Systems and methods for monitoring a vehicle operator and for monitoring an operating environment within the vehicle

Abstract

The present disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for monitoring a vehicle operator and for monitoring the environment of a vehicle operator. In particularly, the present disclosure relates to systems and methods for determining a physical position of an operator within a vehicle and for determining environmental conditions surrounding the vehicle operator. The systems may include at least one of: an image sensor, an infrared sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, a microphone or a combination or sub-combination thereof. The methods may determine a position and/or an orientation of a vehicle operator's head, arms, hands, legs, feet, etc., a combination thereof or a sub-combination thereof. The methods may generate a warning when a position of the vehicle operator is inappropriate, such as when the vehicle operator has not looked in front of the vehicle for an extended period of time when the vehicle is travelling forward, when the vehicle operator is looking at a cellular telephone, when the vehicle operator has been looking downward for an extended period of time, etc.