APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING INFORMATION FOR VEHICLE

• US 20090318777A1
• Filed: 06/02/2009
• Published: 12/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Kameyama, Shogo
• Granted Patent: US 8,190,434 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/301
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0816 Measuring devices for examining respiratory frequency measuring frequency of electric signals G01R23/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/16 Devices for psychotechnics using teaching or educational appliances G09B1/00 - G09B7/00; Testing reaction times ; Devices for evaluating the psychological state
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/165 Evaluating the state of mind, e.g. depression, anxiety
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/02 Measuring pulse or heart rate
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/08 Detecting organic movements or changes, e.g. tumours, cysts, swellings A61B8/02 - A61B8/06 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/488 involving Doppler signals
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3608 using speech input, e.g. using speech recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3617 using user history, behaviour, conditions or preferences, e.g. predicted or inferred from previous use or current movement
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3644 Landmark guidance, e.g. using POIs or conspicuous other objects
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3679 Retrieval, searching and output of POI information, e.g. hotels, restaurants, shops, filling stations, parking facilities G01C21/3611 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0962 having an indicator mounted inside the vehicle, e.g. giving voice messages
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/088 Word spotting
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/227 of the speaker; Human-factor methodology

Abstract

The apparatus detects a mental condition of a user when a conversation content is inputted. The apparatus further collects service information based on a keyword extracted from conversation and a detected mental condition. For example, a user'"'"'s interest is determined by considering a mental condition, i.e., a user'"'"'s feeling, when the conversation containing the keyword is held. For example, the apparatus provides information collected based on the keyword which the user expresses a good feeling. As a result, it is possible to collect information reflecting the user'"'"'s interest and hobby more exactly from a user'"'"'s conversation in the vehicle. It is possible to provide the apparatus for providing information for vehicles which can respond to a variety of user tastes.

Claims

1. An apparatus for providing information for vehicle comprising:

conversation inputting means for inputting contents of a conversation of a user in a vehicle;

speech-recognition means for recognizing the contents of the conversation by using a speech recognition;

keyword extracting means for extracting a keyword to be used for an interest determination from the contents of the conversation recognized by the speech recognition;

mental condition detecting means for detecting a mental condition of a user when the contents of the conversation is inputted;

service information collecting means for collecting service information based on the extracted keyword and the detected mental condition; and

service information output means to output the collected service information in a form of an image, audio, or those combination.

2. The apparatus for providing information for vehicle in claim 1, wherein the service information output means is configured to output the service information in response to acquiring a predetermined service trigger information.

3. The apparatus for providing information for vehicle in claim 1, further comprising:

base data accumulating means for storing and accumulating interest determining base data that includes the keyword being linked with the detected mental condition information; and

user interest information extracting means for extracting a user interesting information reflecting the user'"'"'s present interest from the interest determining base data accumulated, wherein

the service information collecting means searches and collects service information which suits the user interesting information.

4. The apparatus for providing information for vehicle in claim 3, wherein the base data accumulating means accumulates only the keyword extracted within a latest predetermined period, and deletes the keyword accumulated for the predetermined period in an orderly fashion.

5. The apparatus for providing information for vehicle in claim 3, the apparatus further comprises:

mental condition quality determining means for determining quality of the detected mental condition, wherein

the base data accumulating means handles the result of the mental condition quality determining means as the mental condition information that is linked with the keyword, and accumulates a pair of the result of the mental condition quality determining means and the linked keyword as the interest determining base data,

the service information collecting means performs a search of the service information to be collected based on the keyword extracted by the keyword extracting means, and

the user interest information extracting means gives a higher ranking of an adopting priority for searching of the service information in the service information collecting means to the keyword which has a better result of the mental condition quality determination in the interest determining base data.

6. The apparatus for providing information for vehicle in claim 5, wherein the user interest information extracting means analyzes a frequency of occurrence of the keyword accumulated in the base data accumulating means, and gives a higher ranking of the adopting priority for searching the service information to the keyword which has a higher occurrence frequency and better result of the mental condition quality determination.

7. The apparatus for providing information for vehicle in claim 5, wherein the user interest information extracting means is configured so that the keyword which is linked with the result of the mental condition quality determination poorer than a predetermined level in the interest determining base data is not adopted for searching the service information in the service information collecting means.

8. The apparatus for providing information for vehicle in claim 5, wherein the mental condition quality determining means includes mental point converting means for converting a mental condition detected by the mental condition detecting means into a mental point which is defined to have a larger numerical value as the mental condition becomes better, and the base data accumulating means accumulates the interest determining base data which is provided by handling the mental point as the mental condition information to be associated and linked with the keyword.

9. The apparatus for providing information for vehicle in claim 8, wherein the user interest information extracting means sums the mental point for each classification of the keywords accumulated in the base data accumulating means, and gives a higher ranking of the adoption priority for searching the service information in the service information collecting means to the keyword as the totaled point of the mental point for the keyword becomes higher.

10. The apparatus for providing information for vehicle in claim 9, wherein the mental point converting means sets a value of zero or negative to the mental point linked with the keyword that is contained in a conversation when the mental condition is poorer than a predetermined level.

11. The apparatus for providing information for vehicle in claim 10, wherein the user interest information extracting means withdraws the keyword having zero or negative totaled point of the mental point from the searching of the service information in the service information collecting means.

12. The apparatus for providing information for vehicle in claim 9, further comprising service trigger information output means for outputting service trigger information for providing information when the totaled point of the mental point exceeds a threshold value defined beforehand about the extracted keyword, wherein the service information output means outputs the service information by acquiring the service trigger information.

13. The apparatus for providing information for vehicle in claim 1, wherein the mental condition detecting means includes an echo measuring unit which performs an echo measurement on the heart or the lung of the user who is sitting on the seat of the vehicle, and detects a mental condition based on the echo measurement result.

14. The apparatus for providing information for vehicle in claim 13, wherein the echo measuring unit has an ultrasonic supplying section and an ultrasonic receiving section both embedded in a seat back portion of a seat.

15. The apparatus for providing information for vehicle in claim 14, wherein the mental condition detecting means detects at least one of a heart rate, a breathing rate, and a blood flow velocity of the user by the echo measurement, and determines the mental condition of the user based on the result.

16. The apparatus for providing information for vehicle in claim 15, wherein the mental condition detecting means includes:

a first echo measuring section including an ultrasonic transmission part and a reflection ultrasonic receiving part both made for a first measuring target such as a heart and/or a lung, a second echo measuring section including an ultrasonic transmission part and a reflection ultrasonic receiving part both made for a second measuring target that includes human body portions other than the first measuring target, and a differential calculation section which calculates and outputs a differential waveform between an output waveform from the reflection ultrasonic receiving part of the first echo measuring section and an output waveform from the reflection ultrasonic receiving part of the second echo measuring section, and wherein the mental condition detecting means determines at least one of the heat rate, the breathing rate, and the blood flow velocity based on the differential waveform.

17. The apparatus for providing information for vehicle in claim 13, wherein the mental condition detecting means further includes a pleasant degree detecting means, disposed separately from the echo measuring unit, for determining a pleasant degree of the mental condition, wherein the mental condition detecting means determines a degree of the mental activity based on the result of the measurement of the echo measuring unit, and wherein the mental condition detecting means determines the mental condition based on a combination of the degree of the mental activity and the pleasant degree of the mental condition.

18. The apparatus for providing information for vehicle in claim 17, wherein the pleasant degree detecting means detects the pleasant degree based on at least one of a expression, a sight direction, and a posture of the user.

19. The apparatus for providing information for vehicle in claim 1, wherein the service information output means is configured to include a car-navigation system, and wherein the information collection means searches and collects the destination information which suits the user interesting information as the service information on the car-navigation system.

20. The apparatus for providing information for vehicle in claim 1, wherein the service information output means includes a wireless access device to website on the Internet, and wherein the service information collecting means searches and collects website information on the Internet as the service information which suits the user interesting information.

21. The apparatus for providing information for vehicle in claim 1, wherein the service information collecting means selects a keyword which the user has a good feeling based on the mental condition detected by the mental condition detecting means, and collects the service information only based on the selected keyword.