Patent ID: 9679209
Date: 2017-06-13
CPC Classifications: G01B,G03B,G06K,G08B,H04N

Claim:
1. A state monitoring apparatus mounted in a vehicle to monitor a state of an occupant who is a driver of the vehicle, comprising: at least one light emission part that emits light to project illumination light having a wavelength including at least a near infrared wavelength to a predetermined area that is defined as an area where a face of the occupant being the driver of the vehicle is positioned in space in a compartment of the vehicle; an image pickup part that generates a picture image by receiving light incident from the predetermined area with an image sensor having a plurality of pixels; a state monitoring section that monitors a state of the occupant being the driver based on a result of processing the picture image generated by the image pickup part; and an optical control part that controls light distribution the image pickup predetermined area wherein: the predetermined area includes a center presence area where a central axis of the face of the occupant being the driver is probably positioned, while the image pickup predetermined area includes an area corresponding to the center presence area, in the light receptive surface; and the optical control part controls the light distribution in the center presence area such that