The present invention relates to an information providing apparatus for a vehicle, and particularly to an information providing apparatus for a vehicle which includes an aural information providing unit and can give various warnings to the user of the vehicle by presenting aural information from the aural information providing unit.
As an information providing apparatus for a vehicle, for example, there is one disclosed in patent document 1. This information providing apparatus for the vehicle uses a voice synthesizer to create messages. corresponding to various states, causes a speaker to audibly output the message, and repeatedly gives the voice warning output until a switch to stop the voice output is operated.
[Patent document 1] JP-UM-B-2-33650
[Problems that the Invention is to Solve]
In the information providing apparatus for the vehicle disclosed in patent document 1, the voice output is repeatedly given to prevent the user from failing to hear it, and the switch to stop the voice output is operated to prevent the user from feeling the voice output to be noisy. However, in the information providing apparatus for the vehicle, since the switch operation by the user is required in order to stop the voice output, there has been room for improvement in usability and salability.
Taking the foregoing problems into consideration, the invention has an object to provide an information providing apparatus for a vehicle in which the foregoing aural information providing unit, whose mounting rate is increased from now, is used to give an optimum warning, so that the user is not required to operate a switch, does not fail to hear the warning information, and is not given an unpleasant feeling, such as a feeling that the warning information is noisy, and further has an object to provide an information providing apparatus for a vehicle which can realize information provision friendly to the user, not the provision of conventional uniform aural information.
[Means for Solving the Problems].
In order to solve the problems, as recited in claim 1, the invention is an information providing apparatus for a vehicle including an aural information providing unit to aurally notify various states of a vehicle, and a control unit that inputs information of the vehicle through at least one of a vehicle information terminal and a multiplex communication input/output unit, creates at least warning content in the information as warning aural information including at least a combination of a sound effect and a voice, causes the aural information providing unit to operate based on the warning aural information, and changes the warning aural information for each scene in which a user of the vehicle is placed.
Besides, according to the information providing apparatus for the vehicle as recited in claim 2, in the information providing apparatus for the vehicle as recited in claim 1, the control unit identifies the scene based on the input of the information and from any one state of an engine state of the vehicle, a state of the vehicle at a time of start of traveling, a state of the vehicle during traveling, a state of lighting of a light of the vehicle, and a state of a getting-off operation of the user.
Besides, according to the information providing apparatus for the vehicle as recited in claim 3, in the information providing apparatus for the vehicle as recited in claim 1, the control unit identifies the scene based on the input of the information and from a combination of at least two states of an engine state of the vehicle, a state of the vehicle at a time of start of traveling, a state, of the vehicle during traveling, a state of lighting of a light of the vehicle, and a state of a getting-off operation of the user.
Besides, according to the information providing apparatus for the vehicle as recited in claim 4, in the information providing apparatus for the vehicle as recited in claim 1, the control unit changes at least one of the number of times of reproduction of the voice, reproduction sequence of the sound effect and the voice, and a tone color of the sound effect, and creates the warning aural information.
Besides, according to the information providing apparatus for the vehicle as recited in claim 5, in the information providing apparatus for the vehicle as recited in claim 1, the control unit has a customize mode to register various settings of the aural information providing unit, and includes an input unit to determine contents of the various settings in the customize mode, and a storage unit to register the contents of the various settings.
According to the invention, in the information providing apparatus for the vehicle including the aural information providing unit to aurally notify the various states of the vehicle, since the optimum warning aural information including at least the combination of the sound effect and the voice is given for each scene, it becomes further easily understandable friendly information for the user, and the HMI (Human Machine Interface) can be improved. Further, since the various setting contents can be customized for each user, the various settings corresponding to the user's preference become possible, and the convenience can be improved.
Hereinafter, embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
In the information providing apparatus 100 for the vehicle, a keyless entry device 220 (a transmitter 221 and a receiver 222) as a user identification unit, the audio 223, a traveling control device 225 to perform an automatic drive control such as auto-cruise traveling or lane-keep traveling, and an operation unit 226 including an operation switch of the traveling control device 225 are connected through a multiplex communication line 230. Incidentally, the control unit 202 can output an instruction signal to perform a volume mute instruction to the audio 223 through the multiplex communication input/output terminal 213 and the multiplex communication line 230.
Next, the operation of the information providing apparatus 100 for the vehicle at the time of input of the warning information will be described. The control unit 202 obtains information relating to the vehicle from the vehicle information terminal 212 and the multiplex communication input/output terminal 213 that perform the input/output of the vehicle information, and judges, based on this information, whether or not there is an occurrence condition of information that warns the user, that is, warning information, and identifies a scene in which the user is placed. When judging that the occurrence condition of the warning aural information exists, the control unit 202 creates the warning aural information (aural signal of a sound effect and a voice) including at least a combination of a sound effect and a voice, operates the aural information providing unit 240 based on the warning aural information corresponding to the identified scene, and displays a display mode relating to the warning aural information by the display part 101. In this embodiment, although the speaker 224 for the audio 223 is used, a speaker used only for the aural information providing unit 240 may be provided.
FIGS. 3(a) and 3(b) show an example showing warning aural information according to a combination of at least two states of an engine state of a vehicle, a state of a getting-off operation of a user, and a state of lighting of a light of the vehicle, and specifically show a specific example for explaining warning aural information (
As stated above, when the user is performing the getting-off operation, at the time T1, the attention is called by the sound effect S1 “poon”, and thereafter, the voice V1 is given twice so that it is possible to prevent the user from failing to hear, and thereafter, only the sound effect S1 is continuously given so that a noisy state does not occur.
Besides, since the sound effect S1 is mixed when the voice V1 is given, the voice V1 synchronizes with the constant interval of the sound effect S1 and is given, a sense of rhythm occurs in the voice V1, and it becomes further easy to hear for the user who is performing the getting-off operation.
FIGS. 4(a) and 4(b) show an example showing warning aural information according to a combination of at least two states of an engine state of a vehicle, a state of a getting-off operation of a user, and a state of the vehicle at a time of start of traveling, and specifically show a specific example for explaining warning aural information (
As stated above, when the user starts the engine, the attention is called by the sound effect S3 at the time T10, and thereafter, the voice V3 is given only once without mixing with the sound effect S2. At this time, since the user is generally seated on the driver's seat, even if the voice V3 is given once, the user does not fail to hear, and the user is not urged and feels calm. Thereafter, since only the sound effect S2 is continuously given, a noisy state does not occur.
As in the foregoing fourth scene, when the operation of the user is accompanied, the aural information providing unit 240 is controlled so that first, a response is made by the voice V4, that is, a response is made by the so-called answer back function, and thereafter, only the sound effect S4 is continuously given, and therefore, the user does not fail to hear the warning content. Besides, since the aural information providing unit 240 is controlled so that only the sound effect S4 is continuously given after the voice V4 is given, there does not occur a noisy state for the user, and an uncomfortable feeling is not given to the user.
FIGS. 5(a) and 5(b) show an example showing warning aural information according to a combination of at least two states of an engine state of a vehicle, a state of the vehicle at a time of start of traveling, and a state of a getting-off operation of a user, and specifically show a specific example for explaining warning aural information (
As stated above, when the user starts traveling of the vehicle, the tone color of the sound effect is changed to “pii pii”, so that the user is not urged and feels calm. Incidentally, the sound effect S5 “pii pii” uses a frequency band of 1 to 2 KHz capable of dealing with the change of aural characteristics of the user caused by aging or the like.
FIGS. 6(a) and 6(b) show an example showing warning aural information according to a combination of two states of an engine state of a vehicle and a state of the vehicle during traveling, and specifically show a specific example for explaining warning aural information (
As stated above, during traveling of the vehicle, the tone color of the sound effect is changed to “pi pi pi”, so that a feeling that an urgent avoiding action is needed can be given to the user. Besides, the sound effect and the voice are given only once to prevent the sense of urgency from being given to the user excessively. Incidentally, the sound effect “pi pi pi” uses a frequency band of 1 to 2 KHz capable of dealing with the change of aural characteristics of the user caused by aging or the like.
Next, a customize function in the control unit 202 will be described by use of
FIGS. 7(a) and 7(b) show specific customize contents of output items of warning aural information from the aural information providing unit 240.
Incidentally, with respect to the setting contents of the customize, when not only the selection of the voice and the sound effect and the number of times of reproduction of the voice, but also the reproduction sequence of the sound effect and the voice or the tone color of the sound effect is set, it becomes possible to provide the warning aural information more suitable for each user's preference.
The information providing apparatus 100 for the vehicle includes the control unit 202 that inputs various informations of the vehicle through at least one of the vehicle information terminal 212 and the multiplex communication input/output terminal 213, creates at least the warning content in the various informations as the warning aural information including at least the combination of the sound effect and the voice, causes the aural information providing unit 240 to operate based on the warning aural information, and changes the warning aural information for each scene in which the user of the vehicle is placed, and the control unit 202 identifies each scene from a combination of at least two states of the engine state of the vehicle, the state of the vehicle at the time of start of traveling, the state of the vehicle during traveling, the state of lighting of the light of the vehicle, and the state of the getting-off operation of the user, which are inputted from the information, and controls the aural information providing unit 240 to give the warning aural information for each scene.
Accordingly, since the optimum warning aural information including at least the combination of the sound effect and the voice is given for each scene, it becomes possible to give the warning that is more understandable and friendly, for the user and the HMI can be improved. Besides, since it becomes possible to give the warning aural information that is more understandable for the user, the information providing apparatus for the vehicle can be provided in which it is unnecessary to perform a switch operation as in the prior art, and the user does not fail to hear the warning information and is not given such an unpleasant feeling that the warning information is noisy.
Besides, in the information providing apparatus 100 for the vehicle, the processing operation to change the notification pattern of the warning aural information is executed by changing one of the number of times of reproduction of the voice, the reproduction sequence of the sound effect and the voice, and the tone color of the sound effect by the control unit 202, so that it is possible to make it easy for the user to discriminate between the respective warning aural information, and the convenience as the information providing apparatus 100 for the vehicle can be improved. Besides, since uniform aural information provision as in the prior art is not performed, it is possible to realize the provision (information provision) of the warning aural information friendly to the user.
Besides, in the information providing apparatus, 100 for the vehicle, the control unit 202 has the customize mode to register various settings of the aural information providing unit 240, and includes the input unit 211 to determine the contents of the various settings in the customize mode, and the second storage unit, 204 to register the contents of the various settings, and it becomes possible to provide the warning aural information suitable for each user's preference.
Incidentally, in the foregoing embodiment, although the scene is identified by the control unit 202 from the combination of at least-two states of the engine state of the vehicle, the state of the vehicle at the time of start of traveling, the state of the vehicle during traveling, the state of lighting of the light of the vehicle, and the state of the getting-off operation of the user, in the invention as recited in claim 2, the scene may be identified from any one state of the engine state of the vehicle, the state of the vehicle at the time of start of traveling, the state of the vehicle during traveling, the state of lighting of the light of the vehicle, and the state of the getting-off operation of the user. For example, the control unit 202 inputs the signal indicating that the seat belt is worn, and the signal indicating that the door in the door open/close switch is shifted from “close” to “open”, and the control unit 202 processes to give the warning aural information of the voice output “Please unlatch the seat belt”, so that the scene in which the user is placed can be identified by the combination of the respective signals to indicate only the state of the getting-off operation of the user.
The invention relates to the information providing apparatus for the vehicle using the aural information providing unit, and can be applied to not only a vehicle display apparatus to provide vehicle information, but also a vehicle information providing apparatus, such as an audio apparatus, a navigation apparatus, and a multi-display apparatus, mounted in the vehicle.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2004-050879 | Feb 2004 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/JP05/01744 | 2/7/2005 | WO | 8/23/2006 |