JPS5939130B2 - Device for determining abnormal mental and physical conditions for vehicle drivers - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a device for determining abnormal mental and physical conditions of a vehicle driver, and particularly to a device for determining whether or not the driver is in an appropriate driving condition by checking the mental and physical reactions of the driver before starting the vehicle. The present invention relates to a device for gaining advantage.

When driving a vehicle such as a car, a driver is always required to maintain good mental and physical stability.

There are many factors that cause the driver's driving ability to deteriorate, but one of the most important factors is alcohol consumption, and other factors include the driver's physical condition due to overwork, falling asleep, or illness.

It is a well-known fact that it is extremely dangerous to drive a vehicle in an abnormal state of mind and body where the driving operation function has deteriorated due to the several factors mentioned above, and that many unfortunate traffic accidents occur due to these factors.

Since conventional vehicles are not equipped with a device to check whether a driver is mentally or physically abnormal, they have actually been allowed to operate a vehicle by a driver who is in an abnormal state.

In the past, several mental and physical state checking systems have been proposed theoretically or practically.

However, some of these conventional technologies impose extremely complicated checking tasks on the driver, and some of them are difficult to put into practical use due to the manufacturing cost.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and is a method for determining whether a driver is in a normal mental and physical state by checking the driver's mental and physical reactions through a stop adjustment task. An object of the present invention is to provide an abnormal state determination device.

According to the present invention, the driver's physical and mental state is determined using a static adjustment test in which the driver's pedal force on a predetermined pedal is held constant for a predetermined period of time, and the checking task imposed on the driver is extremely simple. And it's easy.

Furthermore, the load cell used in the present invention has an extremely sensitive detection ability and is suitable for determining subtle mental and physical conditions.

The present invention is extremely effective, especially in cases where the driver himself does not notice a decline in his own driving performance, and the determination system according to the present invention makes a strict determination of his mental and physical condition, thereby preventing the occurrence of traffic accidents. Can be prevented from being immature.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings.

According to the present invention, the operation of the ignition system of the vehicle is controlled by the engine lock circuit.

When the engine is stopped, the engine lock circuit locks the ignition system and prevents the engine from starting.

When starting the engine, the driver must undergo a mental and physical abnormal state determination test according to the present invention.

If the result of the mental and physical abnormal condition determination test is good, the locking action of the engine lock circuit will be released and the engine will be able to start. However, if it is determined that there is an abnormal condition, the ignition system will continue to be locked and the engine will start. Unable to start.

A psychosomatic reaction test called static adjustment is used for the psychosomatic abnormal state determination test used in the present invention.

This static adjustment task tests the ability to maintain a certain state of tension in a part of the body for a predetermined period of time, and detects abnormal states of the body and mind by utilizing the fact that the ability to maintain tension decreases as the stable state of the body and mind is disrupted. It is something to do.

Numerous experiments have shown that this static adjustment task is extremely effective in detecting abnormal states of mind and body.

In particular, when we asked drinkers to perform a static adjustment task and examined the correlation between the alcohol concentration in the replacement fluid, which is considered an objective standard for drunkenness, and the reaction results, we were able to detect drinkers at a fairly high rate. , and was recognized to be effective in preventing drunk driving.

The stationary adjustment task according to the present invention requires the driver to maintain the pedal force in a constant state of tension for a predetermined period of time multiple times.
Changes in pedal force are detected electrically and sent to an indicator installed in the driver's seat.

A predetermined adjustment value is displayed on the indicator, and when the lamp corresponding to the adjustment value lights up, the driver finely adjusts the pedal effort so that the pointer indicating the change in pedal effort matches the adjustment value of the lighted lamp. do.

Changes in pedal force are converted into electrical quantities by an appropriate processing circuit, and the reaction value after a predetermined period of time is compared with a preset reference value to determine the physical and mental state.

FIG. 1 shows a static adjustment task loop consisting of a test device according to the invention and a driver in the case of detecting the driver's pedal effort via the pedals.

The driver inputs the pedal force into the pedal, which is the operating section of the test device.

This pedal force is electrically detected by the detection section, and displayed on the display section via the sensitivity adjustment section.

The pedal force display is visually recognized by the driver as the output of the test device.

The driver corrects the pedal force through the action of the central nervous system in order to make the pedal force match a predetermined adjustment amount.

The stationary adjustment task is performed by such a loop, and the output of the test device is further compared and judged by a processing circuit (not shown) which will be described later, and the mental and physical state of the driver is determined.

The case where indirect pedal force is used via the pedal will be described below.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic configuration of an operating section and a detection section provided in the test apparatus of FIG. 1.

A pedal 10 to which pedal force is input is provided in the driver's seat,
A detecting section is formed near the pedal 10, and a load cell 11 that functions as a load converter is firmly fixed to the toe board 12.

In the normal case, the pedal 10 is held at the solid line position and does not affect the load cell 11.

During a static adjustment task, the pedal 10 is moved to the chain position and pressed against the contact of the load cell 11.

A configuration 1 of an example of the load cell 11 forming the detection section will be explained based on FIG. 3.

The main body of the load cell 11 is made of a metallic elastic ring 13, and is configured to be elastically deformed by application of an external force.

A fixing bolt 14 is embedded and fixed in one end of the elastic ring 13, and a washer 15, 16 and a nut i are fixed as shown in the figure.
The load cell 11 is fastened and fixed to the toe board 12 by the toe 11.

An adjustment bolt 18 is screwed and inserted into the other end of the elastic ring 13, and a contact 19 that contacts the aforementioned pedal is fixed to the tip of the adjustment bolt 18.

The adjustment bolt 18 is fixed to the elastic ring 13 at an appropriate position by a bolt, a collar 20 and a nut 21.

Two strain gauges 22, 23, 24 and 25 are bonded to the inner and outer surfaces of the elastic ring 13, respectively.

When a pedal force is applied to the load cell 11 in the direction of arrow A, elastic deformation occurs in the elastic ring □ 13, resulting in compressive strain in the strain gauges 22 and 23, and tensile strain in the strain gauges 24 and 25, which increases their respective resistance. The value changes.

Each strain gauge 22, 23°24.25 is connected to a terminal block 30 provided on the elastic ring 13 via lead wires 26, 2γ, 28, 29, and further connected to an external circuit via a conducting wire 31.

Therefore, the driver's depression force applied to the pedal 10 is extracted by the load cell 11 as an electrical signal.

The position where the pedal 10 contacts the load cell 11 can be arbitrarily selected by turning the adjustment bolt 18 and adjusting the angle of addition to the toe board.

In the illustrated embodiment, each strain gauge is adhesively fixed to the elastic ring 13, but it is also possible to embed and fix the strain gauge inside the elastic ring 13, and it is also preferable to protect the strain gauge by molding the gauge.

The case where a ring-shaped load cell is used has been described above, but any load cell may be used as long as it has an output distortion amount that can detect subtle changes in pedal force, and is not affected by shape, size, etc.

Storage gauges 22, 23, 24, 25 are connected to form a bridge circuit as shown in FIG.

A constant voltage is supplied to the bridge circuit in order to extract electrical changes.

The output of the bridge circuit is sent to an amplifier 32 forming a sensitivity adjustment section.
The signal is amplified and displayed on the DC ammeter 33 forming the display section.

As shown in FIG. 5, the DC ammeter 33 is arranged near the steering wheel 34, and has a structure that allows the driver to easily read the indicated value.

An adjustment value 35 is engraved on the DC ammeter 33, indicating the static adjustment position of the pointer 36.

Further, without installing a separate indicator instrument as described above, it is also possible to use an instrument already installed in the vehicle, such as a speedometer, as a substitute.

The resistance value of each strain gauge is set so that when no pedal force is applied to the load cell 11, the output of the bridge circuit is zero.

In this case, it is preferable to insert a variable adjustment resistor into the bridge circuit in order to obtain a balanced state of the bridge.

When the driver depresses the pedal 10 and applies depressing force to the load cell 11, the resistance value of the strain gauge changes,
An unbalanced current flows through the bridge circuit, and the output current is indicated by a DC ammeter 33.

The driver adjusts the pedal force so that the pointer 36 of the DC ammeter 33 matches the adjustment value 35 and remains stationary.

It is extremely advantageous to use the clutch pedal as the pedal 10 in the illustrated embodiment in order to simplify the device.

In this case, the position where the clutch pedal engages with the load cell is selected to be a position that is not related to the engagement/disengagement operation of the clutch device, and does not interfere with normal clutch operation.

The case where indirect pedal force is used using the pedal has been described above, and next, other embodiments will be described.

In other words, this is a method that uses direct pedal force applied to the load cell without using pedals.

A load cell is attached to the toeboard of the vehicle and is directly stepped on to perform stationary adjustment tasks.

In this case, it is better to use a load cell with a larger pressure receiving area than the ring-shaped load cell described above.

If a constant pedal force is always used as the adjustment value, there is a risk that it may be falsified by, for example, placing an appropriate weight on the load cell.

To prevent this, the pedal force value required for adjustment should be changed every time.

For this purpose, a method of appropriately changing the output sensitivity of the load cell can be considered, and as a result, the pedal force required for adjustment changes.

It would be even better if this change was made random.

A specific method that applies the operating principle of a vehicle's totalizer is shown in FIG.

The rotation of the speedometer cable is transmitted to the gear 39 by a worm gear mechanism consisting of a worm 3γ and a worm wheel 38.

The gear 39 is a driving gear for the totalizer, and rotates a ring 40 fixed coaxially with the gear 39 to sequentially display a predetermined number of kilometers traveled.

Using this principle, the rotation of the speedometer cable is similarly transmitted to the worm gear mechanism consisting of the worm 31 and the worm wheel 41, which further rotates the gear 42.

The gear 42 is attached to the rotating shaft of a rotary variable resistor 43, and its resistance changes according to the rotation of the speedometer cable.

The rotary variable resistor 43 is of an endless type, and if its resistance value is used as the resistance value related to the output sensitivity of the load cell, the necessary adjustment pedal force will be determined by the resistance value at the time the vehicle stops. Become.

In this case, the driver will be required to use a random pedal force each time, making prediction difficult.

Note that the gear ratio between the worm wheel 41 and the gear 42 is selected as appropriate.

Next, a processing circuit for electrically processing the test device output for the static adjustment task described above to determine the mental and physical state of the driver will be described.

A preferred embodiment of the processing circuit is shown in FIG.

The output signal from the detection section is applied to a DC ammeter 33 which is a display section as shown in FIG. 8, and is also inputted to one input terminal of a comparator circuit 44.

A constant voltage at a level corresponding to a preset stationary adjustment task is input from the task setting circuit 45 to the external force input terminal of the comparator circuit 44 .

In addition, in response to this task, the task setting circuit 45 also outputs an eighth
As shown in the figure, a plurality of lamps L (in this embodiment) are provided in the DC ammeter 33 as an indicator corresponding to the scale of the adjustment value 35 of the DC ammeter 33.

(11 pieces of ~1o) are provided (light emitting diodes can also be used instead of lamps).

Therefore, the task setting circuit 45
The voltage value input to the other side of the comparison circuit 44 increases stepwise.

This will be explained in more detail based on the respective operation diagrams in FIGS. 9A, B, and C.

When the lamp L corresponding to the adjustment value 5 is turned on by the task setting circuit 45 as shown in FIG. 8 (FIG. 9A), at the same time, the constant voltage (setting signal) of level 5 is turned on as shown in FIG. 9B.
b is applied to the comparator circuit 44 during the lighting period of the lamp L5.

When the driver confirms that this lamp L5 is lit, the driver should immediately
The pedal 10 is depressed so that the pointer 36 matches the scale 5 position of the adjustment value 35 to apply a pedal force to the load cell.

In reality, it is extremely difficult to keep this pedal force constant because the detector is sensitive.

Further, the more abnormal the mental and physical state is, the more difficult it becomes, and the more difficult it becomes to match the adjustment value 35.

Because of this, the pointer swings left and right, for example, the 9th point
As shown in FIG. B, the output signal Va from the detector has a random waveform.

After a certain period of time T1 has elapsed, another lamp, for example lamp L3
When turned on, a period of a certain time T2 as shown in FIG. 9B,
At level 3, a constant voltage is applied to the comparator circuit 44.

Therefore, the driver continues to depress the pedal 10 so that the pointer 36 matches the adjustment value 3.

The pedal 10 is kept depressed so that the pointer 36 does not deviate from the scale 3 of the adjustment value 35 while the lamp L3 is lit.

In this case, since the lighting time T1 of the lamp L5 and the lighting time T2 of the lamp L3 are different, the difficulty of the stationary adjustment task increases for the driver, and a high level of attention is required.

To further increase the difficulty of the stationary adjustment task, the lamp L3 is turned off and the lamp L7 is turned on.

The lighting time T3 in this case is the same as that of the previous lamp L6. The lighting time is set to be different from the lighting time in the case of L3.

Then, the pedal 10 is continued to be depressed so that the pointer 36 matches the adjustment value γ corresponding to the lamp L7.

Furthermore, during the period of time T3, the comparison circuit 4 is
4 is applied with a constant voltage of level 1 as shown in FIG. 9B.

In the above explanation, the case where only three lamps L are used is shown, but any one can be selected as required.

Needless to say, the greater the number of lamps L and the more randomly the lighting is performed, the more difficult the static adjustment task becomes.

Output signal Va of the detection unit and setting signal v of the task setting circuit 45
The comparator circuit 44 performs the comparison with b and outputs the deviation value.

The comparison output shows a waveform as shown in FIG. 9C, where the horizontal axis represents time and the vertical axis represents the output voltage value, and when the adjustment value and the pointer 36 match, it is set as 0'l, and the deviation value is expressed. There is.

The determination circuit 46 determines whether the deviation value exceeds a predetermined reference value.

In this case, there is no problem when the lighting order of the lamp L changes to an adjacent lamp, but a problem occurs when the lamps L are separated by a distance.

For example, when the lamp L7 lights up after the lamp L3, the pointer 36 must be moved from the adjustment value 3 to the adjustment value γ, but even if the setting signal vb can be changed in steps, the change in the pointer 36 is continuous. I have no choice but to do it.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 9C, it is necessary to temporarily stop the function of the determination circuit 46 for a predetermined time t every time the adjustment value 35 is changed.

A signal line 4γ sends a signal used for this purpose from the task setting circuit 45 to the determination circuit 46.

However, if the rising edge of the setting signal vb is not stepped but has a slope in a predetermined section, such measures are not necessary.

In the determination circuit 46, if the total value of deviation values for all tasks (in the example of FIG. 9, within the period of time T1 to T3) is less than the reference value, the output of the determination circuit 46 locks the engine. The locking action of the circuit 48 is released to enable starting of the engine.

However, if the deviation value is greater than or equal to the reference value, the engine lock circuit 48 is not unlocked and the vehicle engine cannot be started.

The engine lock circuit 48 constituting the vehicle running obstruction device is composed of a power amplifier, a relay circuit, an engine lock mechanism, etc., and is characterized in that the engine is started by a lock release signal supplied from the determination circuit 46. As for the part, it is preferable to use a mechanism in which a relay circuit is connected to the starter switch of the engine.

In addition, in the embodiment shown in Fig. 1, an example was shown in which changes in the task settings are displayed using the lamp L, but instead of the lamp L, it is also possible to indicate the corresponding adjustment value using a digital display as shown in Fig. 10. It is.

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, a driver can perform various types of static adjustment tests when driving a vehicle, and can prevent dangerous driving such as drunk driving. .

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a block diagram showing the stationary adjustment test loop of the present invention, Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the pedal and load cell installed in the driver's seat, Figure 3 is a front view of the load cell, and Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of the load cell. A schematic circuit diagram of the test device, FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the display section in the driver's seat, FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing the adjustment value variable device, and FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of the processing circuit according to the present invention. The block diagram, FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of the DC ammeter according to the present invention, and FIG. 9A is
B. Each of C is a waveform diagram at each part of the embodiment shown in FIG.
FIG. 0 is a digital display for indicating adjustment values according to the present invention. 10...Pedal, 22, 23, 24, 25...
... Strain gauge, 33 ... DC ammeter, 44 ... Comparison circuit, 45 ... Problem setting circuit, 46 ... Judgment circuit, 48・・・・・・
・Engine lock circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Sequentially generating unspecified setting signals corresponding to the adjustment task value in order to give the static adjustment task value multiple times,
A task setting circuit that generates an instruction signal to display a display corresponding to the setting signal lζ, a detection section that electrically detects the operating force by the driver, and a value displayed according to the output signal detected by the detection section. an instruction section provided within the display section or independently that performs display based on the instruction signal, and an instruction signal output from the task setting circuit and an output signal from the detection section. A device for determining a mental and physical abnormal state of a vehicle driver, including a processing circuit that determines the deviation value, compares and determines the deviation value with a preset reference value, and controls a vehicle running obstruction device.