Data transmission from autonomous vehicle to external HMI devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10733400-B2
Application number	US-201916278243-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 18, 2019
Priority date	Mar 12, 2018
Publication date	Aug 4, 2020
Grant date	Aug 4, 2020

Abstract

Ride-share status information of an autonomous ride-share vehicle is made available to potential passengers by transmitting a status data record an HMI device outside the vehicle. The data record (D′) is projected onto a projection area selected outside the vehicle using a projection device (8) of the motor vehicle. The projected data record (D′) is read-in using a reading device (10), such as a camera, of the HMI device. The HMI device decodes the read-in data record (D′), and provides the status information to a potential passenger on the HMI device (4) based on the decoded data record (D′).

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for transmitting a status data record from an autonomous ride-share vehicle to an HMI device outside the ride-share vehicle, wherein the status data record encodes a ride-share status information of the ride-share vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:
projecting the status data record as a machine-readable projected image onto a projection area outside the vehicle using a projection device of the vehicle;
reading-in the projected status data record using a reading device of the HMI device by capturing the projected image;
decoding the read-in data record to recover the ride-share status information; and
presenting the ride-share status information on the HMI device in human-readable form.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the projection area is comprised of a section of ground between the HMI device and the ride-share vehicle.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of determining a position data record representative of a relative position of the HMI device to the ride-share vehicle.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising the step of:
evaluating the position data record to determine a distance between the ride-share vehicle and the HMI device;
wherein the status data record is projected only if the distance is less than a threshold value.

5. The method of claim 3 further comprising the steps of:
determining a projection data record defining a location for the projection area in response to evaluating the position data record.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein an encoding device of the ride-share vehicle encodes the status data record to be projected in machine-readable form and a decoding device of the HMI device decodes the projected status data record encoded in machine-readable form.

7. A ride-share vehicle comprising:
an encoder receiving ride-share status information and encoding the information status into a machine-readable status data record;
an evaluation unit detecting an HMI device of a potential passenger outside the ride-share vehicle and selecting a projection area between the ride-share vehicle and the HMI device; and
a projection device illuminating the projection area according to the status data record.

8. The ride-share vehicle of claim 7 wherein the projection area is comprised of a section of ground between the ride-share vehicle and the HMI device.

9. The ride-share vehicle of claim 7 wherein the evaluation unit determines a position data record representative of a position of the HMI relative to the ride-share vehicle.

10. The ride-share vehicle of claim 7 wherein the evaluation unit determines a distance between the ride-share vehicle and the HMI device, and wherein the projection device projects the status data record onto the projection area only if the distance is less than a threshold value.

11. The ride-share vehicle claim 7 wherein the projection device is comprised of a light source.

12. The ride-share vehicle of claim 11 wherein the light source projects the encoded status data record in visible light with a modulation detectable by a receiving camera.

13. A ride-share vehicle of claim 7 wherein the evaluation unit is comprised of a LIDAR sensor.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Engelke Maximilian

Classifications

• G06Q10/02 Primary

  Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events · CPC title

• G06K7/10712 Primary

  Fixed beam scanning · CPC title

• G06Q10/06315

  Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis · CPC title

• G06Q30/0645

  Rental transactions; Leasing transactions · CPC title

• G06K7/1413

  1D bar codes · CPC title