Method and apparatus for controlling vehicle mounted devices and equipment

A demand for a change in the operating condition of at least one of a plurality of vehicle mounted devices is issued by means of a single push button switch attached to the center of the steering wheel. When the vehicle occupant intends to manipulate a device such as a radio, stereo unit or an air conditioner, he depresses the switch to supply a microcomputer with a demand signal. The microcomputer produces an instruction signal with which a sound synthesizer produces sequential vocal announcements which are emitted via a speaker. The occupant depresses the switch again within a predetermined period of time after the emission of a vocal announcement naming a device intended to control so that the sound synthesizer now provides various manipulative information relating to the available manipulations of the selected device. The driver depresses the switch to issue responsive instructions in response to an announcement of desired manipulation. The microcomputer thus operates to produce necessary control signals which are fed to a corresponding control unit of the selected device. A sound recognizer may be used in place of or together with the switch to detect the demand and responsive instructions from the driver.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates generally to method and apparatus for controlling 
various devices and equipment mounted on a vehicle, such as an automobile, 
and more particularly, the present invention relates to control of vehicle 
mounted devices whose operating conditions can be changed as desired. 
Conventionally, changes of operating conditions of various devices and 
equipment in an automobile, for instance, a radio receiver, a stereo unit, 
an air conditioner or the like, have been effected manually by the 
occupant of the automobile. Namely, when the driver or the passenger of 
the motor vehicle intends to listen to a radio, he manually turns on the 
switch of the radio, and then he tunes the radio to a desired broadcasting 
frequency. Furthermore, he may manipulate the sound volume adjusting knob 
of the radio to set the sound volume to a desired level. In the same 
manner, when it is intended to operate a stereo unit or an air 
conditioning system of the motor vehicle, the occupant manipulates a 
corresponding switch or key to turn on a desired device, and then 
necessary adjustment, such as adjustment of temperature or the operating 
mode, is manually effected. 
However, the manual operation of such switches, keys or the like tends to 
distract the vehicle driver from steering efforts to such an extent that 
it might lead to a dangerous situation. Therefore, there is a problem in 
that manipulation for changing the operating condition of the vehicle 
mounted devices cannot be effected readily when the motor vehicle is 
running. The main reason for the difficulty of manipulation of the 
switches or the like of such devices resides in the fact that the 
positions of the manipulative switches or the like cannot be accurately 
recognized by the driver since his attention is mainly paid to the front 
of the motor vehicle. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention has been developed in order to provide a method and 
apparatus for controlling various devices and equipment mounted on a 
vehicle so that the vehicle driver is not bothered by manipulation of 
various switches, knobs or the like. 
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a method 
and apparatus for automatically controlling various devices mounted on a 
vehicle with simple instructions from the occupant so that safe driving is 
ensured. 
According to a feature of the present invention, sequential vocal 
announcements are emitted from a vehicle mounted speaker so that the 
vehicle occupant can selectively respond to a desired announcement. The 
announcements include various names of the devices to be operated and 
names of operations or manipulations to be performed. The occupant issues 
responsive instructions against an announcement when he wishes the named 
device to operate. The responsive instruction may be given either by 
manipulating a single switch or button or by pronouncing predetermined 
vocal sounds. In the case that the responsive instructions are given by 
vocal sounds, a sound recognizer responds to the vocal sounds to detect 
the contents thereof. Various operating conditions, such as tuning of a 
radio, sound volume control of the radio or a stereo unit, temperature 
control and operating mode control of an air conditioner, may be effected 
by supplying the vehicle occupant with corresponding information and by 
receiving responsive instructions from the occupant in the same manner. 
Although the emobodiments of the present invention will be described in 
connection with the control of vehicle mounted devices, the invention may 
be adapted to control devices in a factory, plant or the like so that a 
number of manipulations of various devices can be simply controlled with a 
single switch or by talking to a vocal sound responsive unit. 
In accordance with the present invention there is provided a method of 
controlling devices each having at least one manipulative element, 
comprising the steps of: detecting an action of an operator indicating 
that a demand has occurred for a change in operating conditions of at 
least one of said devices which are arranged to operate under the control 
of predetermined instructions; emitting sequential vocal announcements 
each corresponding to the manipulations of manipulative elements of said 
devices in response to the detection of said action, each of said vocal 
announcements being emitted at an interval to allow the operator to issue 
responsive instructions; monitoring said responsive instructions from the 
operator for a predetermined period of time after the emission of each 
announcement; and changing the operating conditions of one of said devices 
by automatically operating one of said manipulative element which has been 
announced just before the receipt of said responsive instructions. 
In accordance with the present invention there is also provided apparatus 
for controlling devices each having at least one manipulative element, 
comprising: control means for effecting manipulative control of each of 
said devices in accordance with manipulative instruction signals; means 
responsive to the action of an operator for receiving a demand for a 
change in operating conditions of at least one of said devices; vocal 
announcements emitting means for emitting sequential vocal sounds 
indicative of the names of said devices in response to the detection of 
said action, said vocal announcements being emitted at an interval to 
allow the operator to issue responsive instructions, said vocal 
announcements emitting means being capable of emitting sequential vocal 
sounds indicating the names of manipulative elements of each of said 
devices; means responsive to said responsive instructions from the 
operator for a predetermined period of time after the emission of each 
announcement for controlling said vocal announcement emitting means so 
that said vocal announcements indicating the names of said manipulative 
elements of one of said devices are emitted in a sequence when said 
responsive instructions are received within said predetermined period of 
time after the emission of each announcement indicative of one of said 
devices; and means for producing said manipulative instruction signals to 
cause said control means to effect a desired manipulation of said 
manipulative elements which has been announced just before the receipt of 
said responsive instructions which are received within said predetermined 
period of time.

The same or corresponding elements and parts are designated at like 
numerals throughout the drawings. 
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
Referring now to FIG. 1, a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the 
present invention is shown. The apparatus of FIG. 1, which is also used to 
perform the method according to the present invention, generally comprises 
a normally-open push button switch 2 attached to the center of the 
steering wheel 1 of a motor vehicle (not shown), a microcomputer 3, and a 
sound synthesizer 8 which supplies a vehicle mounted speaker 9 with 
synthesized vocal sounds. 
The microcomputer 3 is responsive to a signal from the push button switch 
2, which will be referred to as a manipulative switch hereafter. The 
manipulative switch 2 is provided for receiving a demand or instructions 
from an operator, such as the driver of the motor vehicle. A crystal 
resonator 4 is shown to be connected to the microcomputer 3 having the 
following components which are not shown: a central processing unit (CPU), 
a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a clock generator, 
and input/output (I/O) devices. Namely the structure of the microcomputer 
is conventional so that it operates in accordance with a predetermined 
program stored in the ROM in a well known manner. The microcomputer 3 has 
output terminals connected to the sound synthesizer 8 and to various 
control units. In the illustrated embodiment, an air conditioner control 
unit 5, a radio control unit 6 and a stereo unit control unit 7 are shown 
to be connected to the outputs of the microcomputer 3. The microcomputer 3 
also comprises input terminals for receiving signals indicative of the 
operating state of the radio and the stereo unit. 
Although no power source is shown, the microcomputer 3 is arranged to 
receive a stabilized voltage via a voltage regulating circuit from the 
vehicle mounted battery. 
In the above-mentioned ROM, are included regions M(0) to M(39) for storing 
instruction steps shown in the following table. 
__________________________________________________________________________ 
M(0) 
INST FOR SOUND "RADIO" M(20) 
SET TEMP CONTROL FLAG 
M(1) 
SET RADIO FLAG INST FOR SOUND "UP" 
INST FOR SOUND "TUNING" 
M(21) 
SET UP FLAG 
M(2) 
SET TUNING FLAG M(22) 
INST FOR SOUND "DOWN" 
M(3) 
INST FOR SOUND "POWER" M(23) 
SET DOWN FLAG 
M(4) 
SET POWER FLAG M(24) 
INST FOR SOUND "AIRFLOW RATE" 
M(5) 
INST FOR SOUND "SOUND VOLUME" 
M(25) 
SET AIRLOW RATE FLAG 
M(6) 
SET SOUND VOLUME FLAG INST FOR SOUND "UP" 
INST FOR SOUND "UP" M(26) 
SET UP FLAG 
M(7) 
SET UP FLAG M(27) 
INST FOR SOUND "DOWN" 
M(8) 
INST FOR SOUND "DOWN" M(28) 
SET DOWN FLAG 
M(9) 
SET DOWN FLAG M(29) 
INST FOR SOUND "OUTLET" 
M(10) 
INST FOR SOUND "STEREO UNIT" 
M(30) 
SET OUTLET FLAG 
M(11) 
SET STEREO UNIT FLAG INST FOR SOUND "VENTILATION" 
INST FOR SOUND "POWER" M(31) 
SET VENTILATION FLAG 
M(12) 
SET POWER FLAG M(32) 
INST FOR SOUND "HEATER" 
M(13) 
INST FOR SOUND "SOUND VOLUME" 
M(33) 
SET HEATER FLAG 
M(14) 
SET SOUND VOLUME FLAG M(34) 
INST FOR SOUND "BILEVEL" 
INST FOR SOUND "UP" M(35) 
SET BILEVEL FLAG 
M(15) 
SET UP FLAG M(36) 
INST FOR SOUND "DEFROSTER" 
M(16) 
INST FOR SOUND "DOWN" M(37) 
SET DEFROSTER FLAG 
M(17) 
SET DOWN FLAG M(38) 
INST FOR SOUND "AUTOMATIC" 
M(18) 
INST FOR SOUND "AIR CONDITIONER" 
M(39) 
SET AUTOMATIC FLAG 
M(19) 
SET AIR CONDITIONER FLAG 
INST FOR SOUND "TEMPERATURE" 
__________________________________________________________________________ 
INST: INSTRUCTION 
The air conditioner control unit 5 comprises therein an opening degree 
adjusting actuator for controlling the air mixing damper used for 
temperature adjustment, a motor drive circuit for driving the blower motor 
used for sending temperature-adjusted air to the automobile compartment, 
outlet switching actuator for changing the various operational modes of 
the temperature-adjusted air outlets. These devices are respectively 
controlled by various instruction signals from the microcomputer 3 so as 
to adjust the air in the automobile compartment. 
The radio control unit 6 has a function of turning on and off the power 
source of the radio in response to a power source on-off instruction 
signal from the microcomputer 3, a function of adjusting the sound volume 
in response to a sound volume instruction signal from the microcomputer 3, 
and a function of automatically tuning in response to a tuning instruction 
signal from the microcomputer 3. The radio control unit 6 is arranged to 
send a signal indicative of on or off state of the power source of the 
radio to the microcomputer 3. 
The stereo unit control unit 7 has a function of turning on and off the 
power source of the stereo unit in response to a power souce on-off 
instruction signal from the microcomputer 3, and a function of adjusting 
the sound volume in response to a sound volume instruction signal from the 
microcomputer 3. The stereo unit control unit 7 is arranged to send a 
signal indicative of on or off state of the power source of the stereo 
unit to the microcomputer 3. 
The sound synthesizer 8 comprises a vocal sound data ROM for storing vocal 
sound data, which is used for emitting vocal sounds, in each predetermined 
region thereof. The sound synthesizer 8 is arranged to synthesize the 
contents of a predetermined region of the sound data ROM from the first 
address thereof in response to an instruction signal fed from the 
microcomputer 3, namely, in response to an address designation signal 
designating the first address of the predetermined region, to emit the 
synthesized vocal sound from the speaker 9, and is further arranged to 
send a vocal sound termination signal indicating the termination of sound 
synthesizing to the microcomputer 3 when reaching the last address of the 
predetermined region. 
The operation of the apparatus of FIG. 1 will be described with reference 
to operational flow charts of FIGS. 2 to 9. FIG. 2 is an operational flow 
chart showing the entire operation of the microcomputer 3; FIG. 3, an 
operational flow chart showing detailed operation of the manipulative 
control operation routine in FIG. 2; FIG. 4, an operational flow chart 
showing detailed operation of instruction execution routine in FIG. 3; and 
FIGS. 5 to 9, operational flow charts showing detailed operations of 
respective instruction routines in FIG. 4. 
When a key switch (not shown) is turned on in an automobile comprising the 
elements or devices 1 to 9 shown in FIG. 1 at the time of starting 
operation, electric power is supplied from the automobile battery to 
respective electrical systems to render the same active. The microcomputer 
3 starts operating from the starting step 100 of FIG. 2 to set the 
registers, counters and latches in the microcomputer 3 to their initial 
conditions which are necessary for starting operation. The operation of 
setting to initial conditions includes a step of resetting all flags, 
which will be described later, and a step of setting initial values for 
airflow mode data, blow off mode data and so on. Operation of the main 
routine, which will be described hereinbelow, comprising an air 
conditioner control routine 300 and a manipulative control routine 400 is 
repeatedly executed at an interval of several hundreds of milliseconds. 
In the air conditioner control routine 300, various instruction signals are 
sent to the opening degree adjuster, the motor drive circuit, and to the 
outlet switching atuator of the air conditioner control unit 5 by 
executing operational processing for pertinently controlling the air in 
the automobile compartment, namely by calculating the opening degree of 
the air mixing damper and the airflow rate data W etc. on the basis of 
detection signals from various sensors and temperature setting data T 
preset in a temperature setting circuit and airflow rate and blow off mode 
data based on mode information preset in an airflow rate and blow off mode 
setting circuit. The sensors for measuring inner and outer temperatures 
and for detecting air mixing damper opening degree, and the temperature 
setting circuit as well as the airflow and blow off mode setting circuits 
are not shown in FIG. 1 for simplicity. As a result of the operation, 
instruction signals are fed to the opening degree adjustment actuator of 
the air conditioner control unit 5, the motor drive circuit and the outlet 
switching actuator. 
In a following manipulative control operation routine 400, the turn-on 
signal from the manipulative switch 2 is monitored, which turn-on signal 
indicates that a demand has occurred for a change in operating conditions 
of at least one of the devices 5, 6 and 7. When detecting the turn-on 
signal during monitoring, the names of various manipulations of the radio, 
stereo unit and the air conditioner are announced in a predetermined 
sequence. When another turn-on signal from the manipulative switch 2 is 
detected, an operation is executed so that an instruction signal is fed to 
an objective control unit, with which the instruction signal of the last 
announced manipulation will be performed. 
FIG. 3 shows a detailed operational flow of the manipulative control 
routine 400. When reaching the manipulative control routine 400, if the 
manipulative switch 2 has never been turned on till this time, the answer 
of a starting flag deciding step 401, which comes first, assumes NO 
because all the flags used in the manipulative control routine 400 have 
been reset. Then the operational flow enters into a manipulative switch 
state deciding step 402, where the answer thereof assumes NO when the 
manipulative switch 2 has not been turned on, to terminate one cycle of 
the operation of the manipulative control routine 400. After this, the 
above-operation is executed whenever reaching the manipulative control 
operation routine 400 as long as the manipulative switch 2 is not turned 
on. 
After this, when the manipulative switch 2 is turned on to change the power 
of the radio from OFF state to ON state, the level of the signal from the 
manipulative switch 2 varies to cause the answer of the manipulative 
switch state deciding step 402 of FIG. 3 to become YES. Then the 
operational flow goes to the starting flag setting step 403 to set the 
starting flag. Then entering into a designation region setting step 404 to 
set a designation region M to M(0), and the operational flow goes to an 
execution step 405 to execute the contents of the region M(0) of the ROM 
of the microcomputer 3. Namely, an instruction signal for announcing 
"RADIO" according to the ROM table is sent to the sound synthesizer 8, and 
the operational flow enters into an instruction execution routine 500. 
With this operation, the sound synthesizer 8 starts synthesing the vocal 
sound of "RADIO". 
In the instruction execution routine 500, since all the radio flag, stereo 
unit flag and the air conditioner flag are all left in reset condition, 
which was done in the initial setting, the answers of the radio flag 
deciding step 501, the stereo unit flag deciding step 502 and the air 
conditioner flag deciding step 503 all assume NO to terminate one cycle of 
the operation. 
When the operational flow reaches again the starting flag deciding step 401 
of the manipulative control routine 400 of FIG. 3, the answer thereof 
becomes YES since the starting flag has been set. Because a continuation 
flag and a timer flag have been reset from the initial setting, the 
following continuation flag deciding step 418 and the timer flag deciding 
step 406 assume NO, and the operational flow enters into a vocal sound 
termination deciding step 407 where the answer thereof assumes NO because 
no vocal sound termination signal has been sent from the sound synthesizer 
8. The operational flow enters into a manipulative switch state deciding 
step 408 whose answer assumes NO when the manipulative switch has not been 
turned on again. Thus, the operational flow enters into the instruction 
execution routine 500 to execute the above-described operation. 
In the case that the vocal sound termination signal is not sent from the 
sound synthesizer 8 while the manipulative switch 2 is not turned on 
again, the above operation is repeatedly executed. When the sound 
synthesizer 8 completes synthesizing the vocal sound of "RADIO" and 
produces the vocal sound termination signal, the answer of the vocal sound 
termination deciding step 407 becomes YES when the operational flow 
reaches it. Then the operational flow enters into a timer flag setting 
step 409 to set the timer flag, and then goes to a time measuring step 410 
to measure the time counting the number of times of reaching. As two 
seconds have not elapsed since entering into the time measuring step 410, 
the answer thereof assumes NO to go to the manipulation switch state 
deciding step 408. Accordingly, whenever the operational flow reaches the 
timer flag deciding step 406 from the next time, the operational flow 
directly goes to the time measuring step 410 because the timer flag has 
been set to cause the answer of decision thereof to become YES. Namely, it 
is made possible to accept responsive instructions via the manipulative 
switch 2 for the operation of the radio until two seconds will have passed 
from the emission of the vocal announcement of "RADIO". 
When it is recognized by the operator, such as the vehicle driver, that the 
radio should be manipulated and the manipulative switch 2 is turned on 
before the lapse of two seconds, the answer of the manipulation switch 
deciding step 408 becoms YES as the operational flow reaches it to enter 
into a first designation region changing step 412. In the first 
designation region changing step 412, the designation regions are changed 
by one in connection with the designation region M according to the arrows 
shown below. 
M(0).fwdarw.M(1).fwdarw.M(2), M(3).fwdarw.M(4), M(5).fwdarw.M(6) M(7), 
M(8).fwdarw.M(9), M8(10).fwdarw.M(11).fwdarw.M(12), 
M(13).fwdarw.M(14).fwdarw.M(15), M(16).fwdarw.M(17), 
M(18).fwdarw.M(19).fwdarw.M(20).fwdarw.M(21), M(22).fwdarw.M(23), 
M(24).fwdarw.M(25).fwdarw.M(26), M(27).fwdarw.M(28), 
M8(29).fwdarw.M(30).fwdarw.M(31), M(32).fwdarw.M(33), M(34).fwdarw.M(35), 
M(36).fwdarw.M(37), M(38).fwdarw.M(39) 
Since the designation region M by that time has been M(0), the designation 
region M becomes M(1) after being changed. The operational flow enters 
into a next execution step 415 to execute the contents of M(1), where the 
radio flag is set according to the above-mentioned ROM table, and an 
instruction signal for announcing "TUNING" is sent to the sound 
synthesizer 8, while the timer flag is set. Then the operational flow goes 
to the timer flag setting step, and then goes to the instruction execution 
routine 500. With this operation, the sound synthesizer 8 starts 
synthesizing vocal sounds of "TUNING". When the operational flow reaches a 
radio flag deciding step 501 of the instruction execution routine 500, the 
answer thereof becomes YES to go to a tuning flag deciding step 504, power 
flag deciding step 505 and to a sound volume flag deciding step 506. Since 
all these flags have been reset from the initial setting, all the answers 
thereof assume NO to complete one cycle of operation. 
When the operational flow reaches the timer flag deciding step 406 of FIG. 
3, the answer thereof becomes NO because or the reset state of the timer 
flag, and thus the operational flow changes to enter into the instruction 
execution routine 500 via the vocal sound termination deciding step 407 
and the manipulative switch state deciding step 408. When the sound 
synthesizer 8 completes synthesizing the vocal sound of "TUNING" and 
produces a sound termination signal, the operational flow goes from the 
vocal sound termination deciding step 407 to the timer flag setting step 
409 to set the timer flag, and thus, the answer of the timer flag deciding 
step will be YES from the next time when the operational flow reaches it, 
and the operational flow goes via the time measuring step 410, time 
deciding step 411 and the manipulative switch deciding step 408 to the 
instruction execution routine 500. 
When a period of time of two seconds passes without receiving the turn-on 
signal from the manipulative switch 2 with the operator's recognition that 
the emitted vocal sound of "TUNING" is different from one which the 
operator intended to manipulate, the answer of the time deciding step 411 
becomes YES when the operational flow reaches it, and thus the operational 
flow goes to a termination deciding step 413. In the termination deciding 
step 413, it is decided whether or not the designation region M 
corresponds to one of M(5), M(8), M(13), M(16), M(18), M(22), M(27), 
M(29), M(38). Thus, the answer of the decision becomes NO because the 
designation region M by that time is M(1), and therefore, the operational 
flow goes to a second designation region changing step 414. In the second 
designation region changing step 414, the designation region M is changed 
by one in accordance with the following arrows. 
M(0).fwdarw.M(10).fwdarw.M(18), M(1).fwdarw.M(3).fwdarw.M(5), 
M(6).fwdarw.M(8), M(11).fwdarw.M8(13), M(14).fwdarw.M(16), 
M(19).fwdarw.M(24).fwdarw.M(29), M(20).fwdarw.M(22), M(25).fwdarw.M(27), 
M(30).fwdarw.M(32).fwdarw.M(34).fwdarw.M(36).fwdarw.M(38) 
Since the designation region M has been M(1) by that time, the designation 
region M will be M(3) after being changed. Then the opeational flow goes 
to a next execution step 415 in which the contents of M(3) are executed, 
namely, an instruction signal for announcing "POWER" is sent according to 
the ROM table to the sound synthesizer 8, and the operational flow goes to 
the instruction execution routine 500 via a timer flag resetting step 416. 
With this operation the sound synthesizer 8 starts synthesizing the vocal 
sound of "POWER" to announce the same. 
In the same manner as described in the above, it is monitored, in 
connection with the announcement of "POWER", to detect if the manipulative 
switch 2 is turned on until two seconds elapse. When the manipulative 
switch 2 is turned on with the operator's recognition that the power 
source should be turned on in response to the vocal sound emission, the 
answer of the manipulative switch state deciding step 408 becomes YES when 
the operational flow reaches it, and thus the operational flow goes to the 
first designation region changing step 412. Since the designation region M 
has been M(3) by that time, the designation region becomes M(4) after 
being changed according to the above-described changes. Then in the next 
executing step 415, the contents of M(4) of the ROM table, namely, the 
power flag is set. Accordingly, in the instruction execution routine 500 
following the timer flag resetting step 416, when the operational flow 
reaches the power flag deciding step 505 of FIG. 4, the answer thereof 
becomes YES to go to a power instruction routine 513. In the power 
instruction routine 513, an instruction signal for the operational 
processing shown in FIG. 5, i.e. an instruction signal for changing the 
power condition in accordance with the power on-off state signal from the 
radio control unit 5, is sent to the radio control unit 5. Entering into 
an all-flag resetting step 520 of FIG. 4, all the flags necessary for 
operational processing in the manipulative control routine 400 are reset 
to complete one cycle of the operation. Therefore, when the operational 
flow reaches the starting flag deciding step 401 of FIG. 3 next time, 
which step is encountered first in the manipulative control routine 400, 
the answer thereof becomes NO to assume the same condition as initial 
condition described in the above. The radio control unit 5 puts the radio 
power source in ON state in response to the power-on instruction signal. 
In the case that the manipulative switch 2 is turned on to tune the radio 
and then the manipulative switch 2 is again turned on when the vocal sound 
of "TUNING" is emitted. the tuning flag is set because the designation 
region M is changed to M(2) in the first designation region changing step 
412. Consequently, when the operational flow reaches the tuning flag 
deciding step 504, the answer thereof becomes YES to go to the tuning 
instruction step 512 in which a tuning instruction is sent to the radio 
control unit 5. With this operation. the radio control unit 5 causes the 
radio to be tuned. 
Suppose the manipulative switch 2 is turned on to adjust the sound volume 
of the radio so that the designation region M is changed from M(3) to M(5) 
in the second designation region changing step 415 after vocal sounds of 
"RADIO", "TUNING" and "POWER" are emitted. If the manipulative switch 2 is 
again turned on when the vocal sound of "SOUND VOLUME" is emitted. the 
designation region M is changed from M(5) to M(6) in the first designation 
region changing step 412. Then a sound volume flag is set in the execution 
step 415 while an intruction for vocal sound of "UP" is sent to the sound 
synthesizer 8. Therefore, when the operational flow reaches a sound volume 
flag deciding step 506 of FIG. 4, the answer thereof becomes YES to go to 
a sound volume adjustment instruction routine 514 in which operational 
processing shown in FIG. 6 is executed, and no sound volume instruction 
occurs since neither the up flag or down flag has been set. When the 
manipulative switch 2 is continously depressed to be turned on in response 
to the emission of the sound of "UP", the up flag will be set because the 
designation region M is changed to M(7) in the first designation region 
changing step 412. With this operation, the continuation flag is set and 
simultaneously, an instruction signal, with which increase by 3 dB per one 
second will result, is sent to the radio control unit 5 in the sound 
volume adjustment instruction routine 514 of FIG. 6. As a result, the 
sound volume of the radio increases more and more. The increase in sound 
volume stops by cancelling the turn-on state of the manipulative switch 2, 
and all the flags necessary for operational processing in the manipulative 
control routine 400 are reset. In order to decrease the sound volume, the 
manipulative switch 2 may be continously turned on in response to the 
vocal sound of "DOWN" which is emitted after "UP", so that decrease by 3 
dB per one second will result in the same manner as described above. 
Namely, it is possible to emit various vocal sounds in a predetermined 
sequence in accordance with the contents of the above-mentioned ROM table, 
the first designation region changing step 412 and the second designation 
region changing step 414, while changes in operation in various 
manipulating elements can be efected by turning on the manipulative switch 
2 at an appropriate time. 
For instance, in the case of operating the stereo unit, the manipulative 
switch 2 is not turned on in response to the emission of the vocal sound 
of "RADIO", but is turned on in response to the sound of "STEREO UNIT" 
which is emitted subsequently. Thus, the stereo unit flag is set so that 
the answer of the stereo unit flag deciding step 502 of FIG. 4 becomes 
YES. When the manipulative switch 2 is turned on in response to the sound 
of "POWER" emitted after this, the power flag is set so that the answer of 
the power flag deciding step 507 becomes YES when the operational flow 
reaches it, and the operational flow goes to a power instruction step 515 
to produce a power on/off instruction signal (this is done by the same 
operating process as in FIG. 5) to turn on or off the stereo unit. When it 
is intended to adjust the sound volume rather than the on/off operation of 
power, the manipulative switch 2 is not manipulated at all in response to 
the emission of the vocal sound of "POWER", but the manipulative switch 2 
is again turned on in response to the sound of "SOUND VOLUME" which is 
emitted subsequently, the sound volume flag is set to cause the answer of 
the sound volume flag deciding step 508 to assume YES when the operational 
flow reaches it. The operational flow goes to a sound volume adjustment 
instruction routine 516 and the same operating processing as in FIG. 6, 
namely an operating processing for sending an instruction signal with 
which increase or decrease by 3dB per one second is effected when the 
manipulative switch is continously turned on in response to "UP" or "DOWN" 
to the stereo unit control unit 6, is executed. 
On the other hand, in the case of operating the air conditioner, the 
manipulative switch 2 is not turned on in response to the emission of 
sounds of "RADIO" and "STEREO UNIT", but is turned on in response to 
emission of vocal sound "AIR CONDITIONER" which is emitted subseqently, 
and thus the air conditioner flag is set so that the answer of the air 
conditioner flag deciding step 503 of FIG. 4 becomes YES. When the 
manipulative switch 2 is turned on in response to the vocal sound of 
"TEMPERATURE" which is emitted subsequently, temperature control flag is 
set so that the answer of the temperature control flag deciding step 509 
becomes YES when the operational flow reaches it. Thus, the operational 
flow goes to a temperature control instruction routine 517 in which the 
operating processing of FIG. 7 is executed in the same manner as in the 
case of sound volume adjustment shown in FIG. 6. Namely, when the 
manipulative switch 2 is continuously depressed to be turned on in 
response to the emission of the sound of "UP" or "DOWN", the predetermined 
temperature data T is either raised or lowered by 1 degree centigrade per 
two seconds, and an instruction signal for emitting the vocal sound of the 
value of the changed, i.e. raised or lowered, temperature is sent to the 
sound synthesizer 8. Accordingly, air conditioning is effected so that the 
temperature in the automobile compartment approaches the changed 
temperature setting by executing the air conditioner control routine 300 
with respect to the changed temperature setting data T. 
In the case of adjusting the airflow rate rather than the temperature 
adjustment, the manipulative switch 2 is not manipulated at all in 
response to "TEMPERATURE". The manipulative switch 2 is turned on in 
response to the announcement of "AIRFLOW" which is emitted subsequently, 
and thus an airflow flag is set to cause the answer of an airflow flag 
deciding step 510 to become YES when this step is encountered. Then the 
operational flow goes to an airflow adjustment instruction routine 518 in 
which the operational processing shown in FIG. 8 is executed in the same 
manner as in the cases of FIG. 6 and FIG. 7. Namely, when the manipulative 
switch 2 is continuously turned on in response to the emission of the 
sound of "UP" or "DOWN", an operational process is executed to increase or 
decrease an airflow rate data W by .DELTA.W per one second. Therefore, the 
airflow rate is either increased or decreased by executing the operational 
process of the air conditioner control routine 300 of FIG. 2 with respect 
to the changed airflow rate data W. 
In the case of changing the air outlets rather than the temperature 
adjustment and the airflow rate adjustment, the manipulative switch 2 is 
not manipulated at all in response to "TEMPERATURE" and "AIRFLOW", but is 
manipulated again in response to "OUTLETS" emitted subsequently so that 
the outlet flag is set. Therefore, when the operational flow reaches an 
outlet flag deciding step 511, the answer thereof become YES to go to an 
outlet switching routine 519. If the manipulative switch 2 is not 
manipulated at all after reaching the outlet switching routine 519, vocal 
sounds of "VENTILATION", "HEATER", "BILEVEL", "DEFROSTER" and "AUTOMATIC" 
are emitted one after another. Thus, when the manipulative switch 2 is 
turned on in response to a vocal sound emission corresponding to an 
operating mode in which a change should be made, the corresponding flag is 
set so that an outlet mode data is changed in the operating process of 
FIG. 9. Accordingly, the outlets are switched in accordance with the 
changed mode by executing the air conditioner control routine 300 of FIG. 
2 with respect to the corrected outlet mode. 
On the other hand, when the operational flow reaches the termination 
deciding step 413 with the designation region M being M(5), M(8), M(13), 
M(16), M(18), M(22), M(27), M(29), M(38), while the manipulative switch 2 
has not been turned on again in response to emission of a vocal sound of a 
manipulative element to be changed or the like, namely, when two seconds 
have elapsed without receving the turn-on signal from the manipulative 
switch 2 after the emission of one of the vocal sounds of "SOUND VOLUME", 
"DOWN", "AIR CONDITIONER", "OUTLET" and "AUTOMATIC", the answer of the 
termination deciding step 413 becomes YES. Then the operational flow goes 
to the all-flag resetting step 417 to reset all the flags necessary for 
operational processing of the manipulative control routine 400, so that 
the operational processing for manipulative control returns to the 
above-mentioned initial condition. 
In the above-described embodiment, although the manipulative switch 2, 
which is manually operable, is used to produce a demand or instruction 
signal, it may be possible to receive the demand or instructions from the 
operator by recognizing the vocal sounds of "CHANGE", "YES" or "NO" of the 
driver or others by employing a sound recognizing circuit 11 with a 
microphone 10 provided in the vicinity of the steering wheel as shown in 
FIG. 10. The sound recognizer 11 detects a plurality of predetermined 
vocal words separately to send corresponding recognition signals to the 
microcomputer 3. Furthermore, both sound recognition and switch 
manipulation may be used. 
Although an example, in which the order of emission of sounds is 
predetermined, has been described, the order of vocal sound emission may 
be changed by providing a fast feeding switch or the like, or by arranging 
such that vocal sound emission takes place immediately after the last 
vocal sound emission. Furthermore, it may be possible to arrange such that 
vocal sounds which are needed frequently are emitted preferentially. 
Furthermore, the various manipulative elements to be controlled are not 
limited to those described above, and therefore, they may include wiper 
switch, head light switch or the like. 
Furthermore, although the sound synthesizer 8 has been described as a vocal 
announcement emitting means, it is possible to use a device utilizing a 
magnetic recording tape or the like in which words to be pronounced have 
been prerecorded. 
From the foregoing description, it will be understood that various devices 
mounted on a motor vehicle or the like can be readily and accurately 
controlled by issuing instructions by means of a manually operable switch 
or by pronouncing predetermined vocal words. Since there is no need to 
manipulate various switches or keys to turn on, to adjust or to select a 
desired operating mode of the device which the vehicle driver intends to 
operate, the vehicle driver can concentrate on driving the vehicle, and 
thus safe driving can be ensured. 
The above-described embodiments are just examples of the present invention, 
and therefore, it will be apparent for those skilled in the art that many 
modifications and variations may be made without departing from the spirit 
of the present invention.