Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Vehicle subsystem or accessory control
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-13
2001-05-29
Louis-Jacques, Jacques H. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Vehicle subsystem or accessory control
C701S001000, C701S049000, C367S197000, C367S198000, C704S275000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06240347
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates in general to controlling electrical accessories in an automotive vehicle, and more specifically, to a voice activated control system integrated with manual control elements and associated displays to provide a simple and efficient user interface.
Recent advances in electronics have made more and more accessory functions available for controllable use in mobile vehicles, such as navigation aids, audio entertainment using various types of recorded media, precise climate control, and remote control of many vehicle components and systems. To help insure that a driver can take advantage of this proliferation of features and controls without interfering with the task of driving a vehicle, a simple and efficient driver-machine interface (DMI) is desired. For example, a desire to maintain the driver's hands on the steering wheel and eyes on the road has led to an interest in voice recognition technologies. These systems initiate control actions based on spoken commands being recognized using advanced computation techniques.
Voice activation systems require the user to learn a predetermined grammar (i.e., a set of spoken commands) which can be recognized. As the number of systems and functions controlled by speech control increases, the user is required to learn an ever larger grammar. To simplify the voice recognition task and minimize the required grammar, it has been suggested to provide manual control switches on a steering wheel which may be reconfigured using voice commands. However, system cost and complexity are driven up as more features and components are added to the voice actuation system itself. Furthermore, control operations can still remain complex and difficult to use and remember without an appropriate interface.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has the advantages of providing a convenient and easy to use interface while minimizing system components by sharing resources between separate control devices. The integrated system simultaneously achieves simple operation while maintaining flexibility to implement a large number of diverse control functions.
In one aspect of the invention, an apparatus is provided in an automotive vehicle wherein the vehicle has a passenger cabin with a steering wheel, an instrument panel, and a front window. A controllable accessory has a plurality of controllable function parameters. A speech processor is coupled to the controllable accessory for recognizing spoken sounds and transmitting corresponding commands to the controllable accessory. A central display/control unit is coupled to the controllable accessory and includes a visual display containing current values of the controllable function parameters, and includes a plurality of control elements for manually selecting desired changes in the current values. The central display/control unit transmits commands corresponding to the desired changes to the controllable accessory. Reconfigurable control elements are coupled to the speech processor and to the central display/control unit, and are mounted on the steering wheel for adjusting current values of the controllable function parameters. The reconfigurable control elements can be reconfigured to a selected parameter by either the speech processor or the central display/control unit. A heads-up display is coupled to the speech processor and the central display/control unit for displaying at least one indicator above the instrument panel corresponding to the selected parameter to identify a current configuration of the reconfigurable control elements.
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Everhart Charles Allen
Frischmuth Florian
Rushton Gary John
Broadhead Brian J.
Ford Global Technologies Inc.
Louis-Jacques Jacques H.
Mollon Mark L.
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