Patent ID: 8649533

Claim:
An emotive advisory system for use by one or more occupants of an automotive vehicle, the system comprising: a display device; a directional speaker array; and a computer configured to receive input indicative of an operating state of the vehicle and input indicative of an emotional state of an occupant, generate (i) data representing an avatar having an appearance and (ii) data representing a spoken statement for the avatar having at least one speech characteristic, the appearance and the at least one speech characteristic conveying a simulated emotional state of the avatar to the occupant, the simulated emotional state depending on at least one of the operating state of the vehicle and the emotional state of the occupant, determine an audio direction, output the data representing the statement for the avatar for audio play on the directional speaker array such that the audio from the directional speaker array is directed in the determined audio direction, and output the data representing the avatar for visual display on the display device such that the avatar orientation corresponds to the audio direction, wherein the directional speaker array is located proximate to the display device such that the audio from the directional speaker array appears to the occupant to come from the avatar and wherein the audio direction is determined such that the audio direction and the corresponding avatar orientation direct attention of the occupant to an object by directing the audio and a gaze of the avatar toward the object.