CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a U.S. National Phase of International Patent Application No. PCT/JP2019/016182 filed on Apr. 15, 2019, which claims priority benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. JP 2018-122301 filed in the Japan Patent Office on Jun. 27, 2018. Each of the above-referenced applications is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present technology relates to an evaluation device and a method for evaluating a state related to sensing of danger by a user who is, for example, a driver of a vehicle.

BACKGROUND ART

For example, as disclosed in Patent Documents 1 to 3 described below, it is conceivable to monitor a psychological condition or a health condition of a driver of a vehicle by biological information such as pulse, heartbeat, or the like for use in safety control.

When an abnormality is found in the driver's condition, it is conceivable to alert an occupant of the vehicle or surrounding vehicles, or to automatically reduce speed.

CITATION LIST

Patent Document

Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-280513

Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2014-89557

Patent Document 3: WO 2014-24606 A

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

It is an object of the present technology to enhance safety in vehicle operation.

Solutions to Problems

An evaluation device according to the present technology includes a communication unit capable of communicating with a vehicle, and a control unit that performs an evaluation of a state related to sensing of danger by a user on the basis of an electroencephalogram of the user detected by an electroencephalogram sensor, and causes the communication unit to transmit evaluation result information to the vehicle.

That is, for example, on the basis of an electroencephalogram of a user such as a driver of a vehicle, evaluation of a state related to sensing of danger such as whether or not the user has sensed a danger is performed, and evaluation result information is transmitted to the vehicle side.

In the evaluation device according to the present technology described above, it is desirable that the control unit perform the evaluation of a state related to sensing of danger on the basis of at least one of a magnitude of amplitude of a beta wave in an electroencephalogram, a power level of the beta wave, or a phase of the beta wave.

When a danger approaches and tension rises, an amplitude and power of a beta wave change. Furthermore, when beta waves detected at a plurality of positions in a brain are out of phase, there is a possibility that the evaluation of a state related to sensing of danger becomes less accurate. Thus, the state is evaluated in consideration of a magnitude of amplitude, a power level, and a phase of a beta wave.

In the evaluation device according to the present technology described above, it is desirable that the control unit perform the evaluation of a state related to sensing of danger on the basis of a relative comparison between a beta wave and a component other than the beta wave in an electroencephalogram.

That is, the evaluation of a state related to sensing of danger is performed on the basis of a relative comparison with a component other than the beta wave such as an alpha wave or a theta wave, not on the basis of the beta wave alone.

In the evaluation device according to the present technology described above, it is desirable that the control unit perform, when a current position is a position where an avoidance behavior has been taken in the past and an electroencephalogram immediately before the avoidance behavior has been recorded, the evaluation of a state related to sensing of danger on the basis of a result of matching between an electroencephalogram detected by the electroencephalogram sensor and the electroencephalogram immediately before the avoidance behavior.

This makes it possible to appropriately evaluate, on the basis of past records, a possibility that a user will take an avoidance behavior such as sudden braking or sudden steering in accordance with sensing of danger.

In the evaluation device according to the present technology described above, it is desirable that the control unit execute transmission processing for transmitting, to an external device, current position information, information regarding an electroencephalogram detected by the electroencephalogram sensor, and motion information detected by a motion sensor.

This makes it possible to build, outside the evaluation device, a database (table information) for managing information such as a place where a user has sensed a danger, an electroencephalogram at the time of sensing of danger, a content of an avoidance behavior taken in accordance with sensing of danger, and whether an accident has occurred (whether a collision has occurred).

In the evaluation device according to the present technology described above, it is desirable that the control unit execute the transmission processing in accordance with a result of the evaluation of a state related to sensing of danger.

This allows processing of transmitting information for risk analysis such as an electroencephalogram to an external device to be executed if it is evaluated that a user has sensed a danger, and not to be executed if it is evaluated that the user has not sensed a danger.

In the evaluation device according to the present technology described above, it is desirable that the control unit extract a feature amount of an electroencephalogram detected by the electroencephalogram sensor, and perform the transmission processing for transmitting information regarding the extracted feature amount.

With this arrangement, an amount of data can be reduced as compared with a case where an electroencephalogram signal itself detected by the electroencephalogram sensor is transmitted.

In the evaluation device according to the present technology described above, it is desirable that the control unit perform the transmission processing for transmitting vehicle information acquired from the vehicle via the communication unit.

This makes it possible to build, outside the evaluation device, a database for managing information indicating a vehicle state corresponding to the time of sensing of danger, in addition to information indicating a place where a user has sensed a danger, an avoidance behavior has been taken, or an accident has occurred.

In the evaluation device according to the present technology described above, it is desirable that the control unit cause the communication unit to transmit, to the vehicle, information regarding an avoidance behavior recorded in association with a current position on the basis of a result of the evaluation of a state related to sensing of danger.

This makes it possible to transmit, to the vehicle, information regarding an avoidance behavior recorded in association with the current position when it is evaluated that a user has sensed a danger.

Furthermore, an evaluation method according to the present technology includes evaluating a state related to sensing of danger by a user on the basis of an electroencephalogram of the user detected by an electroencephalogram sensor, and causing a communication unit capable of communicating with a vehicle to transmit evaluation result information to the vehicle.

Such an evaluation method also makes it possible to obtain an operation similar to that of the evaluation device according to the present technology described above.

Effects of the Invention

According to the present technology, it is possible to enhance safety in vehicle operation.

Note that the effects described here are not necessarily restrictive, and the effects of the invention may be any one of the effects described in the present disclosure.

