Voice-Haptic Vehicle Controls for Eyes-Off-Road Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing complexity of in-cabin vehicle features has led to user frustration with touch-only systems, as they often result in confusing menu navigation, safety concerns due to 'eyes off road' situations, and unreliable voice recognition technology.
Innovation Solution
A Voice-Controlled Haptic Interface (VCHI) system that uses speech recognition to assign functions to haptic control units, allowing users to control vehicle systems like HVAC, seat, and multimedia settings through voice commands and tactile feedback, thereby reducing the need for touchscreen navigation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If touchscreens are used to control vehicle systems, then functional integration is improved, but user safety deteriorates due to eyes off road situations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines voice recognition and haptic feedback into a unified control system that works together. The voice recognition system processes commands while the haptic control unit provides tactile confirmation, merging auditory and tactile modalities to enable control without visual attention, thus maintaining safety while achieving functional integration.
Solution Approach 2:
The haptic control unit serves as an intermediary between the voice recognition system and the vehicle's control systems. It receives commands from voice recognition and translates them into actionable signals while providing tactile feedback to confirm command execution, enabling safe hands-free control.
2Adaptability or versatility
If touchscreens are used for vehicle control, then control functionality is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates due to complex menu navigation
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses voice recognition to automatically interpret and execute user intent without requiring manual navigation through menus. The voice command system processes natural language input and directly translates it into control actions, eliminating the need for users to manually search through complex menu structures.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical interaction of touching and navigating screens with a voice-based acoustic interface. Users speak commands instead of manually navigating menus, substituting acoustic input for mechanical touchscreen interaction, thereby simplifying operation while maintaining full control functionality.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If voice recognition is used to control vehicle systems, then user safety is improved, but reliability deteriorates due to inaccurate recognition
Solution Approach 1:
The haptic control unit provides tactile feedback to confirm that voice commands have been successfully recognized and executed. This feedback loop allows users to verify command execution through touch, compensating for potential recognition errors and improving overall system reliability while maintaining safety benefits.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary processing of voice commands through the haptic control unit before final execution. The haptic unit pre- validates and prepares commands, providing an intermediate verification step that enhances recognition accuracy and reliability before the commands are fully executed by the vehicle systems.
Data Source
AI summary
Aspects of the present disclosure are directed to assigning one or more functions to one or more haptic control units. An indication of a requested machine control (MC) operation determined based on processing, using speech recognition, one or more voice commands received via one or more microphones can be received from a voice recognition system. One or more functions associated with the MC operation can be assigned, via a MC system to one or more haptic control devices and based on the requested MC operation.