JP3763668B2 - Awakening maintenance device for vehicles - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a vehicle wakefulness maintaining device that promotes awakening to a driver and maintains a wakeful state without impairing comfort when the degree of wakefulness decreases during driving of the vehicle.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In order to prevent the vehicle from falling asleep, when it is determined that the degree of arousal has decreased during driving due to the state of the driver or the driving state of the vehicle, a warning is given to the driver by a buzzer or the like to encourage the awakening Various snoozing prevention devices have been proposed. However, if a warning is given to the driver by a stimulus such as a buzzer, the effect of habituation will occur every time the stimulus is repeated, and the effect will be halved, or the driver will be alerted except when the driver's arousal state is reliably reduced It makes you feel uncomfortable.
[0003]
Therefore, there has been proposed a dozing prevention device that activates the scent generating means when the induced state of dozing driving or the dozing state is detected from the driving state of the vehicle, and urges the driver to wake up by the scent. -99028). When the cumulative time of the low vehicle speed state within a predetermined determination time exceeds a specified time, this dozing prevention device determines that a drowsy driving is likely to occur and periodically generates a scent. .
[0004]
The driver does not feel uncomfortable by urging the driver with the scent. Moreover, the influence of habituation does not arise by generating a scent with the period when olfactory fatigue does not occur.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
Conventional snooze prevention devices try to prevent snooze driving by generating a scent in the snooze driving induced state (or when a snoozing state is detected), but the state of inducing snoozing driving and the actual snoozing Since the operating conditions are evaluated equally, the following problems arise.
[0006]
If the scent is generated to such an extent that an improvement in arousal level can be expected based on the drowsy driving state, the driver may be stimulated more than necessary in the dozing driving induced state. In other words, the driver is not necessarily in the drowsy driving state in the state of inducing drowsy driving, and giving a scent that can be expected to improve the arousal level from the drowsing driving state may cause discomfort to the driver. It can be. Moreover, a fragrance | flavor will be consumed wastefully.
[0007]
In addition, if the scent is generated to such an extent that the arousal level can be expected to be maintained with reference to the induced state of doze driving, the scent is insufficiently stimulated in the doze driving state, and a sufficient doze driving prevention effect cannot be obtained.
[0008]
The present invention has been made in view of the above situation, and an object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle wakefulness maintenance device that efficiently promotes wakefulness to a driver and maintains the wakefulness state efficiently without impairing comfort. To do.
[0009]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, the configuration of the present invention according to claim 1 is the wakefulness level determination means for determining that the driver's level of wakefulness has decreased when the driver's level of caution decrease is a specified value or more. And a monotonous driving state determination means for determining that the driver is in a monotonous driving state that induces a decrease in the driver's arousal level when the monotonicity of the driving operation is increased, and a scent for awakening in the passenger compartment. When it is detected that the scent is generated by the scent generation means to be generated and the monotonous operation state determination means, the scent is generated at a fluctuation interval, and the wakefulness reduction is detected by the wakefulness reduction determination means. Then, control means for controlling the operation of the scent generating means so as to generate the scent at a constant interval shorter than the fluctuation interval in preference to the detection of the monotonous operation state. To. In the monotonous driving state that induces a decrease in arousal level, the driver's arousal is generated at an appropriate stimulation timing without any discomfort for the driver at the fluctuation interval, and when the driver's arousal level decreases, The driver's arousal level is restored by generating a scent at a constant interval shorter than the fluctuation interval and giving a stronger stimulus in a pattern different from that of monotonous driving. Moreover, the further fall of arousal level is suppressed.
The invention of claim 2 according to claim 2 is the vehicle awakening maintenance device according to claim 1, wherein when the control means detects the monotonous driving state by the monotonous driving state determination means, The scent is generated if a predetermined time has passed since the scent presentation.
Further, according to a third aspect of the present invention, in the vehicle alertness maintaining device according to the first or second aspect, the degree of reduction in attention is determined based on a meandering rate of the vehicle, a steering amount, and the monotonicity. It is characterized by that.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the vehicle wakefulness maintaining device according to any one of the first to third aspects, the monotonicity is an operation within a predetermined time of the clutch, the winker, and the exhaust brake. It is calculated based on the frequency.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the vehicle wakefulness maintaining device according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, the meandering rate of the vehicle is obtained based on information from a white line recognition camera. It is characterized by that.
[0010]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration of a scent generating means of a vehicle wakefulness maintaining device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block configuration of a control device of a vehicle wakefulness maintaining device, and FIG. The flowchart and FIG. 4 show a graph representing the relationship between the scent presentation frequency and the scent presentation time interval.
[0011]
As shown in FIG. 1, a fragrance device 1 as a scent generating means mounted on a vehicle is provided with a tank 3 in a case 2, and a liquid fragrance is placed in the tank 3. The tank 3 is provided with a spray piston 4, which is actuated by a motor 5 to spray the fragrance into the transpiration chamber 6 in the case 2. A heat plate 7 is provided in the transpiration chamber 6, and the fragrance sprayed on the heat plate 7 is forcibly vaporized, and the fragrance of the fragrance is presented from the duct 9 to the vehicle interior by the fan 8. The damper 10 is configured to open and close in conjunction with the start / stop of the fan 8, and is open when the fan 8 is operating. In addition, when the damper 10 of the transpiration chamber 6 is closed simultaneously with the stop of the fan 8, the presentation of the scent to the vehicle interior is stopped. The operation of the motor 5 and the fan 8 is controlled based on a command from a drive command unit 12 as a control unit of the control device 11.
[0012]
In addition, as the fragrance device 1, it is possible to provide a solid fragrance and cover the fragrance with a movable cover so that the fragrance of the fragrance is presented by moving the cover. In this case, the configuration is greatly simplified.
[0013]
The control apparatus 11 is demonstrated based on FIG. Information on the white line recognition camera 13 is input to the control device 11 to determine the meandering rate of the vehicle, information on the vehicle speed sensor 14 is input to determine the vehicle speed of the vehicle, and information on the steering angle sensor 15 is input. The steering amount of the steering wheel is required. Based on the meandering rate of the vehicle, the steering amount, and the monotonicity described later, the driver's attention reduction degree is determined by a determination using a known fuzzy theory. When the degree of attention reduction is equal to or greater than the specified value, it is determined by the arousal level reduction determination means 16 that the attention level is reduced and the arousal level is reduced. The vehicle speed information is used for detection of a vehicle speed region in which the degree of attention reduction can be determined, and the degree of attention reduction is determined only in a region of a predetermined vehicle speed or higher.
[0014]
The control device 11 receives information on the clutch switch 17 of the vehicle to recognize the operation status of the clutch, and receives information on the winker switch 18 and the exhaust brake switch 19 to recognize the operation status of the winker and the exhaust brake. Is done. Based on the operation frequency within a predetermined time of the clutch, the winker, and the exhaust brake, the monotonicity of the driving operation of the driver is sequentially calculated. If the average monotonicity per unit time increases even if the degree of attention reduction is below the specified value, the monotonous driving state determination means 20 is in the state of arousal but the monotonicity is increased, that is, the degree of arousal is reduced. It is determined that this is a state that induces.
[0015]
When it is determined that the state of arousal is reduced, the state of arousal but monotonicity is increased, and the state of arousal and monotonicity is not increased, the determination information is driven. It is sent to the command unit 12. When it is determined that the arousal level is in a lowered state, the operation control of the motor 5 and the fan 8 of the fragrance device 1 is performed so that the scent is presented intermittently every minute. When it is determined that the state is an awakening state but the monotonicity is increased, the operation control of the motor 5 and the fan 8 of the fragrance device 1 is performed so as to present a scent at a fluctuation interval (1 / f fluctuation interval). At this time, if a predetermined time (for example, 5 minutes) has elapsed from the previous scent presentation by the timer 21, the scent is presented at 1 / f fluctuation intervals. When it is determined that the state is an awake state and the monotonicity has not increased, the operation control of the motor 5 and the fan 8 of the fragrance device 1 is performed in a state where the scent presentation is stopped.
[0016]
When presenting a scent at a fluctuation interval (1 / f fluctuation), as shown in FIG. 4, the relationship between the frequency of scent presentation and the scent presentation time interval is set. In other words, in a state where the scent presentation frequency is high when the time interval is short and the scent presentation frequency is low when the time interval is long, the scent is presented with an arbitrary interval difference that is not constant. ing. For example, the period of sleepiness during driving has been confirmed to be about 7 minutes by experiments and the like. For this reason, it is controlled so as to present a scent at a 1 / f fluctuation interval in a time interval between 5 minutes and 9 minutes across 7 minutes.
[0017]
Based on FIG. 3, the operation of the vehicle wakefulness maintaining apparatus configured as described above will be described.
[0018]
In step S1, initialization such as data reset is performed, and in step S2, data of various sensors and switches are read. In step S3, based on whether or not the driver's attention reduction degree is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, that is, the meandering rate of the vehicle recognized by the white line recognition camera 13, the steering amount recognized by the steering angle sensor 15, and the monotonicity. It is determined whether or not the degree of attention reduction determined is greater than or equal to a specified value.
[0019]
If it is determined in step S3 that the driver's attention reduction level is greater than or equal to the specified value, that is, if it is determined that the attention level is reduced and the arousal level is reduced, the fluctuation interval is shorter in step S4. The driving of the motor 5 of the fragrance device 1 and the opening and closing of the damper 10 are controlled so as to present a scent intermittently every minute of the interval. As a result, when the driver's arousal level is reduced, a relatively strong scent can be presented, and the driver's arousal level can be efficiently recovered (or the awakening level can be further reduced). Can be reliably suppressed).
[0020]
If it is determined in step S3 that the driver's degree of attention reduction is less than the prescribed value, that is, if it is determined that the driver's attention is not reduced and is in an awake state, information on the clutch switch 17 is determined in step S5. Then, it is determined whether or not the average per unit time of the monotonicity of the driving operation determined based on the operation state of the clutch, the winker and the exhaust brake based on the information of the winker switch 18 and the exhaust brake switch 19 is increased.
[0021]
If it is determined in step S5 that the average monotonicity of the driving operation per unit time is increased, that is, it is determined that the state is an arousal state but the monotonicity increases to induce a decrease in the arousal level. If so, it is determined in step S6 whether or not 5 minutes have passed since the previous scent presentation. If it is determined in step S6 that 5 minutes have elapsed, the operations of the motor 5 and the fan 8 of the fragrance device 1 are controlled so as to present the scent at 1 / f fluctuation intervals in step S7. As a result, if the driver is in an awake state but in a monotonous driving state that induces a decrease in the arousal level, the scent is generated at 1 / f fluctuation intervals and presented to the driver at an appropriate stimulus timing without discomfort. And the driver's arousal level can be efficiently maintained. Moreover, since the scent is generated at the 1 / f fluctuation interval in the monotonous operation state, consumption of the fragrance can be suppressed.
[0022]
If it is determined in step S5 that the monotonicity of the driving operation per unit time is not increased, the driver is in an awake state and is not in a state of inducing a decrease in the arousal level. The driving of the motor 5 of the fragrance device 1 and the opening / closing of the damper 10 are controlled so that the presentation is stopped. If it is determined in step S6 that five minutes have not elapsed since the previous scent presentation, the operation of the motor 5 and the fan 8 of the fragrance device 1 is controlled to stop the scent presentation in step S8. Since the scent is generated at the 1 / f fluctuation interval only when 5 minutes or more have passed since the previous scent presentation, the scent is not presented in the state of olfactory fatigue.
[0023]
In the vehicle wakefulness maintenance device described above, when the driver is in the wakeful state but in a state where the monotony increases and induces a decrease in the wakefulness, the scent is generated at the 1 / f fluctuation interval. A scent can be generated at an appropriate stimulus timing without discomfort for the driver, and the driver's arousal level can be efficiently maintained. Further, it is possible to suppress the consumption of the fragrance in the awake state and simply in the monotonous operation state.
[0024]
In addition, when the driver's arousal level decreases, the scent is generated at intermittent intervals of 1 minute shorter than the 1 / f fluctuation interval in preference to the detection of the monotonous driving state. A stronger stimulus can be given in a pattern different from that in the case where the vehicle is detected, and the driver's arousal level can be efficiently recovered (or a further decrease in the arousal level can be reliably suppressed).
[0025]
Therefore, it is possible to maintain an arousal state without causing discomfort to the driver, to suppress wasteful consumption of the fragrance, and to reliably improve the arousal level when the arousal level is lowered. Can do.
[0026]
In addition, this invention is not limited to the said embodiment example, As a wakefulness fall determination means or a monotonous driving | running state determination means, what uses another system, another sensor, and another input parameter is used. Also good.
[0027]
【The invention's effect】
The vehicle wakefulness maintenance device generates a scent at a fluctuation interval when the monotonous driving state determination means detects that it is in a monotonous driving state, and monotonously when it detects that the wakefulness level has decreased by the wakefulness reduction determination means. Since the operation of the scent-generating means is controlled so that the scent is generated at a fixed interval shorter than the fluctuation interval when the driving state is detected, the fluctuation occurs in the monotonous driving state that induces a decrease in arousal level. When the driver's arousal level is maintained by generating a scent at an appropriate timing without discomfort for the driver at intervals, when the arousal level decreases, the pattern is different from that during monotonous driving at regular intervals shorter than the fluctuation interval. It is possible to restore the driver's arousal level (or to reliably suppress further reduction in the arousal level) by generating a scent in a state where a stronger stimulus is applied. As a result, it is possible to efficiently wake up the driver and maintain the wakeful state efficiently without impairing comfort.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of scent generating means of a vehicle wakefulness maintaining device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block configuration diagram of a control device of the vehicle wakefulness maintaining device.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart of scent presentation control.
FIG. 4 is a graph showing the relationship between the scent presentation frequency and the scent presentation time interval.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Aroma apparatus 11 Control apparatus 12 Drive instruction | command part 13 White line recognition camera 14 Vehicle speed sensor 15 Steering angle sensor 16 Awakening degree fall determination means 17 Clutch switch 18 Winker switch 19 Exhaust brake switch 20 Monotonous driving state determination means

Claims (5)

Arousal level decrease determination means for determining that the driver's arousal level has decreased when the driver's attention level decreases above a specified value;
Monotonous driving state determination means for determining that the driver is in a monotonous driving state that induces a decrease in the arousal level when the monotonicity of the driving operation is increased;
A scent generating means for generating a scent for awakening in the passenger compartment;
When the monotonous driving state determination means detects that the vehicle is in the monotonous driving state, the scent is generated at a fluctuation interval, and when the wakefulness level reduction determination means detects that the wakefulness level is reduced, the monotonous driving state is detected. Control means for controlling the operation of the scent generating means to generate the scent at a constant interval shorter than the fluctuation interval in preference to
A vehicle wakefulness maintaining device characterized by comprising: In the vehicle awakening maintenance apparatus according to claim 1,
When the control means detects the monotonous driving state by the monotonous driving state determination means, the control means generates the scent if a predetermined time has passed since the previous scent presentation. Maintenance device. In the vehicle wakefulness maintaining device according to claim 1 or 2,
The degree of attention reduction is determined based on a meandering rate of a vehicle, a steering amount, and the monotonicity. In the wakefulness maintenance apparatus for vehicles as described in any one of Claims 1 thru | or 3,
The vehicle monotonicity is calculated based on an operation frequency within a predetermined time of a clutch, a winker, and an exhaust brake. In the awakening maintenance apparatus for vehicles as described in any one of Claims 1 thru | or 4,
A waking maintenance device for a vehicle, wherein the meandering rate of the vehicle is obtained based on information from a white line recognition camera.

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