Vehicle operation assistance information management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9630498-B2
Application number	US-201514749373-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 24, 2015
Priority date	Jun 24, 2015
Publication date	Apr 25, 2017
Grant date	Apr 25, 2017

Abstract

A method and apparatus for vehicle operation assistance information management may include a vehicle, which may include a primary graphical display portion and a secondary graphical display portion. Vehicle operation assistance information management may include identifying vehicle operation assistance information, identifying an immanency, an urgency, and a utility for the vehicle operation assistance information. The urgency may indicate an advance urgency, and a graphical representation of the vehicle operation assistance information may be presented via the secondary graphical display portion. The urgency may indicate an advisory urgency or a warning urgency, a first portion of a graphical representation of the vehicle operation assistance information may be presented via the primary graphical display portion, and, subsequently, and a second portion of a graphical representation of the vehicle operation assistance information may be presented via the secondary graphical display portion.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle configured to traverse a portion of a vehicle transportation network, the vehicle comprising:
a primary graphical display portion;
a secondary graphical display portion;
an auditory presentation device; and
a processor configured to execute instructions stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium to:
identify a first vehicle operation assistance information item,
on a condition that an immanency for the first vehicle operation assistance information item exceeds a maximum relevant immanence, store information representing the first vehicle operation assistance information item, and
on a condition that the immanency is within the maximum relevant immanence:
determine a first urgency based on the immanency;
on a condition that a utility metric for the first vehicle operation assistance information item indicates low utility, store the information representing the first vehicle operation assistance information item; and
on a condition that the utility metric for the first vehicle operation assistance information item indicates high utility, present a representation of the first vehicle operation assistance information item, wherein presenting the representation of the first vehicle operation assistance information item includes:
on a condition that the first urgency indicates a warning urgency or an advisory urgency:
 controlling the primary graphical display portion to present a graphical representation of the first vehicle operation assistance information item, wherein controlling the primary graphical display portion to present the graphical representation includes controlling the primary graphical display portion to present a first portion of the graphical representation;
 controlling the auditory presentation device to present an auditory representation of the first vehicle operation assistance information item; and
 controlling the secondary graphical display portion to present the graphical representation, wherein controlling the secondary graphical display portion to present the graphical representation includes controlling the secondary graphical display portion to present a second portion of the graphical representation, and
on a condition that the first urgency indicates an advance urgency, controlling the secondary graphical display portion to present the graphical representation of the first vehicle operation assistance information item.

2. The vehicle of claim 1 , further comprising:
a first graphical display unit, wherein the first graphical display unit includes the first graphical display portion; and
a second graphical display unit, wherein the second graphical display unit includes the second graphical display portion, and wherein the second graphical display unit is physically independent of the first graphical display unit.

3. The vehicle of claim 1 , further comprising:
a heads-up display unit, wherein the heads-up display unit includes the primary graphical display portion.

4. The vehicle of claim 3 , wherein the heads-up display unit includes the secondary graphical display portion.

5. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the primary graphical display portion is spatially located within the vehicle along a first angular offset from a center of a primary field of view of the driver of the vehicle, and wherein the secondary graphical display portion is spatially located within the vehicle along a second angular offset from the center of the primary field of view of the driver of the vehicle, wherein the second angular offset is greater than the first angular offset, such that the primary graphical display portion is visually distinct from the secondary graphical display portion.

6. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to execute instructions stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium to:
identify the first vehicle operation assistance information item in response to at least one of:
receiving, via a wireless electronic communication link, external vehicle operation assistance information, wherein the external vehicle operation assistance information includes at least one of an infrastructure message from an external infrastructure device or an inter-vehicle message from another vehicle,
identifying vehicle transportation network information representing a portion of a vehicle transportation network in response to traversing a part of the portion of the vehicle transportation network, or
receiving sensor information from a sensor, wherein the vehicle includes the sensor.

7. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to execute instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium to identify the first vehicle operation assistance information item based on a previously identified vehicle operation assistance information item.

8. The vehicle of claim 7 , wherein the processor is configured to execute instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium to identify the first vehicle operation assistance information item based on the previously identified vehicle operation assistance information item by:
on a condition that a second urgency for the previously identified vehicle operation assistance information item indicates the advance urgency, identifying the previously identified vehicle operation assistance information item as the first vehicle operation assistance information item, wherein identifying the previously identified vehicle operation assistance information item as the first vehicle operation assistance information item includes determining that the first urgency is the advisory urgency; and
on a condition that a second urgency for the previously identified vehicle operation assistance information item indicates the advisory urgency, identifying the previously identified vehicle operation assistance information item as the first vehicle operation assistance information item, wherein identifying the previously identified vehicle operation assistance information item as the first vehicle operation assistance information item includes determining that the first urgency is the warning urgency.

9. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to execute instructions stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium to determine the immanency by:
on a condition that the first vehicle operation assistance information item includes an immanency value, identifying the immanency value as the immanency; and
on a condition that the first vehicle operation assistance information item omits the immanency value:
on a condition that a probability that a current expected path for the vehicle intersects with a target geospatial location in the vehicle transportation network indicated by the first vehicle operation assistance information item is within a minimum relevance threshold, identifying the immanency such that the immanency exceeds the maximum relevant immanence, and
on a condition that the probability that the current expected path for the vehicle intersects with the target geospatial location exceeds the minimum relevance threshold, identifying, as the immanency, a first temporal cost for the vehicle to traverse the vehicle transportation network from a current geospatial location of the vehicle in the vehicle transportation network to the target geospatial location.

10. The vehicle of claim 9 , wherein the processor is configured to execute instructions stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium to determine the first urgency by:
on a condition that the first vehicle operation assistance information item includes an urgency value, identifying the urgency value as the first urgency; and
on a condition that the first vehicl

Assignees

• Nissan North America Inc

Inventors

• Konet Heather
• Tan Adrian
• Goudy Roy
• Christensen Andrew
• Probert Neal
• Chambers Jeremy

Classifications

• G08G1/163

  involving continuous checking · CPC title

• G08G1/09626

  where the origin of the information is within the own vehicle, e.g. a local storage device, digital map · CPC title

• G08G1/0962

  having an indicator mounted inside the vehicle, e.g. giving voice messages · CPC title

• G08G1/165

  for passive traffic, e.g. including static obstacles, trees · CPC title

• G06T2207/30236

  Traffic on road, railway or crossing · CPC title