ON-VEHICLE GUIDANCE APPARATUS

• US 20100280749A1
• Filed: 11/19/2008
• Published: 11/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nexgen Control Systems LLC
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Inventors: Suzuki, Tadashi, Sato, Fumitaka, Furumoto, Yuki
• Granted Patent: US 8,140,255 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/201
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3629 Guidance using speech or audio output, e.g. text-to-speech text to speech systems per se G10L13/00
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems

Abstract

An on-vehicle guidance apparatus is characterized in including an output sound control means for acquiring a sound volume setting of onboard equipment, a sound volume determining means for determining whether or not the sound volume setting is smaller than a predetermined threshold, and a guidance output control means for issuing a command for carrying out voice guidance in response to a determination signal from the sound volume determining means at a time when the sound volume setting becomes smaller than the above-mentioned threshold.

Claims

1. An on-vehicle guidance apparatus that provides required information for a passenger, characterized in said on-vehicle guidance apparatus comprises:

an output sound control means for acquiring a sound volume setting of onboard equipment;

a sound volume determining means for determining whether or not said sound volume setting is smaller than a predetermined threshold; and

a guidance output control means for issuing a command for carrying out voice guidance in response to a determination signal from said sound volume determining means at a time when said sound volume setting becomes smaller than said threshold.

2. An on-vehicle guidance apparatus that provides required information for a passenger, characterized in said on-vehicle guidance apparatus comprises:

a vehicle velocity acquiring means for acquiring a velocity of a vehicle;

a sound input means for acquiring an environmental sound in a cabin;

a conversation sound volume determining means for determining a sound volume of a conversation in the cabin on a basis of a noise sound volume corresponding to the velocity of the vehicle acquired by said vehicle velocity acquiring means, and a sound volume of the environmental sound in the cabin acquired by said sound input means to determine whether or not said conversation sound volume is smaller than a predetermined threshold; and

a guidance output control means for issuing a command for carrying out voice guidance in response to a determination signal from said sound volume determining means at a time when said conversation sound volume becomes smaller than said threshold.

3. The on-vehicle guidance apparatus according to claim 2, characterized in that said on-vehicle guidance apparatus includes an elapsed time determining means for acquiring an elapsed time to determine whether or not the elapsed time is longer than a predetermined time when results of the determination by said conversation sound volume determining means show that said conversation sound volume is smaller than said threshold, and a jingle output control means for issuing a command for outputting a jingle when the determination by said elapsed time determining means shows that said elapsed time is longer than said predetermined time.

4. The on-vehicle guidance apparatus according to claim 3, characterized in that when the conversation is not broken off even after the jingle is outputted, said jingle output control means issues a command for outputting a different jingle.

5. An on-vehicle guidance apparatus that provides required information for a passenger, characterized in said on-vehicle guidance apparatus comprises:

a vehicle information acquiring means for acquiring vehicle information; and

a guidance output control means for changing a time of outputting voice guidance on a basis of the vehicle information acquired by said vehicle information acquiring means.