DE102021127184A1 - Method for operating a vehicle system for a motor vehicle and a vehicle system - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for operating a vehicle system, the vehicle system being in communication with a large number of vehicle devices in order to operate them according to one or more settings in a setting data record, with the following steps: requesting a specific experience situation by a user of a motor vehicle; - providing the setting data set, which comprises the one or more settings for the plurality of vehicle devices; - controlling the plurality of vehicle devices according to the settings of the provided setting data set; wherein the setting data record is provided based on detectable settings of a large number of external devices and/or from a database depending on the requested experience situation.

Description

The invention relates to vehicle systems for setting user preferences in vehicle settings for controllable vehicle devices in the area of audio, video, haptics, appearance and the like. The invention also relates to options for setting the vehicle settings according to externally recorded and combined information in order to evoke a desired mood or experience through an ensemble of vehicle settings for vehicle devices in the vehicle interior and/or vehicle exterior.

Automotive vehicle systems today are capable of driving a variety of vehicle devices in terms of audio, video, haptics, appearance, and the like. The vehicle devices can specify, in particular, interior lighting, air conditioning, driving behavior of the vehicle, a setting for the entertainment system, in particular a setting for the music titles played, a setting for vehicle seats and the like. The default is usually user-controlled or in an ensemble of controls in which a user can select according to a profile.

However, it is difficult for the user to purposefully create a certain experience or mood through the various vehicle devices, each of which is operated with an individualized setting. As a rule, the user has to create an experience or mood by frequently trying out and readjusting settings of one or more of the vehicle devices, in particular through lighting, audio program, air conditioning and other settings.

It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a method for operating a vehicle system in which the user can easily create a predefined mood.

This object is achieved by the method for operating a vehicle system according to claim 1 and a vehicle system for a motor vehicle according to the independent claim.

Further developments are specified in the dependent claims.

• - Anfordern einer bestimmten Erlebenssituation durch einen Benutzer eines Kraftfahrzeugs;
• - Bereitstellen des Einstellungsdatensatzes, der die eine oder die mehreren Einstellungen für die Vielzahl von Fahrzeugeinrichtungen umfasst;
• - Ansteuern der Vielzahl von Fahrzeugeinrichtungen gemäß den Einstellungen des bereitgestellten Einstellungsdatensatzes;

wobei der Einstellungsdatensatz basierend auf erfassbaren Einstellungen einer Vielzahl von fahrzeugexternen Einrichtungen und/oder von einer insbesondere fahrzeugexternen Datenbank abhängig von der angeforderten Erlebenssituation bereitgestellt wird.According to a first aspect, a method for operating a vehicle system is provided, wherein the vehicle system is in communication with a plurality of vehicle devices in order to operate them according to one or more settings, with the following steps:

• - Requesting a specific experience situation by a user of a motor vehicle;
• - providing the setting data set comprising the one or more settings for the plurality of vehicle devices;
• - Controlling the plurality of vehicle devices according to the settings of the provided setting data set;

wherein the setting data set is made available based on detectable settings of a large number of vehicle-external devices and/or from a vehicle-external database in particular, depending on the requested experience situation.

The essence of the above method consists in providing a setting data record which is designed to control vehicle devices and represents an experience situation or mood desired for the user of the motor vehicle when the corresponding settings are used for the operation of the vehicle devices.

The vehicle devices can be an adjustable lighting system with several lighting units in the vehicle interior and/or on the vehicle exterior, a display system for the controllable display of visual information, an adjustable entertainment system for outputting audio information, an adjustable window regulator, an adjustable sun hood, a seat adjustment system, a adjustable steering wheel vibration device for haptic feedback, a vehicle interior scenting device and/or an adjustable vehicle interior climate control system.

• - das Beleuchtungssystem eine Farbe, Leuchtstärke separat für einzelne Leuchtelementen einer Innenraumbeleuchtung und/oder zeitliche Verläufe einer Farbe und/oder Leuchtstärke; und/oder
• - das Anzeigesystem einen Darstellungsmodus der Anzeige, wie z.B. einen Dark Mode, einen Blue Mode und dergleichen; und/oder
• - das Entertainment-System Musikeinstellungen, insbesondere Musiktitel- oder eine Playlist, eine Lautstärke, Equalizereinstellungen und dergleichen, und/oder
• - das Sitzeinstellungssystem eine Sitztemperatur, eine Sitzpositionseinstellung, einen Massagegrad bei massagefähigen Fahrzeugsitzen, und dergleichen, und/oder
• - die Lenkrad-Vibrationseinrichtung eine Stärke der Vibration, und/oder
• - die Beduftungseinrichtung die Art und Stärke eines Dufts, und/oder
• - das Klimatisierungssystem eine Lüftungsstärke, Lüftungsbereichseinstellungen, Temperatureinstellungen für einen Teil oder den gesamten Fahrzeuginnenraum sowie Fahrzeugfensteröffnungseinstellungen umfassen.

The settings of the settings record can, for example, for

• - The lighting system a color, luminosity separately for individual lighting elements of an interior lighting and / or temporal profiles of a color and / or luminosity; and or
• - the display system a display mode of the display, such as a dark mode, a blue mode and the like; and or
• - the entertainment system music settings, in particular music titles or a playlist, volume, equalizer settings and the like, and/or
• - the seat adjustment system a seat temperature, a seat position adjustment, a massa especially with massage-capable vehicle seats, and the like, and/or
• - the steering wheel vibration device, a strength of the vibration, and/or
• - the scenting device, the type and strength of a scent, and/or
• - the climate control system include ventilation level, ventilation area settings, temperature settings for part or all of the vehicle interior, and vehicle window opening settings.

The specific experience situation or mood is correspondingly determined by the combination of the settings of the setting data record.

After a user request, the setting data record is now provided. For this purpose, the setting data record can be retrieved from an external database according to a manual language specification. The setting data records from the external database can be predefined by the user or can have been predefined by other users and released for use by other users.

Alternatively, the setting data record can also be generated by adopting an experienced situation or mood from an area external to the vehicle. For this purpose, for example, the settings of external devices, such as devices and systems, can be called up in the vehicle-external area. For example, home device settings may be retrieved from a smart home system of a user's home. For example, the lighting settings, i. H. Color and brightness of individual lighting elements, the music titles last played on the domestic music system or a playlist, the set room temperatures of the heating system and other settings of devices and systems that shape the experience.

These settings from external devices represent a mood in an external area to be transmitted to the vehicle according to a user's request or automatically. However, the external devices are not completely identical to the vehicle devices.

Provision can therefore be made for the external settings of a large number of external devices in an area outside the vehicle to be recorded and transmitted to the vehicle system, with the external settings being processed using an adaptation model in order to generate the setting data record.

An adaptation model can therefore be provided for adapting the external settings to the settings data record, which is correspondingly required for the settings on the vehicle devices. The adaptation model is preferably not parametrically based on data and can be trained in a suitable manner in order to transfer external settings of the area outside the vehicle, such as the user's home, into a setting data record for use in the vehicle, so that the experience situation or the mood in the vehicle is transferred.

The adaptation model may be configured in the form of an encoder-decoder configuration that is trained to convert an input vector from external settings into a settings data set for the vehicle system. The adaptation model can thus have an encoder and a decoder, which are in particular designed as an artificial neural network or as some other trainable data-based model, and which are connected to one another in series via a latent state vector. The output-side dimension of the encoder is smaller than the dimension of an input vector that includes the external settings or is formed from them. The encoder provides a latent state vector. The latent state vector, which represents the experiential situation achieved by the external attitudes, is mapped by the decoder onto the attitude data set, which has a higher dimensionality than the latent state vector.

The adaptation model can be trained based on a number of training data sets, in which one or more users assigns an experience situation/mood that is present in a vehicle-external area, such as the user's home, to a predetermined experience situation/mood in the vehicle. The experience situation/mood in the vehicle-external area is indicated by the external settings and the predetermined experience situation/mood in the vehicle by the setting data record. These form a training data set for training the encoder/decoder configuration of the adaptation model. The setting data record can be selected from a large number of predefined experience situations/moods, for example from the external database, or can be specified individually by the user. The adaptation model can be formed by this assignment of the training data set. This is then also able to convert varying settings of the external area into a corresponding setting data record with varied settings for the vehicle devices.

Furthermore, external settings can be detected by a sensor system, in particular a camera or microphone, e.g. on the vehicle, and these can be transmitted to the vehicle system, with the external settings being processed using an adaptation model in order to generate the setting data record. In this way, a mood detected by a sensor system on the vehicle can be detected outside of the vehicle and transmitted into the vehicle interior

• - Anfordern einer bestimmten Erlebenssituation durch einen Benutzer eines Kraftfahrzeugs;
• - Bereitstellen des Einstellungsdatensatzes, der die eine oder die mehreren Einstellungen für die Vielzahl von Fahrzeugeinrichtungen umfasst;
• - Ansteuern der Vielzahl von Fahrzeugeinrichtungen gemäß den Einstellungen des bereitgestellten Einstellungsdatensatzes;

wobei der Einstellungsdatensatz basierend auf erfassbaren Einstellungen einer Vielzahl von externen Einrichtungen und/oder von einer Datenbank abhängig von der angeforderten Erlebenssituation bereitgestellt wird.According to a further aspect, a vehicle system with a plurality of vehicle devices and a control unit is provided, which is designed to:

• - Requesting a specific experience situation by a user of a motor vehicle;
• - providing the setting data set comprising the one or more settings for the plurality of vehicle devices;
• - Controlling the plurality of vehicle devices according to the settings of the provided setting data record;

wherein the setting data record is provided based on detectable settings of a large number of external devices and/or from a database depending on the requested experience situation.

• 1 eine schematische Darstellung eines beispielhaften Gesamtsystems mit einem Fahrzeug und einen Haussystem als externen Bereich;
• 2 ein Flussdiagramm zur Veranschaulichung eines Verfahrens zum Betreiben eines Fahrzeugsystems; und
• 3 eine schematische Darstellung eines beispielhaften Anpassungsmodells.

Embodiments are explained in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Show it:

• 1 a schematic representation of an exemplary overall system with a vehicle and a home system as an external area;
• 2 a flowchart to illustrate a method for operating a vehicle system; and
• 3 a schematic representation of an exemplary adaptation model.

Description of Embodiments

1 shows a schematic representation of an overall system 1 with a vehicle 2. The vehicle 2 has a vehicle system 21 which includes a control unit 22, a communication unit 23 and a large number of vehicle devices 24. The control unit 22 is designed to receive information from outside the vehicle using the communication unit 23 and to operate the vehicle devices 24 in each case with corresponding settings or to control their operation based on a setting data record. The setting data record includes corresponding specifications for settings of the vehicle devices 24.

Furthermore, the vehicle system 21 can have an input device 25, such as an operating device, a touch display or voice control, in order to record user requests and use them to select the corresponding setting data record.

• - ein Beleuchtungssystem mit mehreren Leuchteinheiten im Fahrzeuginnenraum und/oder am Fahrzeugäußeren,
• - ein Anzeigesystem zur Anzeige von visuellen Informationen, ein Entertainment-System zur Ausgabe von Audio-Information,
• - ein Sitzeinstellungssystem,
• - ein verstellbarer Fensterheber,
• - ein einstellbares Sonnenverdeck,
• - eine Lenkrad-Vibrationseinrichtung zur haptischen Rückkopplung,
• - eine Beduftungseinrichtung für den Fahrzeuginnenraum und/oder
• - ein Klimatisierungssystem für den Fahrzeuginnenraum.

The vehicle devices can represent a large number of elements that act on the user of the vehicle and can be actively (electrically, electronically) controlled, such as, for example

• - a lighting system with several lighting units in the vehicle interior and/or on the vehicle exterior,
• - a display system for displaying visual information, an entertainment system for outputting audio information,
• - a seat adjustment system,
• - an adjustable window regulator,
• - an adjustable sun canopy,
• - a steering wheel vibration device for haptic feedback,
• - A scenting device for the vehicle interior and/or
• - a climate control system for the passenger compartment.

• - das Beleuchtungssystem eine Farbe, Leuchtstärke von einzelnen Leuchtelementen (jeweils separat oder in Gruppen) sowie ggfs. einen zeitlichen Verlauf der Farbe und/oder Leuchtstärke von einzelnen Leuchtelementen einer Innenraumbeleuchtung; und/oder
• - das Anzeigesystem einen Darstellungsmodus der Anzeige, wie z.B. einen Dark Mode, einen Blue Mode und dergleichen; und/oder
• - das Entertainment-System Musikeinstellungen, insbesondere Musiktitel- oder eine Playlist, eine Lautstärke, Equalizereinstellungen und dergleichen, und/oder
• - das Sitzeinstellungssystem eine Sitztemperatur, ein Sitzpositionseinstellung, einen Massagegrad bei massagefähigen Fahrzeugsitzen, und dergleichen, und/oder
• - die Lenkrad-Vibrationseinrichtung eine Stärke der Vibration, und/oder
• - die Beduftungseinrichtung die Art und Stärke eines Dufts, und/oder
• - das Klimatisierungssystem eine Lüftungsstärke, Lüftungsbereichseinstellungen, Temperatureinstellungen für einen Teil oder den gesamten Fahrzeuginnenraum sowie Fahrzeugfensteröffnungseinstellungen umfassen oder angeben.

The settings of the settings record can, for example, for

• - The lighting system a color, luminosity of individual lighting elements (each separately or in groups) and possibly. and or
• - the display system a presentation mode of the display, such as a dark mode, a blue mode and the like; and or
• - the entertainment system music settings, in particular music titles or a playlist, volume, equalizer settings and the like, and/or
• - the seat adjustment system a seat temperature, a seat position adjustment, a degree of massage for massageable vehicle seats, and the like, and/or
• - the steering wheel vibration device, a strength of the vibration, and/or
• - the scenting device, the type and strength of a scent, and/or
• - the climate control system includes or indicates a ventilation level, ventilation area settings, temperature settings for part or all of the vehicle interior, and vehicle window opening settings.

The control unit 22 is connected to the communication device 23 in order to retrieve information about a mood to be evoked in the vehicle 2 from a database 3 or from an external system 4 (external area), such as a home system, in accordance with a user-initiated or automatic request.

Thus, the control unit 22 can be designed to call up a setting data record from the database 3 which corresponds to an experience situation/mood desired by the user of the vehicle. For this purpose, the database 3 is designed to provide setting data records for a large number of different experience situations/moods that are predefined or specified as released by users of other vehicles for use by other users.

Alternatively, the control unit 22 can retrieve settings from the external system 4, in particular the home area (smart home area) of the user's home, and convert them into a setting data record using an adaptation model implemented in the control unit 22 .

The external area 4 has a home system 41 that has a home control unit 42 and a variety of home devices 43 (external devices), such as controllable lighting elements that can be controlled in color and brightness, an entertainment system for outputting audio information , a heating or air conditioning system, home and wellness appliances such as a massage bed, and the like. The external settings of these home devices 43 can be transmitted to the vehicle system 21 upon request.

In 3 such an adjustment model 10 is shown as an example. The adaptation model 10 can be a non-parametric data-based machine learning model that is trained based on training data sets. The adaptation model can be formed with an encoder 11 and a decoder 22 and can have an encoder-decoder configuration. On the input side, encoder 11 receives an input vector E with the external settings of home devices 43 of home system 41. On the output side, decoder 12 provides adaptation model 10 with an output vector that corresponds to setting data record A for vehicle system 21 in question.

Encoder 11 and decoder 12 can each be designed as a neural network, which are connected to one another via a latent state vector Z. The latent state vector may have a dimensionality that is typically less than the dimensionality of the input vector E, which includes or is formed from the home system's 41 external settings.

The adaptation model 10 is trained with training data records which assign input vectors E to corresponding output vectors A, which each represent the same experience situation/mood for the user. When training this adaptation model, a state vector Z is formed as a latent state vector for each input vector, which encodes the experience situation/mood to be transmitted in a semantic state space. After training, in a conventional manner, z. B. can be done using backpropagation based on training methods, the adaptation model 10 is able to convert the external settings as the sum of all settings of the home system 41 into the corresponding setting data record for the vehicle system 21 .

To create training datasets, moods and experience situations of local areas are recorded in the form of external settings of settings of the home system 41, formatted as input vector E and labeled with the corresponding output vector A, in which they are each assigned to an experience situation. For example, the experience situation can correspond to a sunrise mood, a forest atmosphere and the like or imitate them in terms of light, sound and air conditioning.

Alternatively, such experience situations can also be recorded from other areas, such as from sensors in the vehicle, from camera systems in the vehicle, from audio recordings recorded from the vehicle, or the like.

During use by one or a large number of users, they also label a large number of experience situations, e.g. while driving, using suitable labeling tools (e.g. via speech).

Alternatively, the overall system detects 1 changes to the vehicle's settings Setting data record that the user makes when the experience situation in the vehicle does not yet correspond to the desired experience situation, and assigns the setting data record that has been changed in this way as a label to the assigned experience situation.

The experience situation/mood in the vehicle 2 can be set, initiated by the user. For example, the user can call up the corresponding setting data record using voice control of the input device 25 . This voice control can, for example, respond to commands such as "I would like it to be as comfortable as at home" or generally as a query for the database "I would like a sunset atmosphere".

The control unit 22 is also able to take over only part of the external settings in the setting data record for the vehicle, such as "I would like it to be warm like at home", with only the temperature of the heating setting in the house system being recorded and the temperature in the vehicle is set to the same temperature.

If the user desires a sunset mood, this can relate to the lighting in the house system, so that the lighting settings set there are adopted for the settings of the lighting elements in the vehicle.

In 2 a flowchart to illustrate the method for operating the vehicle system 21 is described in more detail.

In step S1, it is first queried whether a user input for setting an experience situation such. B. a mood, or an individual setting in the vehicle is specified. If this is the case (alternative: yes), the method continues with step S2, otherwise (alternative: no) the process jumps back to step S1.

In step S2, a check is made as to whether the user's specifications relate to a presetting of a setting data record or whether a setting is to be adopted from an external area. In the former case (branch “1”) the method continues with step S3, in the latter case (branch “2”) the method continues with step S5.

In step S3, the setting data record corresponding to the user request is retrieved from the database 3. For example, if the user desires a sunset mood and this is stored as a predefined setting data record in the database 3, then this is retrieved.

In step S4 the retrieved setting data record is used to specify the corresponding settings of the vehicle devices 24 or to control them according to the settings.

In step S5, external settings are retrieved from the home system 41 according to a user's request. The external settings correspond to a predetermined set of settings of various home devices 43 operated according to settings.

The retrieved external settings are now transmitted to the vehicle system 21 in step S6 and processed using the adaptation model 10 in order to obtain a setting data record for the settings of the vehicle devices 24 in the vehicle 2 . Accordingly, the vehicle devices 24 are controlled by the settings present in the settings data record. In this way it is possible, with the aid of a sufficiently trained adaptation model 10 , to transfer the situation/mood experienced in the user's home to the vehicle 2 based on the specifications of the home system 41 .

Overall, a variety of predefined moods can be transmitted to the vehicle by requesting an experience situation from a database. The user can request the experience situation, for example, by means of a voice input. For example, if the user is driving past the Allianz Arena, he can request football mood at the sight of the illuminated Allianz Arena and listen to the roar of the audience: Possible voice commands can be: "Start Champions League protocol", "Let's get in the mood for the game.", " Let the game linger a bit longer.”

Instead of a verbal request for the experience situation, the vehicle can also recognize the stadium in automatic mode using vehicle sensors, such as the camera, and adjust the experience situation in the vehicle accordingly.

Reference List

1

overall system

2

vehicle

21

vehicle system

22

control unit

23

communication unit

24

in-vehicle equipment

25

input device

3

Database

4

external system

41

home system

42

home control unit

43

home furnishings

10

adaptation model

11

encoders

12

decoder

Z

latent state vector

E

input vector

A

output vector

Claims (9)

Method for operating a vehicle system (21), wherein the vehicle system (21) is in communication with a plurality of vehicle devices (24) in order to operate them according to one or more settings of a setting data record, with the following steps: - Requesting (S1) a specific experience situation by a user of a motor vehicle (2); - Providing (S3, S5, S6) the setting data record, which comprises the one or more settings for the plurality of vehicle devices (24); - Control (S4, S7) of the plurality of vehicle devices (24) according to the settings of the provided setting data set; wherein the setting data record is made available based on detectable settings of a large number of external devices (43) and/or from a database (3) depending on the requested experience situation. procedure after claim 1 , wherein the vehicle devices (24) comprise at least one of the following devices: a lighting system with several lighting units in the vehicle interior and/or on the vehicle exterior, a display system for displaying visual information, an entertainment system for outputting audio information, a seat adjustment system, a an adjustable vehicle window, an adjustable sunroof, a steering wheel vibration device for haptic feedback, a vehicle interior scenting device and a vehicle interior climate control system. procedure after claim 1 or 2 , wherein the settings of the settings data record include at least one of the following settings: - a color and luminosity of individual lighting elements of a lighting system; - a display mode of a display system; - a music setting, a volume, an equalizer setting of an entertainment system, - a seat temperature, a seat position setting of a seat adjustment system or a degree of massage for massageable vehicle seats, - a strength of a vibration of a steering wheel vibration device, - a type and strength of a scent of a scenting device, - a ventilation intensity, a ventilation area setting and a temperature setting of an air conditioning system and a vehicle window opening setting, in particular a window pane or a sun hood. Procedure according to one of Claims 1 until 3 , wherein external settings of a plurality of external devices (43) of a vehicle-external area are detected and these are transmitted to the vehicle system (21), the external settings being processed using an adaptation model (10) in order to generate the setting data record. procedure after claim 4 , wherein the adaptation model (10) is designed and trained non-parametrically and based on data in order to transmit external settings of the vehicle-external area to the vehicle system (21), so that the experienced situation is transmitted to the vehicle (2). procedure after claim 5 , wherein the adaptation model (10) has an encoder (11) and a decoder (12), which are in particular each designed as an artificial neural network and which are connected to one another in series via a latent state vector (Z). Procedure according to one of Claims 1 until 6 , External settings being detected by a sensor system, in particular a camera or microphone, and these being transmitted to the vehicle system (21), the external settings being processed using an adaptation model (10) in order to generate the setting data record. Method for training a data-based trainable adaptation model for operating a vehicle system (21). claim 3 , wherein the adaptation model (10) is trained by external settings of a large number of external devices (43) of a vehicle-external area being detected and assigned to a setting data set in order to generate a training data set, and by the adaptation model (10) being trained with training data sets provided in this way becomes. Vehicle system (21) with a plurality of vehicle devices (24) and a control unit (22) which is designed to: - request a specific experience situation by a user of a motor vehicle (2); - providing the setting data record comprising the one or more settings for the plurality of vehicle devices (24); - Controlling the plurality of vehicle devices (24) according to the settings of the provided setting data set; wherein the setting data record is made available based on detectable settings of a large number of external devices (43) and/or from a database (3) depending on the requested experience situation.

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