Vehicle Start Suppression Control Using Driver Gaze and Face Direction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional vehicle control systems fail to accurately determine when to cancel start moving suppression control due to drivers not always watching the monitor displaying vehicle surroundings, leading to unnecessary suppression or inappropriate suppression when the driver is looking at the monitor.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle control apparatus that includes a camera system to monitor the driver's line of sight and face direction, determining if the driver is looking at the monitor while the vehicle's inferred start moving direction disagrees with their face direction, and only performs suppression control if the driver is not looking at the monitor when a mismatch condition occurs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the start moving suppression control is cancelled when vehicle surrounding information is notified to the driver through the monitor, then the unnecessary suppression control is avoided, but the control becomes inappropriate when the driver is not actually watching the monitor
Solution Approach 1:
The driver monitoring device provides feedback information about the driver's line of sight to the controller. The controller uses this feedback to determine whether the driver is actually watching the monitor before deciding to cancel the suppression control, ensuring the control action matches the driver's actual attention state
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary detection of the driver's line of sight using the driver monitoring device before executing the suppression control cancellation. This preliminary action ensures that the control is only cancelled when the driver is confirmed to be watching the monitor, preventing inappropriate control actions
2Reliability
If the start moving suppression control is performed when the driver's face direction does not match the vehicle start moving direction, then safety is improved, but unnecessary suppression occurs when the driver is looking at the monitor displaying vehicle surroundings
Solution Approach 1:
The driver monitoring device provides feedback on the driver's line of sight direction to the controller. The controller uses this feedback to distinguish between cases where the driver is looking away (safety concern) and cases where the driver is watching the monitor (information gathering), allowing selective cancellation of suppression control
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary detection of the driver's line of sight using the driver monitoring device before executing the suppression control. This preliminary action allows the system to avoid unnecessary suppression when the driver is watching the monitor while maintaining safety when the driver is looking away
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicle control apparatus comprises: a surrounding condition displaying device capable of displaying an image of vehicle surrounding conditions on a monitor inside a vehicle; a driver monitoring device that obtains driver's information including a direction of a line of sight of a driver and a face direction of the driver; and a controller configured to be able to perform a start moving suppression control to suppress a start moving of the vehicle when a mismatch condition is occurring where a start moving direction inferred based on a shift range of the vehicle disagrees with the face direction of the driver. Furthermore, even when the mismatch condition is occurring, the controller does not perform the start moving suppression control, if the direction of the line of sight of the driver is toward the monitor and the monitor is displaying the image of vehicle surrounding conditions.