System for indicating vehicle presence and method thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9818294-B2
Application number	US-201614989272-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 6, 2016
Priority date	Jan 6, 2016
Publication date	Nov 14, 2017
Grant date	Nov 14, 2017

Abstract

A vehicle can detect a presence of a remote device. The vehicle can activate a sound source array that generates at least one ultrasound wave providing haptic feedback indicative of the presence of the vehicle to an operator of the vehicle, based on detecting the presence of the remote device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of indicating vehicle presence, comprising:
detecting, by a vehicle, a presence of a remote device within a range of the vehicle sufficient for the vehicle to recognize commands issued to the vehicle; and
activating, by the vehicle, a sound source array positioned on the vehicle for generating one or more ultrasound waves to provide haptic feedback to a vehicle operator approaching the vehicle, wherein the activating, by the vehicle, the sound source array is based at least in part on the detecting, by the vehicle, the presence of the remote device, and wherein the activating, by the vehicle, the sound source array comprises activating the sound source array at a frequency, amplitude, or power to provide a sound field for the haptic feedback in a region relevant to a location of the remote device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein activating the sound source array comprises:
generating the one or more ultrasound waves for a period of time based on detecting the presence of the remote device.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein activating the sound source array comprises:
generating the one or more ultrasound waves for a period of time while the presence of the remote device is detected.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a location of the remote device with respect to the vehicle, wherein activating the sound source array comprises activating one or more of a plurality of sound source arrays based at least in part on the location with respect to the vehicle.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting a gesture based at least in part on detecting the presence of the remote device; and
processing the gesture to generate an action on the vehicle.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein detecting the gesture comprises:
detecting a gesture as feedback in a sound field generated by the sound source array.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting an interaction with the remote device based at least in part on detecting the presence of the remote device; and
processing the interaction to generate an action on the vehicle.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting the presence of the remote device is based at least in part on detecting communication with the remote device using an electronic communication technology.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the electronic communication technology comprises radio frequency identification (RFID), near field communication (NFC), Bluetooth, or ZigBee.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein activating, by the vehicle, the sound source array comprises activating one or more of a plurality of sound wave emitters of the sound source array based on a location of the remote device and based on emitter location of the plurality of sound wave emitters around the vehicle.

11. A system for indicating vehicle presence, comprising:
a vehicle;
an electronic control unit coupled to the vehicle for communicating with one or more vehicle systems of the vehicle;
a communications device coupled to the vehicle and configured to detect a presence of a remote device within a range of the vehicle sufficient for the vehicle to recognize commands issued to the vehicle;
a sound source array positioned on and coupled to the vehicle and configured to generate one or more ultrasound waves to provide haptic feedback; and
at least one processor configured to activate the sound source array to provide haptic feedback to a vehicle operator approaching the vehicle, wherein the at least one processor is configured to activate the sound source array based at least in part on the communications device detecting the presence of the remote device, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to activate the sound source array at a frequency, amplitude, or power to provide a sound field for the haptic feedback in a region relevant to a location of the remote device.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to activate for a period of time based on the communications device detecting the presence of the remote device.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to activate the sound source array for a period of time while the communications device detects the presence of the remote device.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to determine a location of the remote device with respect to the vehicle, wherein the at least one processor is configured to activate the sound source array by activating one or more of a plurality of sound source arrays based at least in part on the location with respect to the vehicle.

15. The system of claim 11 , further comprising:
a gesture recognizer configured to:
detect a gesture based at least in part on the communications device detecting the presence of the remote device; and
process the gesture to generate an action on one or more of the one or more vehicle systems via the electronic control unit.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the gesture recognizer is configured to detect the gesture as feedback in a sound field generated by the sound source array.

17. The system of claim 11 , wherein the communications device is further configured to:
detect an interaction with the remote device based at least in part on detecting the presence of the remote device; and
process the interaction to generate an action on one or more of the one or more vehicle systems via the electronic control unit.

18. The system of claim 11 , wherein the communications device is configured to detect the presence of the remote device using an electronic communication technology.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to activate the sound source array at least in part by activating one or more of a plurality of sound wave emitters of the sound source array based on a location of the remote device and based on emitter location of the plurality of sound wave emitters around the vehicle.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer executable code for indicating vehicle presence, comprising code for:
detecting, by a vehicle, a presence of a remote device within a range of the vehicle sufficient for the vehicle to recognize commands issued to the vehicle; and
activating a sound source array positioned on the vehicle for generating one or more ultrasound waves to provide haptic feedback to a vehicle operator approaching the vehicle, wherein the activating the sound source array is based at least in part on the detecting, by the vehicle, the presence of the remote device, and wherein the activating the sound source array comprises activating the sound source array at a frequency, amplitude, or power to provide a sound field for the haptic feedback in a region relevant to a location of the remote device.

Assignees

• Honda Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Jiang James

Classifications

• G06F3/017

  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

• G08C23/02 Primary

  using infrasonic, sonic or ultrasonic waves · CPC title

• G08B6/00

  Tactile signalling systems, e.g. tactile personal calling systems · CPC title