METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR OPERATING A VEHICLE BY MONITORING THE HEAD ORIENTATION AND/OR VIEWING DIRECTION OF AN OPERATOR BY MEANS OF A CAMERA DEVICE OF A MOBILE CONTROL DEVICE

• US 20140058587A1
• Filed: 08/23/2013
• Published: 02/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Audi AG (Volkswagen AG)
• Original Assignee: Audi AG (Volkswagen AG)
• Inventors: Leinfelder, Rudolf
• Granted Patent: US 8,948,930 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/2
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 15/0285 Parking performed automatically
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0011 associated with a remote control arrangement

Abstract

A method for autonomously controlling a movement of a vehicle includes detecting a respective actual position of the vehicle in temporal succession; recording in temporal succession with a first camera device of a mobile control device images of an operator located outside the vehicle, the mobile control device being held by the operator; determining with an analysis device an actual head orientation and/or a viewing direction of the operator based on the recorded images; and interrupting or terminating the autonomously controlled movement of the vehicle in response to at least one of two instances, a first instance in which the actual head orientation and/or viewing direction of the operator cannot be detected, a second instance in which the head orientation and/or viewing direction of the operator deviates for longer than a predeterminable time period and/or by a predeterminable angle from the actual position of the vehicle

Claims

1. A method for autonomously controlling a movement of a vehicle, comprising:

detecting a respective actual position of the vehicle in temporal succession;

recording in temporal succession with a first camera device of a mobile control device images of an operator located outside the vehicle, said operator holding the mobile control device;

determining with an analysis device at least one of an actual head orientation of the operator and a viewing direction of the operator based on the images recorded with the camera device; and

interrupting or terminating the autonomously controlled movement of the vehicle in response to at least one of two instances, a first instance in which the actual head orientation and/or viewing direction of the operator cannot be detected, a second instance in which the head orientation and/or viewing direction of the operator deviates for longer than a predeterminable time period and/or by a predeterminable angle from the actual position of the vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the actual position of the vehicle is detected by means of at least one of recording images of the vehicle in temporal succession with a second camera device of the mobile control device and data relating to the actual position or data relating to at least one member selected from the group consisting of a starting position of the vehicle, a speed of the vehicle, a speed profile of the vehicle, a direction and a directional profile.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile control device is constructed as a smartphone.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the analysis device is constructed as a calculation device and is situated in the mobile control device or in the vehicle.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising transmitting data between the vehicle and the mobile control device by means of a wireless radio connection by using a radio standard according to a member selected from the group consisting of IEEE-802.11a, IEEE-802.11b, IEEE-802.11g, IEEE-802.11n (also referred to as wireless Lan-, WLAN- or Wi-Fi standards), IEEE-80215.1, IEEE-802.15.2, IEEE-802.15.3, IEEE-802.15.4 and further developments thereof or by using a mobile radio standard.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting a signal per radio to the vehicle by the operator located outside the vehicle by means of a handheld transmitter and/or the mobile control device for starting the autonomously controlled movement of the vehicle.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting a signal to the vehicle by the operator located outside the vehicle by means of a handheld transmitter and/or the mobile control device to interrupt or terminate the autonomously controlled movement of the vehicle.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the autonomously controlled movement includes at least one of an autonomous parking procedure, an autonomous unparking procedure and an autonomous continuance of a drive of eh vehicle.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the image that have been recorded in temporal succession by the camera device of the mobile control device are displayed in real time on a display device of the mobile control device.

10. A system for operating a vehicle, comprising:

a vehicle; and

a mobile control device, said vehicle and said mobile control device being configured for implementing the method of claim 1.