The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 26, 2010
Filed:
Mar. 25, 2008
Kenji Ishida, Nagoya, JP;
Kenji Ishida, Nagoya, JP;
DENSO CORPORATION, Kariya, JP;
Abstract
A drowsiness alarm apparatus and a program for decreasing the possibility of incorrectly issuing an alarm due to an expressed emotion is provided. A wakefulness degree calculation apparatus performs a wakeful face feature collection process to collect a wakefulness degree criterion and an average representative feature distance. A doze alarm process collects a characteristic opening degree value and a characteristic feature distance. The wakefulness degree criterion is compared with the characteristic opening degree value to estimate a wakefulness degree. The average representative feature distance is compared with the characteristic feature distance to determine whether the face of the driver expresses a specific emotion. If the face expresses the emotion, alarm output is inhibited. When the face does not express the emotion, an alarm is output in accordance with the degree of decreased wakefulness so as to provide an increased alarm degree for the driver if necessary.