Method and system for selecting driver preferences

• US 9,092,309 B2
• Filed: 02/14/2013
• Issued: 07/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: MacNeille, Perry Robinson, Liu, Yimin, Gusikhin, Oleg Yurievitch, Strumolo, Gary Steven
• Primary Examiner(s): To, Tuan C.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kan, Yuri
• Application Number:
  US13/767,501
• Publication Number:
  US 20140229060A1
• Time in Patent Office: 894 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701/29.2, 701/36, 701/51, 701/533, 340/439, 340/457.1, 381/86, 717/174, 705/7.11, 705/319, 165/202, 455/413, 455/352, 235/380, 379/211.02
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/16 Type of output information
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/20 Output arrangements, i.e. from vehicle to user, associated with vehicle functions or specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/28 characterised by the type of the output information, e.g. video entertainment or vehicle dynamics information; characterised by the purpose of the output information, e.g. for attracting the attention of the driver
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/037 for occupant comfort , e.g. for automatic adjustment of appliances according to personal settings, e.g. seats, mirrors, steering wheel
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/13 Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0265 Vehicular advertisement

Abstract

A vehicle computing system enables one or more processors to control a plurality of vehicle features. The vehicle computing system may control a plurality of vehicle features while determining and selecting occupant preferences for those features. The vehicle computing system may receive input including occupant selections of an application requesting user control. The vehicle computing system may receive context variables at the time of occupant selections. The vehicle computing system may store in memory the occupant selections of the vehicle feature settings and/or controls with the associated context variables. The vehicle computing system may determine an occupant preference to an input request using an associative rule filter based on the occupant selections stored in memory. The vehicle computing system may assign a predetermined amount of time after the application input is requested to allow control of the vehicle feature based on an associative rule filter output.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying, via a vehicle computer, context variable(s) present at a time of receiving vehicle settings;

in response to the context variable(s) being subsequently present, generating a ranked list of the vehicle settings using an associative rule filter; and

in response to an absence of a selection of one of the vehicle settings from the ranked list, implementing at least one of the vehicle settings according to its order on the ranked list.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

establishing communication between a vehicle computing system and a wireless device;

receiving data relating to the vehicle settings from the wireless device; and

transmitting the ranked list of the vehicle settings to the wireless device.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the wireless device includes a personal computer tablet.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the vehicle settings include answering options for incoming telephone calls based on telephone number.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the context variable(s) includes one or more of cognitive load and environment conditions.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein cognitive load includes one or more of signal light enablement, steering angle reversal quantity measurements, and wheel speed.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the environmental conditions include one or more of weather, traffic, and time of day.

8. A system for controlling vehicle feature settings, the system comprising:

at least one computer configured to

identify context variables present at a time of receiving vehicle settings,

in response to one or more context variables being subsequently present, generate a ranked list of the vehicle settings using an associative rule filter, and

in response to an absence of a selection of at least one of the vehicle settings from the list after a predetermined amount of time, implement at least one of the vehicle settings according to its order on the ranked list.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the vehicle settings are at least one of climate control, navigation, and radio settings.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein the vehicle settings include answering options for incoming telephone calls based on telephone number.

11. The system of claim 8 wherein the one or more context variables includes one or more of GPS coordinates, time of day, day of week, and month.

12. The system of claim 8 wherein the at least one computer is additionally configured to receive biometric information and wherein the associative rule filter takes as input biometric information.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the biometric information includes one or more of a driving profile, driver body temperature, and heart rate.

14. The system of claim 8 wherein the at least one computer is additionally configured to:

establish communication with a wireless device; and

receive the vehicle settings from the wireless device.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the communication with the wireless device is via BLUETOOTH.

16. The system of claim 8 wherein the at least one computer is additionally configured to:

establish communication with a wireless device;

receive biometric information from the wireless device;

store the biometric information with the context variables at a time of receiving the vehicle settings; and

transmit the vehicle settings to the wireless device based on the biometric information.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instruction that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the method comprising:

identifying context variables present at a time of receiving vehicle settings;

in response to one or more context variables being subsequently present, generating a ranked list of the vehicle settings

using an associative rule filter; and

in response to an absence of a selection of at least one of the vehicle settings from the ranked list, implementing at least one of the vehicle settings according to its order on the ranked list.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 further comprising:

establishing communication with a wireless device; and

receiving the vehicle settings from the wireless device.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein the ranked list includes one or more options presented to a vehicle occupant at a user interface display.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein the context variables includes one or more of a GPS location, environmental conditions, and cognitive load.