Vehicle indicator control device

Abstract

The present invention provides a vehicle indicator control device that can optimally control the brightness of the indicator according to the driver's line of sight. [Solution] The ECU 150's processor 152 includes a gaze determination unit 152a that determines the gaze position of the vehicle driver, and a current control unit 152c that controls the drive current of the vehicle's indicator 130 based on the current amount of deviation of the driver's gaze position from a predetermined standard gaze position.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a control device for vehicle indicators.

Background Art

[0002] Conventionally, it is known to give an alarm according to the type of alarm device mounted on a vehicle, such as a mirror indicator mounted on the side mirror of a vehicle or a door indicator mounted on the door of a vehicle (for example, see Patent Document 1).

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0003]

Patent Document 1

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0004] A vehicle has various indicators that are visible to the driver. However, when the actual line - of - sight position of the driver shifts according to the driver's seat height difference or the position of the seat, the brightness of the visible mirror indicator may deviate from the requirements of a pre - determined brightness. In this case, the mirror indicator may be too bright or too dark for the driver. Also, when the driver is wearing sunglasses, the brightness of the mirror indicator may be insufficient for the driver.

[0005] However, the technology described in the above patent document does not focus on the fact that the brightness of the indicator is visually recognized differently according to individual differences such as the driver's height and seat height, or the position of the seat, and there is room for improvement.

[0006] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a control device for vehicle indicators that can optimally control the brightness of the indicator according to the driver's line - of - sight position. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] The gist of this disclosure is as follows:

[0008] (1) A gaze determination unit that determines the position of the vehicle driver's gaze, A current control unit controls the drive current of the vehicle's indicator based on the current amount of deviation of the driver's gaze position from a predetermined standard gaze position, A control device for vehicle indicators, comprising the following:

[0009] (2) The current control unit is a control device for an indicator of a vehicle as described in (1) above, wherein the current control unit applies the current amount to a map that defines the relationship between the amount of deviation of the driver's line of sight position relative to the standard line of sight position and the current value of the indicator, obtains the current value of the indicator, and controls the drive current based on the obtained current value.

[0010] (3) The vehicle further includes a sunglasses wearing determination unit that determines whether or not the driver of the vehicle is wearing sunglasses, The aforementioned map specifies different current values ​​depending on whether the driver is wearing sunglasses or not. The current control unit applies the current amount of deviation to the map to obtain a current value of the indicator according to whether or not the driver is wearing sunglasses, and controls the drive current based on the obtained current value, as described in (2) above, for the control device of the vehicle indicator.

[0011] (4) The current deviation is the average value over a predetermined period of time in the past from the present, a control device for the indicator of a vehicle as described in any of (1) to (3) above.

[0012] (5) The indicator is a control device for the vehicle indicator described in any of (1) to (3) above, which is mounted on the side mirror of the vehicle. [Effects of the Invention]

[0013] The present invention provides a vehicle indicator control device that can optimally control the brightness of the indicator according to the driver's line of sight. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0014] [Figure 1] This is a schematic diagram of a vehicle driver assistance system according to one embodiment. [Figure 2] This is a schematic diagram showing the functional blocks of the ECU's processor. [Figure 3] This is a flowchart showing the processing performed by the ECU's processor. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0015] Several embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. However, these descriptions are intended to be merely illustrative of preferred embodiments of the present invention and are not intended to limit the present invention to such specific embodiments.

[0016] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a vehicle driver assistance system 1000 according to one embodiment. The driver assistance system 1000 is mounted on a vehicle such as an automobile and includes a surrounding monitoring sensor 110, a driver monitor camera 120, a mirror indicator 130, and an electronic control unit (ECU: Electronic Control Unit, hereinafter referred to as ECU) 150. The surrounding monitoring sensor 110, the driver monitor camera 120, the mirror indicator 130, and the ECU 150 are each connected to communicate via an in-vehicle network compliant with standards such as a Controller Area Network (CAN).

[0017] The surrounding monitoring sensor 110 is a sensor for monitoring the surroundings of the vehicle, such as the front, rear, and sides of the vehicle, and detects moving objects (such as vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, etc.) around the vehicle. The surrounding monitoring sensor 110 includes sensors such as a lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) and a radar, for example.

[0018] The driver monitoring camera 120 is composed of a two-dimensional detector formed by an array of photoelectric conversion elements sensitive to visible light, such as a CCD or a C-MOS, and an imaging optical system that forms an image of the area to be photographed on the two-dimensional detector. The driver monitoring camera 120 is provided toward the assumed position of the driver of the vehicle near the dashboard, the steering column, or the front glass inside the vehicle, photographs the driver's face, and generates an image (face image) in which the driver's face is captured. The driver monitoring camera 120 performs photography at a predetermined photography cycle (for example, 1 / 30 second to 1 / 10 second). Each time the driver monitoring camera 120 generates an image, it outputs the generated image to the ECU 150 via the in-vehicle network.

[0019] The mirror indicator 130 is mounted on the side mirror of the vehicle and lights up with a predetermined brightness as an HMI for warning in an advanced safety system such as a blind spot monitor (BSM: Blind Spot Monitor). The mirror indicator 130 lights up and flashes when a potential danger in the surroundings occurs, such as when another vehicle traveling in an adjacent lane approaches, in response to an instruction from the ECU 150, to alert the driver. The requirements regarding the brightness when the mirror indicator 130 lights up are predetermined by the brightness value when the driver visually recognizes the mirror indicator 130, based on the standard line-of-sight position of the driver determined for each vehicle type.

[0020] The ECU 150 is an aspect of the control device for an indicator according to the present disclosure. The ECU 150 includes a processor 152, a memory 154, and a communication interface 156. The processor 152 includes one or more CPUs (Central Processing Units) and their peripheral circuits. The processor 152 may further include other arithmetic circuits such as a logical arithmetic unit, a numerical arithmetic unit, or a graphic processing unit. The memory 154 includes, for example, a volatile semiconductor memory and a non-volatile semiconductor memory, and stores data related to the processing according to the present embodiment. The communication interface 156 includes an interface circuit for connecting the ECU 150 to an in-vehicle network.

[0021] In order to emit light from the mirror indicator 130, an LED is mounted inside it. Since the light of the LED has directivity, when the actual line-of-sight position of the driver deviates from the above-described standard line-of-sight position according to the driver's seat height difference or the position of the seat, the brightness of the visible mirror indicator 130 may deviate from the previously established brightness requirements. For example, when the driver's seat height is relatively high, the line-of-sight position of the driver deviates from the standard line-of-sight position designed, resulting in the failure to ensure the brightness expected in design. In that case, the mirror indicator 130 may be too dazzling or too dark for the driver.

[0022] Therefore, the driving support system 1000 changes the brightness value of the mirror indicator 130 to an appropriate value based on the face image generated by the driver monitor camera 120. Specifically, the driving support system 1000 determines the line-of-sight position based on the face image of the driver. Then, it determines whether the line-of-sight position deviates from the standard line-of-sight position due to the driver's seat height difference or seat position. When the driver's line-of-sight position deviates from the standard line-of-sight position, the drive current is dynamically changed so that the brightness of the mirror indicator 130 corresponds to the current line-of-sight position of the driver. Thereby, it is suppressed that the driver feels that the mirror indicator 130 is too dazzling or too dark.

[0023] Furthermore, since the driver's line of sight changes moment by moment, the time average value over a predetermined period may be used to determine the driver's line of sight. In addition, if the driver operates the in-vehicle navigation system or turns their head, the driver's line of sight may deviate significantly from the standard line of sight. In such cases, the driver is not in a normal driving posture, and therefore may be excluded from the determination of the line of sight.

[0024] Furthermore, when the driver assistance system 1000 detects a potential hazard in the surroundings using the surrounding monitoring sensor 110, it illuminates the mirror indicator 130 based on a dynamically switched current value.

[0025] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram showing the functional blocks of the processor 152 of the ECU 150. The processor 152 of the ECU 150 includes a gaze detection unit 152a, a sunglasses wearing detection unit 152b, and a current control unit 152c. Each of these parts of the processor 152 is a functional module realized, for example, by a computer program running on the processor 152. In other words, the functional blocks of the processor 152 consist of the processor 152 and a program (software) to make it function. The program may also be recorded in the memory 154 of the ECU 150 or on an externally connected recording medium. Alternatively, each of these parts of the processor 152 may be a dedicated arithmetic circuit provided on the processor 152.

[0026] The gaze determination unit 152a determines the driver's line of sight. To this end, the gaze determination unit 152a determines the driver's line of sight using a known line of sight detection method based on an image of the driver's face generated by the driver monitor camera 120. For example, the gaze determination unit 152a determines the line of sight using the corneal reflection method, which utilizes the reflected image of a near-infrared light source (Purkinje image) on the corneal surface and calculates the line of sight angle from the distance between the pupil center and the Purkinje image.

[0027] The gaze detection unit 152a inputs a face image into a pre-trained classifier to determine the position of the driver's eyes, which are the starting point of the driver's gaze, or the positions and contours of various components of the driver's face. For example, the gaze detection unit 152a can use a segmentation classifier as such a classifier. This classifier is pre-trained to output the likelihood that an object is represented in each pixel of the input image, for each type of object that could potentially be represented in that pixel, and to identify the object with the highest likelihood as being represented. The gaze detection unit 152a can use a deep neural network (DNN) with a convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture for segmentation, such as a Fully Convolutional Network (FCN), as such a classifier. Alternatively, the gaze detection unit 152a may use a segmentation classifier that follows other machine learning methods such as a random forest or a support vector machine. In this case, the gaze determination unit 152a inputs the image into a segmentation classifier to identify pixels in the image that contain various components. The gaze determination unit 152a then defines the set of images containing the same type of element as the region representing that element.

[0028] The gaze determination unit 152a determines the position of the driver's gaze when they are facing forward. To this end, the gaze determination unit 152a determines whether the driver is facing forward, that is, whether they are facing the front of the vehicle, based on the position and contour of various components of the driver's face, and determines the position of the driver's gaze when they are facing forward. The gaze determination unit 152a may also determine the driver's gaze position in the vehicle as an average value over a predetermined period of time from the present to the past.

[0029] The sunglasses-wearing detection unit 152b determines whether or not the driver is wearing sunglasses. The sunglasses-wearing detection unit 152b determines whether or not the driver is wearing sunglasses by inputting a face image into a pre-trained classifier. The sunglasses-wearing detection unit 152b can use a segmentation classifier as described above as the classifier. Alternatively, the sunglasses-wearing detection unit 152b may determine whether or not the driver is wearing sunglasses by comparing the face image with a predetermined template image.

[0030] When the surrounding monitoring sensor 110 detects a moving object in the vicinity of the vehicle, the current control unit 152c controls the drive current of the vehicle's indicator 130 based on the current amount of deviation of the driver's line of sight relative to a predetermined standard line of sight position. Specifically, the current control unit 152c obtains the current value of the indicator 130 by applying the current amount of deviation to a predetermined map that defines the relationship between the amount of deviation of the driver's line of sight relative to the standard line of sight position and the current value of the indicator 130, and obtains the drive current based on this current value. The map may be stored in the memory 154. This map may be configured as a three-dimensional map that defines the relationship between the amount of deviation and the current value when the line of sight position is shifted in the vertical, horizontal, or longitudinal direction.

[0031] Furthermore, this map may define different current values ​​depending on whether the driver is wearing sunglasses or not. That is, the current control unit 152c may apply the current amount to the map to obtain the current value of the indicator 130 according to whether the driver is wearing sunglasses or not, and control the drive current based on this current value. Note that the map defines the current value such that the current value when sunglasses are worn is greater than the current value when sunglasses are not worn.

[0032] When a driver is wearing sunglasses, the brightness of the mirror indicator 130 when it lights up is attenuated by the sunglasses. The map specifies different current values ​​depending on whether or not sunglasses are being worn, and the drive current is controlled based on the current value corresponding to whether or not sunglasses are being worn, thereby preventing drivers wearing sunglasses from perceiving the mirror indicator 130 as too dim when they view it.

[0033] The standard line of sight may be, for example, a predetermined standard value for each vehicle model, and may be predetermined assuming a driver of average build. The standard line of sight may also be defined by a straight line parallel to the vehicle's longitudinal direction, passing through a virtual point corresponding to the eye position of a driver of average build.

[0034] Furthermore, the current deviation of the driver's gaze position from a predetermined standard gaze position may be the average value over a predetermined period of time from the present moment to the past.

[0035] Figure 3 is a flowchart showing the processes performed by the processor 152 of the ECU 150 at predetermined control cycles. First, the gaze determination unit 152a determines the driver's current gaze position (step S10). Next, the processor 152 calculates the amount of deviation of the driver's gaze position from the standard gaze position (step S11) and calculates the average value of the deviation over a predetermined period of time in the past (step S12). Next, the sunglasses wearing determination unit 152b determines whether or not the driver is wearing sunglasses (step S14).

[0036] If the driver is wearing sunglasses, the current control unit 152c obtains a current value based on the difference between the standard gaze position and the driver's gaze position, using a map for when the driver is wearing sunglasses (step S16). On the other hand, if the driver is not wearing sunglasses, the current control unit 152c obtains a current value based on the difference between the standard gaze position and the driver's gaze position, using a map for when the driver is not wearing sunglasses (step S18).

[0037] Next, it is determined whether the blind spot monitor (BSM) is in an alarm state, that is, whether the surrounding monitoring sensor 110 has actually detected another vehicle traveling to the rear and side of the vehicle (step S20). If the BSM is in an alarm state, the current control unit 152c drives the mirror indicator 130 with the current value acquired in step S16 or step S18 (step S22). On the other hand, if the BSM is not in an alarm state, the processing for this control cycle ends.

[0038] In this embodiment, an indicator 130 mounted on a door mirror was used as an example of a vehicle indicator, but this embodiment can be broadly applied to indicators other than door mirrors, such as meter indicators.

[0039] As described above, according to this embodiment, even if the driver's line of sight changes due to the driver's driving posture, the indicator 130 can be controlled to maintain an appropriate brightness for the driver. Furthermore, even if the driver is wearing sunglasses, the indicator 120 can be controlled to maintain an appropriate brightness for the driver. [Explanation of symbols]

[0040] 150...Electronic control unit (ECU), 152...Processor, 152a...Eye gaze detection unit, 152b...Sunglasses wearing detection unit, 152c...Current control unit, 1000...Driving assistance system

Claims

1. A gaze determination unit that determines the position of the vehicle driver's gaze, A current control unit controls the drive current of the vehicle's indicator based on the current amount of deviation of the driver's gaze position from a predetermined standard gaze position, A control device for vehicle indicators, comprising the following:

2. The current control unit obtains the current value of the indicator by applying the current amount to a predetermined map that defines the relationship between the amount of deviation of the driver's line of sight position relative to the standard line of sight position and the current value of the indicator, and controls the drive current based on the obtained current value, as described in claim 1, for the control device of a vehicle indicator.

3. The system further includes a sunglasses wearing detection unit that determines whether or not the vehicle driver is wearing sunglasses. The aforementioned map specifies different current values ​​depending on whether the driver is wearing sunglasses or not. The current control unit applies the current amount of deviation to the map to obtain a current value of the indicator according to whether or not the driver is wearing sunglasses, and controls the drive current based on the obtained current value, as a control device for a vehicle indicator according to claim 2.

4. The control device for a vehicle indicator according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the current deviation is the average value over a predetermined period of time from the present to the past.

5. The indicator is a control device for a vehicle indicator according to any one of claims 1 to 3, which is mounted on the side mirror of the vehicle.

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