PREDICTIVE COCKPIT LIGHTING AND PERFORMANCE MODE VIA TOUCH

• US 20150353006A1
• Filed: 06/04/2014
• Published: 12/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Audi AG (Volkswagen AG), Volkswagen AG
• Original Assignee: Volkswagen AG
• Inventors: JOLDA, Matthew, TOGGWEILER, James Leigh, PAFFETT-LUGASSY, Nathaniel
• Granted Patent: US 9,399,429 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/143 Touch sensitive instrument input devices
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/146 Instrument input by gesture
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/1464 3D-gesture
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/33 Illumination features
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/349 Adjustment of brightness
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/782 on the steering wheel
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/10 Input arrangements, i.e. from user to vehicle, associated with vehicle functions or specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/60 Instruments characterised by their location or relative disposition in or on vehicles arrangements of lighting devices on dashboards B60Q3/10
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 3/14 lighting through the surface to be illuminated
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 3/18 for varying the light intensity
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 3/20 for lighting specific fittings of passenger or driving compartments; mounted on specific fittings of passenger or driving compartments lighting for dashboards B60Q3/10
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 3/80 Circuits; Control arrangements for dashboards B60Q3/16; for mass transit vehicles B60Q3/47
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/115 by determining the presence or movement of objects or living beings
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/40 Control techniques providing energy savings, e.g. smart controller or presence detection

Abstract

An in-vehicle system for controlling electrical systems of a vehicle includes a sensor that detects a presence or an absence of a left hand of a driver on a steering wheel of the vehicle and a sensor that detects a presence or an absence of a right hand of the driver on the steering wheel of the vehicle. Using data from the sensors, a controller may select, based on a prediction, one or more interactive control elements with which the driver will interact, wherein the selection is based on either a detected absence of the driver left hand on the steering wheel or a detected absence of the driver right hand on the steering wheel, and a controller increases a brightness of lighting elements associated with the selected interactive control elements.

Claims

1. An in-vehicle system for controlling electrical systems of a vehicle, comprising:

a sensor that detects a presence or an absence of a left hand of a driver on a steering wheel of the vehicle;

a sensor that detects a presence or an absence of a right hand of the driver on the steering wheel of the vehicle;

means for selecting, based on a prediction, one or more interactive control elements with which the driver will interact, wherein the means for selecting the one or more interactive control elements bases the selection on either a detected absence of the driver left hand on the steering wheel or a detected absence of the driver right hand on the steering wheel; and

a controller that increases a brightness of lighting elements associated with the selected interactive control elements.

2. The in-vehicle system of claim 1, wherein the means for selecting the one or more interactive control elements

selects a first interactive control element on a left side of the driver based on the detected absence of the driver left hand on the steering wheel, and

selects a second interactive control element on a right side of the driver based on the detected absence of the driver right hand on the steering wheel.

3. The in-vehicle system of claim 1, further comprising

a detector that detects whether either the driver left hand or the driver right hand is approaching a target interactive control element, wherein the target interactive control element is one of the selected interactive control elements;

and

wherein the controller increases the brightness of the target interactive control element a second time upon a detection that either the driver left hand or the driver right hand is approaching the target interactive control element.

4. The in-vehicle system of claim 1, further comprising

a sensor that detects whether either the driver left hand or the driver right hand is approaching interactive control elements located on the steering wheel,

wherein the controller increases a brightness of lighting elements associated with the interactive control elements located on the steering wheel in response to a detection that either the driver left hand or the driver right hand is approaching the interactive control elements located on the steering wheel.

5. The in-vehicle system of claim 1, wherein the means for selecting the one or more interactive control elements is configured to ignore position changes of the driver left hand and the driver right hand resulting from driver steering operations.

6. The in-vehicle system of claim 1, further comprising

at least one sensor that detects movements of a passenger,

wherein the means for selecting selects, based on a prediction, one or more interactive control elements with which the passenger will interact.

7. A method for controlling electrical systems of a vehicle, comprising:

detecting a presence or an absence of a driver hand on a steering wheel of the vehicle;

selecting, based upon a prediction, one or more interactive control elements with which the driver will interact; and

increasing a brightness of lighting elements associated with the selected one or more interactive control elements, wherein

the selection of the one or more interactive control elements is based on a detected absence of the driver hand on the steering wheel.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising

detecting a presence or an absence of a driver right hand on the steering wheel of the vehicle;

detecting a presence or an absence of a driver left hand on the steering wheel of the vehicle; and

selecting the one or more interactive control elements based on either a detected absence of the driver left hand on the steering wheel or a detected absence of the driver right hand on the steering wheel.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising

selecting an interactive control element on a left side of the driver upon the detected absence of the driver left hand on the steering wheel, and

selecting an interactive control element on a right side of the driver upon the detected absence of the driver right hand on the steering wheel.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising

detecting that the driver hand is approaching a target interactive control element among the selected interactive control elements;

and

increasing the brightness of a lighting element associated with the target interactive control element a second time.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising

detecting that the driver hand is approaching interactive control elements located on the steering wheel;

and

increasing a brightness of lighting elements associated with the interactive control elements located on the steering wheel.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising

detecting that the driver is engaged in a steering operation, and

ignoring position changes of the driver hand resulting from driver steering operations.

13. The method of claim 7, further comprising

detecting that the driver is engaged in a steering operation;

identifying a location on the steering wheel based on a magnitude of rotation of the steering wheel during the steering operation;

detecting a presence or an absence of the driver hand at the identified location on the steering wheel of the vehicle during the steering operation; and

selecting the one or more interactive control elements with which the driver will interact based on a detected absence of the hand of the driver at the identified location of the steering wheel.

14. An in-vehicle system for use in a vehicle having interactive control elements accessible to a driver of the vehicle, the system comprising:

a sensor located on a steering wheel of the vehicle;

respective lighting elements associated with the one or more interactive control elements;

a processor in electrical communication with the sensor and the respective lighting elements;

a non-transitory data storage device on which is stored computer code which, when executed on the processor, causes the in-vehicle system to;

detect a presence or an absence of a driver hand on the steering wheel of the vehicle;

select, based upon a prediction, one or more of the interactive control elements with which the driver will interact in response to a detected absence of the driver hand on the steering wheel; and

cause the lighting elements associated with the selected interactive control elements to increase in brightness.

15. The in-vehicle system of claim 14, wherein the sensor has a spatial resolution of longer than about one inch.

16. The in-vehicle system of claim 14, further comprising

a first sensor located at a first position of the steering wheel corresponding to an expected location of a driver right hand, and

a second sensor located at a second position of the steering wheel corresponding to an expected location of a driver left hand.

17. The in-vehicle system of claim 16, wherein the first sensor and the second sensor are regions of a common touch-sensitive surface.

18. The in-vehicle system of claim 16, wherein the first sensor and the second sensor are capacitive sensors.

19. The in-vehicle system of claim 18, wherein the first sensor and the second sensor are resistive sensors.

20. The in-vehicle system of claim 18, wherein the steering wheel includes additional sensors at locations corresponding to expected locations of the hands of the driver during steering operations.

21. The in-vehicle system of claim 14, wherein the computer code, when executed on the processor, causes the in-vehicle system to:

select an interactive control element on a left side of the driver upon a detection that a driver left hand is absent from the steering wheel; and

select an interactive control element on a right side of the driver upon a detection that a driver right hand is absent from the steering wheel.

22. The in-vehicle system of claim 14, further comprising

a proximity detector associated with a target one of the selected interactive control elements and in electrical communication with the processor, wherein

the computer code, when executed on the processor, causes the in-vehicle system to

detect that the driver hand is approaching the target one of the selected interactive control elements;

and

in response to the detection that the driver hand is approaching the target one of the selected interactive control elements, increase the brightness of a lighting element associated with the target interactive control element a second time.

23. The in-vehicle system of claim 14, further comprising a proximity detector associated with the steering wheel and in electrical communication with the processor, wherein the computer code, when executed on the processor, causes the in-vehicle system to:

detect that the driver hand is approaching the steering wheel; and

in response to the detection that the driver hand is approaching the steering wheel, increase the brightness of lighting elements associated with the interactive control elements located on the steering wheel.

24. The in-vehicle system of claim 14 further comprising a module in communication with the processor for detecting a magnitude of a rotation of a steering wheel during a steering operation.

25. The in-vehicle system of claim 14, further comprising means for detecting a movement of a passenger.