Steering Wheel Sensor Input for Safe Vehicle Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing in-vehicle input systems often require users to look away from the road to operate, increasing the risk of accidents and are limited in providing efficient and safe user inputs.
Innovation Solution
An in-vehicle input apparatus attached to the steering wheel that detects contact regions and changes in contact regions to generate user input signals, allowing for control operations without diverting the user's attention from the road, using sensors and processors to interpret twist and sweep gestures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional in-vehicle input systems are used, then users can operate vehicle controls, but users must look away from the road, increasing accident risk
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical button presses and manual controls with a sensor-based system that detects hand contact regions and gestures on the steering wheel. Sensors detect contact presence, contact region changes, and rotational movements to generate control signals, eliminating the need for separate control panels that require visual attention.
Solution Approach 2:
The steering wheel itself becomes the input device by detecting hand contact and gesture patterns directly on its surface. The system uses the natural interaction of the driver's hand with the steering wheel rim to capture control inputs, making the steering wheel serve dual purposes of both steering and control input without requiring additional components.
2Ease of operation
If contact region detection is implemented on the steering wheel, then user input can be captured without looking away from the road, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor system integrated into the steering wheel serves multiple functions: detecting hand contact presence, determining contact region location, measuring rotational movement, and generating various control signals for different vehicle functions. This multi-functional approach consolidates what could be separate systems into a single integrated solution.
Solution Approach 2:
The system interprets different physical parameters of hand contact (contact region position, contact area size, rotational angle, rotational speed) to distinguish between different gestures and control intentions. By monitoring changes in these parameters over time, the system can differentiate between various user inputs without requiring additional sensors or complex mechanisms.
Data Source
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AI summary
An in-vehicle input apparatus may include an input unit including at least one sensor attached to a steering wheel of a vehicle. The at least one sensor unit may be configured to sense contact by a user with a rim of the steering wheel of the vehicle; and output at least one input signal based on the sensed contact by the user with the rim of the steering wheel of the vehicle. The in-vehicle input apparatus may also include at least one processor configured to: monitor, over-time, the at least one input signal; and based on the monitored at least one input signal, determine a change of a contact region where a hand of the user contacts the rim of the steering wheel of the vehicle. The processor may also be configured to determine, based on the determined change of the contact region where the hand of the user contacts the rim of the steering wheel of the vehicle, a control operation for the vehicle; and generate a control signal based on the determined control operation for the vehicle.