction detection unit 15 detects a feature point of the face from the edge information of the face image. Based on the edge information, facial feature points (such as eyebrows, upper and lower eyelids, nostrils, mouth corners, and upper and lower lip borders) are detected as pixels having a large luminance change compared to skin. For example, if a known edge detection algorithm such as Sobel is used, the contour of each part of the face surrounded by two types of edge information of low brightness to high brightness and high brightness to low brightness can be obtained.

  The line-of-sight direction detection unit 15 detects the upper and lower contour positions and the center line of the face from the edge information. Since feature points such as the eyes and nose of a human face are arranged symmetrically, a vertical line in which the number of pieces of left and right edge information is almost equal is the center line of the face. For example, a virtual vertical line that divides the face image into left and right is set, and the number of left and right edge information is counted based on the vertical line. The difference in the number of left and right edge information is compared with a threshold, and the vertical line that is equal to or smaller than the threshold or the vertical line that minimizes the difference in the number of edge information is determined as the center line of the face.

  The line-of-sight direction detection unit 15 detects the face direction of the driver based on the obtained center line. That is, based on the distance from the center line to the left or right contour position, the degree of face orientation in the left-right direction, which is zero degrees with respect to the front direction, is detected, for example, in increments of about 5 to 10 degrees.

  The detection of the gaze direction will be described. The line-of-sight direction is detected by, for example, a corneal reflection method. The corneal reflection method detects the line-of-sight direction by utilizing the fact that the virtual image of the light of the infrared projector on the cornea moves in parallel with the eye movement due to the difference between the rotation centers of the cornea and the eyeball. Therefore, the line-of-sight direction is obtained by detecting the corneal reflection point 21 and the pupil center 22 from the face image.

  FIG. 3 is an example of a diagram schematically showing detection of the line-of-sight direction. The pupil tends to appear darker than the portion of the eye other than the pupil. For this reason, for example, when the blinking of the infrared projector and shooting are synchronized, and the difference in pixel value between the face image when turned on and the face image when turned off is calculated, only the pupil reacts to the light and the pixel value changes. The pixel values other than the pupil become zero or a small value that can be ignored due to the difference, and the difference in pixel value increases only for the pupil, so that the pupil can be easily detected. The size of the pupil varies in the range of about 2 to 6 mm in adults, but on average is about 4 mm. In the case of human beings, the pupil is circular, so the center is determined as the position of the pupil center 22.

  Similarly, the corneal reflection point 21 is a point with high luminance that is detected only when the infrared projector is turned on, and thus is clearly detected from the difference in pixel values between the face image when turned on and the face image when turned off.

  The position of the pupil center 22 and the position of the corneal reflection point 21 are positions in three-dimensional coordinates with the origin as, for example, a predetermined portion of the driver monitor sensor 11. Since there are individual differences in the actual human line-of-sight direction with respect to the positions of the corneal reflection point 21 and the pupil center 22, in order to calibrate the relationship between the position of the corneal reflection point 21 and the pupil center 22 and the line-of-sight direction, coordinates are used in this coordinate system. The driver is gazed at one known point Q, and the positions of the corneal reflection point 21 and the pupil center 22 at that time are obtained. Since this position is a three-dimensional position, it is preferable to detect the position including the distance in the front-rear direction of the host vehicle 30 from the seat position and the reclining angle, or more preferably to detect directly as a three-dimensional position using a stereo camera.

  Therefore, the vector EO from the driver monitor sensor 11 to the pupil center 22 is clarified, and the known coordinate Q and the vector EQ to the pupil center 22 are also clarified. Further, an angle α formed by the vector EO and the vector EQ is obtained.

  Next, the distance r between the corneal reflection point 21 and the pupil center 22 is obtained from the positions of the corneal reflection point 21 and the pupil center 22. This distance r is a distance on three-dimensional coordinates. Further, the angle α formed with the distance r has a linear relationship, and a relationship r = f (α) is obtained.

  When this relational expression is obtained, the line-of-sight vector at the time of gazing at an unknown point can be calculated from α ′ by substituting r ′ obtained from the pupil center 22 and the corneal reflection point 21 at that time into the relational expression. . Note that α or α ′ is represented by two components in the horizontal direction and the elevation direction, respectively. In this embodiment, the determination is made based on the horizontal component. If necessary, the final gaze direction is obtained by correcting the gaze direction based on the already detected face orientation.

[Determination of vehicle status]
The vehicle state determination will be described. The vehicle state to be detected in the present embodiment is a vehicle state that is not necessarily a random driving even if the movement range of the line of sight is narrow as described above, so that a spontaneous driving operation is detected, for example, low speed driving This is a vehicle state in which a state, a traffic congestion state, frequent braking operations, and the like are detected.
Low-speed traveling state The vehicle state determination unit 17 detects that the host vehicle 30 is traveling at a low speed from the vehicle speed information detected by the vehicle speed sensor 12. When the vehicle speed is equal to or lower than a predetermined value, the vehicle state determination unit 17 determines that the driver is driving the vehicle voluntarily in a driving situation where the vehicle must travel at a low vehicle speed. In addition, since it cannot be said that it is driving | operating when it has stopped even if the vehicle speed is below predetermined value, it means that below predetermined value is larger than zero.

Further, since the vehicle speed may temporarily decrease during traveling, the vehicle state determination unit 17 operates at low speed only when the low-speed traveling state continues for a predetermined time (for example, 5 minutes to 10 minutes or more). It is determined that the state is present. Even if the duration of low-speed traveling is not particularly limited, a predetermined time must be elapsed to detect the stop of the line of sight, so that it is necessarily limited when determining the stop of the line of sight.
-At the time of traffic congestion There are a method of detecting whether the road on which the host vehicle 30 is traveling is congested, or a method of receiving traffic information from the outside. When the host vehicle 30 detects, similarly to the detection of the low-speed driving, when the low-speed driving state continues for a predetermined time (for example, 5 minutes to 10 minutes or more), the vehicle state determination unit 17 causes the host vehicle 30 to become congested. It is determined that it is involved.

In addition, when receiving traffic information, the traffic information receiving unit 13 receives traffic information distributed by the VICS (Vehicle Information and Communication System) to the FM method, radio wave beacon or optical beacon, and the presence or absence of traffic congestion or a link Based on the travel time, the vehicle state determination unit 17 determines whether or not the traveling road is congested. Similarly, it is possible to determine whether or not the vehicle is congested by the traffic information in a mode in which the center (server) collects and distributes the traveling information of the probe car. Note that the position of the host vehicle 30 is made clear by a navigation system equipped with GPS (Global Positioning System).
・ Frequent brake operation If the frequency of brake operation is large, the subconscious may be activated in the state where the brake operation is repeated even if the line of sight is stopped. Can be estimated. For example, the vehicle state determination unit 17 detects the number N of brake pedal operations for a predetermined time (for example, about 5 minutes), and is the vehicle situation (congestion etc.) where the host vehicle 30 frequently applies brakes based on the number of operations N? Determine whether or not. The number of operations N is detected from, for example, the number of times the stop lamp switch 14 is turned on, the number of times that the master cylinder pressure has become a predetermined value or more, the number of operations detected by the brake pedal stroke sensor, and the like.

[Alarm judgment]
The alarm determination unit 16 requests an alarm from the alarm actuator 18 based on the following rules.
1. When the range of movement of the line of sight within a predetermined time detected by the line-of-sight direction detection unit 15 is within the determination threshold value, even if the condition of 2.1 is satisfied, the vehicle state determination unit 17 “a vehicle that can be regarded as driving autonomously” If it is determined that the status is “Status”, alarm output is prohibited.

  Therefore, in the “vehicle situation that can be regarded as driving voluntarily”, an alarm is not sounded even if the line-of-sight direction stops, so that the driver can be prevented from feeling bothered.

  The alarm actuator 18 is a speaker that outputs a voice message, a buzzer generating unit that outputs an alarm sound, a display that displays a warning message, a vibration motor that generates vibration on a seat, a steering wheel, or the like. The alarm determination unit 16 requests the alarm actuator 18 to support in combination with one or more alarm actuators 18.

[Operation procedure]
FIG. 4 is an example of a flowchart illustrating a procedure in which the driving support device 100 detects a rough driving and supports the driver. The flowchart of FIG. 4 starts when, for example, the ignition is turned on and the switch of the driving support apparatus 100 is turned on, and is repeatedly executed every predetermined cycle time.

  For each face image photographed by the driver monitor sensor 11, the gaze direction detection unit 15 detects the gaze direction of the driver and stores the gaze direction for a predetermined time while deleting the oldest gaze direction from the detected gaze directions. (S10). Thereby, the moving range of the line of sight in a predetermined time becomes clear. One or more of not only the moving range but also the stopping time for each angle range when divided for each predetermined angle and the average time until the line of sight moves from left to right (or right to left). Whether or not the line of sight has stopped may be determined based on the index.

  The warning determination unit 16 determines whether or not the line of sight is stopped based on the detected movement range of the line of sight (S20). If the line of sight has not stopped (No in S20), there is no need to support, so the processing in FIG. 4 ends.

  When the line of sight is stopped (Yes in S20), the warning determination unit 16 determines whether the stopped direction is the front direction (S30). When the line of sight is stopped in a direction other than the front direction (No in S30), the alarm determination unit 16 requests the alarm actuator 18 to output an alarm because there is a possibility that the driver is watching the side or the navigation screen. (S70). For example, the alarm actuator 18 outputs a buzzer sound, outputs a message such as “Let's be careful” on the speaker, or causes vibrations in the seat or the steering wheel. Further, since the driver's line-of-sight direction is known, a similar message may be displayed on the display of the line-of-sight direction.

  When the line of sight is stopped in the front direction (Yes in S30), the vehicle state determination unit 17 detects the vehicle state (S40), and whether or not the driver is driving spontaneously based on the vehicle state (rarely) It is determined whether it is not driving | operation (S50).

As described above, there are, for example, three modes for determining whether or not the driving is spontaneous. In addition, you may determine whether it is a voluntary driving | operation from any one among these three aspects, and you may determine based on a combination of 2 or more.
・ Low-speed driving condition (Fig. 5 (a))
In order to detect the vehicle state, the vehicle state determination unit 17 acquires vehicle speed information from the vehicle speed sensor 12 (S40A). Then, it is determined whether or not the vehicle speed falls within the range of “0 to V [km / h]”, that is, whether or not the vehicle is running at a low speed (S50A). Since the vehicle is traveling at a low speed, the vehicle speed V is 20 km / h, for example.
・ During traffic jam (Fig. 5 (b))
In order to detect a vehicle state, the vehicle state determination part 17 acquires traffic information from VICS etc. (S40B). Then, it is determined whether the road on which the host vehicle 30 is currently traveling is congested (S50B).
・ Frequent brake operation (Fig. 5 (c))
In order to detect a vehicle state, the vehicle state determination part 17 acquires the frequency | count of the brake operation in predetermined time (S40C). Then, it is determined whether or not the brake operation frequency N is equal to or greater than a predetermined value (S50C).

  Returning to FIG. 4, when the driving operation is not performed spontaneously (No in S50), since the line of sight is stopped in the front direction, the alarm actuator 18 is requested to output an alarm (S70). For example, the alarm actuator 18 outputs a buzzer sound, outputs a message from the speaker such as “Look at the front direction. Be careful about driving casually”, or generate vibration on the seat or the steering wheel. Moreover, you may display the same message on the display (for example, head-up display) of a gaze direction.

  When it is determined that the vehicle is voluntarily driving (S50: Yes), the vehicle state determination unit 17 requests the warning determination unit 16 to prohibit the support (S60). In other words, even when the line of sight is stopped in the front direction, unnecessary warnings can be reduced by prohibiting warnings and the like when the driver can be regarded as voluntarily driving. Instead of prohibiting support, the amount of support may be reduced by, for example, reducing the volume of the alarm sound or changing the alarm sound. In other words, by providing support in a less urgent manner, it is possible to provide a minimum amount of support even when driving spontaneously.

  As described above, the driving assistance device 100 according to the present embodiment prohibits the assistance for the stop of the line of sight when a spontaneous driving operation is detected from the vehicle state, so that unnecessary warnings can be reduced. Reducing unnecessary warnings will also improve fuel efficiency.

  In the present embodiment, the prohibition of alarm has been described as an example, but it can be similarly applied to other vehicle controls. For example, in PCS (pre-crash safety system), the possibility of collision with an obstacle is replaced with TTC (Time To Collision), and when there is a possibility of a collision based on TTC, there is a high possibility of b collision , C When the collision is unavoidable, the vehicle control is executed at each timing according to the case. For example, PCS often provides assistance such as sounding a warning sound to the driver when there is a possibility of a collision, and applying automatic braking when the possibility of a collision is high.

  In addition, in LWD (Lane Warning Departure), a lane division line (hereinafter referred to as a white line) that divides a driving lane is photographed by a camera, and there is a possibility of deviating from the white line after a predetermined time T seconds from the traveling direction of the host vehicle 30 and the vehicle speed. If it is determined, a warning sound is emitted to the driver.

  In vehicle control such as PCS and LWD, the timing of assistance can be advanced with respect to the driver's snoozing and casual driving. However, by applying the driving assistance device 100 of this embodiment, the stop of the line of sight is detected. Even if the vehicle is in a state where the vehicle is autonomously operated, assistance can be prohibited. In other words, in the situation where support is started early, unnecessary support may be higher than in the case where support is not provided early, but in this example, the support itself is prohibited, so unnecessary warnings, etc. are more effectively issued. Can be reduced.

  In the first embodiment, the warning is prohibited in the case of the vehicle state where the driving operation is voluntarily performed. However, in the present embodiment, the driving support for reducing the false alarm when the driving operation is voluntarily performed in another mode. The apparatus 100 will be described. In the present embodiment, a driving support device 100 is described in which, when a state of a vehicle that is voluntarily driving is detected, an alarm is not prohibited but a determination threshold is variable according to the vehicle speed.

  FIG. 6A shows an example of a functional block diagram of the driving support device 100. In FIG. 6A, the same parts as those in FIG. The driving support device 100 in FIG. 6A includes a determination threshold value adjustment unit 19. The determination threshold adjustment unit 19 increases or decreases the determination threshold for determining whether or not the line of sight is stopped according to the vehicle speed. As described in the first embodiment, when the vehicle speed is low due to traffic jams or the like, it is possible that the driver is voluntarily driving the vehicle. Therefore, it is preferable that the movement range of the line of sight can be allowed to be smaller as the vehicle speed is lower. Become. Therefore, the determination threshold adjustment unit 19 increases or decreases the determination threshold so that the determination threshold decreases as the vehicle speed decreases.

  FIG. 6B is an example of a threshold map showing the relationship between the vehicle speed and the determination threshold. The threshold map is stored in advance in a nonvolatile memory of the control unit 20, for example. As shown in the figure, when the vehicle speed is low, the determination threshold value is also small, and the range of movement of the line of sight tends to exceed the determination threshold value. Therefore, when the vehicle speed is low, the frequency of determining that the line of sight is stopped can be reduced.

  FIG. 7 is an example of a flowchart illustrating a procedure in which the driving support apparatus 100 detects a rough driving and supports the driver. In FIG. 7, the same steps as those in FIG.

  For each face image photographed by the driver monitor sensor 11, the gaze direction detection unit 15 detects the gaze direction of the driver and stores the gaze direction for a predetermined time while deleting the oldest gaze direction from the detected gaze directions. (S10). Next, the determination threshold adjustment unit 19 adjusts the determination threshold based on the vehicle speed acquired from the vehicle speed sensor 12 (S15).

  The warning determination unit 16 determines whether or not the line of sight is stopped based on the determination threshold adjusted according to the vehicle speed (S20). Therefore, when the vehicle speed is low, it is difficult to determine that the line of sight is stopped.

  The subsequent processing is the same as in the first embodiment. That is, when the line of sight is stopped in the front direction and it is determined that the driver is voluntarily driving based on the vehicle state (Yes in S50), the vehicle state determination unit 17 determines the alarm. The unit 16 is requested to prohibit the alarm (S60). That is, even if the line of sight is stopped in the front direction, unnecessary alarms can be reduced by prohibiting alarms when the driver can be regarded as driving autonomously.

  Therefore, according to the present embodiment, in addition to the effects of the first embodiment, it is difficult to determine that the line of sight is stopped when traveling at a low speed, and thus an unnecessary alarm can be further prevented.

  In the first and second embodiments, the alarm is prohibited in the case of a vehicle state where the driving operation is voluntarily performed. However, it is considered that the awakening level may be lowered and the driving may be abrupt even during low-speed driving. For this reason, even if a spontaneous driving operation is detected, it may not be preferable to uniformly prohibit the alarm. Therefore, in this embodiment, when the state of the vehicle that is voluntarily driving is detected, it is determined again whether or not the line of sight is stopped, and when the line of sight is stopped, an alarm is output. The support device 100 will be described.

  The functional block diagram is the same as that shown in FIG. In this embodiment, after it is determined that the driver is driving spontaneously, the alarm determination unit 16 determines whether or not the line of sight is stopped at the second determination threshold. As in the second embodiment, the second determination threshold is increased or decreased by the determination threshold adjustment unit 19 according to the vehicle speed, for example. Therefore, even if it is determined that the vehicle is being operated voluntarily, it is possible to provide assistance to the driver when the movement range of the line of sight is extremely narrow.

  FIG. 8 is an example of a flowchart illustrating a procedure in which the driving support apparatus 100 detects a rough driving and supports the driver. In FIG. 8, the description of the same steps as those in FIG. 4 is omitted.

  In FIG. 8, the procedure up to step S50 is the same as in FIG. Therefore, the determination threshold value at the time of determination in step S20 is constant regardless of the vehicle speed.

  If it is determined in step S50 that the vehicle is spontaneously operated (Yes in S50), the determination threshold adjustment unit 19 adjusts the determination threshold based on the vehicle speed acquired from the vehicle speed sensor 12 (S51).

  The warning determination unit 16 determines whether or not the line of sight is stopped based on the second determination threshold adjusted according to the vehicle speed (S52). The second determination threshold is adjusted so that the smaller the vehicle speed, the more difficult it is to determine that the line of sight is stationary.

  Therefore, when it is determined that the line of sight is stopped by the second determination threshold, it can be considered that the movement range of the driver's line of sight is too narrow. For this reason, when it is determined that the line of sight is stationary (Yes in S52), the alarm determination unit 16 requests the alarm actuator 18 to output an alarm (S70). For example, the alarm actuator 18 outputs a buzzer sound, outputs a message from the speaker such as “Look at the front direction. Be careful about driving casually”, or generate vibration on the seat or the steering wheel. Moreover, you may display the same message on the display (for example, head-up display) of a gaze direction.

  When it is not determined that the line of sight is stopped (No in S52), the vehicle state determination unit 17 requests the warning determination unit 16 to prohibit support (S60). In other words, even if the line of sight is facing in the front direction, it can be considered that the driver is voluntarily driving due to traffic congestion etc. in the low speed driving state, so even if the line of sight stops, the warning is prohibited. Unnecessary alarms can be avoided.

  As described above, the driving support device 100 according to the present embodiment prohibits a warning for the stop of the line of sight when traveling at a low speed or the like, so that an unnecessary alarm can be prevented and the movement range of the line of sight is extremely narrow. In such a case, the driver can be supported, so that it is possible to reliably prevent the driver from driving at a low speed.

It is an example of the figure which illustrates the stop of a gaze direction typically. It is an example of the functional block diagram of a driving assistance device. It is an example of the figure which shows the detection of a gaze direction typically. (Example 1) which is an example of the flowchart figure which shows the procedure in which a driving assistance device detects a rough driving and warns a driver. It is a figure which shows the example of the determination procedure whether it is a voluntary driving | operation. It is an example of the functional block diagram of a driving assistance device. (Example 2) which is an example of the flowchart figure which shows the procedure which a driving assistance device detects a rough driving and warns a driver. (Example 3) which is an example of the flowchart figure which shows the procedure which a driving assistance device detects a rough driving and warns a driver.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Driver monitor sensor 12 Vehicle speed sensor 15 Gaze direction detection part 16 Alarm determination part 17 Vehicle state determination part 18 Alarm actuator 19 Determination threshold value adjustment part 100 Driving support device

Claims (6)

In a driving support device that supports the driver based on the movement of the driver's line of sight,
A vehicle speed sensor for detecting the vehicle speed;
Support determination means for determining whether or not to support based on the magnitude of eye movement,
The support determination means suppresses the support amount by allowing the line of sight movement to be smaller as the vehicle speed is lower.
A driving support device characterized by that. In a driving support device that supports the driver based on the movement of the driver's line of sight,
It has a vehicle speed sensor that detects the vehicle speed,
Vehicle state determination means for determining whether or not the vehicle speed is a low speed traveling state below a predetermined value;
Support determination means for determining whether or not to support based on the magnitude of eye movement,
The support determination means suppresses the amount of support when it is determined that the line of sight is stationary in the front direction and when the vehicle state determination means determines that the vehicle is in a low speed running state,
A driving support device characterized by that. The vehicle state determination means determines whether or not the vehicle is traveling in a traffic jam row, not whether or not it is in a low-speed traveling state,
The support determination means prohibits support when it is determined that the line of sight is stationary in the front direction and when the vehicle state determination means determines that the vehicle is traveling in a traffic jam line,
The driving support apparatus according to claim 2, wherein: The vehicle state determination means determines whether or not the brake operation frequency is a predetermined value or more, not whether or not the vehicle is in a low-speed traveling state,
The support determination unit prohibits support when it is determined that the line of sight is stationary in the front direction and the vehicle state determination unit determines that the brake operation frequency is equal to or higher than a predetermined value. ,
The driving support apparatus according to claim 2, wherein: A determination threshold adjustment unit that adjusts a determination threshold to allow a smaller line of sight movement as the vehicle speed is smaller;
Even if it is determined that the line of sight is stationary in the front direction by the determination threshold before adjustment, and it is determined that the vehicle is in a low-speed traveling state,
The support determination means assists the driver when determining that the line of sight movement is small by a determination threshold adjusted to allow the line of sight movement to be small.
The driving support apparatus according to claim 2, wherein: In the driving support method of the driving support device that supports the driver when the driver's eye movement is small,
The smaller the vehicle speed detected by the vehicle speed sensor, the smaller the movement of the line of sight, and the smaller the support amount.
A driving support method characterized by the above.

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