Intelligent Notification

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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.

IntelligentNotification^TM is a Context Sensitive method of delivering feed back to the driver with full awareness of real time condition of the DrivingSystem^TM as calibrated by the KnowledgeWare^TM. 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 IntelligentNotification^TMis 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 IntelligentNotification^TM to be implemented in a car today, the sensor signal would have been managed by the IntelligentAssistant^TM based on KnowledgeWare^TM specific to DrivingSystem^TMand 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, IntelligentNotification^TM 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 Subject Vehicle driver vs. the need of the Other Vehicle drivers and give every driver the right information at the right time.

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