JPH09197496A - Device for monitoring space between automobiles in traffic jam - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a traffic jam watching device having no unnatural feeling and having high safety and high reliability in terms of environment by giving a louder noise alarm or a long-term alarm when a preceding automobile starts in the case of detecting a driver's action to get a sleep or easily to sleep in the midst of stopping the automobile because of waiting for the signal to change or traffic jam. SOLUTION: The lens 1 of a video camera is attached in a direction to reflect the rear surface of the preceding automobile the space of which from a self automobile is equal to or under only several meters. In a state of both the preceding automobile and the self automobile being travelled, the optical axis 8 of a photosensor 7 is a non-transmissive state, and when the preceding automobile stops and the space between the preceding automobile and the self automobile is <=2m, the optical axis 8 becomes a transmissive state, and the watching device gets in a standby state. When the traffic jam is relieved and the preceding automobile starts, the optical axis 8 becomes non-transmissive and a pulse generation circuit 12 outputs a pulse 13 so as to actuate a small sound volume chime 14. In the case the driver puts the head on a pillow cover 17 and takes a rest, an air bag 18 is pressured, so that a contact for self lock 25 is closed through a pressure relay 20 so as to supply the power of a power source 26 to a loud noise bell 28.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention intends to improve the usability, economy and safety of a traffic jam watch number device which monitors the start of a vehicle in front of a driver during a traffic jam.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A driver's behavior is divided into two parts during operation of a traffic congestion watch guard, and first, when doing work other than driving, such as reading a book, second is to put the head on the headrest and close the eyes. It is when you take a rest. In the first case, the alarm at the start of the preceding vehicle is troublesome and uncomfortable unless the volume is low and the alarm is short, but in the second case, there is a possibility that the person may fall asleep and end up. You need to keep alerting at the volume and until you wake up. As a countermeasure against this, there is known a means for gradually increasing the volume unless the manual reset operation or the automatic reset by the start operation of the own vehicle is performed by using the snooze function of the alarm clock. However, if a snooze function like this is used, in the first case, if the start operation is delayed even one step, the volume will increase to annoy the annoyance, but in the second case, If the volume gradually rises while sounding intermittently, the time it takes to wake up and start is too long, and the preceding vehicle may go a long way to the end and end up, causing annoyance to the following vehicle. , It is also dangerous if the following cars try to pass one after another without avoiding it. In other words, when using the traffic jam watcher, if the system starts with a low-pitched alarm, the first alarm may be heard and the start operation may be significantly delayed. But I can't relax enough. On the other hand, as a sensor that detects the start of the front vehicle, the active radar system that emits ultrasonic waves etc. from its own vehicle is difficult to remove interference between radars in an environment where many vehicles face each other like an automobile, An image processing method is advantageous as an inter-vehicle distance measuring device because it is difficult to take environmental measures such as snowfall. However, for that purpose, a device having a complicated function equivalent to that of the distance measuring device of the autofocus type camera, such as an exposure automatic correction device, is required. But it is expensive,
It was uneconomical to equip a driver who only occasionally encounters traffic jams such as holidaymakers and homecoming.

[0003]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems of a traffic congestion watch guard device, and provides an inexpensive alarm device which is comfortable and safe and has no environmental discomfort. Is.

[0004]

[Means for Solving the Problems] An action such as sleep, such as a driver's head resting on a headrest leaning against a headrest or the driver's eyelid closing, or a decrease in pulse rate or respiratory rate. When a biological signal indicating sleep is detected, an alarm for a long time with a louder volume is issued from the beginning when the preceding vehicle is started, as compared with when it is not detected. Also,
In both the first and second cases, the driver does not need a camera, so a signal output device for the traffic jam watch number is added and the traffic watch device is diverted in a time division manner.

In order to detect an action leading to sleep, a load detector is provided on the front surface of the headrest of the driver's seat or a mounting portion to the seat backrest to detect that the driver's head is leaning. When the start of the preceding vehicle is detected in the state where the leaning is detected, an alarm for a long time is issued at a louder volume from the beginning, and when the leaning is eliminated, the alarm is reset.

By adding the means described above, the first
Since the alarm in case of is good for a short period of time, it is not always necessary to get the start information of the own vehicle such as the rotation pulse of the wheel and reset the alarm like the conventional system. It is now easy to divert equipment other than automobile control equipment only when necessary.

Although the method described in the above paragraph is also practical, the eyes may be open just by leaning on it. Therefore, the infrared camera is used to monitor the driver's face and the closing of the eyelids is detected. In some cases. At this time, the color of human skin appears to be lean because the color of blood in the body is transparent and visible, and therefore, if the surface temperature of the skin is optically measured, it is within a relatively narrow range. is there. However, the absolute value changes depending on the outside temperature, etc., so it is necessary to have the computer search for the temperature category that has the maximum area within the range of human skin temperature from the image of the infrared camera facing the face. Therefore,
The face can be detected easily. On the other hand, the optical temperature of the eye is low, so the eye can be easily detected. When the eyelids are closed, this part changes to the skin temperature, and the area of the low temperature part is lost. Therefore, the closure of the eyelids can be easily detected. In addition, since the exhaust air that is hotter than the skin temperature is emitted intermittently from the nose, it is possible to detect the respiratory rate as well, and the pulse can be detected by the pressure sensor embedded in the seat. It is known. Therefore, if these pieces of information are processed through a fuzzy matrix or the like, it is possible to make a more detailed judgment.

[0008]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it is possible to provide at low cost an alarm device having no discomfort and having high safety and a device having high environmental reliability.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a concrete configuration of a traffic jam watch number apparatus according to the present invention.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 shows the front surface of the lens of the automatic focusing video camera. The body of the camera, not shown, coupled to the rear of 1 is installed on the top of the instrument panel right after the windshield of the car or hung from the ceiling, and the lens 1 is wiped with a windshield wiper. It is mounted in a direction through the paying area so that the rear surface of the front vehicle, which is less than a few meters away from the vehicle, is imaged, and the zoom device and the automatic focus adjustment device are adjusted so that the distance to the front vehicle can be accurately captured. Has been done. Reference numeral 2 denotes an outer cylinder of the lens, which is rotated around the center axis 3 of the lens by an autofocus adjusting device (not shown) by an angle according to the focal length, and counterclockwise is a direction in which the focal length is long. Indicates that the focal length is infinite. 4 is a band which is fastened to the outer periphery of the lens 2 with a screw 5, and 6a is a fan-shaped screen connected to 4,
The position of a corresponds to an infinite focal length. Reference numeral 7 is a known transmissive photo sensor, and in the state of infinite focal length as shown in the figure, its optical axis 8 is blocked by the screen 6a and is in an opaque state, and the output 9 of the sensor 7 is low. There is a state.

The screen 6a is set in an angular position such that the optical axis 8 is always in the non-transmissive state when the distance between the front vehicle and the own vehicle is in a traveling state, that is, approximately 3 meters or more.

The screen 6b indicated by a broken line is waiting for a signal,
Or the case where the preceding vehicle stopped due to traffic jam and the driver stopped the vehicle by adjusting the distance between vehicles to less than about 2 meters,
Since the optical axis 8 is in the transmissive state, the output 9 is high and the pilot lamp 10 is lit to inform the driver that the watch guard is in standby.

When the traffic jam is resolved and the preceding vehicle starts and the inter-vehicle distance increases, the screen starts to rotate counterclockwise from the position 6b toward the position 6a, and the inter-vehicle distance becomes about 2.
When it exceeds about 5 meters, the optical axis becomes opaque again and the output 9 changes to low. At this time, the falling edge trigger circuit 11 detects the moment and causes the pulse generation circuit 12 to output a pulse output of about 2 seconds to 13,
The low volume chime 14 is activated only for the duration of the pulse.

Reference numeral 15 is a driver's seat, 16 is a headrest coupled to the driver seat, 17 is a pillow cover of the present invention, a sealed air bag 18 is coupled to the inside of the traveling direction of the pillow cover, and a lower portion thereof is photographed. A tube 19 similar to that used in the air release of the machine is connected, and the other end of 19 is a pressure relay 20.
Is joined to.

Therefore, the pulse output when the front vehicle starts is
Since it is also supplied to the coil 23 of the relay 22 via the diode 21, if the driver rests his / her head on the pillow cover 17 at that moment, the air bag 18 is pressurized. , 19, the contact 24 of the relay 20 is closed, so that the coil 23 is energized, the contact 25 for self-locking is closed, and the power of the power supply 26 is transferred via the diode 27.
It is supplied to a coil 23 and a bell 28 which is louder than 14.

When the driver at rest notices the sound of the bell and lifts his head off the pillowcase, the contact 24 opens and the bell stops. At that time, since the pulse has already ended, even if the head is attached to the pillow cover thereafter, the bell does not ring again.

This embodiment shows the case where the conventional camera and the conventional automobile are retrofitted without modification, but there are also cameras in which the outer cylinder 2 does not rotate during automatic focus adjustment. In some cases, an equivalent signal may be obtained from inside the camera. There are also cameras that automatically turn off the power if they do not record for a certain period of time. In this case, a traffic jam watch mode is provided as part of the recording mode, and the timer for automatic power off is activated. Stop. In many still cameras, the automatic focusing device operates only when the shutter is pressed halfway, and in this case also, it is necessary to set the dedicated mode. In any case, it is difficult to deal with the congestion time with the built-in battery, and the built-in battery is consumed during the traffic jam so that it does not become over-discharged when used as an original portable camera. Therefore, when used for the purpose of the present invention, the power supply of the car may be supplied from the insertion port of the cigarette lighter.
Depending on the connection of the power supply from the car, it may automatically switch to the traffic jam watch mode, without using the cigar lighter's insertion port, using a dedicated connector, in addition to the power supply, wheel rotation pulse Vehicle information such as
It may be used as part of the judgment. In some cases, instead of the bag 18, a load cell 29 may be provided in the support portion of the headrest above the backrest of the seat to detect the backward tilt load applied to the headrest. At this time, Bell 2
Since 8 operates by an AND gate with the signal from the pulse generator 12, the bell does not operate even if the sensor 29 malfunctions due to vibration during traveling, etc. Therefore, the load cell 29 is a simple one using conductive rubber or the like. Anything is fine. Further, when the contact point 24 is controlled by the output of the sensor 29, a timer is inserted between them so that the contact point 24 is closed only when the driver continuously applies a load to the headrest for about 1 minute or more. There is also.

[0018]

EFFECT OF THE INVENTION Since the present invention is constructed as described above, an alarm device which is safe and has no discomfort.
It is possible to provide inexpensive equipment with high environmental reliability.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a device of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2. Lenses 6a, 6b of the lens of the automatic focusing camera, light-shielding screen 7, photo sensor 8, optical axis 11, edge trigger circuit for front vehicle start determination 14, low volume chime 16, head restraint (commonly known as headrest) ) 17, pillow cover 18, air bag 20, pressure relay 22, self-locking relay 28, bell

Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Office reference number FI Technical display location H04N 5/225 H04N 7/18 J 7/18 G02B 7/11 K

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A vehicle is stopped at a traffic light or in traffic,
In a traffic jam watch that monitors the start of the front vehicle on behalf of the driver and informs the driver of this when the front vehicle starts, the head of the stopped driver leans against the headrest, sleep, etc. In addition, when an action that easily leads to sleep is detected, a louder volume or a long-term warning is issued when the preceding vehicle is started, as compared to when it is not detected. . 2. An autofocusing type video camera or a still camera equipped with a signal output device used for a traffic jam guard device.