Alerting and notification system

• US 20020039070A1
• Filed: 09/28/2001
• Published: 04/04/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Ververs, Patricia M., Good, Michael D., Rogers, William H., Dorneich, Michael C.
• Granted Patent: US 6,700,482 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/901
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 23/00 Combined instruments indicating more than one navigational value, e.g. for aircraft; Combined measuring devices for measuring two or more variables of movement, e.g. distance, speed or acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0021 located in the aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0078 for monitoring traffic from the aircraft radar or analogous systems specially adapted for traffic control G01S13/91
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0091 for monitoring atmospheric conditions radar or analogous systems specially adapted for meteorological use G01S13/95; meteorology G01W

Abstract

An alerting and/or notification system for operator(s) of a vehicle about conditions that affect the operation of the vehicle. The system collects information from one or more hazard warning systems, groups the warnings into different alert categories, and resolves conflicts between two or more hazard warnings within the same alert category to set a priority level. The prioritized alerts are presented to the operator, and associated detailed information also made available, in the form of graphical and/or textual messages on a display. Using two- or three-dimensional surround sound techniques, directional verbal and tonal aural cues also inform the operator(s) about the presence of threats and/or conditions. Visual displays and/or directional aural commands may be issued to dictate an evasive maneuver direction, if desired.

Claims

1. A method for alerting an operator of a vehicle about one or more conditions, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving one or more messages, wherein the one or more messages include information regarding the locations of the one or more conditions relative to the vehicle; and

providing aural indications to the operator from a direction or apparent direction that is dependent on the locations of the one or more conditions relative to the vehicle.

2. A method for suggesting a course change to an operator of a vehicle in response to one or more external conditions, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving one or more messages, wherein the one or more messages include information regarding the locations of the one or more external conditions relative to the vehicle; and

providing an aural indication to the operator from a direction or apparent direction for a new course for the vehicle to circumvent the one or more external conditions.

3. A method for alerting an operator of a vehicle about one or more conditions, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving one or more time-critical messages, each including information regarding the one or more conditions relative to the vehicle; and

providing aural indications to the operator for the one or more time-critical messages.

4. A method according to claim 3 wherein the one or more time-critical messages include information regarding the locations of the one or more conditions relative to the vehicle, and the aural indications are verbal alerts emanating from a direction or apparent direction that is dependent on the locations of the one or more conditions relative to the vehicle.

5. A method according to claim 3 wherein the one or more time-critical messages include information regarding locations of one or more external conditions relative to the vehicle, and the aural indications are verbal commands emanating from a direction or apparent direction for a new course for the vehicle to circumvent the one or more external conditions.

6. A method according to claim 3 wherein the one or more time-critical messages are for the one or more conditions requiring immediate attention and/or action by the operator of the vehicle.

7. A method for alerting an operator of a vehicle about one or more conditions, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving one or more tactical messages, each including information regarding the one or more conditions; and

providing aural indications to the operator for the one or more tactical messages.

8. A method according to claim 7 wherein the one or more tactical messages include information regarding the locations of the one or more conditions relative to the vehicle, and the aural indications are tone alerts emanating from a direction or apparent direction that is dependent on the locations of the one or more condition relative to the vehicle.

9. A method for alerting an operator of a vehicle about one or more conditions, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving one or more strategic messages, each including information regarding the one or more conditions; and

providing aural indications to the operator for the one or more strategic messages.

10. A method for alerting an operator of a vehicle about one or more external conditions, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving one or more messages, each including information regarding the locations of the one or more external conditions relative to the vehicle; and

providing aural indications to the operator for the one or more messages, the aural indications being of a tone and/or sound level indicative of the distance of the one or more external condition from the vehicle.

11. A method for alerting an operator of a vehicle about one or more external conditions, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving one or more messages, each including information regarding the one or more external conditions relative to the vehicle; and

providing aural indications to the operator for the one or more messages, the aural indications being of a tone and/or sound level indicative of a sense of urgency for responding to the one or more messages.

17. A method according to claim 16 wherein at least the selected lower priority alerts are opaque to the overlapping higher priority alerts.

18. A method according to claim 16 wherein a plurality of icons are used for differentiating between different priorities or levels of the one or more alerts.

19. A method according to claim 16 wherein a plurality of colors are used for differentiating between different priorities or levels of the one or more alerts.

12. A method for alerting an operator of a vehicle about one or more conditions, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving one or more messages, wherein the one or more messages include information regarding the locations of the one or more conditions relative to the vehicle; and

providing one or more visual indicators to the operator, the one or more visual indicators indicative of the locations of the one or more condition relative to the vehicle.

13. A method for suggesting a course change to an operator of a vehicle in response to one or more external conditions, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving one or more messages, wherein the one or more messages include information regarding the locations of the one or more external conditions relative to the vehicle; and

providing a visual indicator to the operator, the visual indicator suggesting a new course for the vehicle to circumvent the one or more external condition.

14. A method for alerting an operator of a vehicle about one or more conditions, the vehicle having one or more displays and/or control inputs, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving one or more messages, wherein the one or more messages include information regarding the one or more conditions; and

providing aural indications of the one or more conditions to the operator from a direction or apparent direction that is dependent on the location of the one or more conditions relative to the vehicle and corresponding to the one or more displays and/or control inputs.

15. A method for suggesting a course change to an operator of a vehicle in response to one or more external conditions, the vehicle having one or more displays and/or control inputs, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving one or more messages, wherein the one or more messages include information regarding the location of the one or more external conditions relative to the vehicle; and

providing an aural indication to the operator from a direction or apparent direction for a new course for the vehicle to circumvent the one or more external conditions and corresponding to the one or more displays and/or control inputs.

16. A method for graphically displaying one or more alerts to an operator of a vehicle, each alert relating to one or more conditions, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving the one or more alerts; and

displaying higher priority alerts on top of lower priority alerts.

20. A method for alerting an operator of a first vehicle about one or more conditions external to the first vehicle, said one or more conditions including information about other vehicles in the vicinity of the first vehicle.

21. A method for alerting an operator of a vehicle about one or more conditions external to the vehicle, said one or more conditions including information about terrain in the vicinity of the vehicle.

22. A method for alerting an operator of a vehicle about one or more conditions external to the vehicle, said one or more conditions including information about windshear in the vicinity of the vehicle.

26. A method according to claim 25 wherein the one or more displays comprise a plurality of textual views selectable by the operator.

27. A method according to claim 25 wherein the one or more displays comprise a plurality of graphical views selectable by the operator.

28. A method according to claim 25 wherein the one or more messages are displayed in priority order.

29. A method according to claim 25 wherein the textual messaging area is scrollable by the operator.

30. A display according to claim 25 wherein messages in the textual messaging area can be selected by the operator for viewing an associated graphic in the graphical display area.

31. A method according to claim 25 wherein information regarding the one or more conditions are displayed overlapping each other.

32. A method according to claim 31 wherein the displayed information includes the vehicle'"'"'s path.

33. A method according to claim 31 wherein the displayed information includes the weather in the vicinity of the vehicle'"'"'s path.

34. A method according to claim 31 wherein the displayed information includes the weather in the vicinity of the vehicle'"'"'s destination.

35. A method according to claim 31 wherein the displayed information includes the terrain in the vicinity of the vehicle.

36. A method according to claim 31 wherein the displayed information includes information about other objects in the vicinity of the vehicle.

38. A method according to claim 37 further comprising means for displaying historic or time-lapse images of weather pattern in the vicinity of the vehicle'"'"'s path.

39. A method according to claim 37 further comprising means for displaying time-lapse images of predicted weather pattern in the vicinity of the vehicle'"'"'s path.

40. A method according to claim 37 further comprising means for displaying historic or time-lapse images of weather pattern in the vicinity of the vehicle'"'"'s destination.

41. A method according to claim 37 further comprising means for displaying time-lapse images of predicted weather pattern in the vicinity of the vehicle'"'"'s destination.

23. A method for alerting an operator of a vehicle about one or more conditions external to the vehicle, said one or more conditions including information about weather in the vicinity of the vehicle'"'"'s path.

24. A method for alerting an operator of a vehicle about one or more conditions external to the vehicle, said one or more conditions including information about weather in the vicinity of the vehicle'"'"'s destination.

25. A method for informing an operator of a vehicle about one or more conditions, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving one or more messages, each including information regarding the one or more conditions; and

displaying the information on one or more displays, each display comprising a textual messaging area and a graphical display area.

37. A method for informing an operator of a vehicle about weather conditions, the vehicle having one or more displays each display comprising a textual messaging area and a graphical display area, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving and storing information about weather conditions; and

displaying the weather conditions on the one or more displays.

42. A system for alerting an operator of a vehicle about one or more conditions, said system comprising:

means for receiving one or more messages, wherein the one or more messages include information regarding the location of the one or more conditions relative to the vehicle; and

means for providing aural indications to the operator from a direction or apparent direction that is dependent on the location of the one or more conditions relative to the vehicle.

43. A system for suggesting a course change to an operator of a vehicle in response to one or more external conditions, said system comprising:

means for receiving one or more messages, wherein the one or more messages include information regarding the location of the one or more external conditions relative to the vehicle; and

means for providing an aural indication to the operator from a direction or apparent direction for a new course for the vehicle to circumvent the one or more external conditions.

44. A system for alerting an operator of a vehicle about one or more conditions, said system comprising:

means for receiving one or more messages, wherein the one or more messages include information regarding the location of the one or more conditions relative to the vehicle; and

means for providing visual indicators to the operator, the visual indicators indicative of the location of the one or more conditions relative to the vehicle.

45. A system for suggesting a course change to an operator of a vehicle in response to one or more external conditions, said system comprising:

means for receiving one or more messages, wherein the one or more messages include information regarding the location of the one or more external conditions relative to the vehicle; and

means for providing a visual indicator to the operator, the visual indicator suggesting a new course for the vehicle to circumvent the one or more external conditions.

46. A system for alerting an operator of a vehicle about one or more conditions, the vehicle having one or more displays and/or control inputs, said system comprising:

means for receiving one or more messages, wherein the one or more messages includes information regarding the one or more conditions; and

means for providing aural indications of the one or more conditions to the operator from a direction or apparent direction that is dependent on the location of the one or more conditions relative to the vehicle and corresponding to the one or more displays and/or control inputs.

47. A system for suggesting a course change to an operator of a vehicle in response to one or more external conditions, the vehicle having one or more displays and/or control inputs, said system comprising:

means for receiving one or more messages, wherein the one or more messages includes information regarding the location of the one or more external conditions relative to the vehicle; and

means for providing an aural indication to the operator from a direction or apparent direction for a new course for the vehicle to circumvent the one or more external conditions and corresponding to the one or more displays and/or control inputs.

48. A system for informing an operator of a vehicle about one or more conditions, said system comprising:

means for receiving one or more messages, each including information regarding the one or more conditions; and

means for displaying the information on one or more displays, each display comprising a scrollable textual messaging area and a selectable graphical display area.

49. A system for informing an operator of a vehicle about weather conditions, the vehicle having one or more displays each display comprising a scrollable textual messaging area and a selectable graphical display area, said system comprising:

means for receiving and storing information about weather conditions; and

means for displaying the weather conditions on the one or more displays.

50. A method for alerting an operator of a vehicle about one or more external conditions, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving one or more messages, each including information regarding the one or more external conditions relative to the vehicle; and

grouping selected external conditions having a common predetermined similarity into one of two or more categories.

51. The method as recited in claim 50, wherein each of the two or more categories corresponds to one of terrain, traffic, weather, and scheduling constraints.

52. The method of claim 50 further comprising prioritizing the one or more external conditions within each of the one or more categories.

53. The method as recited in claim 52, wherein the one or more external conditions within each of the one or more categories are prioritized as being one of time-critical alerts, tactical alerts, and strategic alerts.

54. The method of claim 53 wherein the time-critical alerts comprise the one or more external conditions having a substantially higher certainty of occurrence and requiring resolution in a substantially shorter period of time.

55. The method of claim 53 wherein the tactical alerts comprise the one or more external conditions having a certainty of occurrence less than that of the time-critical alerts and requiring resolution in a period of time less than that for the time-critical alerts.

56. The method of claim 53 wherein the strategic alerts comprise the one or more external conditions having a certainty of occurrence less than that of the tactical alerts and requiring resolution in a period of time less than that for the tactical alerts.

58. The system as recited in claim 57 further comprising means for prioritizing the one or more external conditions within each of the one or more categories.

57. A system for alerting an operator of a vehicle about one or more external conditions, said system comprising:

means for receiving one or more messages, each including information regarding the one or more external conditions relative to the vehicle; and

means for grouping selected external conditions having a common predetermined similarity into one of two or more categories.