METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SELECTING DRIVER PREFERENCES

• US 20140229060A1
• Filed: 02/14/2013
• Published: 08/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: MacNeille, Perry Robinson, Liu, Yimin, Gusikhin, Oleg Yurievitch, Strumolo, Gary Steven
• Granted Patent: US 9,092,309 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/36
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/16 Type of output information
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/20 Output arrangements, i.e. from vehicle to user, associated with vehicle functions or specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/28 characterised by the type of the output information, e.g. video entertainment or vehicle dynamics information; characterised by the purpose of the output information, e.g. for attracting the attention of the driver
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/037 for occupant comfort , e.g. for automatic adjustment of appliances according to personal settings, e.g. seats, mirrors, steering wheel
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/13 Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0265 Vehicular advertisement

Abstract

A vehicle computing system enables one or more processors to control a plurality of vehicle features. The vehicle computing system may control a plurality of vehicle features while determining and selecting occupant preferences for those features. The vehicle computing system may receive input including occupant selections of an application requesting user control. The vehicle computing system may receive context variables at the time of occupant selections. The vehicle computing system may store in memory the occupant selections of the vehicle feature settings and/or controls with the associated context variables. The vehicle computing system may determine an occupant preference to an input request using an associative rule filter based on the occupant selections stored in memory. The vehicle computing system may assign a predetermined amount of time after the application input is requested to allow control of the vehicle feature based on an associative rule filter output.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving data relating to occupant selection of vehicle feature settings;

identifying context variable(s) at a time of setting selection;

storing in memory the setting with the context variable(s);

initializing a vehicle feature having multiple settings;

determining a setting preference for the vehicle feature using an associative rule filter based on the selection(s) and context variable(s); and

controlling vehicle feature a predetermined amount of time after initialization using the setting preference.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

establishing communication between a vehicle computing system and a wireless device;

receiving data relating to occupant selection(s) from the wireless device; and

transmitting setting preference to the wireless device.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the wireless device includes a personal computer tablet.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the occupant selection includes answering incoming telephone calls based on a telephone number.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the context variables includes one or more of cognitive load, and environment conditions.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein cognitive load includes one or more of signal light enablement, steering angle reversal quantity measurements, and wheel speed.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the environmental conditions includes one or more of weather, traffic, and time of day.

8. A system for controlling vehicle feature settings, the system comprising:

a vehicle computing system having one or more processors for controlling settings for one or more vehicle features;

wherein the one or more processors are configured to;

receive input including one or more occupant selections of one or more settings for the vehicle feature(s);

receive one or more context variables at or about a time of the occupant selection(s);

store in memory the occupant selection(s) with the context variable(s);

receive an initialization signal for a vehicle feature;

determine an occupant setting preference for the initialized vehicle feature using an associative rule filter based on the occupant selection(s) and context variable(s) stored in memory; and

a predetermined amount of time after receiving the initialization signal, control the vehicle feature using the occupant setting preference.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the initialization signal of a vehicle feature is initiated by an ignition cycle.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein the initialization signal of a vehicle feature is initiated by an occupant feature selection.

11. The system of claim 8 wherein the context variables includes one or more of GPS coordinates, time of day, day of week, and month.

12. The system of claim 8 wherein the one or more processors are additionally configured to receive biometric information and wherein occupant setting preferences is determined additional based on the biometric information.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the biometric information includes one or more of a driving profile, driver body temperature, and heart rate.

14. The system of claim 8 wherein the one or more processors are additionally configured to:

establish communication between the vehicle computing system and a wireless device; and

receive the occupant selections from the wireless device.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the communication between the vehicle computing system and the wireless device includes BLUETOOTH.

16. The system of claim 8 wherein the one or more processors are additionally configured to:

establish communication between the vehicle computing system and a wireless device;

receive biometric information from the wireless device;

determine the occupant preference to an input request using the biometric information; and

transmit occupant preference to the wireless device.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions to direct one or more computers to:

receive input including occupant selections of one or more settings for one or more applications in communication with a vehicle computing system;

receive one or more context variables at or about a time of the occupant selection(s);

store in memory the occupant selection(s) with the context variable(s);

receive an initialization signal for an application;

determine an occupant setting preference for the initialized application using an associative rule filter based on the occupant selection(s) and context variable(s) stored in memory; and

a predetermined amount of time after receiving the initialization signal, control the application using the occupant setting preference.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 further comprising:

establishing communication between a vehicle computing system and a wireless device; and

receiving occupant selections form the wireless device.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein the occupant selections includes one or more options presented to a vehicle occupant.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein the context variables includes one or more of a GPS location, environmental conditions, and cognitive load.