Patent ID: 8229603

Claim:
A method for controlling an in-vehicle equipment control device by a force sense imparting type input device mounted on a steering of a vehicle, for remotely operating an in-vehicle equipment mounted on the vehicle according to a predetermined operation route while imparting a force sense, comprising: a rotational transformation step of conducting an arithmetic process for a rotational transformation based on a rotation detection angle that is output in accordance with a rotation of the steering of the vehicle and an operation route data stored in a storage unit, to create a new operation route data (x 1 , y 1 ) after the rotational transformation; a force sense imparting step of imparting the force sense to the force sense imparting type input device based on the new operation route data; and an in-vehicle equipment operation step of creating a new operation route data (x′, y′) by conducting an arithmetic process for an inverse rotation transformation based on the operation route data (x 1 , y 1 ), thereby remotely operating the in-vehicle equipment, wherein the force sense imparting type input device comprises an operating knob that is only allowed to move along a predetermined operation route pattern defined as the operation route data after the rational transformation, and wherein the rotational transformation step proceeds after an angle judgment step of comparing a rotation detection angle that is output in accordance with a rotation of the steering of the vehicle with a threshold angle (θ 0 ) stored as a judgment data in the storage unit, and a speed judgment step of comparing a running speed of the vehicle and a threshold speed (v 0 ) stored as the judgment data in the storage unit.