Patent Application
20160212536
This application claims priority to and the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2015-0008157, filed on Jan. 16, 2015 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.
The present disclosure relates to a sound output method of a vehicle based on division of wearable devices worn by a plurality of passengers and a vehicle capable of carrying out the same.
Conventional vehicles are devised to control sound based on positions of front seat and rear seat speakers. For example, when it is needed to play navigation guide voice back during media playback, for more accurate output of the guide voice, sound output is controlled such that the volume of media playback sound at a front seat where a driver sits is lowered and the volume of the navigation guide voice is raised. At this time, in the case of a rear seat having less impact on the driver, the volume of the media playback sound at a rear seat is continuously maintained rather than being lowered.
The conventional vehicle sound control method as described above, however, does not consider wearable devices that passengers individually wear. Therefore, in situations for navigation and turn-on of warning lights, it is necessary to restrict media playback sound for passengers and to make all passengers forcibly listen to the same sound.
That is, in conventional vehicles, practically, passengers should forcibly listen to a guide sound and warning sound that is required for a driver and it is impossible to allow passengers on front and rear seats to selectively play different content (music and movie) back. In particular, there is a problem of personal privacy invasion because all passengers listen to a telephone conversation when a driver makes a cell phone call via a hands-free function.
Accordingly, the present disclosure is directed to a method for controlling sound output of a wearable device and a vehicle for carrying out the same that substantially obviate one or more problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present disclosure is to provide a vehicle capable of outputting only sound required on a per passenger basis through a wearable device and a control method thereof.
Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.
To achieve these objects and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, a method for providing sound from a vehicle to a plurality of wearable devices each having a sound output unit includes retrieving the wearable devices in a wireless manner, receiving sound input/output setting information from the respective retrieved wearable devices, and providing sound signals selectively to the respective retrieved wearable devices in a wireless manner based on the received sound input/output setting information.
In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, a sound provision system of a vehicle for providing sound to a plurality of wearable devices, each having a sound output unit, includes a wireless communication unit configured to retrieve the wearable devices in a wireless manner and a controller configured to control wireless provision of selective sound signals to the respective retrieved wearable devices based on sound input/output setting information received through the wireless communication unit from the respective retrieved wearable devices.
In accordance with a further aspect of the present disclosure, a wearable device configured to receive sound from a vehicle includes a sound output unit configured to output sound, a wireless communication unit to exchange data with the vehicle in a wireless manner and a controller configured to transmit sound input/output setting information to the vehicle via the wireless communication unit and to control playback of a selective sound signal through the sound output unit when the selective sound signal based on the sound input/output setting information is received from the vehicle. The sound input/output setting information includes at least one of whether an owner of each wearable device is a driver, the position of a passenger, the kind of a function to be used, and a serviceable input/output function.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description of the present disclosure are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.
The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principle of the invention. In the drawings:
Hereinafter, reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, the same or similar elements are denoted by the same reference numerals even though they are depicted in different drawings, and a detailed description of the same or similar elements will be omitted. The suffixes “module” and “unit” of elements herein are used for convenience of description and thus can be used interchangeably and do not have any distinguishable meanings or functions.
In addition, in the following description of the embodiments disclosed herein, a detailed description of related known technologies will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the embodiments disclosed herein rather unclear. In addition, the accompanying drawings have been made only for a better understanding of the embodiments disclosed herein and are not intended to limit technical ideas disclosed herein, and it should be understood that the accompanying drawings are intended to encompass all modifications, equivalents and substitutions included in the sprit and scope of the present invention.
Proposed in the present invention is that, in a case in which vehicle passengers wear wearable devices, sound playback and microphone input are performed individually through the respective wearable devices. Accordingly, a vehicle is capable of performing selective input and output of required sound through use of the wearable devices of the passengers. For example, in a case in which playback of navigation guide voice is required during media playback through a speaker of an in-vehicle AVN system, the navigation guide voice may be output only from a wearable device of a driver in a state in which media playback sound through the speaker is continuously maintained.
First, a description will be given of the configuration of an apparatus for carrying out the embodiments of the present invention.
Referring to
The smart glasses 200 are configured to be worn on a human head. To this end, the smart glasses 200 may include a frame unit (e.g., a case or housing). The frame unit may be formed of a flexible material for easy wearing.
The frame unit is supported by the head and internally defines a space for installation of various components. As illustrated, electronic components such as, for example, a control module 280 and a sound output module 252 may be mounted to the frame unit. In addition, a lens 203 to cover at least one of the left eye and the right eye may be separably coupled to the frame unit.
A display unit 251 may take the form of a head mounted display (HMD). The HMD is a display that is worn on the head of a user to display an image immediately in front of the user's eyes. To provide an image immediately in front of the user's eyes when the user wears the smart glasses 200, the display unit 251 may be located to correspond to at least one of the left eye and the right eye.
The display unit 251 may project an image to the user's eye using a prism. In addition, the prism may be a transparent to allow the user to view both the projected image and a general forward visual range (i.e. a viewing range through the user's eyes).
As described above, the image output through the display unit 251 may overlap a general driver's field of vision.
The camera 221 is located proximate to at least one of the left eye and the right eye to capture a forward image. The camera 221 located proximate to the eye may acquire an image of a scene that the user views.
Although
The smart glasses 200 may include command input units 223a and 223b operated to receive a control command. The command input units 223a and 223b may be operated by touch or push action, for example.
The control module 280 is configured to control a variety of electronic components mounted to the smart glasses 200. For example, the control module 280 may allow establishment of a wireless data path with the AVN system of the vehicle through a wireless communication unit (not shown) of the smart glasses 200. The control module 280 may receive sound setting information and output the same to the sound output unit 252 through the established data path, or may convert sound input through a microphone into electric signals to transmit the same to the AVN system. In addition, the control module 280 may allow transmission of identification information to the AVN system, the identification information corresponding to the role or position of a passenger (for example, a driver, a passenger on a front seat, or a passenger on a rear seat) that is set via a command input unit.
Although
Hereinafter, implementation of selective sound playback through the above-described AVN system and wearable devices will be described with reference to
Referring to
The AVN system may be controlled to transmit different sounds on a per wearable device basis to correspond to individual situations of passengers and vehicle traveling conditions based on the received sound input/output setting information.
Referring to
As exemplarily illustrated in
In this way, the passenger who wears the wearable device 200B can make a phone call without personal privacy invasion, and even in a mute state of the speaker 120 for the phone call, the other passenger can continuously listen to existing media sound through the wearable device 200C thereof.
Referring to
Accordingly, through utilization of the present technology, passengers of a vehicle can selectively use desired content individually without having an effect on the input/output state of sound from the vehicle.
As is apparent from the above description, the embodiments of the present invention provide the following advantages as compared to the related art.
First, in a case in which a driver of a vehicle wears a wearable device, an in-vehicle AVN system may allow input/output of sound required for navigation only through the wearable device of the driver.
In addition, during the input/output of sound required for navigation through the wearable device, input/output of existing media playback sound through the AVN system of the vehicle may be maintained.
In addition, when it is necessary to provide several passengers with input/output of different sounds in the case of, for example, a phone call, the input/output of sounds suitable for respective wearable devices of the passengers may be automatically controlled.
In addition, by controlling the sounds of the respective wearable devices, it is possible to allow the passengers of the vehicle to selectively use desired content individually without having an effect on the input/output of existing media playback sound through the AVN system of the vehicle.
It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the effects that can be achieved through the present disclosure are not limited to what has been particularly described hereinabove and other advantages of the present disclosure will be more clearly understood from the above detailed description.
The present disclosure as described above may be implemented as a computer readable code of a computer readable medium in which programs are recorded. The computer readable medium includes all kinds of recording devices in which data that may be read by a computer system is stored. Examples of the computer readable medium may include a hard disk drive (HDD), a solid state disk (SSD), a silicon disk drive (SDD), ROM, a RAM, a CD-ROM, a magnetic tape, a floppy disk, and an optical data storage device. In addition, the computer readable recording medium includes a carrier wave (e.g., data transmission over the Internet).
Accordingly, the above detailed description is not intended to be construed to limit the present invention in all aspects and be considered by way of example. The scope of the present invention should be determined by reasonable interpretation of the accompanying claims and all equivalent modifications made without departing from the present invention should be included in the following claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2015-0008157 | Jan 2015 | KR | national |
