Method for operating a device, apparatus for performing the method, and vehicle door

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for operating a device, wherein a button (49) of an operating part (40) is actuated in order to operate the device, wherein the actuation of the button (49) is detected by a microcontroller (44) in a measurement-technical manner. A step of evaluating the read measured value is then performed by determining whether the measured signal has a conventional form or an unconventional form of the actuation of the button (49). If it is determined that the measured signal has a conventional form, a function associated with the actuated button (49) is executed. Optionally, when a conventional form is detected, an acoustic, tactile or optical confirmation signal is output, and when an unconventional form is detected, an acoustic, tactile or optical fault signal is output.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to a method for operating a device. The device to be operated may be a component installed in a vehicle. However, it may also be a household appliance such as a washing machine, a refrigerator, a dishwasher, an oven, a steamer or a cooker. In particular, the device is an operating panel installed in a vehicle door. Furthermore, the invention relates to a device for carrying out the method, a vehicle door in which a device for carrying out the method is installed, and a computer program. Background Art

[0002] In modern vehicles, many electronic and electromechanical components are installed in the doors, especially in the front passenger doors. These include electric door locks; window lifter motors and exterior mirror motors; operating elements, in particular, for exterior mirrors, window lifters and door locks; airbag pressure sensors for side impact protection; one or more digital cameras for environmental monitoring; lamps for exterior and interior (ambient light) lighting; and loudspeakers, among others.

[0003] Some of these components can be operated by the vehicle occupants. In the future, operating components with "touch functionality" will be used for this. A number of buttons designed to be touch-sensitive are provided in the operating components. For this purpose, capacitive sensor buttons can be used, for example.

[0004] For these sensor buttons, due to external influences, they can enter a fault state in which the user can no longer freely select a function. An example is incorrect operation, such as touching the button with multiple fingers or in an undefined position. The switching signal is then ambiguous and does not lead to the triggering of a function.

[0005] The operating components may become wet with water, for example due to rain. This can lead to false detection by the sensors, which does not lead to the triggering of functions. Other external influences can be: wetting due to snow, fog, spilled drinks, smeared cream, or damage caused by dropped objects, body parts, etc.

[0006] The cause of the malfunction is that as soon as the touch operating surface of the operating element is wetted by moisture or multiple touch operating surfaces are operated multiple times in an undefined manner, a "capacitive short circuit" occurs, which causes the touch operating panel to become inoperative. The operating element will only function again after the moisture has been removed (by wiping).

[0007] A remote controller for a bathtub is known from JP-A-H04158121, which has a plurality of buttons for operation. When a button for filling the bathtub with hot water is pressed in a state where hot water supply is disabled (deactivated), the injection of hot water is automatically disabled, and a buzzer operates three times. In addition, a related indicator LED flashes three times. Summary of the invention

[0008] The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to facilitate the operation of an operating element which is placed in a robust operating condition during use. In particular, when operating a touch-sensitive operating element, feedback on the state of the operating element should be provided to the user.

[0009] The above-mentioned technical problem is solved by a method according to the invention for operating a device, a device according to the invention for carrying out the method, a vehicle door according to the invention and a computer program product according to the invention.

[0010] The invention comprises advantageous developments and improvements according to the following description of these measures.

[0011] The solution lies in a method for operating a device, wherein in order to operate the device, a button of an operating component is manipulated. Here, the manipulation of the button is collected by a processor device in a measurement technology manner. Then a step of evaluating the measured value read is performed. The evaluation is performed in the following manner, namely determining whether the measurement signal has a conventional form of manipulation of the button or an unconventional form. If it is determined that the measurement signal has a conventional form, the function associated with the button is executed. Optionally, when a conventional form is recognized, an acoustic, tactile or optical confirmation signal is output, or two or more of them are output simultaneously, and when an unconventional form is recognized, an acoustic, tactile or optical fault signal is output, or two or more of them are output simultaneously. The user is thus notified that the operating element is in a temporary non-working state. The output of the fault signal will make the user aware that there is a fault in the operating component, and the user may have to wipe off the moisture to restore normal function. This can avoid that the user goes to the factory to complain that it does not work when the cause of the fault is uncertain. In addition to intuitively understanding the confirmation signal and the fault signal, their respective meanings are also described in the operating instructions of the operating component.

[0012] In an advantageous embodiment, the fault signal is implemented with its own special properties. In a variant that is easy to implement, an acknowledgement tone is output as an acoustic confirmation signal and a distorted acknowledgement tone is output as a fault signal. In this case, the user receives easily understandable feedback about the state of the operating component. It is particularly advantageous that the user does not have to look at the operating component every time in order to obtain feedback. The combination of acoustic, tactile and optical fault signals can be freely combined or used individually.

[0013] In an alternative embodiment, an optical confirmation signal is outputted. For the confirmation signal, the light emitting device is continuously illuminated for a specific time, and as a fault signal, the light emitting device is flashed for a specific time.

[0014] In another variant, as an optical confirmation signal, the light-emitting device of the first color is continuously illuminated for a specific time, and as a fault signal, the light-emitting device of the second color is continuously illuminated or flashed for a specific time. Here, improved feedback can be achieved due to the color design (green for normal operation and yellow for temporary fault).

[0015] In an alternative embodiment, the acoustic fault signal is output continuously or for a specific time.

[0016] In a further alternative embodiment, a haptic fault signal is output continuously or for a specific time.

[0017] It is advantageous for a device for carrying out the method steps of the method if the device is equipped with at least one processor device which is designed to carry out the method steps of the method in addition to actuating the buttons.

[0018] It is particularly advantageous if the device also has an operating element and an acoustic, tactile or optical signal generator, via which optional confirmation signals and fault signals are output. Combinations of two or more of these listed signal generators can also be used. In this case, the operating element has a plurality of buttons for operating the device, which generate characteristic switching signals when actuated. The buttons can be implemented as touch-sensitive capacitive sensor buttons.

[0019] Preferably, a microcontroller is used as the processor device. It is usually equipped with the devices required for detecting the actuation of the button in a measurement-technical manner, such as an A / D converter, a timer.

[0020] It is also advantageous if the device has at least one optical signal generator in the form of a light emitting diode (LED). Light emitting diodes are insensitive to mechanical vibrations, are very durable and consume very little energy.

[0021] In a further embodiment, the device has at least two optical signal generators in the form of light-emitting diodes of different colors. As already mentioned above, this provides the possibility of improved optical feedback.

[0022] In a particularly advantageous variant, the optical, tactile or acoustic signal generator is part of the operating element. The feedback thus comes directly from the point at which the button has been actuated.

[0023] The proposed device can advantageously be installed in a vehicle door. Here, the operating components are used to operate door components such as window lifters, door locks and side mirrors. Here, when the door is open or the window is open, in rainy, snowy or foggy conditions, the operating components may become wetted by moisture.

[0024] In another embodiment, the acoustic signal generator is a speaker installed in the vehicle door. Usually, the speaker is installed in the vehicle door. Therefore, there is no need to set the acoustic signal generator in the operating component. This can save costs.

[0025] In further embodiments, the entire audio system of the vehicle is used to generate the acoustic feedback.

[0026] It is also advantageous in this embodiment if the processor device has a bus interface which sends a message with a command to output an acoustic confirmation signal or an acoustic fault signal to the door control. The operating element is usually connected to the door control via a LIN bus. The door control generates a corresponding sound and outputs it to a loudspeaker.

[0027] The corresponding advantages mentioned above apply to a computer program which has a program code which, when executed in a processor device, carries out the method steps according to the proposal. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0028] Several exemplary embodiments of the invention are shown in the drawings and are explained in more detail below with reference to the drawings.

[0029] In the attached figure:

[0030] Figure 1 A view showing an operating component with different buttons for operating components of a vehicle door;

[0031] Figure 2 shows a signal curve when a button of the operating component is operated without water wetting;

[0032] Figure 3 shows a signal curve when a button of an operating component is actuated in the presence of water wetting;

[0033] Figure 4 A view showing the internal structure of an operating part with different buttons, in which a test was carried out with water drops;

[0034] Figure 5 A block diagram showing a door control and its connection to peripheral door components; and

[0035] Figure 6 a block diagram showing operating components for operating components of a vehicle door; and

[0036] Figure 7 A flow chart of a program running in the microcontroller of the operating component is shown.

[0037] This specification illustrates the principle of disclosure according to the present invention. Therefore, it should be understood that those skilled in the art will be able to conceive of different arrangements, although these arrangements are not explicitly described herein, they embody the principle of disclosure according to the present invention and are equally protected within its scope. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0038] Figure 1 A view of an operating element installed in a vehicle door for operating a component is shown. The vehicle door can be a door of any vehicle. Typically, it is applied in the doors of passenger cars. However, any other vehicle can also be considered as a vehicle. Examples of other vehicles are: bicycles, motorcycles, buses, commercial vehicles (particularly trucks Lkw), agricultural machinery, construction machinery, rail vehicles, etc. The invention can generally be applied to land vehicles including robots, rail vehicles, water vehicles and aircraft including drones.

[0039] Figure 1 The actual situation of moisture wetting is shown after rainy weather or after melted snow falls into the vehicle interior, for example due to opening a snow-covered door.

[0040] The operating panel contains 10 buttons for operating, for example, the window regulators, exterior mirrors and door locks. It also contains lighting for illuminating the operating panel. LEDs are usually used for this. The buttons correspond to capacitive sensors, which supply a specific measurement signal when touched.

[0041] Figure 2 The clean measurement signal is shown when only one of the buttons is touched. The time in ms is plotted on the abscissa. The measured capacitance value in pF is plotted on the ordinate. The clean measurement signal has approximately the shape of a square wave signal, but has two signal peaks, one at the beginning and one at the end of the signal. In this signal curve, only the actuated button is activated, all other signals indicate that the corresponding button is in an inactive state.

[0042] Figure 3 An example of a measurement signal smeared with moisture is shown. Touching a button when moisture has penetrated causes the measured capacitance value to change. However, the capacitance values ​​of other buttons also change at the same time, so that it may happen that when a button is touched, other buttons also respond and output a measurement signal by measuring. Figure 3 Figure 1 shows that several buttons respond several times in succession. There is a "capacitive short circuit" here. The measured signal detected at each measuring interval looks completely different from Figure 2 as shown in .

[0043] Figure 4The internal structure of the operating element is shown. Different buttons and the conductor tracks for connecting the buttons are shown here. The buttons are designed for capacitive touch measurement. The buttons consist of a metal profile on the outside and a number of intersecting conductor tracks on the inside. In the test structure shown, a plastic plate is placed over the buttons, which is provided with drilled holes. Water drops can be placed on the drilled holes to test how the respective button reacts in the presence of moisture.

[0044] Figure 5 FIG. 1 shows a simplified block diagram of a door control device. The door control device is designed for use in a vehicle door. Figure 5 In the drawings, reference numeral 10 denotes the so-called door disconnection point. Here, the lines are led from the central body control unit (not shown) to the door components. Usually, all the lines are led in bundles to the plug unit in the door. A further plug unit is installed in the body. When the door is installed in the vehicle body, the two plug units are connected with a cable harness, which is covered with a rubber sleeve to protect the plug-in location, the plug unit and the cables (not shown).

[0045] The door control device is denoted by reference numeral 20. The following door components are connected to the door control device 20: A plurality of electric motors as actuators. Reference numeral 31 denotes the electric motors for the rearview mirrors. Reference numeral 32 denotes the electric motors for the window lifters, and reference numeral 33 denotes the electric motors for the door locks. Other connected door components are an operating component 40, which is used to operate the window lifters, the rearview mirrors and the door locks. The operating component 40 is designed as a keyboard with buttons, see Figure 1 and Figure 4 . Further operating components can be connected. Then one or more loudspeakers 50 are also connected. A digital camera 61 is also connected as a further door component. The digital camera can be designed as a simple video camera. It can be installed, for example, in the housing of the exterior mirror. There, it is used to provide images for monitoring the side of the vehicle. Other door components (not shown) can be connected. These are, for example, a plurality of lighting units for interior or exterior lighting, or a second digital camera (rearview mirror camera) for rear traffic.

[0046] The structure of the door control device 20 is described below. The door control device includes components: a microcontroller 230, an Ethernet interface (PHY) 210, an Ethernet switch 220, and a class D digital amplifier 240. The digital amplifier 240 includes as many class D amplifier output stages as the speakers 50 are connected.

[0047] The Ethernet interface 210 is a variant for automotive Ethernet. This Ethernet variant is also known as "BroadRReach" technology. The BroadR Reach Ethernet physical layer standard suitable for the automotive industry can be combined with Ethernet switch technology that complies with the IEEE802.3 standard, so that a transmission rate of 100 Mbit / s can be achieved via an unshielded single twisted pair cable. Automotive Ethernet operates in full-duplex operation (Vollduplexbetrieb), that is, data is transmitted simultaneously in both directions via twisted pair lines. In this variant of the Ethernet bus system, the wiring overhead is particularly low. The Ethernet interface 210 shown is equipped with two ports. The Ethernet cable leading to the door separation point 10 is connected to port 1. The digital camera 61 is connected to port 2. The data of all the door components shown is transmitted to the Ethernet switch 220 via port 1. This data is usually provided by the body control unit. The Ethernet switch 220 distributes the data packets to its output ports. At Figure 5 In the example of , data packets for controlling the digital camera 61 are forwarded to port 2. Data packets set for other gate components are forwarded to the output port (port 3), to which the microcontroller 230 is connected. The further allocation to the gate components is done inside the microcontroller 230. Usually, the allocation of data packets in the Ethernet switch 220 is based on the evaluation of the MAC addresses of the data packets allocated to the respective ports.

[0048] For the audio data determined for the loudspeaker 50, a gateway 235 is provided in the microcontroller 230, which is used to convert the audio data packets transmitted via the IP protocol. The transmission protocol for the audio stream corresponds to the known RTP protocol (Real-Time Transport Protocol). To control the audio stream, the RTCP protocol (Real-Time Control Protocol) is used. The audio data is transmitted via the inter-IC acoustic bus I 2 S is transmitted to the digital amplifier 240. The gateway 235 performs the reformatting of the data packets from the RTP format to I 2 The digital amplifier 240 still includes one or more necessary D / A converters to convert the extracted audio data back into an analog audio signal, which is then finally amplified by the digital amplifier 240 .

[0049] The microcontroller 230 itself converts the data for controlling the motors 31 and 32 into the format of the LIN bus (Local Interconnect Network-Busses), and the motors 31 and 32 are connected to the door control device 20 via the LIN bus. Refer to the corresponding documents of the industry standard.

[0050] The microcontroller 230 directly processes the control data for controlling the door lock mechanism and generates discrete signals to drive the motor 33 .

[0051] Figure 6 A block diagram of an operating part 40 is shown. The operating part 40 includes a capacitive button device 41. Another main component of the operating element is a microcontroller 44. Voltage is provided to the microcontroller 44 via an input protector 47 and a voltage source 48. The voltage source also includes a bus connection circuit that connects the operating part 40 to a LIN bus. The LIN bus connects the operating part 40 to the door control device 20. A measuring unit, i.e., a brightness sensor 46, is also shown, which is used to measure the ambient brightness, and the measuring unit is also used to automatically track the brightness. On the output side, the microcontroller 44 is also connected to different light-emitting devices. The light-emitting device is usually designed in the form of an energy-saving LED. LED 43 is used for search lighting in the dark and is designed as a white LED. LED 42 is used for functional lighting and is designed as a color (green, yellow). A PWM (pulse width modulation) conversion unit 45 is connected upstream of the corresponding LEDs 42 and 43, and the PWM conversion unit 45 is used to amplify the PWM signal output by the microcontroller 44 to adjust the brightness of the search lighting and the functional lighting.

[0052] The function of the operating element 40 will be explained in more detail below with regard to the reaction to a moisture-induced fault. For this purpose, a computer program is processed by the microcontroller 44, which operates as follows: Figure 7 . The program is periodically called by the microcontroller 44 to read the measurement signal at measurement intervals. This is usually achieved by applying an A / D converter for each button. In step 410, the program is called by an interrupt, which is periodically generated by a timer. The timer can be part of the microcontroller 44. In program step 420, the measurement value of the measurement signal generated by the button is read.

[0053] In program step 430, the measured values ​​are evaluated. The results can be as follows Figure 2 or in the presence of moisture as shown in Figure 3 In the evaluation process, it is determined in this way which button is normally actuated. This is stored in a register. If only smeared signals are measured, e.g. Figure 3As shown, the corresponding entry is set in the register, ie no clear measurement signal is measured.

[0054] In query 440, the register then checks whether a clear measurement signal has been identified. If so, the corresponding desired function is executed in step 450. The function associated with the set register entry is then executed. Then, in step 460, a confirmation tone is generated and output. The output of the confirmation tone is performed via the loudspeaker 50, see Figure 5 . In the case where no clear measurement signal is identified, the program branches to program step 470 in query 440. In this step, a fault prompt tone is generated and output. The operator is informed by means of this prompt tone that the desired function is currently unavailable. The operator is thus informed that he has not performed an incorrect operation, but that there is a fault in the operating component 40. Then, after executing one of the two steps 460, 470, the program ends in program step 480. The fault prompt tone can be output in the form of a distorted confirmation tone. However, the fault prompt tone can also be other prompt tones that are not directly related to the confirmation tone.

[0055] In a further embodiment, in program step 460 the green LED 42 is illuminated for a certain duration to acknowledge that a clear measurement signal has been detected. Then, in program step 460 the yellow LED 42 is flashed for a certain duration to signal to the operator that a fault is present in the operating element 40 .

[0056] Depending on the implementation, an acoustic or optical feedback can thus be provided. In other types of implementation, both an acoustic and an optical feedback can be output. In other specific embodiments, the acoustic signal generator is part of the operating element 40 .

[0057] The present disclosure is not limited to the embodiments described herein. There is also room for different adjustments and modifications, which can also be considered by those skilled in the art based on the knowledge in the art related to the present disclosure.

[0058] Reference numerals list

[0059] 10 Door separation point

[0060] 20 Door Controls

[0061] 31 Actuator motor for rearview mirror

[0062] 32 Window lift actuator motor

[0063] 33 Door lock actuator motor

[0064] 40 Operating parts

[0065] 41 Button device

[0066] 42 Optical signal generator

[0067] 43 Optical signal generator

[0068] 44 Microcontroller

[0069] 45 PWM conversion unit

[0070] 46 Brightness sensor

[0071] 47 Protector

[0072] 48 Voltage Source

[0073] 49 Buttons

[0074] 50 Speakers

[0075] 61 Digital Camera

[0076] 70 Ethernet communication bus

[0077] 210 First Ethernet interface

[0078] 220 Ethernet switch

[0079] 230 Microcontroller

[0080] 235 Gateway

[0081] 240 Digital Amplifier

[0082] 410-480 different computer program steps

Claims

1. A method for operating a device, wherein a button of an operating component is actuated in order to operate the device, wherein: The manipulation of a button is captured by a processor device in a measurement-technical manner, characterized in that a step of evaluating the read measurement value is performed by determining whether the measurement signal has a conventional form of the manipulation of the button or an unconventional form, wherein the conventional form includes a waveform shape and the unconventional form includes a deformation of the waveform shape, which indicates a short circuit, wherein if it is determined that the measurement signal has a conventional form, an associated function is performed, wherein, optionally, when the conventional form is recognized, an acoustic, tactile or optical confirmation signal is output, and when the unconventional form is recognized, an acoustic, tactile or optical fault signal is output.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that: An answering tone is output as an acoustic confirmation signal, and a distorted answering tone is output as a fault signal.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: As an optical confirmation signal, the light emitting device is caused to continuously emit light for a specific time, and as a fault signal, the light emitting device is caused to flash and emit light for a specific time.

4. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: As an optical confirmation signal, the light emitting device of the first color is continuously illuminated for a specific time, and as a fault signal, the light emitting device of the second color is continuously illuminated or flashed for a specific time.

5. A device for executing the method steps of the method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the device is equipped with at least one processor device, which is designed to execute the method steps in the method according to any one of the above claims in addition to actuating a button.

6. The device according to claim 5, characterized in that For operating the device, the apparatus further comprises an operating element and an acoustic or optical signal transmitter, wherein the operating element comprises a plurality of buttons for operating the device, which buttons generate characteristic switching signals when actuated.

7. The device according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that The processor device is a microcontroller.

8. The device according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that The device has at least one optical signal generator in the form of a light emitting diode LED.

9. The device according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that The device has at least two optical signal generators in the form of light-emitting diodes of different colors.

10. The device according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that The optical signal transmitter or the acoustic signal transmitter is part of the operating component.

11. A vehicle door, characterized in that: The vehicle door has a device according to any one of claims 5 to 10 .

12. The vehicle door according to claim 11, characterized in that: The acoustic signal generator is a loudspeaker installed in the vehicle door.

13. The vehicle door according to claim 12, characterized in that: The processor device has a bus interface which sends a message with a command to output an acoustic confirmation signal or an acoustic fault signal to the door control. 14 . A computer program product which, when executed in a processor device, performs the method steps according to claim 1 in addition to actuating a button.

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