Vent adjusting system

• US 9,840,128 B2
• Filed: 03/10/2015
• Issued: 12/12/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Livingston, James, Nelson, Zachary David
• Primary Examiner(s): McAllister, Steven B
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cotov, Jonathan
• Application Number:
  US14/643,144
• Publication Number:
  US 20160263966A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,008 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 1/00871 Air directing means, e.g. blades in an air outlet construction of nozzles or air diffusers B60H1/34
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 1/00964 Control systems or circuits characterised by including features for automatic and non-automatic control, e.g. for changing from automatic to manual control

Abstract

A vehicle air vent system may include a vehicle air vent having an airflow mechanism configured to control the direction of airflow therefrom, a user interface positioned around a periphery of the vent; and a controller programmed to, based on a received touch point signal from the interface, instruct the mechanism to direct airflow from the vent in a direction corresponding to a location of the received touch point signal.

Claims

1. A vehicle air vent system, comprising:

a vehicle air vent having an airflow mechanism configured to control the direction of airflow therefrom;

a user interface positioned around a periphery of the vent; and

a controller programmed to, based on a received touch point signal from the interface, instruct the mechanism to direct airflow from the vent in a direction corresponding to a location of the received touch point signal, and to enable a voice command feature in response to recognizing a subsequent touch point signal being received within a predefined time of the received touch point signal.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a motor coupled to the controller and airflow mechanism and configured to drive the airflow mechanism to direct the airflow.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the airflow mechanism includes horizontal and vertical slats to direct the airflow from the vent, the mechanism configured to position each of the horizontal and vertical slats to direct the airflow.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the airflow mechanism includes a ball-joint vent having a rotatable socket and fixed slats, the mechanism configured to achieve a rotational position of the socket to produce a desired airflow.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a fan coupled to the controller and configured to control at least one of a temperature and speed of the airflow from the vent.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the controller is further programmed to recognize at least one subsequent touch point signal and to instruct the fan to adjust the speed of the airflow based on a time difference between the received touch point signal and the subsequent touch point signal.

7. A vehicle air vent system, comprising:

a vehicle air vent having a fan configured to control airflow speed;

a touch-sensitive user interface positioned around the vent and configured to receive a plurality of touch points indicative of desired airflow; and

a controller programmed to, based on a delay between at least two received touch points, control the fan to produce a desired airflow speed corresponding to the delay.

8. The system of claim 7, the vehicle air vent having an airflow mechanism configured to control direction of airflow, wherein the controller is programmed to instruct the mechanism to achieve a mechanism position to produce a desired airflow direction, the desired airflow direction corresponding to a location of at least one of the received touch points indicated by the received touch point signal.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the airflow mechanism includes horizontal and vertical slats to direct the airflow from the vent, and the controller is programmed to instruct the mechanism to achieve a mechanism position including a position of each of the horizontal and vertical slats to produce the desired airflow.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising a motor coupled to the controller and airflow mechanism and configured to drive the airflow mechanism to produce the desired airflow.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the controller is programmed to recognize a first received touch point at a first location and to recognize a second received touch point at a second location distinct from the first location.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the controller is further programmed to enable a vehicle command system in response to two touch points being received within a predefined time period.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the vehicle command system includes at least one of a voice command feature and gesture control feature.

14. The system of claim 7, wherein the user interface continuously surrounds the vent periphery.

15. A vehicle air vent system, comprising:

a touch-sensitive user interface surrounding a vehicle air vent periphery; and

a controller programmed to, based on a delay between at least two received touch points at the user interface, control airflow from the vent to produce a desired airflow speed corresponding to the delay.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the vent includes an airflow mechanism configured to control direction of the airflow.