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Assessment
Assessment is step "One" is designing and calibrating the
Driving Experience for different users and application to assure
safety while using cell phone, navigation, PDA, Text Messaging
and other in vehicle activity. For example, today's
technology puts a Porsche in the hands of a 17 years old driver
and give him or her the same access and control as a 45 years
old race driver. With Assessment, the driving experience
is calibrated based on existing data regarding every element of
the system. The result of Assessment is a set of rules and
configuration which we refer to as KnowledgeWareTM.
This "KnowledgeWareTM
is then implemented into hardware and software to calibrate,
regulate and provide the correct assistance for the right
context of MAN, MACHINE, ENVIRONMENT, HISTORY and REGULATION.
MAN, MACHINE, ENVIRONMENT, HISTORY and REGULATION is what we
refer to as the
DrivingSystemTM.
Another feature of this assessment is that it determines what is
important to the driver of the subject vehicle and what is
important to other drivers and pedestrians in the immediate and
near vicinity of the subject vehicle to determine these safety
criteria thus assuring that the
DrivingSystemTM.
is pan-vehicle and not just a discrete one car system.
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Hands on Wheel InterfaceTM
and other "Eyes On The Road Hands On The Wheel Interfaces"
The
commonly referred to buzz words such as Hands Free or Bluetooth®
are often mistaken by the population as Safety devices.
While each can contribute to safety in a limited manner, none of
are really Safety Device. Bluetooth®
for example is replacement of a $2 dollar cable. Hands
Free is just that, freeing up the hands of the driver which by
itself is good, unless the driver start using their hands for
other tasks while driving. Speech Recognition such as
OnStar® or Microsoft® /Fiat
Blue&MeTM
or
Microsoft® /Ford
SyncTM
also profess to be safety devices. But the reality is that
all of these devices are "Convenience Devices if and when they
operate correctly.
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Hands
On Wheel InterfaceTM,
HOWITM,
on the other hand is a system and method to integrate the driver
with the vehicle. HOWITM
allows the driver to control anything in the car using Thumb
Gesture Interpretation, e.g. Thumbs Up means Yes, Thumb Down
means NO and so on. A sensor place on the steering wheel
at the 10:02 and 9:15 allows the driver to issue commands to a
controller based on an AudibleMenuTM . This
means that the driver hands stay on the steering wheel and
because of the AudibleMenuTM there is no need to look
away from the road. HOWITM Thumb Gesture
Interpretation is not limited to Yes and No. A stroke a
tap or any other motion of the thumb against the sensor can be
interpreted based on predetermined list allowed by the
KnowledgeWareTM for the specific driver or driver
application.
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Hands
On Wheel InterfaceTM,
HOWITM,
can also monitor for the presence of one or both hands on the
steering wheel at a predetermined position. Based on the
Assessment/KnowledgeWareTM such monitoring may
require our driver to keep both hands on the wheel and
consequently disable access to certain activity in the car in
event Assessment/KnowledgeWareTM dictates such
conditions.
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Another HOWITM
feature is the Physiology feedback from the steering wheel.
Our IP specify Gripping Force, Temperature, Sweat, Heart Rate
and Oxygen level monitor. This complete compliments of
sensors makes HOWITM
a MUST in the integration of a Full Active Safety system that
takes all element of the DrivingSystemTM
into account.
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IntelligentAssistantTM
KnowledgeWareTM
is translated into hardware and software. The controller
or the cluster of controllers through any configuration,(LAN,
WAN, PAN or via WEB), that host the
KnowledgeWareTM in any form
is the
IntelligentAssistantTM.
The
IntelligentAssistantTM
will monitor all sensors associated with the
DrivingSystemTM
and then, it will enable disable devices and information when
deemed interruptive to the driver concentration and it will also
activate and deploy equipment to reduce driver inattention from
the Eyes On The Road Hands On The Wheel Experience. e.g.,
the system may not permit the phone to ring when the driver
activate the turn signal or as he merges into the freeway. On
the other hand, the
IntelligentAssistantTM
will monitor the vehicle orientation with respect to the sun and
accordingly deploy shades or adjust temperatures in the vehicle
to compensate for low sun that's causing the cabin to heat.
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IntelligentNotificationTM
Alarms and Telltales are important part of a vehicle HMI.
It give the driver the opportunity to know about vehicle
problems without the need to visit mechanic to verify if the
vehicle is still in good condition. In short, they
represent a Feed Back tools about the status of the vehicle.
One example of telltales is the Turn Signal indicator.
When activating the turn signal indicator, the telltale flashes
and emits a clicking or a mild sound to assure the driver that
the turn signal lamps are operational and are signaling the
other drivers his intent to change lanes or make a turn.
IntelligentNotificationTM
is a Context Sensitive method of delivering feed back to the
driver with full awareness of real time condition of the
DrivingSystemTM
as calibrated by the KnowledgeWareTM.
This may seem as an overkill for something as simple as a turn
signal, but with the addition of sophisticated communication,
computing and Advanced Detection sensors to vehicles, it becomes
important to the driver to receive that information when
necessary but not in a manner that will contribute to accidents.
My
favorite example for IntelligentNotificationTM
is my experience as
a Specialist with an automotive OEM in the late 80's.
While driving a test car with a hard sport suspension, I noticed
that each time I changed lanes abruptly to see the suspension
reaction, a little light came on in the dash board and
disappeared too quickly for me to know what it was or what was
the problem. While driving street legal Evaluation-Test
cars gave me enough experience to deal with disruptions and
unexpected events, The light was was very distracting the first
time around. Eventually, off the main street and in
company test roads, I was able to determine that the light was
that of a windshield washer fluid going low enough to trigger
the sensor on hard lane changes but not low enough to remain on.
Discovering that situation I recommended a delay circuit, but
the Mechanical Engineering mind set, as well as cost and new
technology fears, led to changing the shape of the bottle and
the position of the sensor.
Was
the IntelligentNotificationTM
to be implemented in a car today, the sensor signal would have
been managed by the
IntelligentAssistantTM
based on KnowledgeWareTM
specific to DrivingSystemTM
and would have suppressed the light at that critical
moment so I or a driver will not get distracted at an
inopportune moment. As per the example above about the
intelligent assistant suppressing the phone ringer when the turn
signal is on, IntelligentNotificationTM
goes an extra step and deliver the caller name in a manner
meaningful to the driver that assures his eyes stay on the road
and his hands stay on the wheels Verbally.
Another example is an option becoming available on cars today
(2004 onward) to detect the presence of an object in the blind
spot. While this information is necessary "IF THE DRIVER
WANTS TO CHANGE LANE", the information becomes an annoyance to
the driver, the passenger and other drivers if the alarms or
lights keep on signaling the drivers and passengers information
that they have not use for and may disrupt their concentration
in a bad time. As part of the Assessment above, the system
should be able to understand and determine the need of the
driver vs. the need of the other drivers and give every driver
the right information at the right time.
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SECRET-Counter Distraction Measure
Still
secret, but already disclosed to the USPTO. Information
will be coming soon. However, reading
IntelligentNotificationTM,
our
ASSESSMENT
and our
DriverSystemTM. Back
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Portability
With
the advent of Personal Portable electronics in the late 80's and
early 90's, came also an explosion in the need for data to
travel and move to where we are. Cellular phone solved the
verbal data issue and notebooks solved the work data issue.
Private Networks and later the internet made it even easier to
access our data from anywhere except in the car.
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The Car remained an island all on
its own without meaningful integration with the rest of the
world and it remained along with its hardwired contents isolated
from the rest of the world. tapes and CD's allowed for the
transfer of soft environment such as songs and books on tapes,
but that was it.
We saw matters differently,
particularly in light of the heavy travel experience. In
addition to already experimenting with in car computing for
navigation and later driver assistance in 1985, we have now
added Cellular Phones to the mix and we put together the concept
of car specific applications and data just like we have home
specific applications (video games) and office specific
applications (Excel, Word processing etc.).
The Applications should be car
specific and aims to add value to the driving experience.
This means taking our favorites with us from car to car.
The simplest and the best way to do that was to add the data of
any types to a memory media and loading it to the next vehicle
computer. 51/4 floppies were flimsy, the 3.5" held more
data but they were still an added carryon piece of technology.
The Cellphone was the obvious answer especially as it began to
go smaller in size.
Our IP call for storing personal
data, preferences and applications on the phone itself.
Oversized data can be accessed via the phone line from the main
frame and off we go.
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Blind Spot Mitigation
(as opposed to Blind Spot
Detection)
Many OEMs and Tiers are
implementing radar for detecting vehicles and objects in the
driver blind spot. All of these detection methods have
their drawback. Our system relies on the turn signal lever
to move the mirror to a MAX view and return it to set position
at the driver request. Others have already started to
produce this type of products but our IP have precedents at this
stage.
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Look ahead Vector
This is simply one of our
earliest feature in the driver assistance arena. This is a
system and method to alert the driver or other controllers in
the car of the road curvature, stop signs, traffic lights and so
fourth. The alarm is triggered only when the combination
of
MAN, MACHINE, ENVIRONMENT, HISTORY and REGULATION indicate an
unbalanced driving experience, e.g. driving too fast for the
road curvature ahead, approaching a stop sign without slowing
down, etc...
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Traffic Light Detector
System and method for detecting
the traffic light status and alerting the driver when the
combination of
MAN, MACHINE, ENVIRONMENT, HISTORY and REGULATION indicate an
unbalanced driving experience
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Ambulance In area Detector
System and Method for detecting
the presence of an emergency vehicle and to notify the driver of
such presence when the combination of
MAN, MACHINE, ENVIRONMENT, HISTORY and REGULATION indicate an
unbalanced driving experience.
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Automatic Accident Reporting
& Detection System & Methods
Unlike OnStar® and other fee based
system, our system will allow the driver to use personal
cell phone to contact 911 automatically in event of an accident
and manually (While HANDS STAY ON THE WHEEL). Recently,
Microsoft® /Ford
SyncTM
announced similar feature (Early 2008), but our IP has priority
at the USPTO, EUPO and JPO.
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