Interactive vehicle control system

• US 6,351,698 B1
• Filed: 01/27/2000
• Issued: 02/26/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Kabushikikaisha Equos Research
• Original Assignee: Kabushikikaisha Equos Research
• Inventors: Mukai, Kouji, Hori, Koji, Kubota, Tomoki, Mazda, Manabu, Adachi, Kazuhide
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tran, Dalena
• Application Number:
  US09/492,520
• Time in Patent Office: 761 Days
• Field of Search: 701/51, 701/1, 701/72, 701/117, 701/209, 701/211, 340/996, 340/438, 340/457, 340/460, 340/461, 340/490, 340/504, 340/505, 340/573, 340/988, 340/436, 340/576, 340/439, 340/815.4
• US Class Current: 701/51
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0231 Circuits relating to the driving or the functioning of the vehicle monitoring tyres B60C23/00; indicating overspeed B60K31/00; for dash boards B60K37/00, B60Q3/10; for indicating emergencies B60Q1/52; brake control systems B60T; registering or indicating the working of vehicles G07C5/00; measuring distance G01C, e.g. combinations of speed and distance G01C23/00; engine indicators G01L; measuring speed or acceleration G01P
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0232 for measuring vehicle parameters and indicating critical, abnormal or dangerous conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2040/089 Driver voice
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/21 Voice
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3415 Dynamic re-routing, e.g. recalculating the route when the user deviates from calculated route or after detecting real-time traffic data or accidents
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3608 using speech input, e.g. using speech recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence

Abstract

An interactive navigation system includes a navigation processing unit, a current position sensor, a speaker, a microphone and a display. When it is preliminary inferred, based on receipt of a detection signal from the sensor, that a vehicle has probably been diverted from a drive route determined by the navigation processing unit, a machine voice question is produced through the speaker for confirmation of the inferred probability of diversion. A driver or user in the vehicle answers the question, which is input through the microphone and analyzed to be affirmative or negative, from which a final decision is made as to the vehicle diversion. In a preferred embodiment the question is spoken by a personified agent who appears on the display. The agent'"'"'s activities are controlled by an agent processing unit. Communication between the agent and the user improves reliability and accuracy of inference of any vehicle condition which could not be determined perfectly by a sensor only.

Claims

1. An interactive vehicle control system comprising:

a sensor mounted on a vehicle for detecting a specific physical parameter that relates to the vehicle or to driving of the vehicle and for outputting a detection signal;

discriminating means for inferring, from said detection signal, with a degree of reliability, existence of at least one specific condition to be considered in vehicle control, said physical parameter relating to said one specific condition;

output means for outputting a question for confirmation of said specific condition when the degree of reliability determined by said discriminating means lies within a predetermined range;

input means for inputting a user'"'"'s answer to said outputted question;

decision making means for, based on said user'"'"'s answer, determining whether or not said specific condition actually exists; and

execution means for executing a vehicle control operation in accordance with a result of the determination by said decision making means.

2. An interactive vehicle control system according to claim 1 wherein said specific condition comprises one or more selected from the group consisting of current vehicle position, current vehicle speed, current shift position of an automatic transmission, current operative condition of any device mounted on the vehicle, engine oil temperature and pressure, room temperature, atmospheric temperature, road condition and weather condition.

3. An interactive vehicle control system according to claim 1 wherein said output means comprises a speaker through which said question is outputted as a machine voice.

4. An interactive vehicle control system according to claim 1 wherein said input means comprises a microphone through which said user'"'"'s answer is inputted as a user'"'"'s own voice.

5. An interactive vehicle control system according to claim 4 wherein said final decision making means includes a voice analyzer that analyzes said user'"'"'s voice answer to confirm said answer is affirmative or negative.

6. An interactive vehicle control system according to claim 1 which further comprises a display on which a personified agent is visually depicted for communication with the user in the vehicle, and agent control means for controlling activities of said agent, said question from said output means being a type of agent activity controlled by said agent control means.

9. An interactive vehicle control system according to claim 1 wherein said sensor means comprises a combination of an accelerator sensor for detecting a degree of opening of an accelerator and a vehicle speed sensor for detecting a current vehicle speed, result of detection of these sensors being indicative of a vehicle speed variation with respect to the degree of accelerator opening at a current shift position.

7. An interactive automatic transmission control system comprising:

sensor means mounted on a vehicle for inferring, with a degree of reliability, that a vehicle is now running uphill or downhill at an angle of inclination greater than a predetermined angle;

output means for outputting a question for confirmation of the inference by said sensor means when the degree of reliability lies within a predetermined range;

input means for inputting a user'"'"'s answer to said outputted question; and

automatic transmission control means for outputting a down-shift command to an automatic transmission when it is confirmed by said user'"'"'s answer that the vehicle is actually running uphill or downhill.

8. An interactive vehicle control system according to claim 7 wherein said sensor means comprises a slope sensor for detecting an orientation of the vehicle in a direction of advancement thereof.

10. An interactive vehicle automatic transmission control system comprising:

sensor means mounted on a vehicle for inferring, with a degree of reliability that a vehicle is now running on a slippery road;

output means for outputting a question for confirmation of the inference of existence of the slippery road by said sensor means, when the degree of reliability is within a predetermined range;

input means for inputting a user'"'"'s answer to said outputted question; and

an automatic transmission control means for outputting a down-shift command to an automatic transmission when it is confirmed by said user'"'"'s answer that the vehicle is actually running on the slippery road.

11. An interactive vehicle control system according to claim 10 wherein said sensor means comprises wheel speed sensors for respectively detecting speeds of driven wheels and non-driven wheels, capable of indicating wheel slippage between the driven and non-driven wheels, and/or a thermosensor for detecting an atmospheric temperature.

12. An interactive navigation system comprising:

a current position sensor for detecting current position of a vehicle;

route-finding means for determining a drive route from the current position detected by said current position sensor to a predetermined destination;

inference means, that receives during driving a detection signal from said current position sensor, for inferring from the detection signal, with a degree of reliability, that the vehicle has been diverted from the drive route determined by said route-finding means;

a speaker that outputs a machine voice question by which said inferred diversion can be confirmed, when the degree of reliability is within a predetermined range;

a microphone that inputs a user'"'"'s voice answer to said question;

final decision making means for, based on said user'"'"'s voice answer, determining whether or not the vehicle has actually been diverted from the drive route; and

position correct means for correcting vehicle position on a map in accordance with a result of determination by said final decision making means.

13. An interactive navigation system according to claim 12 wherein said route-finding means determines another drive route from the corrected vehicle position, determined by said position correct means, to the destination when said final decision making means confirms diversion of the vehicle from the previous drive route.

14. An interactive navigation system comprising:

a current position sensor for detecting current position of a vehicle;

route-finding means for determining a drive route from the current position detected by said current position sensor to a predetermined destination;

inference means for inferring, with a degree of reliability, a traffic jam on the drive route which has been determined by said route-finding means and along which the vehicle is currently driven;

a speaker that outputs a machine voice question by which said inferred traffic jam can be confirmed, when the degree of reliability is within a predetermined range;

a microphone that inputs a user'"'"'s voice answer to said question; and

final decision making means for, responsive to said user'"'"'s voice answer, determining whether or not there is actually a traffic jam on the current drive route;

wherein said route-finding means determines another drive route to the destination which detours the traffic jam, when said final decision making means confirms the traffic jam on the current drive route.