Smart Floor Mat for Hands-Free Email Audio and Vehicle Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional floor mats in motor vehicles primarily serve to protect the floor from dirt and damage, failing to leverage their potential as information processing centers and controllers for other devices, which could enhance safety and convenience.
Innovation Solution
A smart floor mat equipped with communication capabilities, a transponder, GPS receiver, vibrating device, and other features that allow users to control remotely controllable devices, track vehicle location, and receive notifications without obstructing the user's view or requiring hand use, thereby improving safety and convenience.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If floor mat is used as traditional protective covering, then floor protection function is maintained, but information processing and device control potential is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The floor mat is designed to perform multiple functions: traditional floor protection, information processing center, and remote device controller. By integrating switches, transponders, GPS receivers, and communication interfaces into the floor mat, it becomes a multi-functional device that serves both protective and intelligent control purposes, resolving the contradiction between maintaining simplicity and adding versatility.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention merges previously separate functions (floor protection, device control, navigation, communication) into a single integrated floor mat system. The control unit, switches, transponders, and sensors are combined within the floor mat structure, creating a unified device that reduces overall system complexity while increasing adaptability.
2Reliability
If transponder is placed on windshield, then toll booth communication is enabled, but user's view is obstructed
Solution Approach 1:
The transponder is extracted from its traditional location on the windshield and relocated to the floor mat. This extraction removes the harmful effect of view obstruction while preserving the essential function of toll booth communication, as the transponder can effectively communicate with overhead antennas from its new position on the vehicle floor.
3Ease of operation
If hands are used to control devices, then device control is achieved, but driver safety is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The invention replaces manual mechanical control with foot-actuated switches and voice recognition systems. The switches embedded in the floor mat can be operated by the driver's foot without removing hands from the steering wheel, and voice commands provide an alternative mechanical-free control method, thereby maintaining ease of operation while improving driver safety.
4Loss of information
If email is read visually, then email content is reviewed, but driver attention is diverted from road
Solution Approach 1:
The invention replaces visual email reading with auditory output through text-to-voice conversion. The control unit converts email content into spoken words that are transmitted through the vehicle's audio system, allowing the driver to review email information while maintaining visual attention on the road, thus resolving the contradiction between information access and driver safety.
Data Source
AI summary
A floor mat suitable for a vehicle is shown in FIG. 1 includes a circuit for operating remotely controllable devices both inside a vehicle or outside a vehicle. In another embodiment of the invention, a floor mat receives email from a wireless email device such as a BLACKBERRY, performs a text-to-voice recognition process on the contents of the email, and outputs a voice signal to a speaker such that the email is read to the user. This allows a user to review email messages without taking his or her eyes away from the road.