In-Vehicle Audio Description Using Prioritized Scene Narration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Visually impaired passengers in vehicles often miss out on visual elements of their surroundings due to the lack of real-time audio descriptions, making it challenging to narrate a dynamic scene with constantly changing objects.
Innovation Solution
A system and method utilizing vehicle sensors, a controller, and an audio unit to identify scene elements, generate cohesive audio descriptions, and transmit them in real-time, incorporating traffic updates, weather conditions, and prioritized sequences, with options for continuous or prompted narration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If real-time audio description is provided for all visual elements, then awareness and navigation for visually impaired passengers is improved, but system complexity and information processing load increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments visual information into distinct categories (traffic elements, weather conditions, landmarks, other vehicles) and processes each category separately through dedicated sensor modules and analysis algorithms. This segmentation allows the complex visual scene to be broken down into manageable information units that can be processed and transmitted efficiently without overwhelming the system.
Solution Approach 2:
The controller acts as an intermediary that receives raw sensor data from multiple sources (cameras, LIDAR, radar), processes and filters this information, converts it into meaningful audio descriptions, and transmits it to the audio output device. This intermediary role manages the complexity by centralizing the information processing function and transforming complex multi-sensor data into simplified audio output.
2Speed
If continuous audio narration is provided, then real-time awareness is improved, but information redundancy and passenger distraction increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs periodic updates rather than continuous narration, delivering audio descriptions at strategically determined intervals based on changes in the visual scene. The controller monitors for significant changes in detected elements and triggers audio output only when necessary, providing periodic refreshes of information that maintain real-time awareness while avoiding redundant continuous commentary.
Solution Approach 2:
The audio description system dynamically adjusts its output based on the current scene and detected changes. The controller analyzes incoming sensor data in real-time and modulates the audio output accordingly, increasing description frequency when significant changes occur and reducing or pausing output when the scene remains stable, creating a dynamic rather than static information delivery system.
3Measurement precision
If multiple sensor types are integrated for comprehensive scene detection, then detection accuracy is improved, but device complexity and energy consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges multiple sensor types (cameras, LIDAR, radar) into a unified detection framework where their functions are coordinated and their data is integrated by the controller. By combining these sensors under a single processing architecture, the system achieves comprehensive scene detection accuracy while managing energy consumption through shared processing resources and coordinated operation rather than independent parallel systems.
Data Source
AI summary
A system of providing audio description in a vehicle includes one or more vehicle sensors configured to provide perception data. An audio unit is adapted to transmit an audio signal inside the vehicle. The system includes a controller having a processor and tangible, non-transitory memory on which instructions are recorded. The controller is adapted to identify elements in a scene in proximity to the vehicle based in part on input data from a plurality of source, including the perception data from the vehicle sensors. The controller is adapted to generate output data based in part on the elements identified in the scene. The output data is merged into one or more cohesive sentences for the audio description. The controller is adapted to determine an output sequence for the audio description based on a predefined list of priorities and transmit the audio description through the audio unit in the output sequence.