ACTIVE WARNING SYSTEM USING THE DETECTION OF DRIVER AWARENESS OF TRAFFIC SIGNS

摘要

Traffic sign warnings are provided to a driver by optically scanning an area in front of the moving vehicle to obtain an image of said area in front of the moving vehicle. Road signs are recognized and their importance categorized. A driver's eyes are continuously scanned to determine whether the driver's eyes' ever focus on, or are directed to a detected and recognized road sign. Multiple different visual and/or audible warnings or alarms are generated based on the nature of a road sign, its proximity to the moving vehicle, and the driver's determined awareness of the road sign.

主权项

1. A method of providing traffic sign warnings to a driver of a moving vehicle, the method comprising:
optically scanning an area in front of the moving vehicle to obtain an image of said area in front of the moving vehicle; detecting and recognizing a road sign in said image; determining a location of a recognized road sign in the image, relative to the moving vehicle; determining a first vehicle operation parameter that should be changed responsive to a recognized road sign; optically scanning a driver's head and eyes; calculating at least one focal point of the driver's eyes from said optical scanning step; determining whether the driver has seen the recognized road sign from the determined focal points and the location of a recognized road sign relative to the moving vehicle; determining whether the driver has changed a vehicle operation parameter; if the driver has not changed the vehicle operation parameter, providing a first warning to the driver responsive to the road sign.