Visual attention influenced condition indicia apparatus and method
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- in a vehicle;
determining at least a recent history of a plurality of likely directions of visual attention of a predetermined person;
determining a likely present direction of visual attention of the predetermined person;
detecting a predetermined condition regarding the vehicle;
making a determination regarding an indicia to provide to an operator of the vehicle regarding the predetermined condition as a function, at least in part, of the recent history and the likely present direction of visual attention of the predetermined person.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A vehicle (30), such as an automobile, has an indicia controller (31) that can determine, via one or more direction-of-visual-attention sensors (32) a likely direction of visual attention for a given occupant of the vehicle such as, for example, the driver or another passenger. When a predetermined condition is sensed by one or more condition sensors (34, 35) (such as, for example, a predetermined hazard or other unsafe operating condition), the indicia controller can determine whether the monitored person is likely looking in a direction that likely includes the condition of concern. A particular condition indicia (36) as corresponds to the detected condition can then be provided as a function, at least in part, of whether the driver or other monitored person is already likely looking at, and is hence aware of, the detecting condition.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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in a vehicle;
determining at least a recent history of a plurality of likely directions of visual attention of a predetermined person;
determining a likely present direction of visual attention of the predetermined person;
detecting a predetermined condition regarding the vehicle;
making a determination regarding an indicia to provide to an operator of the vehicle regarding the predetermined condition as a function, at least in part, of the recent history and the likely present direction of visual attention of the predetermined person. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method comprising:
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in a vehicle;
determining a likely direction of visual attention of a predetermined person;
detecting a predetermined condition regarding the vehicle, at least in part, by receiving information from at least one non-vehicle source via a wireless communication link;
making a determination regarding an indicia to provide to an operator of the vehicle regarding the predetermined condition as a function, at least in part, of the likely direction of visual attention of the predetermined.
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13. A method comprising:
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in a vehicle;
determining a likely direction of visual attention of a predetermined person;
detecting a predetermined condition regarding the vehicle;
making a determination regarding an indicia to provide to an operator of the vehicle regarding the predetermined condition as a function, at least in part, of the likely direction of visual attention of the predetermined person and by determining which indicia to provide from amongst a plurality of candidate indicia that each relate to the predetermined function. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15)
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16. An apparatus comprising:
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a direction-of-visual-attention sensor disposed operationally proximal to a predetermined person;
at least one condition sensor;
a condition indicia;
an indicia controller having inputs operably coupled to the direction-of-visual-attention sensor and the condition sensor and having an output operably coupled to the condition indicia, wherein;
the indicia controller controls the condition indicia pursuant to a first mode of operation when the direction-of-visual-attention sensor indicates that the predetermined person is likely to view a predetermined vehicle condition, which predetermined vehicle condition correlates to the condition indicia; and
the indicia controller controls the condition indicia pursuant to a second mode of operation when the direction-of-view-attention sensor indicates that the predetermined person is not likely to view the predetermined vehicle condition. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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Specification