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US 9,956,910 B2Granted
Audible notification systems and methods for autonomous vehicles
AssigneeToyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.
InventorJohn-Michael McNew
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An object detection and notification system includes an object detection system including logic that detects presence of a target object within a sensing range of a sensor and determines a direction of the target object relative to the autonomous vehicle. A notification system includes logic that provides a sound cue using a speaker to an occupant of the autonomous vehicle that is indicative of location of the target object relative to the autonomous vehicle.
Claims10
An object detection and notification system of an autonomous vehicle, comprising:
- an object detection system that detects a presence of a target object within a sensing range of one or more sensors of the object detection system and determines a direction of travel of the target object relative to the autonomous vehicle based on the detection of the presence of the target object from the one or more sensors;
- a notification system that provides a sound cue using a speaker to an occupant of the autonomous vehicle that is indicative of a location of the target object relative to the autonomous vehicle based on the detection of the presence of the target object from the one or more sensors;
- and
- an occupant monitoring device that provides information indicative of a viewing angle of the occupant that is used by the object detection and notification system to provide the sound cue;
- wherein the notification system localizes the sound cue to a calculated angle based on the viewing angle of the occupant and moves a perceived location of the localized sound cue in a spatio-temporal fashion in stages increasingly toward a desired viewing angle based on the direction of travel of the target object.
2 more elements
An autonomous vehicle comprising:
- one or more processors;
- one or more non-transitory memory modules communicatively coupled to the one or more processors;
- a speaker connected to the one or more processors;
- an object detection system comprising one or more sensors, communicatively coupled to the one or more processors, that detects a presence of a target object within a sensing range of the one or more sensors and determines a direction of travel of the target object relative to the autonomous vehicle based on the detection of the presence of the target object from the one or more sensors;
- machine readable instructions stored in the one or more non-transitory memory modules that cause the one or more processors to provide a sound cue using the speaker to an occupant of the autonomous vehicle that is indicative of a location of a target object relative to the autonomous vehicle based on the detection of the presence of the target object from the one or more sensors;
- and
- an occupant monitoring device that provides information indicative of a viewing angle of the occupant that is used by the one or more processors to provide the sound cue;
- wherein the one or more processors localize the sound cue to a calculated angle based on the viewing angle of the occupant and moves a perceived location the localized sound cue in a spatio-temporal fashion in stages increasingly toward a desired viewing angle based on the direction of travel of the target object.
5 more elements
A method of providing information to an occupant of an autonomous vehicle about a target object, the method comprising:
- detecting, by an object detection system of the autonomous vehicle, a presence of the target object within a sensing range of one or more sensors of the object detection system that provide input to one or more processors of the autonomous vehicle;
- determining, by the one or more processors, a direction of travel of the target object relative to the autonomous vehicle using the input;
- providing, by the one or more processors, a sound cue using a speaker to the occupant of the autonomous vehicle that is indicative of a location of the target object relative to the autonomous vehicle;
- and
- providing information indicative of a viewing angle of the occupant using an occupant monitoring device that is used by the one or more processors to provide the sound cue;
- wherein the one or more processors localize the sound cue to a calculated angle based on the viewing angle of the occupant and moves a perceived location of the localized sound cue in a spatio-temporal fashion in stages increasingly toward a desired viewing angle based on the direction of travel of the target object.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.