Patent Description:
The capabilities of today's consumer electronic devices are continuously expanding. And when these consumer electronic devices are coupled with systems that capture audio (such as microphones) and systems that capture video (such as cameras), these consumer electronic devices may allow a user to e.g., use their voice, face, and/or eyes as a "password" that grants them access to such consumer electronic devices.

Further and through the use of such supplemental information obtained via e.g., microphones and cameras, the manner in which such consumer electronic devices function may be altered / manipulated depending upon what these consumer electronic devices "hear" and "see".

Prior art document <CIT> relates to systems and methods for soundscape selection in autonomous vehicles. <CIT> relates to a system monitoring rear seats in a car. <CIT> relates to a rearview mirror having a sleepiness prevention function. <CIT> relates to a dialog device mounted in a vehicle.

From a general point of view, a computer-implemented method is executed on a computing device and includes: monitoring an interior environment of a motor vehicle; determining a personal state of an occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle; and interacting with the occupant based, at least in part, upon the personal state of the occupant.

The occupant may be a driver of the motor vehicle. The personal state of the occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle may include one or more of: a physiological / physical / external state of the occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle; and a mental / emotional / internal state of the occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle. Interacting with the occupant based, at least in part, upon the personal state of the occupant may include physically altering the interior environment of the motor vehicle. Physically altering the interior environment of the motor vehicle may include one or more of: adjusting a temperature of the interior environment of the motor vehicle; adjusting one or more windows of the motor vehicle; adjusting a moon roof of the motor vehicle; adjusting one or more interior lights of the motor vehicle; adjusting an entertainment system of the motor vehicle; adjusting a seating system of the motor vehicle; and adjusting a ventilation system of the motor vehicle. Interacting with the occupant based, at least in part, upon the personal state of the occupant may include one or more of: triggering an audible alarm; triggering a visual alarm; physically engaging the occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle; visually engaging the occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle; and audibly engaging the occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle. Interacting with the occupant based, at least in part, upon the personal state of the occupant may include adjusting the manner in which a speech-based communication system engages the occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle. Adjusting the manner in which a speech-based communication system engages the occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle may include one or more of: adjusting the tempo of words used by the speech-based communication system to engage the occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle; adjusting the vocabulary of words used by the speech-based communication system to engage the occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle; adjusting the quantity of words used by the speech-based communication system to engage the occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle; adjusting the inflection of words used by the speech-based communication system to engage the occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle; and adjusting the timbre of words used by the speech-based communication system to engage the occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle.

In another implementation, a computer program product resides on a computer readable medium and has a plurality of instructions stored on it. When executed by a processor, the instructions cause the processor to perform operations including monitoring an interior environment of a motor vehicle; determining a personal state of an occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle; and interacting with the occupant based, at least in part, upon the personal state of the occupant.

One or more of the following features may be included. The occupant may be a driver of the motor vehicle. The personal state of the occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle may include one or more of: a physiological / physical / external state of the occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle; and a mental / emotional / internal state of the occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle. Interacting with the occupant based, at least in part, upon the personal state of the occupant may include physically altering the interior environment of the motor vehicle. Physically altering the interior environment of the motor vehicle may include one or more of: adjusting a temperature of the interior environment of the motor vehicle; adjusting one or more windows of the motor vehicle; adjusting a moon roof of the motor vehicle; adjusting one or more interior lights of the motor vehicle; adjusting an entertainment system of the motor vehicle; adjusting a seating system of the motor vehicle; and adjusting a ventilation system of the motor vehicle. Interacting with the occupant based, at least in part, upon the personal state of the occupant may include one or more of: triggering an audible alarm; triggering a visual alarm; physically engaging the occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle; visually engaging the occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle; and audibly engaging the occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle. Interacting with the occupant based, at least in part, upon the personal state of the occupant may include adjusting the manner in which a speech-based communication system engages the occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle. Adjusting the manner in which a speech-based communication system engages the occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle may include one or more of: adjusting the tempo of words used by the speech-based communication system to engage the occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle; adjusting the vocabulary of words used by the speech-based communication system to engage the occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle; adjusting the quantity of words used by the speech-based communication system to engage the occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle; adjusting the inflection of words used by the speech-based communication system to engage the occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle; and adjusting the timbre of words used by the speech-based communication system to engage the occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle.

In another implementation, a computing system includes a processor and memory is configured to perform operations including monitoring an interior environment of a motor vehicle; determining a personal state of an occupant within the interior environment of the motor vehicle; and interacting with the occupant based, at least in part, upon the personal state of the occupant.

Other features and advantages will become apparent from the description, the drawings, and the claims.

Referring to <FIG>, there is shown interaction process <NUM>. Interaction process <NUM> may reside on and may be executed by consumer electronic device <NUM>. Examples of consumer electronic device <NUM> may include but are not limited to a vehicle electronic system. Examples of such a vehicle electronic system may include any of the types of infotainment / electronic systems that are incorporated into motor vehicles, such as vehicle navigation systems, vehicle music systems, vehicle video systems, vehicle phone systems, vehicle climate control systems and vehicle control systems.

The instruction sets and subroutines of interaction process <NUM>, which may be stored on storage device <NUM> coupled to consumer electronic device <NUM>, may be executed by one or more processors (not shown) and one or more memory architectures (not shown) included within consumer electronic device <NUM>. Examples of storage device <NUM> may include but are not limited to: a hard disk drive; a random access memory (RAM); a read-only memory (ROM); and all forms of flash memory storage devices. Consumer electronic device <NUM> may execute an operating system, examples of which may include but are not limited to Microsoft Windows tm, Android tm, iOS tm, Linux tm, or a custom operating system.

When configured as a vehicle infotainment system, consumer electronic device <NUM> may be configured to execute various different functionalities that may be of interest / useful to a user (e.g., user <NUM>). Examples of such functionalities may include but are not limited to: radio functionality (e.g., that enables the playing of terrestrial radio stations and satellite radio stations); audio functionality (e.g., that enables the playing of audio, wherein this audio may be disc-based or locally stored on storage device <NUM>); video functionality (e.g., that enables the playing of video, wherein this video may be disc-based or locally stored on storage device <NUM>); phone functionality (e.g., that enables the placing and receiving of phone calls); navigation functionality (e.g., that enables the execution of navigation / guidance functionality); and communication functionality (e.g., that enables the sending and receiving of email / text messages / instant messages).

When configured as a vehicle infotainment system, consumer electronic device <NUM> may include a plurality of buttons (e.g., physical buttons or electronic buttons) that enable the selection of the above-described functionality. For example, the above-described radio functionality may be selectable via "radio" button <NUM>; the above-described audio functionality may be selectable via "audio" button <NUM>; the above-described video functionality may be selectable via "video" button <NUM>; the above-described phone functionality may be selectable via "phone" button <NUM>; the above-described navigation functionality may be selectable via "nav" button <NUM>; and the above-described communications functionality may be selectable via "comm" button <NUM>.

When configured as a vehicle infotainment system, consumer electronic device <NUM> may be configured to interface with one or more external systems (e.g., external system <NUM>). Examples of external system <NUM> may include but are not limited to: a cellular telephone; a smart phone; a tablet computing device; a portable computing device; and a handheld entertainment device (e.g., such as a gaming device). When interfacing with consumer electronic device <NUM>, external system <NUM> may be releasably coupled to consumer electronic device <NUM> via a hardwired connection (e.g., USB cable <NUM>). Alternatively, external system <NUM> may be wirelessly coupled to consumer electronic device <NUM> via wireless communication channel <NUM> established between external system <NUM> and antenna <NUM> of consumer electronic device <NUM>. An example of wireless communication channel <NUM> may include but is not limited to a Bluetooth communication channel. As is known in the art, Bluetooth is a telecommunications industry specification that allows e.g., mobile phones, computers, and personal digital assistants to be interconnected using a short-range wireless connection.

Consumer electronic device <NUM> and/or external system <NUM> may be configured to be wirelessly coupled to / access an external network (e.g., network <NUM>). Examples of network <NUM> may include but are not limited to the internet, a cellular network, a WiFi network, and/or a cloud-based computing platform.

As discussed above, consumer electronic device <NUM> may be configured to execute various different functionalities that may be of interest / useful for a user (e.g., user <NUM>). Some of these functionalities may be locally resident on (provided by) consumer electronic device <NUM>. Additionally / alternatively, some of these functionalities may be remotely resident on (provided by) external system <NUM>. Examples of such remotely-resident functionalities may include phone functionality (e.g., that enables the placing and receiving of phone calls via consumer electronic device <NUM> using external system <NUM>) and communication functional (that enables user <NUM> to send / receive email, send / receive text messages and/or send / receive instant messages) via consumer electronic device <NUM> using external system <NUM>. Consumer electronic device <NUM> may also include display screen <NUM> and one or more knobs / dials <NUM>, <NUM> that effectuate the use of such functionalities.

Consumer electronic device <NUM> may include microphone assembly <NUM> and speech processing system <NUM> (such as those available from Nuance Communications, Inc. of Burlington, MA). Accordingly, consumer electronic device <NUM> may be configured to accept verbal commands (e.g., verbal command <NUM>) that are spoken and provided by (in this example) user <NUM>. These verbal commands (e.g., verbal command <NUM>) may be configured to allow user <NUM> to access and control the above-described functionalities in a hands-free fashion. Consumer electronic device <NUM> may further include camera assembly <NUM> that may be configured to capture imagery <NUM> of (in this example) user <NUM>, wherein captured video <NUM> may be processed by video processing system <NUM>. Consumer electronic device <NUM> may further include speaker assembly <NUM> that may be configured to render audio <NUM> for (in this example) user <NUM>, wherein audio <NUM> may be generated by consumer electronic device <NUM> and/or external system <NUM>.

As discussed above, interaction process <NUM> may reside on and may be executed by consumer electronic device <NUM>, examples of which may include but are not limited to a vehicle electronic system. For example and referring also to <FIG>, consumer electronic device <NUM> may be positioned within (or apportion of) motor vehicle <NUM>, wherein vehicle <NUM> may include one or more occupants. For this particular example, vehicle <NUM> is shown to include two occupants, namely user <NUM> (who is driving vehicle <NUM>) and passenger <NUM>.

Interaction process <NUM> may monitor <NUM> interior environment <NUM> (e.g., the passage compartment) of motor vehicle <NUM> and may determine <NUM> a personal state of an occupant (e.g., user <NUM> or passenger <NUM>) within interior environment <NUM> of motor vehicle <NUM>. Upon determining <NUM> this personal state, interaction process <NUM> may interact <NUM> with the occupant (e.g., user <NUM> or passenger <NUM>) based, at least in part, upon the personal state of the occupant (e.g., user <NUM> or passenger <NUM>).

Examples of the personal state determined <NUM> for the occupant (e.g., user <NUM> or passenger <NUM>) within interior environment <NUM> of motor vehicle <NUM> may include but are not limited to one or more of:.

Additionally, interaction process <NUM> may determine <NUM> the personal state (e.g., the physiological / physical / external state, the mental / emotional / internal state) of the occupant (e.g., user <NUM> or passenger <NUM>) within interior environment <NUM> of motor vehicle <NUM> using various methodologies.

Accordingly, interaction process <NUM> may utilize microphone assembly <NUM> and speech processing system <NUM> to monitor the words / phrases spoken by the occupant (e.g., user <NUM> or passenger <NUM>) of motor vehicle <NUM> to determine <NUM> the personal state (e.g., the physiological / physical / external state, the mental / emotional / internal state) of the occupant (e.g., user <NUM> or passenger <NUM>).

Further, interaction process <NUM> may utilize camera assembly <NUM> and video processing system <NUM> to visually monitor the occupant (e.g., user <NUM> or passenger <NUM>) of motor vehicle <NUM> to determine <NUM> the personal state (e.g., the physiological / physical / external state, the mental / emotional / internal state).

As discussed above, interaction process <NUM> may utilize audio information and/or video information to determine <NUM> the personal state (e.g., the physiological / physical / external state, the mental / emotional / internal state) of the occupant (e.g., user <NUM> or passenger <NUM>) of motor vehicle <NUM>. Once this personal state (e.g., the physiological / physical / external state, the mental / emotional / internal state) is determined <NUM>, interaction process <NUM> may interact <NUM> with the occupant (e.g., user <NUM> or passenger <NUM>) based, at least in part, upon the personal state of the occupant (e.g., user <NUM> or passenger <NUM>).

When interacting <NUM> with the occupant (e.g., user <NUM> or passenger <NUM>) based, at least in part, upon the personal state (e.g., the physiological / physical / external state, the mental / emotional / internal state) of the occupant (e.g., user <NUM> or passenger <NUM>), interaction process <NUM> may perform various functions, an example of which may include but is not limited to adjusting <NUM> the manner in which a speech-based communication system (e.g., speech processing system <NUM>) engages the occupant (e.g., user <NUM> or passenger <NUM>) within interior environment <NUM> of motor vehicle <NUM>.

When adjusting <NUM> the manner in which a speech-based communication system (e.g., speech processing system <NUM>) engages the occupant (e.g., user <NUM> or passenger <NUM>) within interior environment <NUM> of motor vehicle <NUM>, interaction process <NUM> may tailor the interaction with the occupant (e.g., user <NUM> or passenger <NUM>) to adapt to or influence the personal state (e.g., the physiological / physical / external state, the mental / emotional / internal state) of the occupant (e.g., user <NUM> or passenger <NUM>).

As discussed above, when interacting <NUM> with the occupant (e.g., user <NUM> or passenger <NUM>) based, at least in part, upon the personal state (e.g., the physiological / physical / external state, the mental / emotional / internal state) of the occupant (e.g., user <NUM> or passenger <NUM>), interaction process <NUM> may perform various functions, another example of which may include but is not limited to physically altering <NUM> interior environment <NUM> of motor vehicle <NUM>.

For example and in the event that it is determined that the occupant (e.g., user <NUM>) who is driving motor vehicle <NUM> appears to be impaired and/or sleepy, interaction process <NUM> may take remedial action and may physically alter <NUM> interior environment <NUM> of motor vehicle <NUM> in an attempt to make the occupant (e.g., user <NUM>) more alert. One or more of the below-described remedial actions may be: a) automatically initiated by interaction process <NUM>; or b) offered to the occupant (e.g., user <NUM>) by interaction process <NUM> and only initiated if approved by the occupant (e.g., user <NUM>).

Again and as discussed above, when interacting <NUM> with the occupant (e.g., user <NUM> or passenger <NUM>) based, at least in part, upon the personal state (e.g., the physiological / physical / external state, the mental / emotional / internal state) of the occupant (e.g., user <NUM> or passenger <NUM>), interaction process <NUM> may perform various functions. One or more of the below-described functions may be: a) automatically initiated by interaction process <NUM>; or b) offered to the occupant (e.g., user <NUM>) by interaction process <NUM> and only initiated if approved by the occupant (e.g., user <NUM>). Examples of such functions may include but is not limited to:.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, the present disclosure may be embodied as a method, a system, or a computer program product. Accordingly, the present disclosure may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a "circuit," "module" or "system. " Furthermore, the present disclosure may take the form of a computer program product on a computer-usable storage medium having computer-usable program code embodied in the medium.

Any suitable computer usable or computer readable medium may be utilized. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer-readable medium may include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a transmission media such as those supporting the Internet or an intranet, or a magnetic storage device. The computer-usable or computer-readable medium may also be paper or another suitable medium upon which the program is printed, as the program can be electronically captured, via, for instance, optical scanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled, interpreted, or otherwise processed in a suitable manner, if necessary, and then stored in a computer memory. In the context of this document, a computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be any medium that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The computer-usable medium may include a propagated data signal with the computer-usable program code embodied therewith, either in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. The computer usable program code may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to the Internet, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc..

Computer program code for carrying out operations of the present disclosure may be written in an object oriented programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like. However, the computer program code for carrying out operations of the present disclosure may also be written in conventional procedural programming languages, such as the "C" programming language or similar programming languages. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through a local area network / a wide area network / the Internet (e.g., network <NUM>).

The present disclosure is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of the disclosure. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, may be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer / special purpose computer / other programmable data processing apparatus, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that may direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

The flowcharts and block diagrams in the figures may illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustrations, may be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.

The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of all means or step plus function elements in the claims below are intended to include any structure, material, or act for performing the function in combination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed. The description of the present disclosure has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the disclosure in the form disclosed.

The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the disclosure and the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the disclosure for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.

Claim 1:
A computer-implemented method (<NUM>) executed on a computing device (<NUM>), said method comprising:
using an infotainment system (<NUM>) having a microphone (<NUM>), a speech processing system (<NUM>), and a video camera (<NUM>) to monitor an interior environment of a motor vehicle (<NUM>);
based on information provided by said microphone (<NUM>) and said video camera (<NUM>), determining a personal state of an occupant (<NUM>) within the interior environment of the motor vehicle (<NUM>); and
interacting (<NUM>) with the occupant (<NUM>) based at least in part on the personal state of the occupant (<NUM>), wherein using the infotainment system (<NUM>) comprises monitoring (<NUM>) the interior environment with the video camera (<NUM>) and the microphone (<NUM>),
wherein the infotainment system (<NUM>) is incorporated into the motor vehicle (<NUM>),
wherein the state of the occupant (<NUM>) is one of a physiological state, an external state, a mental state, and an internal state of the occupant, and
wherein interacting with the occupant based at least in part on the personal state of the occupant comprises, upon having detected that the occupant appears to be sleepy and/or impaired, engaging the occupant (<NUM>) in a synthetic conversation involving speech recognition, natural language understanding, dialog management, and speech synthesis in an attempt to heighten the level of alertness of the occupant and,
in an attempt to heighten the level of alertness of the occupant, one or more of:
lowering (<NUM>) one or more windows of the motor vehicle upon having detected that the occupant appears to be sleepy or impaired,
adjusting (<NUM>) an entertainment system of said motor vehicle (<NUM>) in the event that the occupant (<NUM>) appears to be impaired or sleepy,
adjusting (<NUM>) an interior light of said motor vehicle (<NUM>) in the event that the occupant (<NUM>) appears to be impaired or sleepy,
adjusting (<NUM>) seating in said motor vehicle (<NUM>) in the event that the occupant (<NUM>) appears to be impaired or sleepy, and
triggering (<NUM>, <NUM>) an alarm in said motor vehicle (<NUM>) in the event that the occupant (<NUM>) appears to be impaired or sleepy.