Vehicular user hospitality system

• US 7,821,382 B2
• Filed: 07/15/2008
• Issued: 10/26/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/23/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Kameyama, Shogo
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu; Daniel
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lu; Shirley
• Application Number:
  US12/173,500
• Publication Number:
  US 20090030619A1
• Time in Patent Office: 833 Days
• Field of Search: 340/425.5, 702/94, 702/19, 705/1, 455/426.1
• US Class Current: 340/425.5
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2040/0872 Driver physiology
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/043 Identity of occupants
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/636 by using biological or physiological data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/637 Administration of user profiles, e.g. generation, initialization, adaptation or distribution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/68 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

A vehicular user hospitality system recognizes a situation concerning vehicle use according to a combination of a disturbance stimulation type and hospitality intention category. With an intention estimation table, the system determines a reference intention parameter value for providing an intensity reference of a hospitality intention for each of safety, convenience, and comfort categories. The system settles an intention intensity reference using a reference intention parameter value specific to each situation. The system supplements the reference intention parameter value with the current disturbance stimulation value to determine an intention intensity parameter value to be appropriately used as a function selection reference value while considering a disturbance stimulation magnitude. Using a function specification table, function specification information for specifying a function of a hospitality operating portion is extracted according to a combination of the disturbance stimulation type and the hospitality intention category to thereby determine a control content.

Claims

1. A vehicular user hospitality system comprising:

a plurality of hospitality operating portions that perform a hospitality operation for assisting a user to use a vehicle or for entertaining a user;

a biological condition acquisition means that acquires biological user information reflecting a physical condition and a mental condition of a user;

a physical/mental condition specification means for specifying a physical condition and a mental condition of the user based on a content of the acquired biological user information;

a hospitality determination section that determines a content of a hospitality operation performed by the hospitality operating portion based on the specified physical or mental condition; and

a hospitality control section that controls an operation of a corresponding hospitality operating portion so as to perform a hospitality operation in accordance with the content determined by the hospitality determination section,

wherein the hospitality determination section includes;

a reference intention intensity parameter value determination means for uniquely determining a reference intention parameter value in accordance with the specified physical or mental condition in regard to a set of reference intention parameters that is defined so as to individually correspond to a plurality of hospitality intention categories containing at least one of safety, convenience, and comfort, and provides a reference value of an intention intensity for each hospitality intention;

a disturbance stimulation detection means for detecting a plurality of disturbance stimulations containing at least one of tactile-sense, visual-sense, auditory-sense, and olfactory-sense attributes concerning the user;

a storage portion for an intention estimation table that is constructed as a two-dimensional table for associating a type of the disturbance stimulation with the hospitality intention category and contains a cell assigned with an intention intensity parameter value;

a storage portion for a function specification table that is constructed as a two-dimensional table for associating a type of the disturbance stimulation with the hospitality intention category and contains a cell storing function specification information for specifying a function of the hospitality operating portion matching an attribute of the disturbance stimulation and the hospitality intention category;

an intention intensity parameter calculation means for calculating and assigning the intention intensity parameter value to each cell of the intention estimation table using a reference intention parameter value for the corresponding hospitality intention category and a disturbance stimulation value of the corresponding type;

a function extraction means for extracting a function of the hospitality operating portion from a corresponding cell of the function specification table associated with cells in the intention estimation table in accordance with a combination of the hospitality intention category and the disturbance stimulation attribute; and

a control content determination means for determining a control content of an extracted function based on the intention intensity parameter value assigned to a cell of the intention estimation table,

wherein the hospitality control section controls operations of the function of the hospitality operating portion based on the control content determined by the control content determination means.

2. The vehicular user hospitality system according to claim 1,

wherein the reference intention intensity parameter value determination means determines a physical reference intention parameter value individually corresponding to a plurality of hospitality intention categories corresponding to the physical condition and a mental reference intention parameter value individually corresponding to a plurality of hospitality intention categories corresponding to the mental condition independently of each other;

and

wherein the intention estimation table and the function extraction table contain the hospitality intention category that is separated into a physical hospitality intention corresponding to the physical reference intention parameter value and a mental hospitality intention corresponding to the mental reference intention parameter value.

3. The vehicular user hospitality system according to claim 2,

wherein types of the physical reference intention parameter include at least a parameter type representing an intention intensity concerning exhaustion reduction and a parameter type representing an intention intensity concerning reconditioning;

and

wherein types of the mental reference intention parameter include at least a parameter type representing an intention intensity concerning unpleasantness elimination, a parameter type representing an intention intensity concerning pleasantness acquisition, a parameter type representing an intention intensity concerning mood elevation, and a parameter type representing an intention intensity concerning mood calming.

4. The vehicular user hospitality system according to claim 3,

wherein the physical/mental condition specification means specifies a physical condition of the user according to a range between a normal physical condition and an abnormal physical condition based on a content of the biological user information;

and

wherein the reference intention intensity parameter value determination means provides a higher intention intensity reflected on a parameter concerning exhaustion reduction and reconditioning for the abnormal physical condition than for the normal physical condition.

5. The vehicular user hospitality system according to claim 3,

wherein the physical/mental condition specification means specifies a mental condition of the user according to a range between excited, neutral, and disappointed states based on a content of the biological user information;

and

wherein the reference intention intensity parameter value determination means provides a higher intention intensity reflected on a parameter concerning mood calming for the excited state than for the neutral and disappointed states and provides a higher intention intensity reflected on a parameter concerning mood elevation for the disappointed state than for the neutral and excited states.

6. The vehicular user hospitality system according to claim 3,

wherein the physical/mental condition specification means specifies the neutral state according to a range between an uplifting state and other states based on a content of the biological user information;

and

wherein the reference intention intensity parameter value determination means provides a higher intention intensity reflected on a parameter concerning pleasantness acquisition for the uplifting state in the neutral state than for the other states.

7. The vehicular user hospitality system according to claim 1,

wherein the function specification table is a principle retrieval table storing principle specification information for specifying a principle of the function as the function specification information in the cell and is provided with a function extraction table that is attached to the principle retrieval table and provides a two-dimensional table for associating each principle specification information with an individual function having each table cell storing function adoption priority information indicative of a seat-based priority for adopting a corresponding function;

wherein the function extraction means retrieves the principle specification information from the principle retrieval table and retrieves the individual function belonging to a retrieved principle from the function extraction table; and

wherein the control content determination means determines a control content so as to perform a retrieved individual function according to a priority indicated by the corresponding function adoption priority information.

8. The vehicular user hospitality system according to claim 1,

wherein the disturbance stimulation value for each type is allowed to be set toward positive and negative directions with reference to a neutral value;

wherein a larger absolute value is assigned to the reference intention parameter that represents a stronger user intention to eliminate a corresponding disturbance stimulation;

wherein the intention intensity parameter calculation means performs a predetermined operation of combining the reference intention parameter value with the disturbance stimulation value so as to acquire an operation result reflecting a sign of the disturbance stimulation value and settles an operation result as the intention intensity parameter value; and

wherein the control content determination means settles control output of a corresponding function in a predetermined control direction in accordance with the sign based on the intention intensity parameter value.

9. The vehicular user hospitality system according to claim 8,

wherein the intention intensity parameter calculation means settles the intention intensity parameter value based on multiplication between the reference intention parameter value and the disturbance stimulation value.

10. The vehicular user hospitality system according to claim 1,

wherein the intention intensity parameter calculation means includes a user registration means for storing a plurality of users registered to the vehicle in association with a rank order and an intention intensity parameter correction content of each user and a user specification means for specifying a user getting into the vehicle, uses the intention intensity parameter correction content so as to prioritize an intention intensity parameter correction content of the specified user corresponding to a high rank order, and corrects and calculates the intention intensity parameter value.

11. The vehicular user hospitality system according to claim 1,

wherein the intention intensity parameter calculation means includes a user character type specification means for specifying a character type of a user getting into the vehicle and corrects and calculates the intention intensity parameter value corresponding to a character type of the specified user.