Driving mental condition detecting apparatus

Claim 2

A driving mental condition detecting apparatus comprising: physiological data detector for detecting physiological data of a driver of a vehicle; navigator for obtaining travel data of said vehicle; driving mental condition judger for judging a mental condition of a driver by multiplying each of said physiological data and said travel data by predetermined judgment coefficients, adding the products of the multiplications and comparing the sum of the products to a predetermined judgement threshold value; and alarm generator for generating an alarm when the sum of the products is greater than the predetermined judgement threshold value, thereby indicating that said driver has a deteriorated driving mental condition.

Claim 3

An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said physiological data detector detects a number of heartbeats of said driver, an RSA (Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia) value, and an MWSA (Mayer wave related Sinus Arrhythmia) value as said physiological data.

Claim 4

An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said navigator obtains an accumulated travel distance of said vehicle, an azimuth change situation and a speed change situation of said vehicle, and present running road information corresponding to a road on which said vehicle is running as said travel data.

Claim 5

An apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said present running road information is information indicating whether said vehicle is running on an ordinary road or a freeway.

Claim 6

An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said driving mental condition judger performs at least two of the following functions: (a) multiplies a first sleepiness judgment coefficient by a continuous driving time to obtain a first sleepiness judgment value; (b) multiplies a second judgment coefficient by a sum of an azimuth distribution parameter and a speed distribution parameter to obtain a second sleepiness judgment value representing monotonousness of driving; (c) obtains a third sleepiness judgment value by using a third judgment coefficient based on a driving time zone; (d) multiplies a fourth judgment coefficient by a quotient of an RSA (Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia) value divided by an MWSA (Mayer wave related Sinus Arrhythmia) value to obtain a fourth sleepiness judgment value representing an autonomic nervous state of the driver; and (e) multiplies a fifth judgment coefficient by present running road information to obtain a fifth sleepiness judgment value representing a running road situation.

Claim 7

An apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said driving mental condition judging means adds at least two of said first through fifth judgment coefficients to obtain a total sleepiness judgment value, and determines whether said total sleepiness judgment value is larger than a predetermined sleepiness judgment threshold value.

Claim 8

An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said driving mental condition is a state indicative of sleepiness.

Claim 9

An apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said driving mental condition judger multiplies a first sleepiness judgment coefficient by a continuous driving time to obtain a first sleepiness judgment value.

Claim 10

An apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said driving mental condition judger multiplies a second judgment coefficient by a sum of an azimuth distribution parameter and a speed distribution parameter to obtain a second sleepiness judgment value representing monotonousness of driving.

Claim 11

An apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said driving mental condition judging means obtains a third sleepiness judgment value by using a third judgment coefficient based on a driving time zone.

Claim 12

An apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said driving mental condition judger multiplies a fourth judgment coefficient by a quotient of an RSA (Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia) value divided by an MWSA (Mayer wave related Sinus Arrhythmia) value to obtain a fourth sleepiness judgment value representing an autonomic nervous state of the driver.

Claim 13

An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said driving mental condition judger multiplies a fifth judgment coefficient by present running road information to obtain a fifth sleepiness judgment value representing a running road situation.

Claim 14

An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said driving mental condition is a state indicative of fatigue.

Claim 15

An apparatus according to claim 13, wherein said driving mental condition judger multiplies a continuous driving time by a first fatigue judgment coefficient to obtain a first fatigue judgment value.

Claim 16

An apparatus according to claim 14, wherein said driving mental condition judger subtracts a present heartbeat rate from an initial heartbeat rate and multiplies the result by a second fatigue judgment coefficient to obtain a second fatigue judgment value representing a change in heartbeat rate.

Claim 17

An apparatus according to claim 15, wherein said driving mental condition judger divides an MWSA (Mayer wave related Sinus Arrhythmia) value by an RSA (Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia) value and multiplies the quotient by a third fatigue judgment coefficient to obtain a third fatigue judgment value representing an autonomic nervous state of the driver.

Claim 18

An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said driving mental condition is a state indicative of impatience.

Claim 19

An apparatus according to claim 17, wherein said driving mental condition judger divides a continuous driving time by a movement distance and multiplies the quotient by a first impatience judgment coefficient to obtain a first impatience judgment value representing an inverse of movement distance per unit time.

Claim 20

An apparatus according to claim 18, wherein said driving mental condition judger divides an RSA (Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia) value by an MWSA (Mayer wave related Sinus Arrhythmia) value and multiplies the quotient by a second impatience judgment coefficient to obtain a second impatience judgment value representing an autonomic nervous state of the driver.

Claim 21

A driving mental condition detecting apparatus comprising: physiological data detecting means for detecting physiological data of a driver of a vehicle; navigation means for obtaining travel data of said vehicle; driving mental condition judging means for judging whether said driver feels sleepy based on said physiological data and said travel data; and alarm generating means for generating an alarm when it is judged that said driver feels sleepy, wherein said driving mental condition judging means judges sleepiness of said driver in accordance with said physiological data and said travel data during a predetermined driving period of time.

Claim 22

A driving mental condition detecting apparatus comprising: physiological data detecting means for detecting physiological data of a driver of a vehicle; navigation means for obtaining travel data of said vehicle; driving mental condition judging means for judging whether said driver feels sleepy based on said physiological data and said travel data; and alarm generating means for generating an alarm when it is judged that said driver feels sleepy, wherein said driving mental condition judging means judges sleepiness of said driver in accordance with said physiological data and said travel data during a predetermined driving period of time.

Claim 23

A driving mental condition detecting apparatus according to claim 20, wherein said predetermined driving period of time is a sleepiness time zone during which said driver may feel sleepy.

Claim 24

A driving mental condition detecting apparatus according to claim 20, wherein said predetermined driving period of time is from 12 a.m. to 5 a.m.

Claim 25

A driving mental condition detecting apparatus according to claim 20, wherein said predetermined driving period of time is from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Claim 26

A driving mental condition detecting apparatus according to claim 20, wherein said predetermined driving period of time is from T-1/2 hour to T+1/2 hour, where T is a time selected by the driver.