Driver Condition Detection for Vehicle Safety Measure Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle safety systems struggle to reliably determine if safety measures such as airbag or seatbelt deployment are controlled by the driver, especially in scenarios where the driver's physical condition may compromise their ability to operate the vehicle safely.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method using onboard vehicle cameras to determine if a sensor is operated by the driver, involving image processing techniques to identify and track the driver's body parts, classify activities, and verify the driver's physical condition through hand and face verification.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If basic person detection is used for seat occupancy detection, then the system is simple to implement, but it cannot reliably determine driver physical condition for safety measure control
Solution Approach 1:
The detection system is segmented into multiple specialized modules: face detection module, hand detection module, sensor operation detection module, and physical condition assessment module. Each module focuses on a specific aspect of driver state monitoring, allowing the system to achieve high reliability through specialized detection while managing complexity through modular architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from basic 2D seat occupancy detection to multi-dimensional analysis by incorporating hand position detection, face detection, and sensor operation verification. This dimensional expansion allows the system to reliably determine driver physical condition by analyzing multiple spatial and behavioral dimensions simultaneously.
2Reliability
If the system monitors driver physical condition continuously, then safety is improved, but energy consumption and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs periodic detection at critical moments: when the vehicle is started, when sensor operation is detected, and at intervals during driving. This periodic action pattern maintains safety monitoring reliability while significantly reducing energy consumption compared to continuous monitoring, as the system activates only when driver physical condition assessment is necessary.
Solution Approach 2:
The system leverages existing vehicle sensors and camera infrastructure to perform self-assessment of driver physical condition. By using already-deployed components for dual purposes (original function plus driver monitoring), the system achieves reliable safety monitoring without proportionally increasing energy consumption, as the monitoring utilizes existing system resources.
Data Source
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AI summary
A computerized method of controlling one or more vehicle safety measures by determining the height of a person sitting on a seat in a vehicle cabin is provided. The method comprises determining, based on one or more images showing the person on a vehicle seat, a height of the person by determining a set of body characteristics of the person, comparing the set of determined body characteristics with a corresponding set of reference characteristics, and determining the height of the person based on the comparison. The method further comprises outputting a control signal to the one or more vehicle safety measures based at least partially on the determined height.