JP2007045285A - Vehicular information providing device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vehicular information providing device capable of enabling a user of a vehicle to comprehend meaning and priority of an alarm by acoustic sense information and pay attention to safety check around the vehicle. <P>SOLUTION: A controlling means 202 receives each information about various states of the vehicle through at least one either one of a vehicle information terminal 212 or a multiple communication input/output means 213, and actuates an acoustic sense information providing means 240 so as to issue various alarm sound on the basis of each information. In case that a plurality of the alarm conditions are generated, the priority of the alarm conditions are determined, ad the acoustic information providing means 240 is operated so as to change the magnitude of sound pressure of the various alarm sound according to the priority. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle information providing device, and more particularly to an auditory information providing unit, which determines priority according to the state of the vehicle, and the sound pressure of an alarm sound emitted from the auditory information providing unit according to the priority. The present invention relates to a vehicle information providing apparatus capable of adjusting the size.

Conventional vehicle information providing devices include those disclosed in Patent Literature 1 and Patent Literature 2. Patent Document 1 discloses a vehicle information providing device related to a meter and an obstacle alarm device mounted on an automobile, and includes a plurality of drive circuits each having an independent buzzer. Further, in Patent Document 1, when a plurality of alarms are generated at the same time (when a plurality of warning states occur), priorities are assigned to the causes of the alarm sound (buzzer ringing), and the alarm sound is displayed according to this priority order. What is made to ring sequentially is disclosed. Patent Document 2 discloses an automobile combination meter as a vehicle information providing device, and when a plurality of alarms are generated at the same time, synchronize alarm output by sounding means such as a buzzer or a speaker and shift the phase. At the same time, this information is synthesized and output.
JP 2000-168476 A JP-A-8-278160

  By the way, when a plurality of alarms are generated at the same time, when the drive circuit disclosed in Patent Document 1 is provided, a buzzer can be sounded by each of the drive circuits. However, as the number of alarms that occur increases, the sound pressure of the entire alarm sound increases, making it noisy and difficult to hear for the vehicle user. Such a composite apparatus for a vehicle disclosed in Patent Document 1 solves the above-mentioned problem by sequentially sounding alarm sounds, but there is room for improvement in regard to the user grasping the state of the vehicle instantaneously. was there. Further, the automobile combination meter disclosed in Patent Document 2 solves the above-mentioned problem, but there is room for improvement with respect to the fact that it becomes difficult to synchronize alarm sounds as the number of alarms generated increases. there were.

  The present invention pays attention to the above-mentioned problems, and provides vehicle information that enables a vehicle user to understand the meaning of alarms and their priority with auditory information, and to pay more attention to safety confirmation around the vehicle. The object is to provide an apparatus.

  As in the vehicle information providing apparatus according to claim 1, the present invention includes an auditory information providing unit that notifies various states of the vehicle by hearing, and a control unit that operates the auditory information providing unit. The information providing device for a vehicle, wherein the control means receives each information related to various states of the vehicle via at least one of the vehicle information input means or the multiplex communication input / output means, and performs various alarms based on the information. The auditory information providing means is operated to emit a sound, and when a plurality of alarm conditions occur simultaneously, the priority of each alarm condition is determined, and the sound pressure of the alarm sound is increased according to the priority. The auditory information providing means is operated so that the height changes.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided the vehicular information providing apparatus according to the first aspect, wherein the control means is configured to overlap when the various alarm sounds are overlapped. The sound pressure corresponding to the alarm condition for each priority is made variable so that the composite sound pressure becomes the predetermined sound pressure.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the vehicle information providing apparatus according to the first aspect, wherein the auditory information providing means includes: a mixing means for mixing the various alarm sounds; and the mixing means. And a sounding means for sounding the mixing signal.

  The present invention relates to an information providing device for a vehicle comprising auditory information providing means for informing various states of a vehicle by hearing, and control means for operating the auditory information providing means. It is possible to obtain a vehicular information providing device that can understand the meaning and priority of an alarm and can pay more attention to safety confirmation around the vehicle.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is an overview diagram illustrating an example of a vehicle information providing device, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the vehicle information providing device, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an operation of the vehicle information providing device.

  In FIG. 1, a vehicle information providing apparatus 100 includes first and second display units 101 that are visual information providing means for displaying various types of information, a tachometer 103 that indicates an engine speed analogly, and a fuel amount in a tank. Is provided with an analog indication of the fuel gauge 104 and an engine cooling water temperature indicator 105 for analog display.

  The first display unit 101 is an electronic display panel made up of a liquid crystal display device (LCD) such as a TFT, for example. In addition to visual information (visual alarms) related to various alarms to be described later, vehicle speed, travel distance, etc. are illustrated. Various types of visual information are displayed according to detection information from various sensors that are not detected and state information from switch means (not shown).

  In FIG. 2, the vehicle information providing apparatus 100 includes a setting unit (terminal) 210 for shifting the vehicle information providing apparatus 100 to the customization mode, and an input for setting or selecting various setting contents when executing the customization mode. Means 211, vehicle information terminal (vehicle information input means) 212 for inputting / outputting vehicle information, multiplex communication input / output terminal (multiplex communication input / output means) 213, vehicle interface (I / F) means 201, vehicle The control unit 202 configured by, for example, a microcomputer for controlling the information providing apparatus 100 and a processing program of the control unit 202 are stored, and according to the priority in the sound pressure control of the auditory information providing unit 240 described in detail later. First storage means (storage means) comprising a ROM or the like in which a predetermined program or the like for determining sound pressure is stored 203, the second storage unit 204 made of a nonvolatile memory such as an EEPROM or a flash memory that can register various settings set by the input unit 211 for each occupant, and the display described above for visually displaying various types of information Unit 101, drive unit 205 that also serves as display control of display unit 101 and drive control of various analog (pointer type) instruments 103 to 105, and auditory information providing unit 240 for aurally reporting various information. Have. The auditory information providing unit 240 includes a mixing unit 241 that mixes various alarm sounds, an amplifier 242, and a speaker 243. The auditory information providing unit 240 provides auditory notification of various vehicle states including information related to various alarms to be described later.

  Here, a dedicated speaker is provided for the auditory information providing hand throw 240, but the speaker 224 for the audio 223 may also be used.

  On the other hand, the vehicle information providing apparatus 100 detects obstacles when the vehicle garage or parallel parking is performed in the transmitter 221 and the receiver 222 of the keyless entry device 220 that is an occupant (user) identification means, the audio 223, and the vehicle. Obstacle alarm devices such as a corner sensor device 225 and a back sonar device 226 that detect and notify are connected via a multiplex communication line 230. The control unit 202 can output an instruction signal for instructing the sound volume to the audio 223 via the multiplex communication input / output terminal 213 and the multiplex communication line 230.

  Next, the operation of the vehicle information providing apparatus 100 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3A shows an example of sound pressure for each time of various alarm sounds emitted by the auditory information providing means 240. Specifically, the control unit 202 detects that the user has turned on the hazard switch at t1, and outputs an operation sound (turn sound) of the direction indicator to the mixing unit 241 (sound pressure a1 instruction). At this time, since no other alarm condition has occurred, the mixing unit 241 is caused to sound as a turn sound of the sound pressure a1 (a1 indicates the magnitude of the sound pressure) by the speaker 243 via the amplifier 242.

  Similarly, the control means 202 detects that the user has operated the select lever of the automatic transmission in reverse at t2, and outputs a reverse warning sound to the mixing means 241 (sound pressure a2 instruction). The mixing means 241 mixes the turn sound that has already been input and the reverse alarm sound, and amplifies it as the mixing sound of the reverse alarm of the turn sound of the sound pressure a1 and the sound pressure a2 (a2 indicates the magnitude of the sound pressure). The speaker 243 is caused to ring through 242.

  The control unit 202 detects an alarm instruction from the back sonar device 226 at t3, and outputs a back sonar alarm sound (tone that varies depending on the distance between the vehicle and the obstacle) to the mixing unit 241. At this time, the control means 202 determines the priority of the turn sound, reverse warning sound, and back sonar warning sound. The control means 202 determines the priority of various alarm conditions in advance when various alarm conditions occur at the same time, and in the embodiment shown here, determines that the priority of the back sonar warning sound is high, The sound pressure of the back sonar warning sound is indicated as a2. Further, the control means 202 instructs to mute from the sound pressure a1 of the turn sound to the sound pressure a3 (a3 indicates the magnitude of the sound pressure) (a1> a3), and from the sound pressure a2 of the reverse alarm sound to the sound pressure a4. A mute instruction (a2> a4) is given to (a4 indicates the level of sound pressure). The mixing means 241 mixes the turn sound, reverse alarm sound, and back sonar alarm sound that have already been input, and mixes the turn sound of the sound pressure a3, the reverse alarm of the sound pressure a4, and the back sonar alarm sound of the sound pressure a2. As a sound, the sound is emitted from the speaker 243 via the amplifier 242. Note that the mixing processing is performed so that the sum of the sound pressures a3, a4, and a2 at t3 is substantially the same as the sum of the sound pressures a1 and a2 at t1.

  The control unit 202 detects an alarm instruction from the corner sensor device 225 at t4, and outputs a corner sensor alarm sound (tone that varies depending on the distance between the vehicle and the obstacle) to the mixing unit 241. At this time, the control means 202 determines the priority of the turn sound, reverse alarm sound, back sonar alarm sound, and corner sensor alarm sound. The control means 202 determines the priorities of various alarm conditions in advance. In the embodiment shown here, it is determined that the priorities of the back sonar alarm sound and the corner sensor alarm sound are high, and the turn sound and reverse Continue to mute the alarm sound. Here, since the high-priority back sonar alarm and the corner sensor alarm condition are generated, the sound pressure a5 of the back sonar alarm and the sound pressure a6 of the corner sensor alarm are set to substantially the same sound pressure (a5 = a6). Yes, the total sound pressure of a5 and a6 is substantially the same as a2.) The mixing means 241 mixes the turn sound, reverse alarm sound, back sonar alarm sound and corner sensor alarm sound that have already been input, and turns the sound pressure a3, the sound pressure a4 reverse alarm, and the sound pressure a5 back sound. As a mixing sound of the sonar warning sound and sound pressure a6 corner sensor alarm sound, the sound is generated by the speaker 243 via the amplifier 242. Note that the mixing processing is performed so that the sum of the sound pressures a3, a4, a5, and a6 at t4 is substantially the same as the sum of the sound pressures a1 and a2 at t1.

  The control unit 202 detects an alarm release instruction from the back sonar device 226 at t5, and stops outputting the back sonar alarm sound to the mixing unit 241. At this time, the control unit 202 determines the priority of the turn sound, reverse warning sound, and corner sensor warning sound. The control means 202 determines the priorities of various alarm conditions in advance. In the embodiment shown here, the control means 202 determines that the corner sensor alarm sound has a high priority, and instructs to mute the turn sound and the reverse alarm sound. The corner sensor alarm sound is instructed as sound pressure a2. The mixing means 241 mixes the turn sound, reverse alarm sound and back sonar alarm sound that have already been input, and mixes the turn sound of the sound pressure a3, the reverse alarm of the sound pressure a4, and the corner sensor alarm sound of the sound pressure a2. As a sound, the sound is emitted from the speaker 243 via the amplifier 242.

  At t6, the control means 202 detects the reverse operation release and the alarm release instruction from the corner sensor device 225, and stops the output of the reverse alarm sound and the back sonar alarm sound to the mixing means 241. In this case, since no other alarm condition has occurred, the mixing unit 241 stops the mute instruction of the turn sound based on the instruction from the control unit 202 and turns the sound pressure a1 on the speaker 243 via the amplifier 242. Sound a sound.

  The control means 202 detects that the hazard switch is turned off at t7, and stops outputting the turn sound to the mixing means 241. In this case, the mixing unit 241 does not generate any other alarm condition, and thus ends the alarm sound from the speaker 243 based on the instruction from the control unit 202.

  Note that FIG. 3B is a diagram illustrating the magnitude of sound pressure when a plurality of alarm conditions are simultaneously generated by a conventional drive circuit (using mutually independent drive circuits disclosed in Patent Document 1). Thus, it can be seen that the sound pressure is higher than that in FIG. In FIG. 3B, b1 and b2 indicate the magnitudes of the sound pressures.

  Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 4, but the same reference numerals are given to the same or corresponding portions as those of the above-described embodiment, and detailed description thereof will be omitted. The vehicle information providing device 400 shown here is different from the vehicle information providing device 100 in the above-described embodiment in that the vehicle information providing device 400, the corner sensor device 425, and the back sonar device 426 are each provided with sounding means (speakers or Buzzer).

  Based on the vehicle information input, the control unit 402 determines the priority of the generated alarm sound, and the sound pressure of various alarm sounds to the auditory information providing hand pitch 440, the corner sensor device 425, and the back sonar device 426. Although the instruction is given, the sound pressure of the alarm sound generated by each sounding means is the same as that shown in FIG.

  The vehicle information providing apparatus 100 (400) includes an auditory information providing unit 240 (440) for informing various states of the vehicle by hearing, and a control unit 202 (402) for operating the auditory information providing unit 240 (440). , The control means 240 (440) receives each information related to various states of the vehicle via at least one of the vehicle information terminal 212 or the multiplex communication input / output terminal 213, and The auditory information providing means 240 (440) is operated so as to emit various alarm sounds based on the information, and when a plurality of alarm conditions occur at the same time, the priority of each alarm condition is determined, and the priority is set to the priority. In response, the auditory information providing means 240 (440) is operated so that the sound pressure level of the warning sound changes. In addition, when the various warning sounds overlap, the control means 202 (402) is configured so that the composite sound pressure at the time of overlapping substantially matches the predetermined sound pressure. The first storage means 203 stores the sound pressure level corresponding to the alarm condition for each priority, in other words, the control means 202 (402) includes the various alarm sounds. Are overlapped, the sound pressure corresponding to the alarm condition for each priority is variable so that the composite sound pressure at the time of overlap becomes a predetermined sound pressure ( The one with higher priority sets the sound pressure higher, and the one with lower priority sets the sound pressure lower).

  Therefore, the vehicle information providing apparatus 100 (400) allows the vehicle user to recognize the sound information as a composite sound pressure even when various warning conditions occur at the same time. By increasing the sound pressure for high warnings, it is possible to understand the meaning and priority of the warnings and to pay more attention to safety confirmation around the vehicle.

  The auditory information providing unit 240 (440) includes a mixing unit 241 (441) that mixes the various alarm sounds and a speaker 243 (443) that sounds a mixing signal from the mixing unit 241 (441). The auditory information providing means capable of implementing the present invention can be obtained with a relatively simple configuration.

  In each of the embodiments described above, the turn sound, reverse alarm, back sonar alarm sound, and corner sensor alarm sound have been described, but the type of alarm sound is not limited to this. For example, a seat belt non-wearing alarm that is notified when the user is not wearing the seat belt, a parking brake non-release alarm that is notified when the parking brake is not released, and the like are also applicable.

  In each of the embodiments described above, a predetermined program for determining the sound pressure according to the priority in the sound pressure control of the auditory information providing means 240 is stored in the first storage means 203 such as a ROM. However, by storing the program in the second storage means 204 composed of an EEPROM, a flash memory or the like, and allowing the user to set the sound pressure level using a setting means such as a switch, In addition to the effects of each embodiment, convenience can be improved.

1 is a schematic view of a vehicle information providing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The block diagram which shows the information provision apparatus for vehicles of embodiment same as the above. The figure which shows operation | movement of the control means of embodiment same as the above. The block diagram which shows other embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

100,400 Information providing device for vehicle
202, 402 Control means
203 1st memory | storage means 204 2nd memory | storage means 240,440 Auditory information provision means 241,441 Mixing means 242 Amplifier 243 Speaker

Claims (3)

An information providing apparatus for a vehicle comprising: auditory information providing means for informing various states of the vehicle by hearing; and control means for operating the auditory information providing means,
The control means receives each information related to various states of the vehicle via at least one of vehicle information input means or multiplex communication input / output means, and provides the auditory information so as to emit various alarm sounds based on the information. The auditory information is determined so that the priority of each alarm condition is determined when a plurality of alarm conditions occur simultaneously, and the sound pressure level of the alarm sound changes according to the priority. An information providing apparatus for a vehicle characterized by operating a providing means. The control means, when the various warning sounds are overlapped, the warning for each priority so that the composite sound pressure at the time of the overlap is a predetermined sound pressure. The vehicle information providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sound pressure corresponding to the condition is varied. 2. The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the auditory information providing unit includes at least a mixing unit that mixes the various alarm sounds and a ringing unit that rings a mixing signal from the mixing unit. Information providing device.

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