DROWSINESS-ESTIMATING DEVICE AND DROWSINESS-ESTIMATING METHOD

A drowsiness-estimating device capable of improving the precision of drowsiness estimation by eliminating the effect of individual differences. In the device, a recurrence required time-calculating part (103) calculates the recurrence required time, which is the time needed, after a detection time when an action is detected, for a drowsiness estimation parameter value acquired after the detection time to return to the value of the drowsiness estimation parameter acquired before the detection time. A drowsiness-estimating part (104) estimates the level of drowsiness of the drowsiness-estimation subject on the basis of the calculated recurrence required time. To be specific, the drowsiness-estimating part (104) maintains a drowsiness level-estimating table in which each of multiple time ranges is correlated with a possible drowsiness level, and specifies a possible drowsiness level that corresponds to the time range, among the multiple time ranges, with which the recurrence required time is associated.