METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DRIVER TAILORED INTERACTION TIME ALERT

• US 20150314791A1
• Filed: 04/30/2014
• Published: 11/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2014
• 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., YANG, Hsin-hsiang
• Granted Patent: US 10,099,700 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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: B60R 25/33 of global position, e.g. by providing GPS coordinates
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/143 Alarm means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/30 Driving style
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/09 Driving style or behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/14 Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention

Abstract

A vehicle comprising at least one controller in communication with a transceiver, and the transceiver capable of communication with one or more infotainment features. The at least one controller may be configured to receive a configurable constraint for the one or more infotainment devices. The at least one controller may be further configured to monitor an interaction between a driver and the one or more infotainment devices based on the configurable constraint. The at least one controller may be further configured to generate an alert if the configurable constraint is exceeded in the interaction.

Claims

1. A vehicle comprising:

at least one controller in communication with a transceiver, the transceiver capable of communication with an infotainment device, the at least one controller configured to;

receive a configurable constraint for the infotainment device;

monitor an interaction between a driver and the infotainment device based on the configurable constraint for a predetermined time window; and

if the configurable constraint is exceeded in the interaction, generate an alert.

2. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the configuration constraint is driver interaction with the infotainment device, and monitoring the infotainment device for a number of touch inputs received within the predetermined time window by the driver.

3. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the infotainment device is at least one of a brought-in device, center stack, and instrument cluster.

4. The vehicle of claim 3, wherein the brought-in device is a nomadic device running one or more infotainment applications communicating with the at least one controller through the transceiver.

5. The vehicle of claim 4, wherein the center stack is a touch screen display of the at least one controller comprising at least one of climate controls, audio entertainment controls, navigation controls, and mobile device application controls.

6. The vehicle of claim 5, wherein the touch screen display is configured to receive the interaction from the driver to control the infotainment device based on at least one of touch inputs, voice commands, and a combination thereof.

7. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the at least one controller is further configured to:

receive vehicle-occupant environment state;

adjust at least one of the configurable constraint and the predetermined time window based on the vehicle-occupant environment state;

monitor an interaction between the driver and the infotainment device based on the configurable constraint for the predetermined time window in relation to the vehicle occupant environment state; and

if the configurable constraint in relation to the vehicle occupant environment state is exceeded, generate the alert

8. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the alert is a message is based on the configurable constraint being exceeded and the alert is at least one of voice, visual, and haptic.

9. A computer-program product embodied in a non-transitory computer read-able medium that is programmed for communicating infotainment device data to a controller for output, the computer-program product comprising instructions for:

receiving a configurable constraint and a predetermined time window for an infotainment device;

monitoring an interaction between a driver and the infotainment device based on the configurable constraint for the predefined time window; and

if the configurable constraint is exceeded in the interaction, generating an alert.

10. The computer-program product of claim 9, wherein the configuration constraint is driver interaction with the infotainment device, and monitoring the infotainment device for a number of touch inputs received within the predetermined time window by the driver.

11. The computer-program product of claim 9, wherein the infotainment device is embedded on at least one of a brought-in device, center stack, and instrument cluster.

12. The computer-program product of claim 11, wherein the brought-in device is a nomadic device running one or more infotainment applications communicating with the controller configured with at least one transceiver.

13. The computer-program product of claim 11, wherein the center stack is a touch screen display of the controller comprising at least one of climate controls, audio entertainment controls, navigation controls, and mobile device application controls.

14. The computer-program product of claim 13, wherein the touch screen display is configured to receive the interaction from the driver to control the infotainment device based on at least one of touch inputs, voice commands, and a combination thereof.

15. The computer-program product of claim 9, wherein the instructions is further configured to:

receiving vehicle-occupant environment state;

adjusting at least one of the configurable constraint and the predetermined time window based on the vehicle-occupant environment state;

monitoring an interaction between the driver and the one or more infotainment devices based on the configurable constraint for the predetermined time window in relation to the vehicle occupant environment state; and

if the configurable constraint in relation to the vehicle occupant environment state is exceeded in the interaction, generating the alert.

16. The computer-program product of claim 9, wherein the alert is a message to the driver notifying of the configurable constraint being exceeded and the alert is at least one of voice, visual, and haptic.

17. A nomadic device comprising:

at least one controller in communication with a transceiver, the transceiver capable of communication with a vehicle computing system, the at least one controller configured to;

establish communication with the vehicle computing system;

execute an application that manages infotainment device interaction at the vehicle computing system;

receive one or more inputs to set a configurable constraint for the infotainment device interaction; and

transmit the configurable constraint to the vehicle computing system, wherein the configurable constraint has one or more limits to monitor an interaction between a driver and the infotainment device in a vehicle.

18. The nomadic device of claim 17, wherein the configurable constraint is a limit configured to monitor within a time window at least one of touch inputs, voice commands, and a combination thereof.

19. The nomadic device of claim 17, wherein the at least one controller is further configured to receive an alert message that notifies of an exceeded configurable constraint by at least one of voice and message.

20. The nomadic device of claim 17, wherein the transceiver is capable of communication with the vehicle computing system using wireless communication, wherein the wireless communication is at least one of Bluetooth, Bluetooth low energy, and WiFi.