JPH0415536Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field of the Invention] This invention relates to a device for waking up a driver from drowsiness by applying irregular and violent vibrations to the driver as needed.

[Prior Art] As shown in Fig. 1, in some sections of expressways, irregularities 2 are intentionally provided on the road surface 1 to prevent drivers from falling asleep at the wheel, thereby creating a ``rattling'' on the body of an automobile 3. '', and measures are being taken to indirectly give vibrations to the driver.

The road surface 1 having such unevenness 2 must be passed by all drivers, and is uncomfortable for drivers who are not feeling sleepy.

In addition, since the section having the unevenness 2 is fixed, it is useless unless the timing matches when you are attacked by drowsiness.

Furthermore, since the stimulus is transmitted to the driver via the car, it is not only considerably softened, but also the type of stimulus is regularly repeated.

On the other hand, in addition to the above-mentioned method of creating unevenness 2 on the road surface 1, for example,
As shown in Publications No. 50-27088 and No. 10664, a vibrating device is installed in the driver's seat.
Means for driving the vibration device to prevent dozing when the distance to the front or rear of the vehicle becomes closer than a predetermined value, or when it is detected that the rotation of the steering wheel of the vehicle has become slow. has also been proposed.

However, the vibrating device is used only as a so-called vibrator that automatically stimulates the driver when it senses that the driver is dozing off, and is of no use under normal circumstances.

[Purpose of the invention] This invention was made in view of the above-mentioned points, and consists of arranging a vibration unit at a predetermined location on the driver's seat, and feeding a reproduction signal from a car stereo installed in the car to the vibration unit. This device is used as a tactile stereo system along with sound played from the car stereo's speakers, and when the driver feels drowsy, by turning on the switch, strong vibrations are applied to the driver to wake him up from drowsiness. The purpose of this invention is to provide a device to wake up people from sleepiness.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the driver's drowsiness wake-up device of this invention will be described based on the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of one type of what is said to be a sensory stereo system applied to one embodiment of the system. A unit built-in cushion 12 is interposed therebetween.

Further, FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the overall structure of one embodiment of the driver's drowsiness wake-up device of this invention. In FIG. 3, 13 is a radio receiver for receiving radio broadcasting, 14 is a tape player for playing back a recording tape, and 15 is a signal that gives strong amplitude vibration to the vibration unit. It is a generator.

One output end of the radio receiver 13 is a switch S.
The other output end is connected to one fixed terminal a, and the other output end is connected to a fixed terminal c. The switch S1 is composed of four fixed terminals a to d and two movable terminals e and f.

One output end of the tape player 14 is connected to a fixed terminal d of the switch S1, and the other output end is connected to a fixed terminal b. Movable terminals e and f of the switch S1 are connected to speakers 20 and 21 provided in the vehicle via amplifiers 16 and 17, respectively.

Further, the output terminal of the signal generator 15 is connected to the switch S2.
is connected to fixed terminal b. This switch S
2 is composed of two fixed terminals a and b and one movable terminal c, and the fixed terminal a is connected to the movable terminals e and f of the switch S1 via resistors R1 and R2, respectively.

A movable terminal c of the switch S2 is connected to a vibration unit 19 via an amplifier 18. The vibration unit 19 is built into the vibration unit built-in cushion 12 shown in FIG.

The switch S1 is a switch for selecting an audio signal from the radio receiver 13 or the tape player 14, and has two circuits corresponding to the L channel signal and the R channel signal. Amplifiers 16, 17 and speakers 20, 2 connected to it
The same applies to 1.

Switch S2 normally has a fixed terminal a as shown in the figure.
A movable terminal c is connected to the side, which mixes the L channel component and R channel component of the car stereo source, that is, the audio signal, converts it into a monaural signal, and then excites the vibration unit 19 with the low frequency component of the source. It is designed to convey to the listener the ultra-low tones of the source that can be felt throughout the body.

Next, connect the movable terminal c of switch S2 to the fixed terminal b.
When switched to the side, the input signal of the amplifier 18 is disconnected from the first signal generator consisting of the radio receiver 13 or the tape player 14 and is connected to a second signal generator 15 independent of it. It's summery.

When the movable terminal c of this switch S2 is switched to the fixed terminal b side, the output of the signal generator 15 is input to the amplifier 18 as described above.

This signal generator 15 is shown in detail in FIG. 4, where 15a is a white noise generator, and simply amplification using the Zener current of a Zener diode as a source is sufficient.

Further, 15b is a bandpass filter, in order to extract a random trigger-like signal from the white noise generated by the white noise generator 15a, which is a signal with high spectrum density.
It also has the function of narrowing the signal band and extracting sparse and sporadic signals.

The output of this bandpass filter 15b is output to a pulse shaping circuit 15c. This pulse shaping circuit 15c is a bandpass filter 1
The output of 5b is used as a trigger to equalize the output amplitude, and the output is applied to vibration unit 19 via switch S2 and amplifier 18 in FIG.

By the way, in general, when people fall asleep while driving, it is said that in addition to lack of sleep and fatigue, the main reason for this is that there are few changes and there is less stimulus for driving.

In order to prevent such drowsy driving due to the monotony of driving, when constructing expressways, courses were set to avoid long straight courses and to require drivers to always turn the steering wheel to the right or left. , As mentioned earlier, it is well known that they use measures such as creating unevenness on the road surface.

This invention attempts to solve this kind of problem using a device on the car side, and preliminary tests conducted by the inventors have shown that, as shown in Figure 2, music is normally By applying a pulse signal to the vibration unit 19, which is the device that transmits the low-pitched vibrations of programs such as the I was able to get good results.

It was also shown that the effect is greater when the period of vibration is applied randomly than when it has a regular period.

This idea was developed on the premise of this, and if the driver feels tired or is at high risk of falling asleep while driving due to frequent yawning, the driver or the passenger When the operator determines, the movable terminal c of the switch S2 is connected to the fixed terminal b.
By switching to the side, the signal generator 15
The output signal of is sent to amplifier 1 through this switch S2.
8 is input.

The amplifier 18 is a power amplifier that amplifies the power of the output of the signal generator 15 and supplies it to the vibration unit 19 to drive the vibration unit 19. This gives a strong stimulus to the driver and wakes him up from sleepiness.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the vibration generating means for applying vibration to the driver is as shown in FIG.
Although the cushion 13 with a built-in vibration unit is used as an example, the same applies to a structure in which the vibration unit 19 is directly incorporated into the seat.

The same also applies to the relationship between the backrest and the "seat" that receives almost the entire body weight.

As is clear from the above explanation, in the above embodiment, by adding a random large amplitude signal to the unit that transmits the bass vibration of a stereo that is normally experienced,
It stimulates the driver's back vertebrae, wakes up drowsiness, and prevents drowsy driving.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the structure of another embodiment of this invention. The embodiment shown in FIG. 5 is a further improvement of the previous embodiment.

That is, in the embodiment described above, the vibration unit 19 is driven continuously, and the user must voluntarily turn on or turn off the device. For this reason, if you do not operate the device, you may end up feeling sleepy when you actually need the help of this device, and as a result, you may end up not using it. .

Therefore, if you decide that the situation requires the device of this invention, you can turn on the switch.
With time intervals of short effective stimulation,
This is repeated until the drive is completed to ensure that drowsy driving is prevented.

Next, this other embodiment will be explained in detail with reference to FIG. 5. In FIG. 5, the same parts as in FIG. 3 will be described with the same reference numerals. The signal generator 15 is similar to the detailed block diagrams shown in FIGS. 3 and 4.

The output signal of the signal generator 15 is applied to the vibration unit 19 through a switching circuit 22 and an amplifier 18 added after the signal generator 15. The amplifier 18 and vibration unit 19 are the same as those shown in FIG.

The embodiment shown in FIG. 5 is characterized by the switching circuit 22. In the embodiment shown in FIG. That is, the switching circuit 22 operates at time t1 as shown in FIG. 6A.
A device is used that operates in such a way that the joint point at t2 (minutes) closes and the joint point at the next time t2 (minutes) opens.

By using such a switching circuit 22, when the driver becomes drowsy and turns on the power switch (not shown) of the device, the device starts operating and the signal generator 15 generates a signal.

However, since the switching circuit 22 operates at the timing shown in FIG. 6A, the signal applied to the input of the amplifier 18 or the vibration unit 19 is
As shown in FIG. B, the contacts of the switching circuit 22 are turned on only during a time t1 with a time t2 in between, and the amplifier 18 and vibration unit 19 operate.

For example, time t1 is 1 minute, time t2 is
When 15 minutes is set, when the device of this embodiment is activated, the vibration unit 19 is driven for 1 minute to stimulate the driver, and after 15 minutes have passed, the vibration unit 19 is driven for 1 minute again to start driving. It operates in an intermittent cycle of stimulating people.

In this way, when the driver becomes drowsy and turns on the power switch, the alarm vibration unit 19 operates, and after stimulating the driver for a sufficient period of time, it pauses, and the time required for the stimulation to disappear. Since the stimulation is automatically given again before the time has elapsed, it is possible to effectively prevent the driver from falling asleep while driving due to the drowsiness caused by monotonous driving.

[Effect] As described above, according to the driver's drowsiness wake-up device of this invention, a vibration unit is provided at a predetermined location on the driver's seat, and a reproduction signal from the car stereo is given to the vibration unit to be reproduced from the speaker. It is used as a sensory stereo device along with sound, and when the driver becomes drowsy, it generates random noise and drives the vibration unit to stimulate the driver, thereby preventing the driver from becoming drowsy. death,
It is possible to reliably prevent drowsy driving, and the vibration unit can have the practical effect of being used both for driving the sensory stereo system and for inducing drowsiness.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a diagram showing an expressway with an uneven road surface;
Figure 2 is a perspective view showing a cushion with a built-in vibration unit applied to an embodiment of the device of this invention;
The figure is a block diagram showing the configuration of one embodiment of the device of this invention, FIG. FIG. 6 is a time chart for explaining the operation of the block diagram shown in FIG. 5. FIG. 11...Chair, 12...Cushion with built-in vibration unit, 13...Radio receiver, 14...Tape player, 15...Signal generator, 16-18...
Amplifier, 19... Vibration unit, 20, 21...
Speaker, S1, S2... switch, 22... switching circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] (1) A first signal generator that generates an audio signal such as a radio receiver or tape player, an amplifier that amplifies the audio signal from this first signal generator, and a speaker that receives the output of the amplifier as an input and emits an audio signal from the first signal generator into the vehicle; a vibration unit for applying stimulation; a second signal generator for applying strong amplitude vibration to the vibration unit; and a signal from the first signal generator or the second signal generator to generate the vibration. A driver's drowsiness wake-up device characterized by comprising a changeover switch configured to change over the unit. (2) Utility model registration claim 1, characterized in that the second signal generator is provided with a switching circuit for intermittently applying strong amplitude vibration to the vibration unit. Apparatus described in section.