Vehicle operation system and computer readable non-transitory storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11276378-B2
Application number	US-201716325598-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 29, 2017
Priority date	Sep 1, 2016
Publication date	Mar 15, 2022
Grant date	Mar 15, 2022

Abstract

A vehicle operating system for controlling a control target device by performing a predetermined operation of a driver on a steering wheel of a vehicle, includes: a visual line position calculator for calculating a visual line position of the driver; a display position calculator for calculating a display position on a display arranged on a far side of the steering wheel from the visual line position of the driver using a calculation result of the visual line position calculator and a position coordinate of the steering wheel, the display position not hidden behind the steering wheel; and a display controller for displaying display information indicating a content of the operation on the steering wheel at the display position.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A vehicle operation system for controlling a control target device by performing a predetermined operation of a driver on a steering wheel of a vehicle, the vehicle operation system comprising a processor and memory configured to:
calculate a visual line position of the driver;
determine a viewable display area of a meter display that is not hidden behind the steering wheel based on the visual line position of the driver and a position coordinate of the steering wheel, the meter display being positioned on a far side of the steering wheel between the steering wheel and a dashboard of the vehicle and configured to display information corresponding to the predetermined operation of the driver on the steering wheel of the vehicle, and the viewable display area being located between an upper end of the steering wheel and an upper end of the meter display;
determine whether the viewable display area of the meter display is large enough to display all of the display information corresponding to the predetermined operation of the driver on the steering wheel of the vehicle;
display all of the display information on only the viewable display area of the meter display in response to determining that the viewable display area of the meter display is large enough to display all of the display information corresponding to the predetermined operation of the driver on the steering wheel of the vehicle; and
display a first potion of the display information on the viewable display area of the meter display and a second portion of the display information on a head-up display of the vehicle in response to determining that the viewable display area of the meter display is not large enough to display all of the display information corresponding to the predetermined operation of the driver on the steering wheel of the vehicle.

2. The vehicle operation system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the display controller displays at least a portion of the display information in a display manner in a shape corresponding to the steering wheel along the upper end of the steering wheel.

3. The vehicle operation system according to claim 1 , wherein the processor and memory are further configured to:
display a plurality of pieces of the display information having different contents of the operation at a plurality of different display positions.

4. The vehicle operation system according to claim 1 , wherein the processor and memory are further configured to:
recognize an image including a face of the driver photographed by an imaging unit; and
calculate a face position of the driver using a result of recognizing the image and calculate the visual line position of the driver.

5. A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium comprising instructions being executed by a computer, the instructions including a computer-implemented method for controlling a controller in a vehicle operation system, which performs a control of a control target device by performing a predetermined operation of a driver on a steering wheel of a vehicle, the instructions including:
calculating a visual line position of the driver;
determining a viewable display area of a meter display that is not hidden behind the steering wheel based on the visual line position of the driver and a position coordinate of the steering wheel, the meter display being positioned on a far side of the steering wheel between the steering wheel and a dashboard of the vehicle and configured to display information corresponding to the predetermined operation of the driver on the steering wheel of the vehicle, and the viewable display area being located between an upper end of the steering wheel and an upper end of the meter display;
determining whether the viewable display area of the meter display is large enough to display all of the display information corresponding to the predetermined operation of the driver on the steering wheel of the vehicle;
displaying all of the display information on only the viewable display area of the meter display in response to determining that the viewable display area of the meter display is large enough to display all of the display information corresponding to the predetermined operation of the driver on the steering wheel of the vehicle;
displaying a first potion of the display information on the viewable display area of the meter display and a second portion of the display information on a head-up display of the vehicle in response to determining that the viewable display area of the meter display is not large enough to display all of the display information corresponding to the predetermined operation of the driver on the steering wheel of the vehicle.

Assignees

• Denso Corp

Inventors

• Mizuno Wataru
• Tsuchikawa Kazutomo
• Suzuki Daisuke
• Watanabe Yoshinori
• Ichimaru Taiichiro
• Namekawa Daisuke

Classifications

• B60K35/22

  Display screens · CPC title

• B60K37/20

  Dashboard panels · CPC title

• B60K35/60

  Instruments characterised by their location or relative disposition in or on vehicles (arrangements of lighting devices on dashboards B60Q3/10) · CPC title

• B60K35/235

  with means for detecting the driver's gaze direction or eye points · CPC title

• B60K35/10

  Input arrangements, i.e. from user to vehicle, associated with vehicle functions or specially adapted therefor · CPC title