Auditory display of vehicular environment

• US 7,741,962 B2
• Filed: 10/09/2006
• Issued: 06/22/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Toyota Motor Corporation
• Original Assignee: Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Incorporated (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Kalik, Steven F.
• Primary Examiner(s): TWEEL JR, JOHN ALEXANDER
• Application Number:
  US11/539,704
• Publication Number:
  US 20080085686A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,352 Days
• Field of Search: 340/438, 340/435, 340/436, 340/988, 340/903, 180/274, 701/301
• US Class Current: 340/438
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9315 Monitoring blind spots
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/932 using own vehicle data, e.g. ground speed, steering wheel direction
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9322 using additional data, e.g. driver condition, road state or weather data
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/93271 in the front of the vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/93272 in the back of the vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/93274 on the side of the vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9329 cooperating with reflectors or transponders

Abstract

An example apparatus for providing an audible signal representative of an environment comprises a sensor system, and an audio system providing an audible signal to a person. The audible signal has one or more audible signal variables from which the person can determine, for example, the location and relative velocity of one or more objects within the environment. The apparatus includes an electronic circuit for converting environmental data into audible signal variables, for example using a mapping algorithm.

Claims

1. An apparatus for providing an audible signal representative of a vehicle environment to a vehicle operator within a vehicle, the environment including an object having a location and a relative velocity, the apparatus comprising:

a sensor system, providing sensor data related to the vehicle environment, the sensor system being supported by the vehicle;

an electronic circuit receiving the sensor data, the electronic circuit determining a plurality of audible signal variables from the sensor data; and

an audio system comprising a plurality of speakers within the vehicle, the audio system providing the audible signal having the audible signal variables,

wherein each audible signal variable conveys information about the vehicle environment,

the audible signal including a plurality of tone pulses, each tone pulse having audible signal variables allowing perception of the location and the relative velocity of the object,

the audible signal variables being selected from a group of variables consisting of;

frequency, amplitude, time delay from a reference time, and tone pulse duration.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, the time delay from a reference time being correlated with object position.

3. A method for providing information about an environment to a person, the environment including an object having an object location and a relative velocity, the method comprising:

sensing the environment using a sensor system;

receiving sensor data from the sensor system;

transforming the sensor data into an audible signal; and

providing the audible signal to the person so as to provide information about the environment to the person,

the audible signal including a plurality of tone pulses, each tone pulse having audible signal variables correlated with the location and the relative velocity of the object within the environment so as to allow perception of the location and the relative velocity of the object,

the audible signal variables being selected from a group of variables consisting of;

frequency, amplitude, time delay from a reference time, and duration.

4. The method of claim 3, the frequency being correlated with a direction to the object.

5. The method of claim 3, the amplitude and frequency of the tone pulse allowing determination of the relative location of the object.

6. The method of claim 5, the duration of the tone pulses being between 0.01 and 1 seconds.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the audible signal is provided by a plurality of speakers,

the audible signal including tones having an apparent direction of origin correlated with the object location.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein the object location comprises an object distance and an object direction, and

the audible signal has a first audible signal variable correlated with the object distance and a second audible signal variable correlated with the object direction.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein the person is an operator of a vehicle.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the vehicle is an automobile.

11. An apparatus operable to provide an audible signal representative of an environment of a vehicle, the environment including a plurality of objects, the apparatus comprising:

a sensor system, providing sensor data related to the environment;

an electronic circuit, operable to receive the sensor data and to generate an electronic signal, the electronic signal encoding audible signal variables representative of the environment; and

an audio system in communication with the electronic circuit, the audio system operable to generate an audible signal,

the audible signal comprising a plurality of tone pulses,

each tone pulse having an audible signal variable correlated with an object location within the environment,

the plurality of tone pulses allowing perception of the object location for each of a plurality of objects within the environment,

at least one of the audible signal variables being selected from a group of variables consisting of tone pulse frequency, tone pulse duration, tone pulse amplitude, and time delay from a reference time,

each tone pulse having audible signal variables allowing perception of an object distance, an object direction relative to a reference direction, and an object velocity relative to the vehicle.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the audible signal comprises tone pulses having tone pulse durations of between 0.01 and 1 seconds.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the audio system is located within the vehicle,

the audio system comprising one or more speakers.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the sensor system comprises at least one stereoscopic image sensor.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the audible signal comprises a time-sequential set of frames, the plurality of tone pulses being presented in each frame.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the audible signal further includes a reference sound presented at the beginning of each frame.

17. An apparatus operable to provide an audible signal representative of an environment of a vehicle, the environment including a plurality of objects, the apparatus comprising:

a sensor system, providing sensor data related to the environment;

an electronic circuit, operable to receive the sensor data and to generate an electronic signal, the electronic signal encoding audible signal variables representative of the environment; and

an audio system in communication with the electronic circuit, the audio system operable to generate an audible signal,

the audible signal comprising a plurality of tone pulses,

each tone pulse having an audible signal variable correlated with an object location within the environment,

the plurality of tone pulses allowing perception of the object location for each of a plurality of objects within the environment,

the audible signal variables being selected from a group of variables consisting of tone pulse frequency, tone pulse duration, tone pulse amplitude, and time delay from a reference time,

each tone pulse having a first audible signal variable correlated with an object distance, and a second audible signal variable correlated with an object direction, the object direction being an angle relative to a reference direction.

18. An apparatus operable to provide an audible signal representative of an environment of a vehicle, the environment including a plurality of objects, the apparatus comprising:

a sensor system, providing sensor data related to the environment;

an electronic circuit, operable to receive the sensor data and to generate an electronic signal, the electronic signal encoding audible signal variables representative of the environment; and

an audio system in communication with the electronic circuit, the audio system operable to generate an audible signal,

the audible signal comprising a plurality of tone pulses,

each tone pulse having an audible signal variable correlated with an object location within the environment,

the plurality of tone pulses allowing perception of the object location for each of a plurality of objects within the environment,

at least one of the audible signal variables being selected from a group of variables consisting of tone pulse frequency, tone pulse duration, tone pulse amplitude, and time delay from a reference time,

the tone pulse frequency being a tone pitch within an audible frequency range of between 20 Hz and 20 kHz,

the tone pulse frequency of each tone pulse being correlated with an object direction.