System and method for controlling an interior environmental condition in a vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11524691-B2
Application number	US-201916524865-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 29, 2019
Priority date	Jul 29, 2019
Publication date	Dec 13, 2022
Grant date	Dec 13, 2022

Abstract

A system and method are described for controlling a vehicle interior environmental condition. A biometric sensor senses a biometric condition of a vehicle seat occupant and generates a sensed biometric condition value. A controller receives the sensed biometric condition value, a sensed interior environmental condition value, and a sensed exterior environmental condition value. Each of multiple exterior environmental condition values has an associated biometric condition value defined as optimal for the vehicle occupant. The controller determines the optimal biometric condition value associated with the sensed exterior environmental condition value, compares the optimal biometric condition value to the sensed biometric condition value, and in response to a difference between the optimal biometric condition value and the sensed biometric condition value, generates a control signal to control an actuator to control the controllable interior environmental condition to reduce the difference between sensed biometric condition value and the optimal biometric condition value.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for controlling an interior environmental condition in a vehicle, the system comprising:
a biometric sensor to sense a biometric condition of an occupant of a vehicle seat and generate a signal representative of a value of the sensed biometric condition; and
a controller to receive the biometric condition signal, an interior environmental condition signal representative of a value of a sensed controllable interior environmental condition, and an exterior environmental condition signal representative of a value of a sensed exterior environmental condition;
wherein each of a plurality of exterior environmental condition values has associated therewith a biometric condition value defined as an optimal biometric condition value for the occupant for the corresponding exterior environmental condition value;
wherein the controller is configured to
determine the optimal biometric condition value for the occupant associated with the sensed exterior environmental condition value,
compare the optimal biometric condition value for the occupant to the sensed biometric condition value, and
in response to a difference between the optimal biometric condition value and the sensed biometric condition value, generate a control signal to control an actuator to control the controllable interior environmental condition, wherein the control signal effectuates control of the actuator to reduce the difference between the sensed biometric condition value and the optimal biometric condition value; and

wherein the controller is further to
receive an occupant profile comprising a biometric condition value, interior environmental condition value, and external environmental condition value, and
dynamically modify the occupant profile based on sensed biometric condition values, sensed interior environmental condition values, and sensed external environmental condition values, and generate a modified occupant profile comprising a biometric condition value, interior environmental condition value, and external environmental condition value.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising:
a vehicle interior sensor to sense the controllable interior environmental condition in the vehicle and generate the signal representative of the value of the sensed interior environmental condition; and
a vehicle exterior sensor to sense the environmental condition exterior to the vehicle and generate the signal representative of the value of the sensed exterior environmental condition.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the vehicle interior sensor is mountable in the vehicle seat.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the biometric condition comprises at least one of cardiac activity, blood pressure, blood rheology, blood oxygenation, blood saturation, respiratory activity, temperature, perspiration, conductance, musculoskeletal activity, and brain waves.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the controllable interior environmental condition comprises at least one of a seat position, seat temperature, interior temperature, audio level, ventilation, heating setting, cooling setting, and lighting condition.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the exterior environmental condition comprises at least one of a time of day, day of week, date, season, weather condition, light condition, travel destination, travel time, traffic density, road type, and topography.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the vehicle seat is a driver seat and the occupant is a driver of the vehicle.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the vehicle seat is a non-driving passenger seat and the occupant is a non-driving passenger of the vehicle.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the occupant has associated therewith a first occupant profile as a driver and a second occupant profile as a non-driving passenger, each of the first and second occupant profiles comprising a biometric condition value, interior environmental condition value, and external environmental condition value, and wherein the first occupant profile is different from the second occupant profile.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the controller is mountable in the vehicle seat.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the controller comprises a processor and an associated non-transitory storage medium having stored computer executable instructions comprising a learning algorithm.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the controller is to communicate with a server external to the vehicle to download and store the occupant profile comprising a biometric condition value, interior environmental condition value, and external environmental condition value.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the controller is to upload the modified occupant profile to the server.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the controller is to communicate with a personal device of the occupant to download and store the occupant profile comprising a biometric condition value, interior environmental condition value, and external environmental condition value.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the controller is to upload the modified occupant profile to the personal device.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein the controller is to store in a vehicle storage medium the occupant profile comprising a biometric condition value, interior environmental condition value, and external environmental condition value.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the controller is to store the modified occupant profile in the vehicle storage medium.

18. A method for controlling an interior environmental condition in a vehicle, the method comprising:
sensing a biometric condition of an occupant of a vehicle seat and generating a signal representative of a value of the sensed biometric condition;
sensing a controllable interior environmental condition in the vehicle and generating a signal representative of a value of the sensed interior environmental condition;
sensing an environmental condition exterior to the vehicle and generating a signal representative of a value of the sensed exterior environmental condition;
wherein each of a plurality of exterior environmental condition values has associated therewith a biometric condition value defined as an optimal biometric condition value for the occupant for the corresponding exterior environmental condition value;
determining the optimal biometric condition value for the occupant associated with the sensed exterior environmental condition value;
comparing the optimal biometric condition value for the occupant to the sensed biometric condition value;
in response to a difference between the optimal biometric condition value and the sensed biometric condition value, generating a control signal to control an actuator to control the controllable interior environmental condition, wherein the control signal effectuates control of the actuator to reduce the difference between the sensed biometric condition value and the optimal biometric condition value;
receiving an occupant profile comprising a biometric condition value, interior environmental condition value, and external environmental condition value; and
dynamically modifying the occupant profile based on sensed biometric condition values, sensed interior environmental condition values, and sensed external environmental condition values, and generating a modified occupant profile comprising a biometric condition value, interior environmental condition value, and external environmental condition value.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the biometric condition comprises at least one of cardiac a

Assignees

• Lear Corp

Inventors

• Gallagher David
• Migneco Francesco
• Cote Marie-Eve
• Ivanov Vyachislav
• Henn Karl
• Powell Michael R

Classifications

• B60W2555/20

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• A61B5/08

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• A61B5/6893

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• A61B5/021

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