Mitsubishi Jidosha Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Toru Hara

Yoshinaka Kawakami

Tetsuya Furuichi

Yoshihiro Goi

Sae Kumakura

Koichi Kamiya

An apparatus for estimating a drowsiness level of a vehicle driver first prepares a frequency distribution of blink durations of the driver for a first predetermined period after the start of a driving operation, and sets a threshold value for a discrimination of slow blinks by the frequency distribution. Thereafter, the apparatus calculates, every second predetermined period, a ratio of the number of slow blinks to the total number of blinks of the driver's eyes during the second period, and discriminates a rise in the drowsiness level of the driver in accordance with the calculated ratio.

Apparatus for estimating the drowsiness level of a vehicle driver

Driving attentiveness judging method and apparatus for accurately determining the driver's attentiveness level during driving of a motor vehicle are provided wherein steering angle data and vehicle speed data, respectively supplied from a steering angle sensor and a vehicle speed sensor, are sampled by a steering angle data sampling section and a vehicle speed data sampling section, respectively. Respective levels of road shape component, visual steering component, and corrective steering component of the steering angle data are detected by a steering angle data processing section, and a fuzzy inference output representing a driving attentiveness level is obtained by a fuzzy inference section in accordance with fuzzy rules and the three steering component levels. In accordance with the fuzzy inference output which has been subjected to vehicle speed-dependent correction by a vehicle speed correcting section, the driving attentiveness level is displayed at a display device, and also a warning mark is displayed if the vehicle speed-corrected fuzzy inference output is small.

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Okazaki, Japan

Toru Hara