SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COMMUNICATING A MESSAGE TO A VEHICLE

• US 20170132922A1
• Filed: 11/11/2015
• Published: 05/11/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: GUPTA, MANISH, RAMACHANDRA SASTRY, RAMESHA CHELUR, CHINTALAPOODI, PRAMOD, TANAKA, SHO, PAL, PRALAY KUMAR
• Granted Patent: US 10,607,485 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/1438 Touch screens
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/186 Displaying information according to relevancy
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/21 using cameras
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• 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 35/22 Display screens
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/29 Instruments characterised by the way in which information is handled, e.g. showing information on plural displays or prioritising information according to driving conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/017 identifying vehicles G08G1/015, G08G1/054 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/04 using optical or ultrasonic detectors
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/054 photographing overspeeding vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/093 Data selection, e.g. prioritizing information, managing message queues, selecting the information to be output
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0962 having an indicator mounted inside the vehicle, e.g. giving voice messages
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0965 responding to signals from another vehicle, e.g. emergency vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096716 where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096725 where the received information generates an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096741 where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096783 : where the origin of the information is a roadside individual element
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096791 : where the origin of the information is another vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/167 : Driving aids for lane monitoring, lane changing, e.g. blind spot detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 : specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 : for receiving images from a single remote source

Abstract

Various aspects of a system and method for communication of a message to a vehicle are disclosed herein. The system comprises one or more circuits in an electronic control unit (ECU) of a first vehicle that is communicatively coupled to a display device. The one or more circuits in the ECU are configured to receive a video stream and control display of a plurality of image frames in the video stream on the display device. Vehicle information of one or more vehicles, included in an image frame of the plurality of image frames, is received from the one or more vehicles via a wireless network. A first input corresponding to a selection of a vehicle from the one or more vehicles included in the image frame, is received. Vehicle information associated with the selected vehicle is identified. A second input that corresponds to a selection of an information item to be communicated to the selected vehicle, is received. The selected information item is communicated to the selected vehicle.

Claims

1. A system for communicating a message to a vehicle, said system comprising:

one or more circuits in an electronic control unit of a first vehicle communicatively coupled to a display device, said one or more circuits being configured to;

receive a video stream;

control display of a plurality of image frames in said video stream on said display device;

receive vehicle information of one or more vehicles, included in an image frame of said plurality of image frames, from said one or more vehicles via a wireless network;

receive a first input corresponding to a selection of a vehicle from said one or more vehicles included in said image frame;

identify vehicle information associated with said selected vehicle;

receive a second input corresponding to a selection of an information item to be communicated to said selected vehicle; and

communicate said selected information item to said selected vehicle.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein said display device is:

installed in said first vehicle, installed in a traffic monitoring center (TMC) to remotely monitor traffic of a road portion, and/or a portable display device.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein said first input is a touch operation on an area of said vehicle included in said image frame that is displayed on said display device.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein said one or more circuits are configured to:

determine a plurality of information items communicable to said selected vehicle based on said identified vehicle information of said selected vehicle, and

control display of said determined plurality of information items that are selectable by a user on said display device.

5. The system according to claim 4, wherein said one or more circuits are configured to display together said video stream and a digital model representation that indicates relative positions of surrounding vehicles in relation to said first vehicle, wherein highlighted indicia is placed near both of said selected vehicle in said image frame and in said digital model representation when said image frame is touched on an area of said vehicle of said one or more vehicles included in said image frame.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein said one or more circuits are configured to receive an input corresponding to a selection of one of said plurality of image frames at a first time instant, wherein said selected one of said plurality of image frames at said first time instant comprises said one or more vehicles.

7. The system according to claim 1, further comprising an image-capturing device configured to capture said plurality of image frames in said video stream within a field-of-view of said image-capturing device.

8. The system according to claim 7, wherein said one or more circuits are configured to determine a geospatial position value and/or a direction of said field-of-view associated with said image-capturing device that captures said plurality of image frames.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein said identified vehicle information associated with said selected vehicle and said one or more vehicles correspond to one or more of:

a unique vehicle identifier, a vehicle position, a vehicle size, a direction of travel, a vehicle speed value, a steering angle, a vehicle positional accuracy data, a brake system status, a status of a vehicle stability system, yaw rate, a rate of change of speed, lane information, and/or other vehicle parameters.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein said one or more circuits are configured to determine a target vehicle from said one or more vehicles based on filtering said identified vehicle information based on one or more of:

said determined geospatial position value of said image-capturing device, said determined direction of said field-of-view of said image-capturing device, geospatial information corresponding to a boundary line of an area in said field-of-view at said first time instant, and/or one or more threshold values.

11. The system according to claim 7, wherein said one or more circuits are configured to generate a digital model representation of said one or more vehicles based on said received vehicle information of said one or more vehicles, wherein said generated digital model representation indicates said field-of-view of said image-capturing device at a first time instant.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein said one or more circuits are configured to control display of said generated digital model representation on said display device, wherein said generated digital model representation comprises a top view of said one or more vehicles in said field-of-view of said image-capturing device at said first time instant.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein said top view indicates an arrangement of said one or more vehicles in said generated digital model representation corresponding to vehicle position, vehicle ordering in one or more lanes, and/or vehicle direction of travel at said first time instant, based on said identified vehicle information.

14. The system according to claim 12, wherein said one or more circuits are configured to tag each of said one or more vehicles in said generated digital model representation with a unique vehicle identifier to establish communication with said one or more vehicles.

15. The system according to claim 12, wherein said one or more circuits are configured to determine a target vehicle from said one or more vehicles based on selection of said vehicle from said displayed digital model representation at said display device, in response to a user input.

16. The system according to claim 7, wherein said one or more circuits are configured to receive one or more datasets that comprise said vehicle information corresponding to at least a portion of a plurality of vehicles when said portion of said plurality of vehicles are within said field-of-view of said image-capturing device corresponding to one or more time instants.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein said one or more circuits are configured to generate a vehicle database based on said received one or more datasets.

18. The system according to claim 17, wherein said one or more circuits are configured to dynamically generate a digital model representation of one or more of said captured plurality of image frames based on said generated vehicle database.

19. The system according to claim 17, wherein said one or more circuits are configured to dynamically update a plurality of vehicle parameters corresponding to said received one or more datasets in said vehicle database corresponding to said one or more time instants.

20. The system according to claim 17, wherein said one or more circuits are configured to identify said vehicle information associated with said one or more vehicles at said first time instant based on filtering of said generated vehicle database, wherein said filtering is based on one or more of:

a geospatial position value of said image-capturing device, a direction of said field-of-view of said image-capturing device, and/or geospatial information corresponding to a boundary line of an area in said field-of-view at said first time instant.

21. The system according to claim 1, wherein said communicated message is one or more of:

a pull-over message, a traffic violation notice, a custom message, and/or a situational message to coordinate with said target vehicle in a traffic condition.

22. The system according to claim 1, wherein said information item is communicated to selected vehicle via one or more of:

a wireless communication channel, one or more road side communication units, a cloud server, or a dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) channel.

23. A method for communicating a message to a vehicle, said method comprising:

in an electronic control unit of a first vehicle communicatively coupled to a display device;

receiving a video stream;

controlling display of a plurality of image frames in said video stream on said display device;

receiving vehicle information of one or more vehicles, included in an image frame of said plurality of image frames, from said one or more vehicles via a wireless network;

receiving a first input corresponding to a selection of a vehicle from said one or more vehicles included in said image frame;

identifying vehicle information associated with said selected vehicle;

receiving a second input corresponding to a selection of an information item to be communicated to said selected vehicle; and

communicating said selected information item to said selected vehicle.

24. A vehicle comprising:

a battery;

an electronic control unit; and

one or more circuits in said electronic control unit communicatively coupled to a display device, said one or more circuits being configured to;

receive a video stream;

control display of a plurality of image frames in said video stream on said display device;

receive vehicle information of one or more vehicles, included in an image frame of said plurality of image frames, from said one or more vehicles via a wireless network;

receive an input corresponding to a selection of one of said one or more vehicles included in said image frame;

identify vehicle information associated with said selected vehicle;

receive an input corresponding to a selection of an information item to be communicated to said selected vehicle; and

communicate said information item to said selected vehicle.

25. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon, a set of instructions executable by a computer, thereby causing the computer to perform steps comprising:

in an electronic control unit of a first vehicle communicatively coupled to a display device;

receiving a video stream;

controlling display of a plurality of image frames in said video stream on said display device;

receiving vehicle information of one or more vehicles, included in an image frame of said plurality of image frames, from said one or more vehicles via a wireless network;

receiving an input corresponding to a selection of a vehicle from said one or more vehicles included in said image frame;

identifying vehicle information associated with said selected vehicle;

receiving an input corresponding to a selection of an information item to be communicated to said selected vehicle; and

communicating said information item to said selected vehicle.