Granted Patent B2

US 12,617,339 · App. 18/522,900 · Granted May 5, 2026

Inventors: Masataka Sano (Tokyo, JP); Hiromi Nemoto (Tokyo, JP); Yutaro Tsugawa (Tokyo, JP)

Assignees: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA; DENSO CORPORATION

B60Q9/00

Abstract

Claims (26)

1 . A driver monitoring device comprising a processor configured to:

train a machine learning classifier to output an angle of a facial orientation or line of sight of a driver of a vehicle from an image data of a monitoring image so as to detect the angle of the facial orientation or line of sight of the driver;

change a predetermined judgment criteria for judging whether the driver of the vehicle is driving distracted when an emergency warning light mounted in the vehicle is turned on;

receive a monitoring image capturing a face of the driver of the vehicle,

judge whether the driver is distracted based on the changed predetermined judgment criteria and by detecting the angle of the facial orientation or line of sight of the driver output from the trained machine learning classifier to determine whether the angle satisfies a predetermined distracted driving judgment condition; and

issue a warning to the driver when it is judged that the driver is driving distracted.

2 . The driver monitoring device according to claim 1 , wherein

the distracted driving judgment condition is that the angle is outside a threshold value range for greater than or equal to a threshold value time period, and

the processor is configured to lengthen the threshold value time period or broaden the threshold value range when the emergency warning light is turned on.

3 . The driver monitoring device according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to change the predetermined judgment criteria so that whether the driver is driving distracted is not judged when the emergency warning light is turned on.

4 . The driver monitoring device according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to change the predetermined judgment criteria based on at least one of positional information and peripheral information of the vehicle when the emergency warning light is turned on.

5 . The driver monitoring device according to claim 4 , wherein the processor is configured to change the predetermined judgment criteria so that it becomes harder to judge that the driver is driving distracted when the vehicle is running on a highway compared to when the vehicle is not running on the highway.

6 . The driver monitoring device according to claim 4 , wherein the processor is configured to change the predetermined judgment criteria so that it becomes harder to judge that the driver is driving distracted when the number of peripheral vehicles located around the vehicle is large compared to when the number of the peripheral vehicles is small.

7 . The driver monitoring device according to claim 4 , wherein the processor is configured to change the predetermined judgment criteria so that it becomes harder to judge that the driver is driving distracted when there is a stationary object present ahead of the vehicle compared to when there is no stationary object present ahead of the vehicle.

8 . A driver monitoring method performed by a computer, comprising:

training a machine learning classifier to output an angle of a facial orientation or line of sight of a driver of a vehicle from an image data of a monitoring image so as to detect the angle of the facial orientation or line of sight of the driver;

changing a predetermined judgment criteria for judging whether the driver of the vehicle is driving distracted when an emergency warning light mounted in the vehicle is turned on;

receiving a monitoring image capturing a face of the driver of the vehicle,

judging whether the driver is driving distracted based on the changed predetermined judgment criteria and by detecting the angle of the facial orientation or line of sight of the driver output from the trained machine learning classifier to determine whether the angle satisfies a predetermined distracted driving judgment condition; and

issuing a warning to the driver when it is judged that the driver is driving distracted.

9 . A non-transitory recording medium having recorded thereon a computer program, the computer program causing a computer to:

train a machine learning classifier to output an angle of a facial orientation or line of sight of a driver of a vehicle from an image data of a monitoring image so as to detect the angle of the facial orientation or line of sight of the driver;

change a predetermined judgment criteria for judging whether the driver of the vehicle is driving distracted when an emergency warning light mounted in the vehicle is turned on;

receive a monitoring image capturing a face of the driver of the vehicle;

judge whether the driver is driving distracted based on the changed predetermined judgment criteria and by detecting the angle of the facial orientation or line of sight of the driver output from the trained machine learning classifier to determine whether the angle satisfies a predetermined distracted driving judgment condition; and

issue a warning to the driver when it is judged that the driver is driving distracted.

Assignments (1)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (11)