PURPOSE: To improve ability in recognition by providing the photodetection part of an image detecting means nearby an assistant driver's seat side and detecting singular points of a face part by an image processing means, and recognizing the three-dimensional positions of the eyes on the basis of the positions as parameters.
CONSTITUTION: An infrared-light emission part 5 provided nearby the assistant driver's seat door is turned on in synchronism with a vertical synchronizing signal outputted by the synchronizing signal generating circuit 11a of an image data input part 11 to irradiate the driver, and reflected light from just beside the driver is photodetected by an image detection part 8. Further, its image signal is stored in an image data storage circuit 11c through an A/D converting circuit 11b and compared with a standard pattern by retrieving bright points of picture elements through a CPU13 to determine the position of a nose. Similarly, the degree of correlation between the standard pattern and image data is calculated to determine the positions of the eyes and also calculate their three-dimensional positions.
OGISO HARUHIKO
YASUDA AKIO
ISHIKAWA HIROSHI
