Member Info for johnchucka

MULTI-CAMERA VISION SYSTEM INTEGRATED INTO INTERIOR REARVIEW MIRROR
A vehicular vision system includes an electronic control unit (ECU) disposed at an interior rearview mirror assembly of a vehicle equipped with the vehicular vision system that includes electronic circuitry and associated software, a driver monitoring camera disposed at the interior rearview mirror assembly and having a field of view of a driver region in a cabin of the vehicle, and an occupant monitoring camera disposed at the interior rearview mirror assembly and having a field of view of an occupant region in the cabin of the vehicle. The electronic circuitry of the ECU includes an image processor operable to process image data captured by the driver monitoring camera and the occupant monitoring camera. The ECU, via processing at the ECU of image data captured by the driver monitoring camera, determines attentiveness of a driver of the vehicle.
https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?CC=US&NR=2021291739A1&KC=A1&FT=D&ND=3&date=20210923&DB=&locale=en_EP
https://www.freepatentsonline.com/20210291739.pdf

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DETECTING DROWSINESS IN A DRIVER OF A VEHICLE
Example embodiments described in this disclosure are generally directed to detecting drowsiness in a driver of a vehicle. In an example method, a driver drowsiness detection system receives a motor cortex signal from a brain activity monitoring element attached to the driver. The brain activity monitoring element can be a cortical implant, for example. The driver drowsiness detection system evaluates the motor cortex signal to identify an anatomical part of the driver (eyes, for example) that is associated with a brain activity. The driver drowsiness detection system then uses a drowsiness detection device placed in the vehicle for evaluating a physical activity of the anatomical part. The evaluation may be carried out by using a camera directed upon the driver's eyes, for example. The driver drowsiness detection system determines a drowsiness state of the driver based on the evaluation and assigns a sleep risk score.

[0020] The imaging apparatus 105 can be mounted on any of various parts of the vehicle having a field of view that encompasses at least a portion of a face of the driver 110, particularly the eyes of the driver 110. The imaging apparatus 105 in this example illustration is mounted upon a rear-view mirror of the vehicle and is arranged to capture one or more images of the eyes of the driver 110. In some cases, the imaging apparatus 105 can be a video camera that captures real-time video of at least the eyes of the driver 110. In some other cases, the imaging apparatus 105 can be a digital camera that captures digital images of at least the eyes of the driver 110. The digital images may be captured on a repetitive basis, an intermittent basis, and/or a random basis. The real-time video and/or digital images are conveyed to the processing system 125 for processing in order to detect an eyelid status of the driver 110. An eyelid status, such as, for example, an open condition, a drooping condition, a partially closed condition, or a fully closed condition, may provide an indication of a drowsiness state of the driver 110.
https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?CC=US&NR=2021290134A1&KC=A1&FT=D&ND=4&date=20210923&DB=&locale=en_EP
https://www.freepatentsonline.com/20210290134.pdf

FATIGUE MONITORING SYSTEM FOR DRIVERS TASKED WITH MONITORING A VEHICLE OPERATING IN AN AUTONOMOUS DRIVING MODE
Aspects of the disclosure relate to models for estimating the likelihood of fatigue in test drivers. In some instances, training data including videos of the test drivers while such test drivers are tasked with monitoring driving of a vehicle 100 operating in an autonomous driving mode may be identified. The training data also includes driver drowsiness values generated from one or more human operators observing the videos. The training inputs and outputs may be used to train the model such that when a new video of a first test driver is input into the model, the model will output an estimate of a likelihood of fatigue for that test driver.
https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?CC=WO&NR=2021188525A1&KC=A1&FT=D&ND=3&date=20210923&DB=&locale=en_EP
https://www.freepatentsonline.com/WO2021188525A1.pdf

Methods and System for Predicting Driver Awareness of a Feature in a Scene
An embodiment takes the form of a training server that presents a video comprising a plurality of frames, each comprising a respective scene representation of a scene at a respective time. The scene representations comprise respective representations of a feature in the scene. The training server presents a respective gaze representation of a driver gaze for each frame. The gaze representations comprise respective representations of driver gaze locations at the times of the respective scene representations. The training server generates an awareness prediction via a neural network based on the driver gaze locations, the awareness prediction reflecting a predicted driver awareness of the feature. The training server receives an awareness indication associated with the video and the gaze representations, and trains the neural network based on a comparison of the awareness prediction with the awareness indication.
https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?II=4&ND=3&adjacent=true&locale=en_EP&FT=D&date=20210930&CC=US&NR=2021303888A1&KC=A1
https://www.freepatentsonline.com/20210303888.pdf
https://patents.justia.com/patent/20210303888

SIMULATION-BASED LEARNING OF DRIVER INTERACTIONS THROUGH A VEHICLE WINDOW
A model can be trained to detect interactions of other drivers through a window of their vehicle. A human driver behind a window (e.g., front windshield) of a vehicle can be detected in a real-world driving data. The human driver can be tracked over time through the window. The real-world driving data can be augmented by replacing at least a portion of the human driver with at least a portion of a virtual driver performing a target driver interaction to generate an augmented real-world driving dataset. The target driver interaction can be a gesture or a gaze. Using the augmented real-world driving data set, a machine learning model can be trained to detect the target driver interactions. Thus, simulation can be leveraged to provide a large set of useful training data without having to acquire real-world data of drivers performing target driver interactions as viewed from outside the vehicle.
https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?II=5&ND=3&adjacent=true&locale=en_EP&FT=D&date=20210930&CC=US&NR=2021303856A1&KC=A1
https://www.freepatentsonline.com/20210303856.pdf
https://patents.justia.com/patent/20210303856

DRIVER DAZZLE MITIGATION SYSTEMS AND METHODS
Systems and methods for driver dazzle detection for a subject vehicle, may include: using a plurality of sensors to gather data regarding driver characteristics and light source characteristics in an environment of the subject vehicle; evaluating sensor data from the plurality of sensors received to determine at least one of a driver characteristic and a light source characteristic; determining a level of dazzling of a driver of the vehicle based on the determined at least one of a driver characteristic and a light source characteristic; and engaging remedial action based on the determined level of dazzle of the driver of the vehicle, wherein the remedial action comprises at least one of switching a control of the vehicle from a manual drive mode to an autonomous drive mode and engaging an ADAS feature if it is detected that the determine level of dazzling is above a dazzling threshold.
https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?II=15&ND=3&adjacent=true&locale=en_EP&FT=D&date=20210930&CC=US&NR=2021300428A1&KC=A1
https://www.freepatentsonline.com/20210300428.pdf
https://patents.justia.com/patent/20210300428

MOTOR VEHICLE WITH COGNITIVE RESPONSE TEST SYSTEM FOR PREEMPTIVELY DETECTING POTENTIAL DRIVER IMPAIRMENT
A test system for detecting impairment aboard a motor vehicle includes an electronic control unit (ECU) and sensors in communication therewith. The sensors are positioned within a vehicle interior, and include at least a touch screen and a microphone, and possibly an eye-tracking camera. In response to receiving a start request indicative of a requested start event of the motor vehicle, the ECU executes instructions to initiate a cognitive response test via the sensors. The ECU determines a test score of a driver during the test while the motor vehicle remains off, compares the test score to baseline scores to determine a passing or failing test result, and executes a control action aboard the motor vehicle in response to the passing or failing test result. The ECU may disable or immobilize the motor vehicle in response to the failing test result.

[0001] The present disclosure generally relates to improved methods and associated hardware implementations for performing real-time onboard testing and detection of possible impairment of a prospective driver within a motor vehicle or another mobile platform. The computer-executed solutions as described herein seek to deter or prevent impaired driving using available onboard sensors, navigation or infotainment touch screens, controller area network (CAN) bus connectivity, and vehicle telemetry capabilities. As a result, the present approach is readily integrated into a motor vehicle without requiring installation of specialized test equipment.

[0021] The cognitive test according to a disclosed embodiment includes a reflex or motor skills response time test using the touch screen in which the ECU is configured to display moving icons on the touch screen and simultaneously detect touch events in which the driver touches the moving icons. The test also includes a verbal recognition test performed using the microphone in which the ECU broadcasts one or more questions within the vehicle interior and detects a verbal response of the driver via the microphone. Additionally, an eye-tracking test is performed using the eye-tracking camera in which the ECU directs the driver to look at different areas of the touch screen while the ECU detects a response speed of the driver via the eye-tracking camera.
https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?CC=US&NR=2021291650A1&KC=A1&FT=D&ND=4&date=20210923&DB=&locale=en_EP
https://www.freepatentsonline.com/20210291650.pdf

GAZE TARGET DETECTOR
A gaze target detector includes a line-of-sight detector, a relative speed data acquiring unit, a relative position data acquiring unit, a curvature calculator, a threshold adjuster, and a gaze determination unit. The line-of-sight detector detects the line of sight of an occupant in a vehicle. The relative speed data acquiring unit acquires a relative speed between the vehicle and a gaze target at which the occupant is gazing. The relative position data acquiring unit acquires a relative position between the vehicle and the gaze target. The curvature calculator calculates the curvature of a traveling track of the vehicle. The threshold adjuster adjusts a threshold based on at least one of the relative speed, the relative position, or the curvature. The threshold is used to determine the gaze target. The gaze determination unit determines the gaze target as a gaze event based on the threshold adjusted.
https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?II=0&ND=4&adjacent=true&locale=en_EP&FT=D&date=20210923&CC=US&NR=2021295070A1&KC=A1
https://www.freepatentsonline.com/20210295070.pdf

EROAD to acquire Coretex, accelerating strategic plans and enabling faster growth in North America
PORTLAND, OR and AUCKLAND, NZ — July 14, 2021 — EROAD (NZX/ASX: ERD) announced that it has entered into a conditional agreement to acquire 100% of Coretex Limited (“Coretex”), a provider of vertically specialized enterprise-grade telematics solutions in North America, Australia and New Zealand. This transformative move will help the company take a strong step toward reaching its goal of 250,000 units. Once the acquisition is complete, it will accelerate EROAD’s key growth metrics by two years in North America and Australia and position the combined business as a bigger player in the global telematics market.
https://www.eroad.com/newsroom/eroad-to-acquire-coretex-accelerating-strategic-plans-and-enabling-faster-growth-in-north-americ/

VEHICLE CONTROL DEVICE AND VEHICLE CONTROL METHOD
A vehicle control device includes an external environment recognition unit that recognizes a situation of a surrounding periphery of a user's own vehicle, and a lane change control unit that executes an automatic lane change by controlling a travel speed and steering of the user's own vehicle based on a recognition result of the external environment recognition unit. The automatic lane change includes a first lane change (third mode) which is executed regardless of an intention of a driver, and a second lane change (first mode) which is executed in accordance with the intention of the driver. In the case that a request to make the second lane change is detected during execution of the first lane change, the lane change control unit switches the automatic lane change to be executed from the first lane change to the second lane change.
https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?CC=US&NR=2021276560A1&KC=A1&FT=D&ND=3&date=20210909&DB=&locale=en_EP
https://www.freepatentsonline.com/20210276560.pdf

ATTENTION-BASED NOTIFICATIONS
A system may present notifications to an occupant of a vehicle and determine whether the occupant has given attention to the notification. The system oscillates a visual notification at an output frequency. The system captures images of an eye of the occupant to determine an eye pupil oscillation frequency associated with the occupant. The system compares the eye pupil oscillation frequency to the output frequency. The system determines whether attention was given to the notification based on whether the output frequency and the eye pupil oscillation frequency match. If the system determines that attention was not given, the system may cause performance of one or more follow-up operations.
https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?II=1&ND=3&adjacent=true&locale=en_EP&FT=D&date=20210909&CC=US&NR=2021276568A1&KC=A1
https://www.freepatentsonline.com/20210276568.pdf

VEHICLE COMPONENT IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM
A vehicle component is identified based on a gaze direction of an occupant in a vehicle seat. A first direction of the vehicle seat is determined relative to a forward-facing direction of a vehicle. A second direction is determined from the vehicle seat to the vehicle component. Then, the vehicle seat is rotated based on an angle between the first direction and the second direction.
https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?CC=US&NR=2021276575A1&KC=A1&FT=D&ND=3&date=20210909&DB=&locale=en_EP
https://www.freepatentsonline.com/20210276575.pdf

VEHICLE DISPLAY DEVICE
Provided is a vehicle display device capable of stably detecting the positions of the eyes of a user even when external light is incident. A head-up display device (1) as a vehicle display device according to the present invention projects display light (L1) onto a front windshield (2) of a vehicle, generates and displays a virtual image (V) by the reflected display light (L1), on the front windshield (2), so as to be superimposed on a real scene transparent through the front windshield (2), captures an image of a driver (D) of the vehicle by projecting infrared light (L2) onto the driver (D), and is capable of detecting the positions of the eyes (E) of the driver (D) on the basis of the captured image. A control unit (10) detects the position of a feature point of the face of the driver (D) in the captured image and stores a positional relationship with the detected positions of the eyes (E), and, when it is difficult to detect the positions of the eyes (E) in the captured image, estimates a viewpoint position of the driver (D) on the basis of the position of the feature point detected at this time and the positional relationship stored beforehand.
https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?CC=WO&NR=2021172333A1&KC=A1&FT=D&ND=3&date=20210902&DB=&locale=en_EP
https://www.freepatentsonline.com/WO2021172333A1.pdf

PHONE DOCKING STATION FOR ENHANCED DRIVING SAFETY
https://register.epo.org/ipfwretrieve?apn=US.201615550917.A&lng=en

DRIVER-CENTRIC RISK ASSESSMENT: RISK OBJECT IDENTIFICATION VIA CAUSAL INFERENCE WITH INTENT-AWARE DRIVING MODELS
A system and method for predicting driving actions based on intent-aware driving models that include receiving at least one image of a driving scene of an ego vehicle. The system and method also include analyzing the at least one image to detect and track dynamic objects located within the driving scene and to detect and identify driving scene characteristics associated with the driving scene and processing an ego-thing graph associated with the dynamic objects and an ego-stuff graph associated with the driving scene characteristics. The system and method further include predicting a driver stimulus action based on a fusion of representations of the ego-thing graph and the ego-stuff graph and a driver intention action based on an intention representation associated with driving intentions of a driver of the ego vehicle.
https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?CC=US&NR=2021261148A1&KC=A1&FT=D&ND=3&date=20210826&DB=&locale=en_EP
https://www.freepatentsonline.com/20210261148.pdf

CONTENT ADJUSTMENT BASED ON VEHICLE MOTION AND EYE GAZE
A display apparatus and a mobile phone for content adjustment based on motion of a vehicle and an eye gaze of an occupant is provided. The display apparatus includes a display screen, a motion sensor, and an image capturing device. The display screen displays content. The display apparatus controls the motion sensor to capture a motion signal associated with the display apparatus. The display apparatus controls the image capturing device to capture an image of the occupant in the vehicle. The display apparatus determines a region of the eye gaze of the occupant on the display screen based on the captured image. The determined region on the display screen includes a portion of the displayed content. The display apparatus adjusts a movement of the portion of the displayed content in response to the captured motion signal being higher than a predefined threshold.
https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?CC=US&NR=2021263586A1&KC=A1&FT=D&ND=3&date=20210826&DB=&locale=en_EP
https://www.freepatentsonline.com/20210263586.pdf

DRIVER STATE ESTIMATION DEVICE, METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM THEREFOR
A device, method and computer program product provide driver state estimation. A first index value correlated with an amount of an attention source allocated to top-down attention of a driver and a second index value correlated with an amount of the attention source allocated to bottom-up attention of the driver are determined. The driver state including an attention function degraded state of the driver is estimated based on the first index value and the second index value. A vehicle being operated by the driver may be controlled in accordance with the estimated driver state.
https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?II=4&ND=3&adjacent=true&locale=en_EP&FT=D&date=20210819&CC=US&NR=2021253111A1&KC=A1
https://www.freepatentsonline.com/20210253111.pdf

VEHICLE HEADLIGHT CONTROL DEVICE, VEHICLE HEADLIGHT CONTROL METHOD, NON-TRANSITORY STORAGE MEDIUM
A vehicle headlight control device includes: an indicator value acquiring unit configured to acquire an indicator value that represents a brightness of an object detected ahead of an own vehicle; a light distribution control unit configured to control a light distribution of a headlight such that a quantity of light irradiated to the irradiation region where a dimming target object is present is reduced when the dimming target object is detected, the dimming target object being an object of which the indicator value is greater than a reference value; a reference-value varying unit configured to set the reference value to a first reference value when the object is detected within the gaze area and set the reference value to a second reference value that is greater than the first reference value when the object is detected outside of the gaze area.
https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?II=9&ND=3&adjacent=true&locale=en_EP&FT=D&date=20210819&CC=US&NR=2021253021A1&KC=A1
https://www.freepatentsonline.com/20210253021.pdf

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DETERMINING A VIEWING DIRECTION OF A USER
Vehicles and systems and methods for determining a viewing direction of a user are disclosed. In one embodiment, a system for detecting a viewing direction of a user includes a marker arranged at a fixed location, and an optical assembly. The optical assembly includes a first optical sensor arranged to view the marker, and a second optical sensor arranged to view the user. The first optical sensor detects the marker for determining a spatial location of the optical assembly with respect to the marker, and the second optical sensor detects an eye of the user for determining an eye angle of the user.
https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/description?CC=US&NR=2021248775A1&KC=A1&FT=D&ND=3&date=20210812&DB=&locale=en_EP
https://www.freepatentsonline.com/20210248775.pdf

System and method for correlating user attention direction and outside view.
Embodiments are directed towards providing a system that presents customized content to a user of an automobile based on what the user of the automobile is looking at. A first camera captures images of the user of the interior of the automobile, and a second camera captures images of a scene that the user is viewing. The images are analyzed to determine if the user is looking at, or not looking at, an object in the scene. If the user is looking at such an object, content associated with the object is selected and presented to the user.
https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?CC=AU&NR=2020221243A1&KC=A1&FT=D&ND=3&date=20210812&DB=&locale=en_EP
https://www.freepatentsonline.com/20200254876.pdf

https://www.xevo.com/