JP6211427B2 - In-vehicle device controller - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle-mounted device control apparatus that controls a plurality of vehicle-mounted devices, and more particularly, to a vehicle-mounted device control device that controls a vehicle-mounted device using an operation device for operating a plurality of vehicle-mounted devices provided with an operator. Is.

  In recent years, development of a technique for operating a plurality of in-vehicle devices such as a car navigation apparatus and a car audio using a switch provided on a steering wheel of a vehicle, that is, a steering switch has been progressing. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for switching to a steering switch menu display when a steering switch is operated in a state where a touch panel menu display is displayed on a display.

JP2013-129352A

  The steering switch is, for example, a plurality of operating elements 61 to 66 provided in the steering 6 as shown in FIG. By pressing the plurality of operating elements, a multi-level menu screen can be operated to control different in-vehicle devices. In this case, in order to execute one operation with respect to one in-vehicle device, the driver must perform an operation of moving down the menu hierarchy one by one by pressing the operation element, which takes time. As the menu hierarchy increases, the possibility of operation mistakes increases, which may hinder the driver's ability to concentrate on driving.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an in-vehicle device control apparatus that can secure a concentration that allows a driver to perform safe driving.

  An in-vehicle device control apparatus according to the present invention includes a user operation accepting unit that accepts a user operation on an operation element of an operation device for operating a plurality of in-vehicle devices, and voice recognition that recognizes the utterance content of a user who is operating the operation element. And the operation load vocabulary storage unit that stores the operation load vocabulary that is a vocabulary indicating the operation load of the user, and the voice recognition unit recognizes the data stored in the operation load vocabulary storage unit. And an operation load vocabulary counting unit that counts the number of operation load vocabulary included in the user's utterance, and the user operation accepting unit is counted by the operation load vocabulary counting unit. When the number of operation load vocabularies exceeds a predetermined threshold, the reception of the user operation is stopped.

  According to this configuration, when the number of operation load vocabulary issued by the driver operating the operation device of the operation device having the operation device such as a steering switch exceeds a predetermined threshold, the operation on the operation device is performed. Will be suspended. Here, the operation load vocabulary is a vocabulary indicating the operation load state of the driver who is the user of the operation device, and the more the driver issues the operation load state, the more the operation load for controlling the in-vehicle device using the operation element. Means higher. If the operation load is high, the driver cannot concentrate on driving. Therefore, with this configuration, when the operation load on the driver is high, the control of the in-vehicle device by the operation device can be interrupted, and the concentration at which the driver can perform safe driving can be maintained. The operation load vocabulary includes, for example, interjections (such as “that?”, “Ah”, “another”, etc.) and tongue strikes, which have no meaning by themselves, but negative psychology such as speaker upset or irritation. Terms and utterances that are a manifestation of a state, and terms that mean a negative psychological state, such as “funny” or “different” are included.

  The on-vehicle device control device of the present invention further includes a voice command execution unit that outputs a control signal for executing an operation on the on-vehicle device based on a voice command, and the voice recognition unit includes the user operation reception unit. When the reception of the user operation is stopped, recognition of a voice command included in the user's utterance may be started.

  According to this configuration, even if the control of the in-vehicle device by the operation device having the operation element is interrupted, the in-vehicle device can be operated by the voice command. In this way, by switching from an operation using a steering switch or the like to an operation using a voice command in accordance with the operation load of the driver, the vehicle-mounted device can be controlled so that the driver can concentrate more on driving. Further, since the voice command is not recognized during operation of the operation device, the processing load can be reduced.

  The in-vehicle device control device of the present invention provides a control state confirmation unit for confirming a control state of each in-vehicle device, and a voice command corresponding to a control content that can be commanded according to the control state of each in-vehicle device to the user. Data stored in the voice command candidate storage unit based on the control state when the voice command candidate storage unit stored as a voice command candidate to be presented and the user operation reception unit stop receiving the user operation The voice command candidate selecting unit for selecting a voice command candidate, and the voice command candidate presenting unit for presenting the voice command candidate selected by the voice command candidate selecting unit to the user.

  According to this configuration, when the control of the in-vehicle device by the operation device such as the steering switch is interrupted, the voice command candidate corresponding to the control state of the in-vehicle device is presented to the driver. Presented as voice command candidates are limited to voice commands corresponding to control contents that can be commanded according to the control state of the in-vehicle device, and the driver selects a desired voice command from the presented voice command candidates. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the load on the driver during voice command operation and to concentrate the driver on driving.

  In the in-vehicle device control apparatus of the present invention, the voice command candidate selection unit may exclude voice commands corresponding to the control content selected by the operation device within a predetermined time.

  According to this configuration, a voice command corresponding to the control content already selected by the user is excluded when an operation is performed using a steering switch or the like. Since the operation has already been realized using the operation device, it is unlikely that the user feels a burden on the operation content. Therefore, with this configuration, it is possible to present an appropriate voice command while further reducing the operation load on the driver.

  In the in-vehicle device control apparatus according to the present invention, the voice recognition unit may operate when the user operation reception unit receives a return operation of the user.

  According to this configuration, the operation load vocabulary starts to be counted when a return operation using a steering switch or the like is performed. Here, the return operation is a case where the operation is canceled, or in the operation menu for controlling the in-vehicle device composed of a plurality of layers, after once going down one or more menu layers, a new in-vehicle device is added. An operation that goes back one or more menu levels without executing any control. When the operation is canceled, it is considered that the user's intention is not met. In addition, once going down the menu hierarchy, it is considered that the user intends to perform some control on the in-vehicle device. Therefore, it is the user's intention to go back up the menu hierarchy without executing new control. It is thought that this is because it is not in line with That is, in any case, it can be considered that an operation load has occurred. Therefore, with this configuration, it is possible to start the speech recognition for counting the operation load vocabulary at an appropriate timing while reducing the processing load without normally performing the speech recognition.

  The in-vehicle device control device of the present invention may further include a threshold value determination unit that determines the threshold value according to the number of return operations of the user received by the user operation reception unit.

  According to this configuration, it is possible to change a threshold value that is a criterion for determining whether or not to stop the operation by the steering switch or the like according to the number of return operations based on the return operation of the user. It can be considered that as the number of return operations increases, the user's intention is not satisfied, and the user's operation load increases. Therefore, for example, the operation load state of the user can be appropriately determined by reducing the threshold value as the number of return operations increases.

  The in-vehicle device control method according to the present invention includes a step of accepting a user operation on an operation element of an operation device for operating a plurality of in-vehicle devices, a step of recognizing a user's utterance content while operating the operation element, and the user Counting the number of the operation load vocabulary included in the recognized user utterance with reference to data stored in an operation load vocabulary storage unit that stores an operation load vocabulary that is a vocabulary indicating the operation load of And, when the counted number of the operation load vocabulary exceeds a predetermined threshold, the step of stopping acceptance of a user operation to the operator.

  The program of the present invention is a program for controlling an in-vehicle device, the step of accepting a user operation on an operation element of an operation device for operating a plurality of in-vehicle devices to a computer, and a user operating the operation element Referring to the data stored in the operation load vocabulary storage unit that stores the operation load vocabulary, which is a vocabulary indicating the user's operation load, is included in the recognized utterance of the user A step of counting the number of operation load words, and a step of stopping acceptance of a user operation for the operator when the counted number of operation load words exceeds a predetermined threshold.

  According to the present invention, when the number of operation load vocabularies issued by the user who is operating the operation element of the operation device exceeds a predetermined threshold, the acceptance of the operation to the operation device is stopped, so that the driver can Concentration that allows safe driving can be secured.

The block diagram which shows the structure of the vehicle equipment control apparatus in embodiment of this invention The figure which shows the example of the data memorize | stored in the voice command candidate memory | storage part in embodiment of this invention (A)-(d) The figure which shows the example of the operation menu screen in this Embodiment The figure which shows the hierarchical structure of the operation menu in this Embodiment Operation flow diagram of in-vehicle device control apparatus in the present embodiment Diagram showing an example of a steering switch

  Hereinafter, an in-vehicle device control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an in-vehicle device control apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the in-vehicle device control apparatus 1 includes a steering switch 10, a display 11, a microphone 12, a speaker 13, a control unit 20, an operation load vocabulary storage unit 30, and a voice command candidate storage unit 31. And a communication interface 40, and is connected to the in-vehicle device 50 via the communication interface 40. The in-vehicle device 50 includes an audio 51, an air conditioner 52, and a navigation device 53.

  The steering switch 10 includes a plurality of operators not shown. By pressing this operator, the cursor is moved and executed on the menu screen for controlling the in-vehicle device 50 displayed on the display 11. The display 11 displays a menu screen for controlling the in-vehicle device 50, and further displays a message prompting the driver to execute a voice command operation, for example, by displaying voice command candidates to be described later. The microphone 12 acquires the speech of the driver who operates the steering switch 10 and outputs it to the control unit 20. The speaker 13 outputs a question or response for an operation based on a voice command to the driver.

  The control unit 20 includes a user operation reception unit 21, a voice recognition unit 22, an operation load vocabulary count unit 23, a control state confirmation unit 24, a voice command candidate selection unit 25, a threshold value determination unit 26, and a control signal transmission. Part 27. The user operation receiving unit 21 detects that the operator of the steering switch 10 has been pressed, and receives it as a user operation for controlling the in-vehicle device 50. However, when the number of operation load vocabulary counted by the operation load vocabulary counting unit 23 exceeds the predetermined value (initial value) or the threshold determined by the threshold determination unit 26, the user operation reception unit 21 , Stop accepting user operations.

  The voice recognition unit 22 acquires the driver's utterance from the microphone 12, performs voice recognition, and outputs it to the operation load vocabulary counting unit 23. The operation load vocabulary counting unit 23 refers to the data stored in the operation load vocabulary storage unit 30 and indicates the operation load of the driver's steering switch 10 included in the driver's speech recognized by the voice recognition unit 22. Count the number of vocabulary. The operation load vocabulary storage unit 30 stores predetermined terms indicating that a high operation load is applied to the user, such as “Ah”, “Old”, and “Funny”.

  The control state confirmation unit 24 confirms the control state of the in-vehicle device 50. The control state of the in-vehicle device 50 means in what state each device constituting the in-vehicle device 50 is currently controlled by the in-vehicle device control apparatus 1. For example, the air conditioner 52 is in an “on” state. Or the set temperature in the “on” state is included in the “control state”. The voice command selection unit 25 refers to the data stored in the voice command candidate storage unit 31 and confirms with the control state confirmation unit 24 when the user operation reception unit 21 stops receiving the user's operation. A voice command candidate is selected based on the control state of the in-vehicle device 50.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of data stored in the voice command candidate storage unit 31. As shown in FIG. 2, the voice command candidate storage unit 31 stores voice command candidates in association with the control state of each in-vehicle device. For example, if neither the radio nor the CD / DVD player is operating in the audio 51, the control content “play the previous song” cannot be commanded. Therefore, in the present embodiment, only the voice command corresponding to the control content that can be commanded is associated with the control state of each in-vehicle device.

  However, as shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of voice command candidates may be associated with one control state. Even if the CD / DVD player is turned on, if the CD / DVD is not being played back, the volume change is a control content that can be commanded to the audio 51, but first the playback of the CD / DVD is started. It is considered that it is more in line with the user's intention. Therefore, in the voice command candidate storage unit 31 according to the present embodiment, among the voice commands corresponding to the control contents that can be commanded, the voice commands that are considered to be more in line with the user's intention according to the control state of the in-vehicle device. Are stored as voice command candidates.

  The voice command candidate selection unit 25 excludes voice commands corresponding to the control content selected by the steering switch 10 within a predetermined time from the voice command candidates selected with reference to the voice command candidate storage unit 31. For example, in FIG. 2, when CD / DVD playback is in progress, volume up is a control that can be commanded to the audio 51, but if the volume up operation is performed by the steering switch 10 within a predetermined time, a voice command The candidate selection unit 25 excludes the voice command candidate “volume up”. The voice command candidates selected in this way are displayed on the display 11 and presented to the driver.

  Returning to FIG. 1, the threshold value determination unit 26 determines a threshold value that is referred to by the user operation reception unit 21 and is compared with the number of operation load vocabularies counted by the operation load vocabulary count unit 23, and changes an initial value. . In the present embodiment, the threshold value determination unit 26 determines a larger threshold value as the number of driver return operations received by the user operation reception unit 21 is smaller, and determines a smaller threshold value as the number of return operations increases. . Therefore, in this embodiment, the user operation accepting unit 21 stops accepting the operation of the steering switch 10 even if the operation load vocabulary is slightly generated as the user performs more operations to return to the menu hierarchy. Become.

  FIGS. 3A to 3C are diagrams showing examples of operation menu screens in the present embodiment displayed on the display 11, and FIG. 4 shows a hierarchical structure of operation menus in the present embodiment. FIG. If the “AM” button is selected on the “Radio” menu screen shown in FIG. 3A, the “AM” menu screen shown in FIG. 3B is displayed. When the “information” button is selected, a “traffic information” screen shown in FIG. 3C is displayed, and the received traffic information is output from the speaker 13. When the “home” button is selected in FIGS. 3A to 3C, a menu screen as shown in FIG. 3D is displayed.

  Referring to FIG. 4, the operations returning from FIG. 3C to FIG. 3B and from FIG. 3B to FIG. 3A are all operations that go back up the menu hierarchy one by one. Of these, FIG. The operation returning from () to (b) does not correspond to the return operation. This is because the operation to return from FIG. 3C to FIG. 3B does not correspond to the cancellation of the operation, and the audio 51, which is temporarily transferred from FIG. 3B to FIG. This is because the menu hierarchy is traced after the new control for is performed. Similarly, selecting the “Home” button in FIG. 3C and returning to the menu screen in FIG. 3D does not correspond to the return operation, but shifts from FIG. 3A to FIG. 3B. When the “Home” button is selected in FIG. 3B and the menu screen in FIG. 3D is returned, this corresponds to the return operation.

  Returning to FIG. 1 again, the control signal transmission unit 27 outputs a signal for controlling the in-vehicle device 50 according to the operation of the driver on the steering switch received by the user operation reception unit 21. The control signal transmission unit 27 also outputs a signal for controlling the in-vehicle device 50 in accordance with a voice command included in the user's speech recognized by the voice recognition unit 22.

  Next, with reference to FIG. 5, operation | movement of the vehicle equipment control apparatus 1 in embodiment of this invention is demonstrated. The in-vehicle device control device 1 first clears the number of return operations (step S1), starts accepting a user operation by the steering switch 10 (step S2), and further starts operation load vocabulary recognition (step S2). S3). When the in-vehicle device control device 1 recognizes the operation load vocabulary (Yes in step S4), the in-vehicle device control apparatus 1 increments the recognized operation load vocabulary number (step S5), and the operation load vocabulary number is set to a predetermined threshold value (initial value or If the value exceeds the value determined in step S8 (Yes in step S6), reception of user operation by the steering switch 10 is stopped (step S10).

  Subsequently, when the in-vehicle device control device 1 selects a voice command candidate (step S11), the on-vehicle device control apparatus 1 displays the selected voice command candidate (step S12) and waits for a voice command input from the driver. If a voice command is input (Yes in step S13), the voice command is executed (step S14). If no voice command is input (No in step S13), is the voice command display canceled? (Yes in step S15) or if a certain time has elapsed (Yes in step S16), the acceptance of user operation by the steering switch 10 is resumed (step S17), and the process returns to step S1.

  On the other hand, even when the operation load vocabulary number does not exceed the predetermined threshold (No in step S6), the return operation returns to the root menu as shown in FIG. 3D (Yes in step S7). Then, the threshold value is determined according to the operation return count (step S8), and the process returns to step S3. On the other hand, when the return operation has not returned to the root menu (No in step S7), it is confirmed whether or not the task has been completed (step S9). If the task has been completed, step S1 is performed. If not finished, the process returns to step S4. In the present embodiment, as in step S7, when the return operation returns to the root menu, the threshold determination is performed in a state greatly different from the user's intention, and the necessity of changing the threshold is required. It is because it is thought that is high.

  As described above, according to the in-vehicle device control device 1 of the present embodiment, when the operation load vocabulary issued by the driver operating the steering switch exceeds a predetermined threshold, the user operation is accepted for the steering switch. Stopped. Therefore, when the driver's operation load increases, the control of the in-vehicle device by the steering switch can be interrupted, and the concentration that allows the driver to perform safe driving can be maintained.

  In the above embodiment, when the number of operation load vocabulary exceeds a predetermined threshold, the voice recognition unit of the in-vehicle device control device 1 stops accepting operation of the steering switch and displays voice command candidates. Although the case where voice command recognition and execution is performed has been described, the voice recognition unit may recognize only the operation load vocabulary. Thereby, the processing load in a vehicle equipment control apparatus can be reduced. In this case, it is not necessary to shift to the voice command operation and it is not necessary to display the voice command candidates. Further, instead of displaying the voice command candidates on the display, or displaying them on the display, the voice commands may be output from the speaker.

  In the above embodiment, the case where the in-vehicle device control device 1 starts recognizing the operation load vocabulary when the on-vehicle device control apparatus 1 starts accepting a user operation on the steering switch has been described. Vocabulary recognition may begin. Furthermore, on the operation menu screen, a cancel button for canceling the control of the in-vehicle device may be provided. In this case, the selection of the cancel button may be a return operation.

  INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention has an effect that it is possible to secure a concentration that allows a driver to perform safe driving, and is useful as an in-vehicle device control device that controls an in-vehicle device.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Vehicle equipment control apparatus 10 Steering switch 11 Display 12 Microphone 13 Speaker 20 Control part 21 User operation reception part 22 Voice recognition part 23 Operation load vocabulary count part 24 Control state confirmation part 25 Voice command candidate selection part 26 Threshold value determination part 27 Control signal Transmission unit 30 Operation load vocabulary storage unit 31 Voice command candidate storage unit 40 Communication interface 50 In-vehicle device 51 Audio 52 Air conditioner 53 Navigation device 6 Steering 61-66 Operator

Claims (6)

A user operation accepting unit for accepting a user operation for an operation element of an operation device for operating a plurality of in-vehicle devices;
A voice recognition unit for recognizing the utterance content of the user who is operating the operation element;
An operation load vocabulary storage unit that stores an operation load vocabulary that is a vocabulary indicating the operation load of the user;
An operation load vocabulary counting unit that counts the number of the operation load vocabulary included in the user's utterance recognized by the voice recognition unit with reference to data stored in the operation load vocabulary storage unit;
A control state confirmation unit for confirming the control state of each of the in-vehicle devices;
A voice command candidate storage unit that stores voice commands corresponding to control contents that can be commanded according to the control state of each of the in-vehicle devices as voice command candidates to be presented to the user;
A voice command candidate selection unit that selects a voice command candidate from data stored in the voice command candidate storage unit based on the control state when the user operation reception unit stops receiving the user operation;
A voice command candidate presenting unit that presents the voice command candidate selected by the voice command candidate selecting unit to the user;
With
The user operation accepting unit stops accepting the user operation when the number of the operation load vocabulary counted by the operation load vocabulary counting unit exceeds a predetermined threshold ;
The voice command candidate selecting unit, vehicle-mounted device control unit to exclude a voice command corresponding to the control content selected by the operating device within a predetermined time. A voice command execution unit that outputs a control signal for executing an operation on the in-vehicle device based on the voice command;
The in-vehicle device control device according to claim 1, wherein the voice recognition unit starts recognizing a voice command included in the user's utterance when the user operation reception unit stops receiving the user operation. The voice recognition unit, the user operation receiving unit, vehicle equipment control device according to claim 1 or 2 operates when receiving a return operation of the user. The in-vehicle device control device according to any one of claims 1 to 3 , further comprising a threshold value determination unit that determines the threshold value according to the number of return operations of the user received by the user operation reception unit. A step of accepting a user operation on an operator of an operation device for operating a plurality of in-vehicle devices;
Recognizing the utterance content of the user who is operating the manipulator;
The number of the operation load vocabulary included in the recognized utterance of the user is counted with reference to data stored in an operation load vocabulary storage unit that stores an operation load vocabulary that is a vocabulary indicating the operation load of the user. Steps,
A step of stopping acceptance of a user operation for the operator when the counted number of the operation load vocabularies exceeds a predetermined threshold;
Confirming the control state of each of the in-vehicle devices;
When the reception of the user operation is stopped, from the voice command candidate storage unit that stores the voice command corresponding to the control content that can be commanded according to the control state of each in-vehicle device as the voice command candidate to be presented to the user, Selecting voice command candidates based on the control state, excluding voice commands corresponding to the control content selected by the operation device within a predetermined time, and selecting the voice command candidates;
Presenting the selected voice command candidates to the user;
An in-vehicle device control method comprising: A program for controlling in-vehicle devices,
A step of accepting a user operation on an operator of an operation device for operating a plurality of in-vehicle devices;
Recognizing the utterance content of the user who is operating the manipulator;
The number of the operation load vocabulary included in the recognized utterance of the user is counted with reference to data stored in an operation load vocabulary storage unit that stores an operation load vocabulary that is a vocabulary indicating the operation load of the user. Steps,
A step of stopping acceptance of a user operation for the operator when the counted number of the operation load vocabularies exceeds a predetermined threshold;
Confirming the control state of each of the in-vehicle devices;
When the reception of the user operation is stopped, from the voice command candidate storage unit that stores the voice command corresponding to the control content that can be commanded according to the control state of each in-vehicle device as the voice command candidate to be presented to the user, Selecting voice command candidates based on the control state, excluding voice commands corresponding to the control content selected by the operation device within a predetermined time, and selecting the voice command candidates;
Presenting the selected voice command candidates to the user;
A program that executes