IP Library › Granted Patent US 11,873,007
Granted Patent B2
US 11,873,007 · App. 17/283,025 · Granted Jan 16, 2024

Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and program

Inventor: Masahiro Tamori (Tokyo, JP)
Assignee: SONY GROUP CORPORATION
B60W60/0015B60W30/143B60W30/18163B60W40/08G06T7/70G06V20/56G08G1/16B60W2540/225B60W2552/53G06T2207/30201G06T2207/30268
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 11,873,007
App. No.
17/283,025
Granted
Jan 16, 2024
Kind
B2
Abstract

The present disclosure relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program for ensuring safety when a line-of-sight direction of a driver is inappropriate according to a driving situation. The line-of-sight direction of the driver of a vehicle is detected, whether or not the detected line-of-sight direction is a safe line-of-sight direction is determined, and in a case where the line-of-sight direction is determined not to be the safe line-of-sight direction, the vehicle is controlled to a safe state. The present disclosure can be applied to an in-vehicle system.

Claims (50)

1. An information processing apparatus configured to control operations of a vehicle and comprising:

circuitry configured to:

detect one or more objects that are around the vehicle or that are around a moving path of the vehicle and generate corresponding vehicle peripheral information;

monitor a position of a pupil of a driver of the vehicle in order to detect a line-of-sight direction of the driver,

based on the vehicle peripheral information, determine that the detected line-of-sight direction does not correspond to a predetermined safe line-of-sight direction for a current driving state of the vehicle; and

change the current driving state of the vehicle to a predetermined safe driving state,

wherein the current driving state and the predetermined safe line-of-sight direction is one of a set of driving states and safe line-of-sight directions, the set of driving states and safe line-of-sight directions consisting of:

traveling straight on a road and a forward looking line-of-sight,

presence of a pedestrian or an oncoming vehicle and a line-of-sight directed to the pedestrian or the oncoming vehicle,

a lane change of the vehicle and a line-of-sight direction corresponding to the lane change, and

a right or left change of direction of the vehicle and a line-of-sight direction corresponding to the right or left change of direction, and

wherein predetermined safe driving state is each of a set of predetermined safe driving states that comprises:

an automatic lane change to a safest lane in a plurality of lanes of a currently traveling road that is determined by a risk evaluation calculation performed by the circuitry, and

an automatic reduction of speed of the vehicle.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein,

the line-of-sight direction corresponding to the lane change is a direction toward a review mirror of the vehicle, and

the line-of-sight direction corresponding to the right or left change of direction is a direction toward a right or left door mirror of the vehicle corresponding to the right or left change of direction.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the automatic lane change is performed after providing an automatic lane change alert to the driver.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein:

the set of predetermined safe driving states further comprises presenting an alert to the driver to change the detected line-of-sight direction to the predetermined safe line-of-sight direction, and

the alert to the driver to change the detected line-of-sight direction to the predetermined safe line-of-sight direction comprises one of a sound from a speaker, an odor, vibrating a seat belt, vibrating a steering wheel, or vibrating a seat.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the set of predetermined safe driving states further comprises presenting an alert to the driver to change the detected line-of-sight direction to the predetermined safe line-of-sight direction.

6. An information processing method for controlling a vehicle by a device, the method comprising:

detecting one or more objects that are around the vehicle or that are around a moving path of the vehicle and generating corresponding vehicle peripheral information;

monitoring a position of a pupil of a driver of the vehicle in order to detect a line-of-sight direction of the driver;

based on the vehicle peripheral information, determining that the detected line-of-sight direction does not correspond to a predetermined safe line-of-sight direction for a current driving state of the vehicle; and

changing the current driving state of the vehicle to a predetermined safe driving state,

wherein the current driving state and the predetermined safe line-of-sight direction is one of a set of driving states and safe line-of-sight directions, the set of driving states and safe line-of-sight directions consisting of:

traveling straight on a road and a forward looking line-of-sight,

presence of a pedestrian or an oncoming vehicle and a line-of-sight directed to the pedestrian or the oncoming vehicle,

a lane change of the vehicle and a line-of-sight direction corresponding to the lane change, and

a right or left change of direction of the vehicle and a line-of-sight direction corresponding to the right or left change of direction, and

wherein predetermined safe driving state is each of a set of predetermined safe driving states that comprises:

an automatic lane change to a safest lane in a plurality of lanes of a currently traveling road that is determined by a risk evaluation calculation performed by the circuitry, and

an automatic reduction of speed of the vehicle.

7. The information processing method according to claim 6 , wherein the set of predetermined safe driving states further comprises presenting an alert to the driver to change the detected line-of-sight direction to the predetermined safe line-of-sight direction.

8. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing a program for causing a device to perform a method for controlling a vehicle, the method comprising:

detecting one or more objects that are around the vehicle or that are around a moving path of the vehicle and generating corresponding vehicle peripheral information;

monitoring a position of a pupil of a driver of the vehicle in order to detect a line-of-sight direction of the driver;

based on the vehicle peripheral information, determining that the detected line-of-sight direction does not correspond to a predetermined safe line-of-sight direction for a current driving state of the vehicle; and

changing the current driving state of the vehicle to a predetermined safe driving state,

wherein the current driving state and the predetermined safe line-of-sight direction is one of a set of driving states and safe line-of-sight directions, the set of driving states and safe line-of-sight directions consisting of:

traveling straight on a road and a forward looking line-of-sight,

presence of a pedestrian or an oncoming vehicle and a line-of-sight directed to the pedestrian or the oncoming vehicle,

a lane change of the vehicle and a line-of-sight direction corresponding to the lane change, and

a right or left change of direction of the vehicle and a line-of-sight direction corresponding to the right or left change of direction, and

wherein predetermined safe driving state is each of a set of predetermined safe driving states that comprises:

an automatic lane change to a safest lane in a plurality of lanes of a currently traveling road that is determined by a risk evaluation calculation performed by the circuitry, and

an automatic reduction of speed of the vehicle.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 8 , wherein the set of predetermined safe driving states further comprises presenting an alert to the driver to change the detected line-of-sight direction to the predetermined safe line-of-sight direction.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Apr 26, 2021
From: TAMORI, MASAHIRO
To: SONY GROUP CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 056033/0903 →
Priority Claims (1)
JP 2018-212728 · Nov 13, 2018 · national
Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20210339770A1 · Nov 4, 2021
Cited By (2)
US 12,258,025 US 12,703,380