Patent application number | Description | Published |
20110074565 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IN-VEHICLE PRESENCE DETECTION AND DRIVER ALERTING - A system for alerting a responsible party to the presence of an occupant in a passenger compartment of a vehicle includes a vibration sensor detecting movement of an occupant, a microphone detecting sound made by the occupant, a processor configured to receive signals output from the vibration sensor and the microphone and to use a combination of the signals to determine whether the occupant is present, and an alerting device to provide an alert to the responsible party if the processor determines that the occupant is present. The microphone may also be used in a communication or voice-recognition command system. Two or more microphones may be used to locate the sound's source of origin. | 03-31-2011 |
20110074566 | SYSTEM AND METHOD OF VEHICLE PASSENGER DETECTION FOR REAR SEATING ROWS - A system for detecting a passenger in a rear seating row of a vehicle and alerting an occupant of a vehicle when a passenger safety device in a rear row is not properly used. Occupancy is determined by sensing any actuation of a switch or control in the rear row along with detecting sounds made by the rear row passenger. A processor receives control activity signals indicating that a control has been actuated, receives audio signals generated by a microphone, and uses the control activity signals and the audio signals in combination to determine that the passenger is present. The processor also receives a status signal from the passenger safety device indicating that it is not in proper use. An occupant alerting device provides an alert to the occupant if the processor determines that the passenger is present and the passenger safety device is not in proper use. | 03-31-2011 |
20110087398 | GPS BASED PITCH SENSING FOR AN INTEGRATED STABILITY CONTROL SYSTEM - A system and method for sensing vehicle global pitch angle and rate that uses global velocities measured from a single antenna global positioning system (GPS) receiver together with sensor fusion algorithms involving sensor signals and other computed signals. This constructed, or computed, vehicle body's pitch angle may replace the role of a pitch rate sensor in an integrated stability control system. Namely, it achieves enhanced vehicle state estimation without the need for a pitch rate sensor. | 04-14-2011 |
20110102166 | VEHICLE AND METHOD OF ADVISING A DRIVER THEREIN - A vehicle may include a driver interface and at least once controller operatively arranged with the interface. The at least one controller may be configured to categorize a driver's dynamic control of the vehicle by type, determine a target speed of a road curvature, and determine a speed of the vehicle. The at least one controller may be further configured to determine a threshold distance based on the type, determine a distance between the vehicle and the curvature, and generate an alert for the driver if the distance is less than the threshold and the speed is greater than the target. | 05-05-2011 |
20110106334 | VEHICLE AND METHOD FOR ADVISING DRIVER OF SAME - A method for advising a driver of a vehicle may include monitoring driver torque requests, establishing categories of driver behavior based on a history of driver torque requests and associated rates of change thereof, categorizing current driver behavior into one of the established categories based on current driver torque requests and associated rates of change thereof, and initiating an alert for the driver if the categorization is of a particular type. | 05-05-2011 |
20110106381 | VEHICLE AND METHOD OF TUNING PERFORMANCE OF SAME - A method for tuning a vehicle's performance may include measuring a plurality of parameters representing the vehicle's current handling condition and the vehicle's limit handling condition, determining a margin between the vehicle's current handling condition and limit handling condition, characterizing the driver's dynamic control of the vehicle based on the margin, and altering at least one tunable vehicle performance parameter based on the characterization. | 05-05-2011 |
20120203424 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INTEGRATED CONTROL OF VEHICLE CONTROL SYSTEMS - A system and method for providing driving support system to a vehicle. The vehicle includes a set of control modules, having at least one operational setting, configured for electronically controlling the vehicle components. The system includes an integrated drive mode selection module having a set of drive modes for modifying the settings for each control module. A sensing system detects at least one condition associated with the driver, vehicle or surroundings. A controller determines an appropriate drive mode for the vehicle based on the condition and the output of a safety module that ensures that the drive mode is safe while driving. | 08-09-2012 |
20130018545 | TRAFFIC DENSITY ESTIMATIONAANM Prakah-Asante; Kwaku O.AACI Commerce Twp.AAST MIAACO USAAGP Prakah-Asante; Kwaku O. Commerce Twp. MI USAANM Tseng; FlingAACI Ann ArborAAST MIAACO USAAGP Tseng; Fling Ann Arbor MI USAANM Filev; Dimitar PetrovAACI NoviAAST MIAACO USAAGP Filev; Dimitar Petrov Novi MI USAANM Lu; JianboAACI LivoniaAAST MIAACO USAAGP Lu; Jianbo Livonia MI USAANM McGee; Ryan AbrahamAACI Ann ArborAAST MIAACO USAAGP McGee; Ryan Abraham Ann Arbor MI USAANM Greenberg; Jeffrey AllenAACI Ann ArborAAST MIAACO USAAGP Greenberg; Jeffrey Allen Ann Arbor MI USAANM Strumolo; Gary StevenAACI Beverly HillsAAST MIAACO USAAGP Strumolo; Gary Steven Beverly Hills MI US - Traffic density may be estimated by increasing a value of a parameter if an object enters a predefined zone on a side of the vehicle and decreasing the value of the parameter after an object exits the predefined zone such that the value of the parameter increases as traffic in a vicinity of the vehicle increases and decreases as traffic in the vicinity of the vehicle decreases. | 01-17-2013 |
20130190975 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SCHEDULING DRIVER INTERFACE TASKS BASED ON DRIVER WORKLOAD - A vehicle's dynamic handling state, driver inputs to the vehicle, etc. may be examined to determine one or more measures of driver workload. Driver interface tasks may then be delayed and/or prevented from executing based on the driver workload so as to not increase the driver workload. Alternatively, driver interface tasks may be schedule for execution based on the driver workload and caused to execute according to the schedule, for example, to minimize the impact the executing driver interface tasks have on driver workload. | 07-25-2013 |
20130190976 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SCHEDULING DRIVER INTERFACE TASKS BASED ON DRIVER WORKLOAD - A vehicle's dynamic handling state, driver inputs to the vehicle, etc. may be examined to determine one or more measures of driver workload. Driver interface tasks may then be delayed and/or prevented from executing based on the driver workload so as to not increase the driver workload. Alternatively, driver interface tasks may be schedule for execution based on the driver workload and caused to execute according to the schedule, for example, to minimize the impact the executing driver interface tasks have on driver workload. | 07-25-2013 |
20130197750 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SCHEDULING DRIVER INTERFACE TASKS BASED ON DRIVER WORKLOAD - A vehicle's dynamic handling state, driver inputs to the vehicle, etc. may be examined to determine one or more measures of driver workload. Driver interface tasks may then be delayed and/or prevented from executing based on the driver workload so as to not increase the driver workload. Alternatively, driver interface tasks may be schedule for execution based on the driver workload and caused to execute according to the schedule, for example, to minimize the impact the executing driver interface tasks have on driver workload. | 08-01-2013 |
20130197751 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SCHEDULING DRIVER INTERFACE TASKS BASED ON DRIVER WORKLOAD - A vehicle's dynamic handling state, driver inputs to the vehicle, etc. may be examined to determine one or more measures of driver workload. Driver interface tasks may then be delayed and/or prevented from executing based on the driver workload so as to not increase the driver workload. Alternatively, driver interface tasks may be schedule for execution based on the driver workload and caused to execute according to the schedule, for example, to minimize the impact the executing driver interface tasks have on driver workload. | 08-01-2013 |
20130226431 | SMART ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL - A cruise control system of a vehicle comprises a target generator, a speed controller, and a distance controller. The speed controller and the distance controller are each coupled to the target generator. The target generator is configured for generating a dynamic speed target and a dynamic distance target through real-time assessment of information characterizing current operating condition characterizing information. The speed controller is configured for utilizing the dynamic speed target for issuing commands to cause the vehicle to be operated at a road speed that is adaptive to the current operating condition characterizing information. The distance controller is configured for utilizing the dynamic distance target for issuing commands to cause the vehicle to be operated such that a distance between the vehicle and a leading vehicle is adaptive to the current operating condition characterizing information. | 08-29-2013 |
20130255930 | DRIVER PERSONALIZED CLIMATE CONDITIONING - An HVAC system for a vehicle includes a skin temperature sensor for measuring an actual skin temperature of the driver and a cabin temperature sensor for measuring an actual cabin temperature of ambient air within the passenger cabin. A controller module stores a target cabin temperature, wherein the controller module controls the HVAC system according to a first error between the target cabin temperature and the actual cabin temperature. The actual cabin temperature is filtered according to a first time constant. A personalization module stores a target skin temperature, wherein the personalization module determines an offset to be applied to the target cabin temperature according to a second error between the target skin temperature and the actual skin temperature. The actual skin temperature is filtered according to a second time constant longer than the first time constant. | 10-03-2013 |
20140039757 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SCHEDULING DRIVER INTERFACE TASKS BASED ON DRIVER WORKLOAD - A vehicle's dynamic handling state, driver inputs to the vehicle, driver physiological condition, etc. may be examined to determine one or more measures of driver workload. Driver interface tasks may then be delayed and/or prevented from executing based on the driver workload so as to not increase the driver workload. Alternatively, driver interface tasks may be schedule for execution based on the driver workload and caused to execute according to the schedule, for example, to minimize the impact the executing driver interface tasks have on driver workload. | 02-06-2014 |
20140081519 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SCHEDULING DRIVER INTERFACE TASKS BASED ON DRIVER WORKLOAD - A vehicle includes at least one processor that receives an in-coming communication for a driver, routes the in-coming communication to a mail system in response to a driver workload exceeding a predefined value, and after a predetermined period of time following routing the in-coming communication to the mail system, generates a notification for the driver indicating that a communication was received in response to the driver workload being less than the predefined value at an expiration of the predetermined period of time. | 03-20-2014 |
20140236385 | VEHICLE AND METHOD OF TUNING PERFORMANCE OF SAME - A method for tuning a vehicle's performance may include measuring a plurality of parameters representing the vehicle's current handling condition and the vehicle's limit handling condition, determining a margin between the vehicle's current handling condition and limit handling condition, characterizing the driver's dynamic control of the vehicle based on the margin, and altering at least one tunable vehicle performance parameter based on the characterization. | 08-21-2014 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090016571 | Blur display for automotive night vision systems with enhanced form perception from low-resolution camera images - The present invention relates to a night vision system human machine interface and particularly to an HMI display that provides enhanced road scene imagery from low resolution cameras. | 01-15-2009 |
20110187520 | VEHICLE AND METHOD FOR ADVISING DRIVER OF SAME - A method for advising a driver of a vehicle may include measuring a plurality of parameters representing the vehicle's current handling condition and the vehicle's limit handling condition, determining a margin between the vehicle's current handling condition and limit handling condition, and initiating an alert for the driver before the vehicle achieves the limit handling condition if the margin exceeds a predetermined threshold. | 08-04-2011 |
20110187522 | VEHICLE AND METHOD OF ADVISING A DRIVER THEREIN - A vehicle may include a driver interface and at least one controller operatively arranged with the interface. The at least one controller may be configured to determine a speed and acceleration of the vehicle, to predict a time until a future speed of the vehicle exceeds a predefined speed based on the predefined speed and the speed and acceleration of the vehicle, and to issue an alert via the interface if the time is less than a predefined time. | 08-04-2011 |
20110193693 | VEHICLE AND METHOD FOR ADVISING DRIVER OF SAME - A method for advising a driver of a vehicle including a haptic driver interface may include determining a speed of the vehicle, determining a distance between the vehicle and another vehicle, and activating the haptic driver interface based on the speed and distance. | 08-11-2011 |
20120203399 | VEHICLE WITH IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM - A vehicle may include an identification system configured to acquire information from a token in a vicinity of the vehicle and to classify a driver of the vehicle based on the information. The vehicle may also include at least one controller in communication with the identification system and configured to characterize a driver's control of the vehicle and to record a history of the characterization if the driver classification is of a particular type. | 08-09-2012 |
20120256749 | Method and Apparatus for Health Monitoring - A computer implemented method includes communicating with one or more medical and/or wellness devices. The method further includes receiving one or more data related to a medical or wellness condition from at least one of the one or more medical and/or wellness devices. The method additionally includes reporting a measurement from the one or more medical devices based at least in part on the received data. | 10-11-2012 |
20130110349 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SCHEDULING DRIVER INTERFACE TASKS BASED ON DRIVER WORKLOAD | 05-02-2013 |
20130273847 | Method and Apparatus for a Mobile Safety Platform with Multiple Communication Interfaces - A system includes one or more sensors, one or more output devices, a vehicle computing system (VCS) configured to receive information from the one or more sensors and to output information to the one or more output devices, a wireless receiver in communication with the VCS, and a wireless transmitter in communication with the VCS. The VCS is further configured to filter information received from the one or more sensors and broadcast the information through the wireless transmitter to a first device, while simultaneously communicating with the first device over the wireless receiver to receive a request relating to use of a vehicle output device, to verify the permissibility of the request and to provide output in accordance with a verified request over the vehicle output device. | 10-17-2013 |
20130275224 | Method and Apparatus for Advertisement Message Coordination - An advertisement message system includes a plurality of modules providing current state values, including at least a GPS location proximity value, a workload value, and an advertisement optimization value. The system also includes a processor configured to receive state values from the plurality of modules. The system further includes an advertisement database including a plurality of advertisements. The processor is configured to determine that ad delivery is appropriate and to select an ad with a likelihood of driver response above a certain threshold. The selection is based at least in part on a currently received GPS location proximity value, workload value and advertisement optimization value, and to deliver the advertisement through a vehicle output. | 10-17-2013 |
20140011482 | Method and Apparatus for Detecting a Left-Behind Phone - A system includes a vehicle computing processor. The processor is configured to, through wireless communication with a phone, and after determining that a vehicle engine is not running, request and receive motion sensor data from the phone. The processor is further configured to determine if a phone is moving with a driver based on the motion sensor data. Also, the processor is configured to alert the driver if the phone is not moving with the driver. | 01-09-2014 |
20140025259 | METHOD AND SYSTEM TO DETECT AND MITIGATE CUSTOMER DISSATISFACTION WITH PERFORMANCE OF AUTOMATIC MODE SELECTION SYSTEM - A method for controlling a vehicle includes automatically activating a first mode of operation of a vehicle, determining if a driver does not prefer the automatically activated first mode of operation, and automatically transitioning to a second mode of operation based on the determination. | 01-23-2014 |
20140207342 | Method and Apparatus for Primary Driver Verification - A system includes a processor configured to examine one or more vehicle settings having been changed after a driver enters a vehicle. Also, the processor is configured to compare the examined settings to settings associated with currently stored driver profiles and verify the driver as a previously stored primary vehicle driver based at least in part on the comparison. | 07-24-2014 |
20140257988 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SELECTING NAVIGATION ROUTES AND PROVIDING ON-ROUTE ADVERTISING - A computer-implemented method for receiving one or more inputs to represent a current location and a destination for determining one or more navigation routes to the destination. The method may determine a number of driving maneuvers associated with the one or more navigation routes to get to the destination. The method may also determine a workload value for the driving maneuver corresponding to the one or more navigation routes and select the navigation route based on the workload value. The method allows a predetermined amount of time after the determination to output the selected route based on the workload value to an output device. The method may develop an advertisement strategy for presenting ads to a vehicle occupant based on the route, workload value, and/or driving maneuvers. | 09-11-2014 |
20140257989 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SELECTING IN-VEHICLE ADVERTISEMENT - An advertising system enabling one or more processors to determine and select an in-vehicle drip advertisement. The advertising system may communicate with a vehicle computing system enabling one or more processors to receive input representing a current location. The advertising system may receive input representing a destination and define at least one navigation route corresponding to the current location and the destination. The system may select one or more advertisements based on the at least one navigation route. The system may output the one or more advertisements on an output device at one or more predetermined points on the at least one navigation route. The system may receive an input in response to an advertisement and determine a related advertisement corresponding to the response and the one or more navigation routes. The system may output the related advertisement on the output device. | 09-11-2014 |
20140266795 | Method and Apparatus for Crowd-Sourced Traffic Reporting - A system includes a processor configured to project monitoring needs for a road segment. The processor is further configured to contact one or more vehicles traveling on the road segment during a time of monitoring need. The processor is additionally configured to instruct a first number, determined based on a projected monitoring need, of contacted vehicles to being monitoring and reporting traffic data for the road segment | 09-18-2014 |
20140277823 | Method and Apparatus for Determining Traffic Conditions - A system includes a vehicle processor configured to detect one or more brake presses. The processor is also configured to detect one or more accelerator presses. Further, the processor is configured to add values related to the brake presses and accelerator presses to aggregate an index value based on detected brake and acceleration presses. The processor is additionally configured to enact a safety and convenience related measure based on the index value passing at least a first predetermined threshold. | 09-18-2014 |
20140277932 | Method and System for Supervising Information Communication Based on Occupant and Vehicle Environment - A vehicle computer system includes one or more processors configured to receive context data representative of a vehicle's environment from one or more modules. The one or more processors are programmed and configured to receive the context data from one or more modules, determine an attention demand value utilizing the context data and a workload value corresponding to the context data, and output an indicator to activate or adjust a do not disturb feature based on the attention demand value. | 09-18-2014 |
20140278087 | Method and Apparatus for Predicting Times of High Driver Demand - A system includes a processor configured to receive information representing a driver demand level for a plurality of driving locations. The processor is further configured to aggregate the received information to identify likely high driving demand areas. The processor is additionally configured to access stored aggregated driving demand information to identify likely high driving demand areas on a current vehicle route. Also, the processor is configured to provide one or more services to reduce driver inattentiveness and to elevate driver focus during travel within the identified areas, based on upcoming identified likely high driving demand areas. | 09-18-2014 |
20140288775 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PREDICTIVE VEHICLE SYSTEMS PERFORMANCE SELECTION FOR ENHANCED MANEUVERABILITY - A predictive enhanced maneuverability system providing enhanced timely delivery of vehicle performance selection of chassis, and steering modes for potential predicted safety collisions is disclosed. The primary inputs of the disclosed invention include a determination of the proximity to a preceding vehicle, the density of the surrounding traffic, a forward collision warning alert, and the predictive enhanced maneuverability decision sub-system for vehicle mode selection. The system of the disclosed invention provides a customized vehicle dynamics chassis and steering dynamic mode output, based on a predicted decision about vehicle potential for collision, for improved driver maneuverability and safety. In addition, the disclosed invention provides an improved system and method for incorporating the time dependent headway, forward collision warning alert, and the traffic density for chassis collision-mode embedded decision-making. The predictive enhanced maneuverability decision-module allows vehicle dynamics mode selection to be tailored based on proximity to a potential collision. | 09-25-2014 |
20140313333 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IMAGING A DRIVER OF A VEHICLE - A system and method for imaging a driver of a vehicle is provided. The system includes an imager mounted to a steering wheel hub that images a scene containing a bodily feature of the driver and generates image data therefrom. An image processor receives and analyzes the image data and generates biometric information related to the driver. The biometric information is useable as input for a variety of vehicle operations. | 10-23-2014 |
20140316607 | OCCUPANT PRESENCE DETECTION AND IDENTIFICATION - A system includes a presence sensor that generates a presence signal representing a presence of an occupant in a vehicle, an occupant identification device that generates an occupant identification signal, and a customization controller that applies a default setting to a vehicle feature before receiving the occupant identification signal and applies a customized setting associated with an identified occupant after receiving the occupant identification signal. A method includes receiving a presence signal representing a presence of an occupant in a vehicle, applying a default setting to a vehicle feature in response to receiving the presence signal, receiving an occupant identification signal after customizing the vehicle feature according to the default setting, and applying a customized setting to the vehicle feature. The customized setting is associated with the identified occupant. | 10-23-2014 |
20140358413 | ON-BOARD TRAFFIC DENSITY ESTIMATOR - Traffic density is estimated around a host vehicle moving on a roadway. An object detection system remotely senses and identifies the positions of nearby vehicles. A controller a) predicts a path of a host lane being driven by the host vehicle, b) bins the nearby vehicles into a plurality of lanes including the host lane and one or more adjacent lanes flanking the predicted path, c) determines a host lane distance in response to a position of a farthest vehicle that is binned to the host lane, d) determines an adjacent lane distance in response to a difference between a closest position in an adjacent lane that is within the field of view and a position of a farthest vehicle binned to the adjacent lane, and e) indicates a traffic density in response to a ratio between a count of the binned vehicles and a sum of the distances. | 12-04-2014 |
20140371948 | ENHANCED CROSSWIND ESTIMATION - A device may identify a first forgetting factor accounting for a rate of change of vehicle uncertainty and a second forgetting factor accounting for a rate of change of crosswind estimation. The device may utilize a recursive-least-squares heuristic executed by a crosswind and vehicle uncertainty estimator and specialized with the first and second forgetting factors to determine vehicle uncertainty and crosswind estimation from driver steering inputs and crosswind disturbance inputs, the first and second forgetting factors accounting for relatively slower-changing vehicle uncertainty and relatively faster-changing crosswinds. | 12-18-2014 |
20150039183 | ENHANCED CROSSWIND COMPENSATION - A device may estimate crosswind by a vehicle controller according to driver steering inputs indicative of driver intention and crosswind disturbance inputs indicative of a potential crosswind condition. The device may, if the estimated crosswind exceeds a predetermined threshold, utilize the vehicle controller to correct the crosswind condition to reduce vehicle control demand on the driver, the automatic correction including at least one of a steering angle adjustment and suspension stiffness adjustment. | 02-05-2015 |