Patent ID: 8812171

Claim:
A method of generating a simulated emotion for a vehicle information system, the method comprising: receiving input representing at least one of audio and visual characteristics of a user; generating, by a computer, data representing an emotional state of the user based on the input representing the at least one of audio and visual characteristics of the user; receiving input representing an operating parameter of the vehicle; generating, by the computer, data representing a simulated emotion to be expressed by at least one of an audio output and visual output based on the data representing the emotional state of the user and the input representing the operating parameter of the vehicle; and outputting the data representing the simulated emotion for at least one of play by the audio output and display by the visual output wherein generating data representing an emotional state of the user based on the input representing the at least one of audio and visual characteristics of the user includes analyzing at least one of a prosody, syntax and lexicon associated with the input representing the audio characteristics of the user.