Adaptive occupancy conversational awareness system

• US 10,155,523 B2
• Filed: 03/30/2017
• Issued: 12/18/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Prakah-Asante, Kwaku O.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zanelli, Michael J
• Application Number:
  US15/473,976
• Publication Number:
  US 20180281806A1
• Time in Patent Office: 628 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/143 Alarm means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2420/54 Audio sensitive means, e.g. ultrasound
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2710/30 Auxiliary equipments
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/095 Predicting travel path or likelihood of collision
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/12 Lane keeping
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/08 related to drivers or passengers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2218/12 Classification; Matching
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/13 Acoustic transducers and sound field adaptation in vehicles

Abstract

A dynamic conversational awareness system including at least one microphone capturing sound data within an interior passenger compartment of a vehicle. An interior conversational threshold analyzer (ICTA) analyzes sound data within a predetermined frequency range. The ICTA determines whether the sound data within the predetermined frequency range exceeds a threshold. A sensitivity decision targeting unit (SDT) reconfigures vehicle settings associated with a user profile when the sound data exceeds the threshold. The respective reconfigured vehicle setting is utilized to enable a driver alertness operation of a vehicle system in response to actuation of the vehicle system.

Claims

1. A dynamic conversational awareness system comprising:

at least one microphone capturing sound data within an interior passenger compartment of a vehicle;

an interior conversational threshold analyzer (ICTA) analyzing sound data within a predetermined frequency range, the ICTA determining whether the sound data within the predetermined frequency range exceeds a threshold;

a sensitivity decision targeting (SDT) system reconfiguring vehicle settings associated with a user profile when the sound data exceeds the threshold;

wherein the respective reconfigured vehicle setting is utilized to enable a driver alertness operation of a vehicle system in response to actuation of the vehicle system.

2. The dynamic conversational awareness system of claim 1 wherein the predetermined frequency range analyzed by the ICTA relates to conversational sounds spoken by occupants within the interior passenger compartment of the vehicle.

3. The dynamic conversational awareness system of claim 2 wherein the ICTA includes a broadband filter to filter background noises from the sound data.

4. The dynamic conversational awareness system of claim 3 wherein the background noises include multimedia sound data.

5. The dynamic conversational awareness system of claim 3 wherein the background noises include environmental sound data.

6. The dynamic conversational awareness system of claim 1 wherein the user profile is stored in a memory of the ICTA.

7. The dynamic conversational awareness system of claim 1 further comprising a remote data storage system, wherein the user profile is stored in the remote data storage system.

8. The dynamic conversational awareness system of claim 1 wherein the user profile includes configurable decision rules for modifying vehicle settings.

9. The dynamic conversational awareness system of claim 8 wherein each user profile is associated with a respective user, wherein each user profile includes a set of customized decision rules personalized for a respective user.

10. The dynamic conversational awareness system of claim 8 wherein the SDT unit accesses the user profile of an identified driver and applies the decision rules within the user profile for adaptively modifying the vehicles settings.

11. The dynamic conversational awareness system of claim 8 wherein the vehicle system includes a collision warning system, and wherein the decision rules within the user profile for adaptively modifying the vehicle setting includes actuating an earlier collision warning in comparison to a factory configured setting.

12. The dynamic conversational awareness system of claim 8 wherein the vehicle system includes a lane departure warning system, and wherein the decision rules within the user profile for adaptively modifying the vehicle setting includes actuating an earlier lane departure warning in comparison to a factory configured setting.

13. The dynamic conversational awareness system of claim 8 wherein the vehicle system includes a connectivity setting, and wherein the decision rules within the user profile for adaptively modifying the connectivity setting includes delaying connectivity of incoming phone calls.

14. The dynamic conversational awareness system of claim 8 wherein the vehicle system includes a connectivity setting, and wherein the decision rules within the user profile for adaptively modifying the connectivity setting includes delaying connectivity of incoming messages.

15. The dynamic conversational awareness system of claim 8 wherein the vehicle system includes a connectivity setting, and wherein the decision rules within the user profile for adaptively modifying the setting includes lowering a volume setting of a vehicle multimedia device.

16. The dynamic conversational awareness system of claim 1 further including a driver identification device for identifying a driver of the vehicle.

17. The dynamic conversational awareness system of claim 16 wherein the driver identification device includes a human machine interface device where a user manually selects the driver identification.

18. The dynamic conversational awareness system of claim 16 wherein the driver identification device includes a fob device where the fob device transmits a signal to the vehicle identifying the user.

19. The dynamic conversational awareness system of claim 16 wherein the driver identification device includes a facial recognition device for identifying the driver.

20. A system comprising:

a microphone capturing sound data within a vehicle passenger compartment;

a threshold analyzer analyzing sound data within a predetermined frequency range to determine whether the sound data exceeds a threshold;

a sensitivity decision targeting unit reconfiguring vehicle settings associated with a user profile when the sound data exceeds the threshold, wherein a reconfigured vehicle setting enables a driver alertness operation of a vehicle system in response to actuation of the vehicle system.