JP6710585B2 - Biological information measuring device and program - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a biological information measuring device and a program for measuring biological information of a driver of a vehicle and transmitting it to an external device.

Conventionally, the biological information when the vehicle is traveling and the biological information when the vehicle is stopped are measured, and a biological change value indicating the degree of each change is calculated to calculate the biological state of the driver (a driver including a drowsiness state and an excited state). There is known a driver state determination device configured to determine the physical condition (for example, see Patent Document 1).

JP, 2009-213768, A

By the way, although the driver state determination device disclosed in Patent Document 1 measures biological information when the vehicle is traveling, considering the heart rate as the biological information, it is irrelevant to the physical state of the driver himself. There is a problem that it is difficult to obtain accurate biometric information such as the heart rate when the vehicle is running, because the fluctuations due to the presence or absence of the physical factors are large. For example, considering the case where an obstacle ahead is suddenly noticed while the vehicle is traveling, the heart rate rapidly increases even if there is no significant change in the biological condition of the driver himself. Comparing such a situation with a case where the driver suddenly feels sick and the heart rate sharply rises, it is difficult to make a distinction by observing only the heart rate.

Further, assuming a case where the biometric information acquired in this way is transmitted to the outside to determine the health condition of the driver, the biometric information associated with the occurrence of external factors can be said to be invalid data for the determination of the health condition. However, if such invalid data is transmitted from the vehicle to the outside, there is a problem that the amount of data and communication cost increase.

The present invention was created in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a biometric information measuring device, method, and program capable of acquiring accurate biometric information when a vehicle is traveling. Another object of the present invention is to provide a biological information measuring device and a program capable of reducing the data amount and communication cost when transmitting biological information from the vehicle to the outside.

In order to solve the above-described problems, the biological information measuring device of the present invention is a biological information detecting unit that detects biological information of a driver of a vehicle, and an external factor that detects an external factor that causes a change in the biological information of the driver. The detection means, the biometric information abnormality determination means for determining whether the biometric information detected by the biometric information detection means is out of the normal range, and the determination that the biometric information is out of the normal range by the biometric information abnormality determination means Biometric information validity/invalidity determining means for determining validity/invalidity of the biometric information detected by the biometric information detecting means based on the presence/absence of external factor detection by the external factor detecting means. The biometric information validity/invalidity determining means described above is used when the biometric information abnormality determining means determines that the biometric information is out of the normal range, and when the external factor is detected by the external factor detecting means. , biological information detected by the biometric information detecting means is performing the determination that it is invalid.

Further, the biological information measuring program of the present invention includes a computer, a biological information detecting means for detecting biological information of a driver of a vehicle, an external factor detecting means for detecting an external factor that causes a change in the biological information of the driver, When the biometric information abnormality determining means for determining whether or not the biometric information detected by the biometric information detecting means is outside the normal range, and when the biometric information abnormality determining means determines that the biometric information is out of the normal range Further, it is made to function as biometric information validity/invalidity determination means for determining validity/invalidity of the biometric information detected by the biometric information detection means based on the presence/absence of external factor detection by the external factor detection means.

Even if there is no change in the driver's health condition while the vehicle is running, sudden external factors may cause a sudden change in biometric information. By invalidating the variation of the biometric information that occurs, it is possible to obtain the correct biometric information when the vehicle is traveling.

Further, it is desirable to further include biometric information transmitting means for transmitting the biometric information, which has been determined to be valid by the biometric information validity/invalidity determining means described above, to an external device. As a result of determining whether the biometric information is valid or invalid, valid biometric information is transmitted to the external device, and by not transmitting invalid biometric information, the amount of data to be transmitted and the communication cost are reduced. be able to.

Further, it is desirable that the above-mentioned biometric information transmitting means transmits biometric information to a server as an external device via a network. By reducing the amount of data transmitted via the network, it is possible to reduce the communication time and the load required for communication processing.

The external factor detection means described above detects an obstacle around the vehicle as external factors. By excluding the fluctuation of the biometric information when the obstacle suddenly appears, it is possible to obtain only the biometric information in normal times.

It is a figure which shows the whole structure of the vehicle driving assistance system of one embodiment. It is a figure which shows the detailed structure of a biological information measurement and driving support device. It is a figure which shows the detailed structure of a cloud server. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of detecting and transmitting biometric information in the biometric information measurement/driving support device. It is explanatory drawing in the case where the abnormality of biometric information and the occurrence of an external factor overlap. It is an explanation when the abnormality of the biometric information occurs independently.

Hereinafter, a vehicle driving support system of an embodiment to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a vehicle driving support system according to an embodiment. The vehicle driving support system shown in FIG. 1 is based on the biological information measuring/driving supporting device 100 mounted on each vehicle, and the biological information measuring/driving based on the biological information sent from the biological information measuring/driving supporting device 100. The cloud server 200 includes a cloud server 200 that creates and transmits proposal information necessary for driving support to a vehicle equipped with the support device 100. The biological information measurement/driving support device 100 and the cloud server 200 are connected via a predetermined network 300. The network 300 includes various communication networks such as a mobile telephone network and the Internet.

Next, details of the biological information measurement/driving support device 100 will be described. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a detailed configuration of the biological information measurement/driving support device 100. As shown in FIG. 2, the biological information measurement/driving support apparatus 100 includes a biological sensor 10, a camera 12, a biological information measurement control unit 20, a driving support control unit 30, and a communication module 40.

The biometric sensor 10 is a type of sensor necessary for detecting biometric information of a driver of a vehicle equipped with the biometric information measurement/driving support device 100. The biometric information to be detected may include various information such as ECG (Electrocardiogram, electrocardiogram), heart rate, and blood pressure capable of predicting changes in the health condition of the driver. The number of pieces of biometric information to be detected may be one or two or more. As the biometric sensor 10 required for detection, various sensors suitable for biometric information to be detected, for example, electrodes installed on a steering wheel or the like, various sensors directly attached to a driver's arm or the like, a driver's face A camera or the like for capturing an image can be used.

In the following description, in order to make the description easy to understand, the heart rate of the driver is considered as the biometric information. Further, in order to detect the heart rate, it is necessary to detect the electric potentials of the left and right hands of the driver. In this case, electrodes provided on the left and right of the steering wheel can be used as the biosensor 10.

The camera 12 is for detecting an external factor that may cause the driver to change the biological information. For example, a predetermined range in front of the vehicle is provided at a position where an image can be captured, and a sudden jump (obstacle) such as a pedestrian or a bicycle that causes a near-hat is captured by the camera 12. In the present embodiment, the camera 12 is used to detect the above-mentioned external factors, but instead of the camera 12, or with the camera 12, another detection mechanism (for example, a millimeter wave radar or the like) is used. You may make it detect the other factor mentioned above. Further, these cameras 12 and other detection mechanisms may be installed in a plurality of places of the vehicle.

The biological information measurement control unit 20 uses various types of processing, specifically, biological information, by using the output of the biological sensor 10, the image captured by the camera 12, and the data output from the ECU (vehicle control device). Detection, external factor detection, biometric information abnormality determination, biometric information validity/invalidity determination, biometric information transmission processing to the cloud server 200, and the like are performed. For this purpose, the biometric information measurement control unit 20 includes a biometric information detection unit 21, a biometric information abnormality determination unit 22, an external factor detection unit 23, a biometric information validity/invalidity determination unit 24, and a biometric information transmission unit 25. The biological information measurement control unit 20 and the driving support control unit 30 are configured to include a CPU, a RAM, a ROM, and the like, and perform various operations as a computer by executing a predetermined program stored in the RAM, the ROM, or the like. To do.

The biometric information detection unit 21 detects the biometric information of the driver based on the output of the biometric sensor 10. When the heart rate as the biometric information is detected using the biometric sensor 10 including the left and right electrodes installed on the steering wheel, the biometric information detection unit 21 determines the potential difference between the respective potentials of the left and right electrodes. An ECG is calculated, an RRI (RR interval) that is a time difference between two adjacent R waves included in this ECG is calculated, and a heart rate (=60,000/RRI) can be obtained from this RRI.

The biometric information abnormality determination unit 22 determines whether the biometric information (heart rate) obtained by the biometric information detection unit 21 is outside the normal range. The "normal range" here does not mean the range of the heart rate that can be taken as a human being, but the range of the heart rate when assuming a normal (healthy) driver who does not have an abnormality. ..

The external factor detection unit 23 detects an external factor that causes a change in the biometric information of the driver, using the image captured by the camera 12 and the data output from the ECU 50. For example, the external factor detection unit 23 extracts pedestrians, bicycles, and other vehicles included in the image captured by the camera 12 by image processing and detects them as external factors. Further, the external factor detection unit 23 detects at least one of a brake operation, an accelerator operation, and a steering wheel operation as an external factor based on the data output from the ECU. It should be noted that these operation states may be detected, for example, by attaching a sensor to each, instead of being based on the ECU data.

The biometric information validity/invalidity determination unit 24, when the biometric information abnormality determination unit 22 determines that the biometric information is out of the normal range, based on the presence/absence of external factor detection by the external factor detection unit 23, Whether the biometric information detected by the biometric information detector 21 is valid or invalid is determined. Specifically, the biometric information validity/invalidity determination unit 24 determines when the biometric information abnormality determination unit 22 determines that the biometric information is out of the normal range, and the external factor detection unit 23 externally determines When the factor is detected, it is determined that the biometric information detected by the biometric information detection unit 21 is invalid.

The biometric information transmission unit 25 performs a process of transmitting the biometric information, which has been determined to be valid by the biometric information validity/invalidity determination unit 24, to the cloud server 200 as an external device via the communication module 40. To do.

The driving support control unit 30 provides driving support to the driver based on the proposal information sent from the cloud server 200. For this purpose, the driving support control unit 30 includes a proposal information receiving unit 31, a driving support processing unit 32, and a driving support output unit 33.

The proposal information receiving unit 31 performs a process of receiving proposal information sent from the cloud server 200 via the communication module 40. The driving support processing unit 32 performs driving support based on the received proposal information. For example, driving assistance such as urging a break is performed based on the proposal information sent in response to the abnormality in the biological information (heart rate). This driving support is performed by image display by the driving support output unit 33, lighting/blinking of an indicator, voice output from a speaker, and the like.

Next, details of the cloud server 200 will be described. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a detailed configuration of the cloud server 200. As shown in FIG. 3, the cloud server 200 includes a biometric information reception unit 210, a biometric information recording unit 212, a health condition determination unit 214, a proposal information creation unit 216, a proposal information transmission unit 218, and a communication module 220.

The biometric information receiving unit 210 receives the biometric information sent from the biometric information measurement/driving support device 100 of each vehicle via the communication module 220. The biometric information recording unit 212 records the biometric information received by the biometric information receiving unit 210 for each vehicle (or each driver). The health condition determination unit 214 determines the health condition of the driver of this vehicle based on the biometric information for each vehicle recorded in the biometric information recording unit 212. In the simplest case, it is determined whether the driver's health information is good or bad. The proposal information creation unit 216 creates proposal information for providing driving assistance to the driver based on the health condition of the driver determined by the health determination unit 214. For example, when the driving condition is poor, the suggestion information to encourage a break is created. The proposal information transmission unit 218 performs a process of transmitting the proposal information created by the proposal information creation unit 216 to the biological information measurement/driving support apparatus 100 of the corresponding vehicle via the communication module.

The biometric information detection unit 21 described above is a biometric information detection unit, the external factor detection unit 23 is an external factor detection unit, the biometric information abnormality determination unit 22 is a biometric information abnormality determination unit, and the biometric information validity/invalidity determination unit 24 is a biometric information unit. The biometric information transmitter 25 corresponds to the information validity/invalidity determining means, and corresponds to the biometric information transmitting means.

The biological information measuring/driving support device 100 and the like according to the present embodiment have such a configuration, and the operation thereof will be described next.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure for detecting and transmitting biometric information in the biometric information measurement/driving support device 100. For example, this operation procedure is repeatedly performed at predetermined intervals.

First, the biometric information detection unit 21 detects biometric information based on the output of the biometric sensor 10 (step 100). Further, the biometric information abnormality determination unit 22 determines whether or not the biometric information detected by the biometric information detection unit 21 is out of the normal range (step 102). When the detected biometric information is included in the normal range, a positive determination is made. In this case, the biometric information is not transmitted and the series of processes ends.

If the detected biometric information is out of the normal range, a negative determination is made in the determination in step 102. Next, the external factor detection unit 23 detects an external factor that causes a change in the biometric information of the driver (step 104). The external factor detecting operation may be performed before or after the biological information detecting operation in step 100 described above, or in parallel.

Next, the biometric information validity/invalidity determination unit 24 determines whether or not an external factor that causes a change in the biometric information of the driver is detected (step 106). If not detected, a negative determination is made. In this case, the biometric information validity/invalidity determination unit 24 determines that the biometric information is valid (step 108), and the biometric information transmission unit 25 determines the vehicle (or the biometric information measurement/driving support device 100). The biometric information detected in step 100 is transmitted together with the unique information for identifying the driver and the driver (step 110).

Further, when an external factor that causes a change in the biometric information of the driver is detected, a positive determination is made in the determination of step 106. In this case, the biometric information validity/invalidity determination unit 24 determines that the biometric information is invalid (step 112), and the series of processes is terminated without transmitting the biometric information.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram when the abnormality of the biological information and the occurrence of the external factor overlap. FIG. 5A shows the detection result of the biometric information, the horizontal axis shows the elapsed time, and the vertical axis shows the value of the biometric information. The threshold value a is an upper limit value of the normal range of the biometric information, and when the biometric information exceeds the threshold value a, the biometric information becomes abnormal. FIG. 5B shows the detection result of the external factor based on the brake operation, the horizontal axis shows the elapsed time, and the vertical axis shows the depression angle of the brake or the depression pressure. The threshold value b is an upper limit value of normal brake operation, and if the brake is stepped on beyond the value b, it is determined that some external factor is detected. FIG. 5C shows a detection result of an external factor (for example, an obstacle) based on the image captured by the camera 12, the horizontal axis indicates the elapsed time, and the vertical axis indicates the degree of the obstacle included in the captured image ( Area and distance). The threshold value c is a lower limit value of the degree of an obstacle that is considered to bring about a change in biological information, and if it exceeds this value c, it is determined that an external factor (obstacle) that causes a change in biological information is detected.

Since the abnormal occurrence of the biometric information shown in FIG. 5A is accompanied by the occurrence of the external factors shown in FIGS. 5B and 5C, in this case, the determination in step 106 shown in FIG. 4 is affirmative. A decision is made and no biometric information is sent.

FIG. 6 is an explanation when the abnormality of the biometric information occurs independently. Each of FIGS. 6A, 6B, and 6C has the same contents as each of FIGS. 5A, 5B, and 5C described above, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Since the abnormal occurrence of the biometric information shown in FIG. 6A is not accompanied by the occurrence of an external factor as shown in FIGS. 6B and 6C, in this case, in the determination of step 106 of FIG. A negative determination is made, and the biometric information is transmitted in step 110 of FIG.

Even if there is no change in the health condition of the driver when the vehicle is traveling, the biometric information may change suddenly due to a sudden external factor. However, the biometric information measurement/driving support device 100 according to the present embodiment. Then, by detecting such an external factor and invalidating the fluctuation of the biometric information that occurs at that time, it is possible to obtain accurate biometric information when the vehicle is traveling.

In addition, by transmitting the valid biometric information to the external device as a result of determining the validity/invalidity of the biometric information, and by not transmitting the invalid biometric information, it is possible to reduce the amount of data to be transmitted and the communication cost. Can be reduced.

Further, biometric information is transmitted to the cloud server 200 as an external device via the network 300, and by reducing the amount of data transmitted via the network 300, the communication time is shortened and the load required for communication processing is reduced. Is possible.

Further, the obstacle around the vehicle is detected as an external factor, and by excluding the fluctuation of the biological information when the obstacle suddenly appears, it is possible to obtain only the biological information in normal times. In addition, at least one of brake operation, accelerator operation, and steering wheel operation by the driver is detected as an external factor, and by eliminating fluctuations in biological information that occur during strain when operating the brake, accelerator, or steering wheel, normal It is possible to acquire only the biometric information at that time.

Further, by detecting the external factor based on the image taken by the camera 12 mounted on the vehicle, it becomes possible to easily detect the presence or absence of the external factor. Further, by detecting the external factor based on the data output from the ECU mounted on the vehicle and controlling the traveling of the vehicle, it is possible to detect the occurrence of the external factor without adding special hardware. Is possible.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the gist of the present invention. For example, in the flowchart shown in FIG. 4, the biometric information is not transmitted when the detected biometric information has no abnormality (when the determination in step 102 is affirmative), but there is no abnormality in the biometric information. Alternatively, the minimum amount of information may be transmitted to the cloud server 200.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the destination of the biometric information is the cloud server 200, but the biometric information may be transmitted to a server other than the cloud server or another external device.

As described above, even when the health condition of the driver does not change during traveling of the vehicle, the biometric information may change suddenly due to a sudden external factor. By detecting such an external factor and invalidating the fluctuation of the biometric information that occurs at that time, it is possible to acquire accurate biometric information when the vehicle is traveling.

10 biometric sensor 12 camera 20 biometric information measurement control unit 30 driving support control unit 40 communication module 21 biometric information detection unit 22 biometric information abnormality determination unit 23 external factor detection unit 24 biometric information valid/invalid determination unit 25 biometric information transmission unit 100 biometric Information measurement/driving support device 200 Cloud server 300 Network

Claims (5)

Biometric information detecting means for detecting biometric information of the driver of the vehicle,
An external factor detecting means for detecting an external factor that causes a change in the biometric information of the driver,
Biometric information abnormality determination means for determining whether the biometric information detected by the biometric information detection means is outside the normal range,
When it is determined by the biometric information abnormality determining means that the biometric information is out of the normal range, the biometric information detected by the biometric information detecting means based on the presence/absence of external factor detection by the external factor detecting means. Biometric information validity/invalidity determination means for determining validity/invalidity of information,
The biometric information validity/invalidity determination means, when the biometric information abnormality determination means determines that the biometric information is out of the normal range, the external factor detection means determines that the external factor is when it is detected, a determination is made that the biological information detected by the biometric information detecting means is disabled,
The biological information measuring device, wherein the external factor detecting means detects an obstacle around the vehicle as the external factor. In claim 1,
The biometric information measuring device further comprising biometric information transmitting means for transmitting the biometric information, which has been determined to be valid by the biometric information validity/invalidity determining means, to an external device. In claim 2,
The biometric information measuring device transmits the biometric information to a server as an external device via a network. Computer,
Biometric information detecting means for detecting biometric information of the driver of the vehicle,
An external factor detecting means for detecting an external factor that causes a change in the biometric information of the driver,
Biometric information abnormality determination means for determining whether the biometric information detected by the biometric information detection means is outside the normal range,
When it is determined by the biometric information abnormality determining means that the biometric information is out of the normal range, the biometric information detected by the biometric information detecting means based on the presence/absence of external factor detection by the external factor detecting means. Biometric information validity/invalidity determination means for determining validity/invalidity of information,
A biological information measurement program for functioning as
The biometric information validity/invalidity determining means is when the biometric information abnormality determining means determines that the biometric information is out of the normal range, and the external factor detecting means detects the external factor. If, a determination is made that the biological information detected by the biometric information detecting means is disabled,
The external factor detecting means is a biological information measuring program for detecting an obstacle around a vehicle as the external factor. In claim 4,
A biometric information measuring program for causing a computer to further function as biometric information transmitting means for transmitting the biometric information, which has been determined to be valid by the biometric information validity/invalidity determining means, to an external device.

Images