Patent ID: 7455146

Claim:
A method for detecting a level of awareness of a vehicle driver by monitoring a steering behavior of the vehicle driver and evaluating a phase profile between a change in a steering angle (β) of at least one steerable wheel of a vehicle and a change in a steering-wheel angle (α) of a steering wheel of the vehicle, the method comprising: Determining a first t 1 , wherein the change in the steering angle (β) begins at the first time t 1 ; determining a second time t 2 , wherein the change in the steering-wheel angle (α) begins at the second time t 2 and the second time t 2 follows the first time t 1 ; determining a third time t 3 , wherein the vehicle driver starts to bring about compensation by actuation of the steering wheel at the third time t 3 ; and evaluating a gradient of the steering-wheel angle (α) during a time interval from the second time t 2 to the third time t 3 for detecting the level of awareness of the vehicle driver.