Motor vehicle with at least one radar unit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10528148-B2
Application number	US-201615761757-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 23, 2016
Priority date	Nov 20, 2015
Publication date	Jan 7, 2020
Grant date	Jan 7, 2020

Abstract

A respective sensing region of at least one radar unit is oriented into a passenger compartment of the motor vehicle and a control device is configured to sense a position of a body part of a person and/or a movement of the body part in the passenger compartment on the basis of the reflection respectively received by the at least one radar unit, thus providing non-contact detection of the body part of the person in the motor vehicle. As viewed from the passenger compartment, the at least one radar unit can be arranged behind a display surface of a display device or alongside the display surface of the display device.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A motor vehicle, comprising:
a passenger compartment;
at least one radar transceiver respectively configured to emit a radar signal and receive a reflection of the radar signal, respectively into and from a respective sensing region in the passenger compartment of the motor vehicle;
a control device configured to sense at least a relative movement of at least two fingers of a hand in the passenger compartment based on the reflection respectively received by the at least one radar transceiver; and
a display device having a display surface and configured to
display a graphical operating element on the display surface, and
set an adjustment value displayed by the operating element based on a comparison of at least the relative movement with stored patterns of movement respectively correlated to predefined adjustment values,

wherein, as viewed from the passenger compartment, at least one of the at least one radar transceiver mounted behind the display device, emits the radar signal into the passenger compartment through the display device, and has the respective sensing region penetrate through the display surface.

2. The motor vehicle as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the at least one radar transceiver is configured to generate the radar signal with at least one of a frequency profile and an amplitude profile producing the reflection from a body fluid of the at least two fingers.

3. The motor vehicle as claimed in claim 2 , wherein a respective range of the at least one radar transceiver is less than 50 cm.

4. The motor vehicle as claimed in claim 2 , wherein a respective range of the at least one radar transceiver is less than 30 cm.

5. The motor vehicle as claimed in claim 4 ,
wherein the operating element is a rotary controller, and
wherein the control device is configured to sense a rubbing movement of the at least two fingers as the relative movement.

6. The motor vehicle as claimed in claim 5 ,
wherein the movement of the at least two fingers includes at least one of bringing together and moving apart the at least two fingers, and
wherein the control device is configured to acknowledge the adjustment value upon identification of the movement.

7. The motor vehicle as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a respective range of the at least one radar transceiver is less than 50 cm.

8. The motor vehicle as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a respective range of the at least one radar transceiver is less than 30 cm.

9. The motor vehicle as claimed in claim 1 ,
wherein the operating element is a rotary controller, and
wherein the control device is configured to sense a rubbing movement of the at least two fingers as the relative movement.

10. The motor vehicle as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the control device includes a memory storing the stored patterns of movement, each corresponding to a time profile of the reflection of the radar signal.

11. The motor vehicle as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the movement of the at least two fingers includes at least one of bringing together and/or moving apart the at least two fingers, and
wherein the control device is configured to acknowledge the adjustment value upon identification of the movement.

12. An operation control system for a motor vehicle having a passenger compartment, comprising:
a display device having a display surface and configured to display a graphical operating element on the display surface;
at least one radar antenna mounted behind the display device, as viewed from the passenger compartment;
at least one radar transceiver, respectively coupled to the at least one radar antenna and configured to emit a radar signal from the radar antenna through the display device into a respective sensing region in the passenger compartment and receive a reflection of the radar signal at the radar antenna from the respective sensing region which penetrates through the display surface; and
a control device configured to
sense at least a relative movement of at least two fingers of a hand in the passenger compartment based on the reflection respectively received by the at least one radar antenna; and
set an adjustment value displayed by the operating element based on a comparison of at least the relative movement with stored patterns of movement respectively correlated to predefined adjustment values.

13. The operation control system as claimed in claim 12 , wherein at least one of the at least one radar transceiver emits the radar signal into the passenger compartment through the display surface, and has the respective sensing region penetrate through the display surface.

14. The operation control system as claimed in claim 13 , wherein a respective range of the at least one radar transceiver is less than 30 cm based on the reflection of the radar signal emitted by the at least one radar antenna.

15. The operation control system as claimed in claim 12 ,
wherein the operating element is a rotary controller, and
wherein the control device is configured to sense a rubbing movement of the at least two fingers as the relative movement.

16. The operation control system as claimed in claim 15 , wherein the control device includes a memory storing the stored patterns of movement, each corresponding to a time profile of the reflection of the radar signal.

17. A method of controlling a motor vehicle having a passenger compartment, comprising:
displaying a graphical operating element on a display surface of a display device;
emitting at least one radar signal from at least one radar antenna mounted behind the display device, as viewed from the passenger compartment;
receiving a reflection of the radar signal, respectively into and from a respective sensing region in the passenger compartment;
sensing at least a relative movement of a hand in the passenger compartment based on the reflection respectively received by the at least one radar transceiver; and
setting an adjustment value displayed by the graphical operating element based on a comparison of at least the relative movement with stored patterns of movement respectively correlated to predefined adjustment values.

18. The method as claimed in claim 17 ,
further comprising:
storing in a memory patterns of predefined movements correlated to adjustment values, each of the patterns of the predefined movements corresponding to a time profile of the reflection of the radar signal received when one of the predefined movements is performed during calibration prior to said displaying;
comparing the relative movement of the hand obtained by said sensing with the patterns of movement stored in the memory during the calibration, and

wherein said setting sets the adjustment value to a stored adjustment value included in the adjustment values stored in the memory and correlated to a matching pattern of movement from among the predefined movements identified by said comparing.

19. The method as claimed in claim 17 ,
wherein the operating element is a rotary controller, and
wherein the control device is configured to sense a rubbing movement of at least two fingers of the hand as the relative movement.

20. The method as claimed in claim 19 , wherein the control device includes a memory storing the stored patterns of movement, each corresponding to a time profile of the reflection of the radar signal.

Assignees

• Audi Ag

Inventors

• Mueller Ulrich
• Schlittenbauer Michael

Classifications

• G06F3/017 Primary

  Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures (interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883) · CPC title

• G06F3/04847

  Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials · CPC title

• G01S13/88

  Radar or analogous systems specially adapted for specific applications (electromagnetic prospecting or detecting of objects, e.g. near-field detection, G01V3/00) · CPC title

• G01S7/415

  Identification of targets based on measurements of movement associated with the target · CPC title

• G01S13/50

  Systems of measurement based on relative movement of target · CPC title