Electricity: motive power systems – Periodic – repetitious or successive operations control of...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-16
2001-01-23
Ro, Bentsu (Department: 2837)
Electricity: motive power systems
Periodic, repetitious or successive operations control of...
C318S444000, C318SDIG002, C015S250130
Reexamination Certificate
active
06177775
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates generally to vehicle wipers, and more particularly to systems and methods for controlling vehicle wipers.
BACKGROUND
Most modern vehicles contain an audio entertainment device, such as a radio or CD player, for entertaining vehicle occupants. Nearly all such vehicles also include wipers designed to clear excess water from the front windshield, thereby enabling the driver to see clearly while it is raining or the roads are wet. Typical windshield wipers periodically swipe back and forth across the windshield. When listening to music while driving in the rain, vehicle occupants often become annoyed by dissonance between the beat of the music and the rhythm of the windshield wipers.
Windshield wipers emit noise while they scrape across the windshield, which culminates in a noise burst every time the windshield wipers change direction near the edge of the windshield. These noise bursts often cause aural dissonance with music playing from the audio entertainment device. In addition, the wipers have a negative visual effect as they pass back and forth in front of the eyes of the vehicle occupants, out of sync with the music.
One recent television advertisement produced by the automobile manufacturer Volkswagen, entitled “Synchronicity,” shows a couple driving a Volkswagen Jetta automobile down a street. The couple inserts a cassette tape into the cassette deck. As the rhythmic music on the cassette tape begins to play, various events surrounding the car coincidentally, even magically, begin to match the beat of the music, in an unplanned synchronicity. A basketball player dribbles to the beat. A shopkeeper sweeps to the beat. A street sign flashes to the beat. And, the windshield wipers of the Jetta wipe to the beat.
The advertisement was tremendously popular, ranking among the 10 most popular advertisements since 1995 by the USA Today Ad Track index. The advertisement demonstrates the enjoyable feeling drivers experience when windshield wipers do occasionally, randomly, acausally synchronize to the beat. The commercial does not disclose any system or method by which the beat of the music might causally affect the wiper motion. This would take away from the magic of the coincidental synchronicity shown in the commercial.
Rather, the television commercial presents a dream-like state in which, as the announcer states, “Sometimes, everything just comes together.” The title of the music in the commercial is “Jung at Heart,” a reference to the psychologist Carl Jung's concept of Synchronicity, in which meaning is ascribed to coincidental events that are not causally connected. Although the television commercial may present psychological meaning to viewers through the Jungian coincidental synchronicity between the wipers and music, it does not disclose or suggest any actual mechanism or method by which the wipers and music may be linked.
Thus, drivers and passengers face the problem that, although it would be pleasing to synchronize windshield wiper motion to the tempo of onboard music, currently there is no system or method capable of doing so. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a system and method for synchronizing the motion and sound of the wipers of a vehicle with onboard audio signal.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A system and method for use in synchronizing a vehicle wiper to an onboard audio signal are provided. According to one aspect of the invention, the method includes detecting a tempo of the audio signal, and moving the wiper based on the detected tempo of the audio signal. The method may include adjusting the speed and/or delay of the wiper to synchronize the wiper motion with the detected tempo.
According to another aspect of the invention, the method includes detecting a tempo of the audio signal and moving the wiper at a first rate for an adjustment period, until movement of the wiper is synchronized with the tempo of the audio signal. The method further includes moving the wiper at a second rate for a synchronized period such that the wiper remains synchronized with the tempo of the audio signal. The first and second rates are achieved by adjusting wiper speed and/or wiper delay.
According to one aspect of the invention, the system includes an audio source configured to generate an audio signal, and a wiper control coupled to the audio source. The system further includes a wiper motor linked to the wiper control, the wiper motor being configured to rotate the vehicle wiper. The wiper control is configured to receive a detected tempo of the audio signal and signal the wiper motor to move the wiper based upon the detected tempo. The system may fuither include a tempo detector coupled to the audio source and to the wiper control, the tempo detector being configured to detect the tempo from the audio signal and output the tempo to the wiper control.
According to another aspect of the invention, a vehicle is provided. The vehicle includes a vehicle body including a windshield, and at least one wiper positioned adjacent the windshield. The vehicle further includes a wiper motor configured to move the wiper relative to the windshield, and an audio source coupled to the body. The audio source is configured to produce an audio signal. The vehicle further includes a wiper control configured to receive a tempo of the audio signal and signal the wiper motor to move the wiper based upon the detected tempo.
REFERENCES:
patent: 6002323 (1999-12-01), Bomya
patent: 4-138946 (1992-05-01), None
Compact Disc, “Volkswagen Ad, ”no date.
Alleman Mark D.
Bruington Mary C.
Kolisch Hartwell Dickinson & McCormack & Heuser
Ro Bentsu
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