Voice guidance system for vehicle

• US 8,306,825 B2
• Filed: 04/08/2008
• Issued: 11/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/09/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Nakashima, Kazuhiro, Ogino, Kenichi, Teshima, Kentaro, Kumazaki, Takeshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Desir, Pierre-Louis
• Assistant Examiner(s): BAKER, MATTHEW H
• Application Number:
  US12/099,245
• Publication Number:
  US 20080249780A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,673 Days
• Field of Search: 704/270.1
• US Class Current: 704/275
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems

Abstract

A voice guidance system for a vehicle includes a transmitter, a tuner, a touch sensor, a smart ECU, a D-seat speaker, and a P-seat speaker, which are all mounted in a vehicle. It is used for an in-vehicle system, such as a smart entry system, which performs intercommunication with a portable unit. In this guidance system, a smart ECU stores in a memory information indicating that a user has performed predetermined operation with the smart entry system. When it is determined that a user will use the smart entry system, the following processing is performed: voice guidance about the operation procedures for the system is outputted from a driver seat speaker or a passenger seat speaker when information indicating that the user has performed the predetermined operation in the past is not stored in the memory; and voice guidance is disabled when information indicating that the user has performed the predetermined operation is stored.

Claims

1. A voice guidance system for a vehicle providing voice guidance about operation procedures for an in-vehicle system, said voice guidance system comprising:

a use checking means for checking whether an in-vehicle system will be used;

a voice outputting means for outputting voice guidance about a predetermined operation required to use the in-vehicle system;

an operation result checking means for checking whether a user has performed said predetermined operation on the in-vehicle system;

a determination result storing means for storing a determined result of the operation result checking means; and

a changing means for, when the use checking means determines that the in-vehicle system will be used, causing

the voice outputting means to output the voice guidance if the stored determination indicates that the user has not previously performed the predetermined operation and causes the voice outputting means not to output the voice guidance if the stored determination result indicates that the user has previously performed the predetermined operation,

wherein the determination result storing means erases a stored determination result indicating that a user has performed the predetermined operation in the past when the operation result checking means determines that the user has currently failed to perform the predetermined operation.

2. The voice guidance system for a vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising:

an environment determining means for determining ambient environment of the in-vehicle system,

wherein the changing means changes sound volume of voice guidance outputted by the voice outputting means based on a determined result of the environment determining means.

3. The voice guidance system for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein:

the in-vehicle system is configured to intercommunicate with a plurality of portable units which send back response signals containing respective different ID codes in response to a request signal transmitted from a vehicle unit, and the vehicle unit thereby receives a response signal from any one of the plurality of portable units, verifies the ID code contained in the response signal against pre-registered codes, and controls vehicle-mounted equipment according to a result of the verification;

the determination result storing means stores the determined result of the operation result checking means for each portable unit; and

when the use checking means determines that the in-vehicle system will be used, the changing means causes the voice outputting means to output voice guidance if the stored determination result for a corresponding portable unit indicates that a user has not performed the predetermined operation, and not to output voice guidance if the stored determination result for that portable unit indicates that the user has previously performed the predetermined operation.

4. The voice guidance system for a vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising:

an environment determining means for determining ambient environment of the in-vehicle system; and

a changing means for varying, when the use checking means determines that the in-vehicle system will be used, sound volume of voice guidance outputted by the voice outputting means based on a determined result of the environment determining means.