Patent ID: 9216742
Filing Date: 2015-12-22
Classification: B60W

Abstract:
1. A vehicle evaluation method for evaluating a sense of lateral oscillation that expresses riding comfort of a vehicle using at least one type of skeletal muscle involved in maintaining posture of a head of an occupant of the vehicle, comprising: a measuring step of measuring muscle activity waveforms of a pair of left and right muscles of at least one type of skeletal muscle involved in maintaining posture of the head of the occupant of the vehicle being driven under predetermined driving conditions using a measuring unit; a calculating step of calculating an amount of simultaneous activity that expresses characteristics of the muscle activity waveforms measured in the measuring step using a processor; and an evaluating step of evaluating the sense of lateral oscillation of the vehicle using an evaluation unit based on the amount of simultaneous activity calculated in the calculating step and further based on consideration that the sense of lateral oscillation becomes greater as the amount of simultaneous activity increases; wherein the at least one type of skeletal muscle is at least one type of muscle selected from the group consisting of sternocleidomastoid muscles, upper trapezius muscles, temporal muscles, and splenius capitis muscles; and wherein a myolelectric potential of the muscle activity measured in the measuring step is normalized using an amount of muscle activity of the at least one type of skeletal muscle where a weight of the head itself of the occupant is a load determined by holding the head off the ground in a lateral recumbent position.