JP7802589B2 - Mobile object control device and mobile object control method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a mobile object control device and a mobile object control method.

In-vehicle systems have been proposed for vehicles used by multiple users that read the identification information of each user in the vehicle to identify that user, and then change the steering, seat, and mirror position settings, as well as the UI (User Interface) settings of the HMI (Human Machine Interface) device, based on setting information corresponding to the identified user (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2019-147519

The inventors of the present application have discovered that when the position of the seat, etc. and the display mode of the HMI are changed depending on the user of the vehicle, as in the above-mentioned conventional technology, the user may experience flickering of the display depending on the timing of the change.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above background, and aims to provide a mobile body control device and a mobile body control method that can identify a user in a mobile body such as a vehicle and suppress flickering that the user perceives in the display unit when the settings of the display unit and configurable equipment other than the display unit are changed in accordance with the user's setting information.

A first aspect for achieving the above object is a mobile body control device that includes: a user identification unit that identifies whether a user of a mobile body is a specific user; a customization information acquisition unit that acquires customization information including information on a first setting state, which is the setting state of a display unit provided on the mobile body recorded for each specific user, and a second setting state, which is the setting state of the position of an electric seat provided on the mobile body recorded for each specific user; and a setting control unit that, when the user identification unit identifies a user who has boarded the mobile body as the specific user, or when the mobile body transitions to a state capable of running, starts a second control that sets the position of the electric seat to the second setting state based on the customization information, and starts a first control that sets the display unit to the first setting state after a predetermined waiting time has elapsed since the user was identified as the specific user or after a predetermined waiting time has elapsed since the start of the second control.

In the above-mentioned mobile object control device, the setting state of the display unit may be configured to include any of the setting states of the angle, brightness, color, and text of the display unit.

The above-mentioned mobile object control device may be configured to include a standby time change reception unit that changes the standby time in response to an instruction from the specific user.

The above-mentioned mobile object control device may be configured to include a standby time setting unit that sets the standby time based on the time required for the second control.

In the above-mentioned mobile object control device, the setting control unit may be configured to cause the display unit to display a message indicating that measures are being taken to set the user to the first setting state and the second setting state from the time the user is identified as the specific user by the user identification unit or from the time the second control is initiated until the first control is initiated.

In the above-mentioned mobile body control device, the user identification unit may identify whether the user aboard the mobile body is the specified user, and whether a person outside the mobile body near the mobile body is the specified user, and the setting control unit may be configured to start the first control from the time the user identification unit identifies the person as the specified user when the user identification unit identifies the person as the specified user.

In the above-described mobile object control device, the setting control unit may be configured to, when recognizing a start-up operation of the mobile object by a user aboard the mobile object, cause the display unit to display the setting state of the mobile object at the time of the previous use, and then, when the user identification unit identifies the user aboard the mobile object as the specific user, start the second control, and, after the waiting time has elapsed since the start of the second control, cause the display unit to display the first setting state.

A second aspect for achieving the above object is a mobile body control method executed by a computer, the mobile body control method including: a user identification step for identifying whether a user of the mobile body is a specific user; a customization information acquisition step for acquiring customization information including information on a first setting state, which is a setting state of a display unit provided on the mobile body recorded for each specific user, and a second setting state, which is a setting state of a position of an electric seat provided on the mobile body recorded for each specific user; and a setting control step for starting a second control to set the position of the electric seat to the second setting state based on the customization information when the user who boarded the mobile body is identified as the specific user by the user identification step, or when the mobile body transitions to a state ready to travel, and starting a first control to set the display unit to the first setting state after a predetermined waiting time has elapsed since the user was identified as the specific user or after a predetermined waiting time has elapsed since the start of the second control.

The above-mentioned mobile body control device can reduce the flickering that users perceive on the display when changing the settings of the display unit and configurable equipment other than the display unit depending on the user on the mobile body.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a mobile object control device. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of customization information. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the process of setting the display unit and the settable equipment by the mobile object control device. FIG. 4 is a timing chart of the setting process of the display unit and the settable equipment by the mobile object control device.

[1. Configuration of mobile object control device]
The configuration of a mobile body control device 1 of this embodiment will be described with reference to Fig. 1. The mobile body control device 1 is mounted on a vehicle 50, which corresponds to the mobile body of the present disclosure. The vehicle 50 is provided with a meter 51, a head-up display (HUD) 52, and a touch panel 53 such as a display audio (DA), which are visually recognized by a user of the vehicle 50.

Vehicle 50 is equipped with an electric seat 70, left and right door mirrors 71, 72, a steering wheel 73, speakers 74, and an air conditioning unit 90, which correspond to the configurable equipment of the present disclosure. Vehicle 50 also is equipped with an interior camera 80 that captures images of the interior of the vehicle, exterior cameras 81, 82, 83, 84 that capture images of the front, rear, left, and right surroundings of vehicle 50, a communication unit 91, an ignition (IG) switch 60, an operation panel 61 for changing the set temperature of the air conditioning unit 90, a door mirror switch 62 for changing the angle of the door mirrors 71, 72, and a seat switch 63 for changing the position (forward/backward position, reclining angle) of electric seat 70.

The mobile object control device 1 is a computer unit composed of a processor 10, memory 20, etc. Operation signals from the IG switch 60, operation panel 61, door mirror switch 62, seat switch 63, and touch panel 53 are input to the mobile object control device 1. Images captured by the in-vehicle camera 80, images captured by the external cameras 81, 82, 83, and 84, and data received by the communication unit 91 are also input to the mobile object control device 1.

Control signals output from the vehicle control device 1 control the display state of the meter 51, HUD 52, and touch panel 53, the position of the power seat 70, the angle of the door mirrors 71, 71, the volume of the alarm sound (corresponding to the specified sound in this disclosure) output from the speaker 74, the set temperature of the air conditioning unit 90, etc.

The memory 20 stores a control program 21 for the vehicle control device 1 and user data 22. As shown in FIG. 2, the user data 22 stores personal data for multiple specific users who are registered with the vehicle 1. The personal data stores a user ID, a facial image of the specific user, and customization information set by the specific user, such as display mode settings for the meter 51 and HUD 52, the volume of the alarm sound output from the speaker 74, the temperature of the air conditioning unit 90, and the position settings for the power seat 70. The alarm sound corresponds to the predetermined sound in the present disclosure, and the volume corresponds to the output mode of the predetermined sound in the present disclosure. The output mode of the predetermined sound may be, in addition to volume, tone, sound output pattern, etc.

The specific user sets the display mode of the meter 51, the volume of the alarm sound from the speaker 74, and the set temperature of the air conditioning unit 90 by operating the operation panel 61, touch panel 53, or switches (not shown) on the steering wheel 73, and sets the position of the power seat 70 by operating the seat switch 63. The customization information for the specific user is updated in response to these setting operations.

The display state settings for the meter 51 include settings for the display language, display color, display angle, brightness, character size, display items, display design, etc. The settings for the HUD 52 include settings for the display position, tilt, brightness, character size, display items, etc. Figure 1 shows a situation in which a specific user U approaches the vehicle 50 and gets on board the vehicle 50.

By loading and executing the control program 21, the processor 10 functions as a user identification unit 11, a customization information acquisition unit 12, a setting control unit 13, a standby time change acceptance unit 14, and a standby time setting unit 15.

The user identification unit 11 identifies a specific user U outside the vehicle 50 by comparing a facial image of a person extracted from images captured by the exterior cameras 81, 82, 83, and 84 with the facial image of the specific user recorded in the user data 22. The user identification unit 11 also identifies a specific user U aboard the vehicle 50 by comparing an image of a person extracted from images captured by the interior camera 80 with the facial image of the specific user recorded in the user data 22. It may also be possible to identify whether a person is a specific user U based on biometric information other than a facial image, such as an iris or fingerprint, or ID information transmitted from a communication terminal 100 carried by the person. Alternatively, the user identification unit 11 may identify a specific user U based on a user name selected by operating the touch panel 53 or the like, or based on the result of comparing the entered password with a password recorded in association with the selected user name.

The customization information acquisition unit 12 acquires customization information for a specific user U by referencing the user data 22. Of the customization information, the setting states of the display mode of the meter 51 and HUD 52 correspond to the first setting state of the present disclosure, and the setting states of the volume of the alarm sound, the set temperature of the air conditioning unit 90, and the position of the power seat 70 correspond to the second setting state of the present disclosure.

The setting control unit 13, as will be described in detail below, executes a first control that changes the display settings of the meter 51 and HUD 52 based on the customization information of the specific user U when the specific user U begins using the vehicle 50, and a second control that changes the volume of the alarm sound, the set temperature of the air conditioning unit 90, and the position of the power seat 70, based on the customization information of the specific user U. The setting control unit 13 first starts the second control, and then starts the first control when a predetermined waiting time Tw (see Figure 4, described below) has elapsed since the start of the second control.

In addition, if the user identification unit 11 recognizes a specific user U who is outside the vehicle 50, the process of executing the first control may not be performed when the waiting time Tw has elapsed after the second control is started by the setting control unit 13.

The standby time change receiving unit 14 changes the standby time Tw in response to operation of the operation panel 61, etc., by the specific user U. The standby time setting unit 15 sets the standby time Tw in response to the time required for the second control. For example, when changing the position of the power seat 70 through the second control, the standby time setting unit 15 may set the standby time Tw to a longer time the longer it takes to change the position.

[2. Setting process for display unit and configurable equipment]
The procedure for setting the display unit and configurable equipment based on the customization information of the specific user U, which is executed by the mobile object control device 1, will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

In step S1 of FIG. 3, when the setting control unit 13 recognizes that the IG switch 60 has been turned ON, the processing proceeds to step S2, where the meter 51 and HUD 52 are displayed in the display mode set the last time the vehicle 50 was used. In the following step S3, the user identification unit 11 compares the user's facial image extracted from the image captured by the in-vehicle camera 80 with the facial image of the specific user recorded in the user data 22, thereby identifying whether the user riding in the vehicle 50 is a specific user U.

If the user identification unit 11 identifies that the user riding in the vehicle 50 is a specific user U, the process proceeds to step S5; if the user identification unit 11 identifies that the user riding in the vehicle 50 is not a specific user U, the process proceeds to step S11. In step S5, the customization information acquisition unit 12 references the user data 22 and acquires customization information for the specific user U.

In the following step S6, the setting control unit 13 initiates a second control to change the volume of the alarm sound output from the speaker 74, the set temperature of the air conditioning unit 90, and the position of the power seat 70 based on the customization information for the specific user U. In the next step S7, the setting control unit 13 displays a notification on the meter 51 that reads "Personal settings being reflected" (a display indicating that measures are being taken to set the vehicle to the first setting state and the second setting state).

In the following step S8, the setting control unit 13 starts a timer with the above-mentioned waiting time Tw as the set time, and when the timer times out in the next step S9, the processing proceeds to step S10. In step S10, the setting control unit 13 executes a first control to change the display mode settings of the meter 51 and HUD 52 based on the customization information of the specific user U.

Figure 4 is a timing chart when the processing according to the flowchart in Figure 3 is executed, and shows the timing of the ON/OFF of the IG switch 60, the control of personal settings for the display state of the meter 51 and HUD 52 (first control), and the control of the volume of the alarm sound output from the speaker 74, the temperature setting of the air conditioning unit 90, and the personal setting of the position of the power seat 70 (second control) on a common time axis t.

At t1, when the IG switch 60 is turned ON, the setting control unit 13 initiates a second control in which the volume of the alarm sound from the speaker 74, the set temperature of the air conditioning unit 90, and the position of the power seat 70 are adjusted according to the customization information for the specific user U. At this time, the setting control unit 13 displays a notification on the meter 51 that reads "Personal settings being reflected."

At time t2, when the waiting time Tw has elapsed since t1, the setting control unit 13 executes first control to set the display modes of the meter 51 and HUD 52 to a setting state corresponding to the customization information of the specific user U. In this way, by changing the display modes of the meter 51 and HUD 52 using the first control after the waiting time Tw has elapsed since the second control was initiated, it is possible to prevent the specific user U from perceiving flickering when viewing the meter 51.

3. Other Embodiments
In the above embodiment, the temperature setting of the air conditioner 90 has been described as the second setting, but the temperature setting of the air conditioner 90 may be treated as the first setting by specifying the temperature of the air conditioner 90 to be set in conjunction with a setting for whether or not to display the set temperature of the air conditioner 90 on a display such as the meter 51, and a setting for the temperature indicator (number or color indicating the set temperature) to be displayed on the display.

In the above embodiment, a vehicle 50 was shown as the mobile body of the present disclosure, but the mobile body of the present disclosure may be any mobile body that identifies the user as a specific user and changes the adjustment state of the display unit and configurable equipment according to the settings made by the specific user, and may also be a ship, aircraft, etc.

In the above embodiment, the standby time change acceptance unit 14 and the standby time setting unit 15 are provided to change the standby time, but either or both of the standby time change acceptance unit 14 and the standby time setting unit 15 may be omitted.

In the above embodiment, the notification "Personal settings being reflected" was displayed on the meter 51 until the waiting time elapsed, but this display may be omitted. Furthermore, the notification "Personal settings being reflected" may be displayed not only until the waiting time elapses, but also until the change in the display mode settings of the meter 51 and HUD 52 is completed, or until a predetermined time has elapsed since the change in the display mode settings of the meter 51 and HUD 52 began.

In the above embodiment, the power seat 70, speaker 74, and air conditioning unit 90 were given as examples of configurable equipment whose settings by a specific user U are saved, but the settings of other configurable equipment, such as door mirrors 71, 72 and steering wheel 73, may also be included in the customization information.

In the above embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, when the user identification unit 11 identifies the user aboard the vehicle 50 as a specific user in step S4, the setting control unit 13 starts the second control in step S6. In another embodiment, the second control may be started when the vehicle 50 transitions to a drivable state by operating the IG switch 60, etc.

Note that Figure 1 is a schematic diagram showing the functional configuration of the mobile body control device 1 divided by main processing content to facilitate understanding of the present invention, but the configuration of the mobile body control device 1 may be divided into other categories. Furthermore, the processing of each component may be performed by a single hardware unit or multiple hardware units. Furthermore, the processing of each component shown in Figure 3 may be performed by a single program or multiple programs.

4. Configurations supported by the above embodiment
The above embodiment is a specific example of the following configuration.

(Configuration 1) A mobile body control device comprising: a user identification unit that identifies whether a user of a mobile body is a specific user; a customization information acquisition unit that acquires customization information including information on a first setting state, which is the setting state of a display unit provided on the mobile body and recorded for each specific user, and a second setting state, which is the setting state of settable equipment other than the display unit provided on the mobile body and recorded for each specific user; and a setting control unit that, when the user identification unit identifies a user who has boarded the mobile body as the specific user, starts a second control that sets the settable equipment to the second setting state based on the customization information, and starts a first control that sets the display unit to the first setting state after a predetermined waiting time has elapsed since the user was identified as the specific user or after a predetermined waiting time has elapsed since the start of the second control.
According to the mobile body control device of configuration 1, when the settings of the display unit and configurable equipment other than the display unit are changed in a mobile body depending on the user, it is possible to suppress the user from feeling flickering of the display unit.

(Configuration 2) The mobile object control device according to Configuration 1, wherein the setting state of the display unit includes any one of the setting states of the angle, brightness, and character size of the display unit.
According to the mobile object control device of configuration 2, it is possible to suppress flickering that the user perceives when changing any of the settings of the angle, brightness, and character size of the display unit.

(Configuration 3) The mobile object control device according to configuration 1 or 2, further comprising a standby time change accepting unit that changes the standby time in response to an instruction from the specific user.
According to the mobile object control device of configuration 3, the timing at which the display unit is set to the first setting state can be changed according to the preference of a particular user.

(Configuration 4) The mobile body control device according to any one of configurations 1 to 3, further comprising a standby time setting unit that sets the standby time in accordance with the time required for the second control.
According to the mobile object control device of configuration 4, the timing for starting adjustment of the display unit by the first control can be set in accordance with the progress of adjustment of the settable equipment by the second control.

(Configuration 5) A mobile control device described in any one of configurations 1 to 4, wherein the setting state of the configurable equipment is one of the setting state of the output mode of a predetermined sound when the configurable equipment is a sound output device, the setting state of the position of an electric seat when the configurable equipment is an electric seat, and the setting state of temperature when the configurable equipment is an air conditioning device.
According to the mobile object control device of configuration 5, after the second control is started for any of adjusting the output volume of a predetermined sound from the audio output device, adjusting the position of an electric seat, and adjusting the set temperature of an air conditioning device, the display unit is adjusted by the first control, thereby preventing a specific user from noticing flickering of the display unit.

(Configuration 6) A mobile body control device described in any one of configurations 1 to 5, wherein the setting control unit displays on the display unit a display indicating that measures are being taken to set the user to the first setting state and the second setting state from the time the user is identified as the specific user by the user identification unit or from the time the second control is started until the first control is started.
According to the mobile body control device of configuration 6, by displaying that measures are being taken to set the device to the first setting state and the second setting state, it is possible to prevent a particular user from feeling uncomfortable about the fact that adjustment of the display settings of the display unit has not begun.

(Configuration 7) A mobile body control device described in any one of configurations 1 to 6, wherein the user identification unit identifies whether a user boarding the mobile body is the specified user and whether a person outside the mobile body in the vicinity of the mobile body is the specified user, and when the user identification unit identifies the person as the specified user, the setting control unit starts the first control from the point at which the user identification unit identifies the person as the specified user.
According to the mobile body control device of configuration 7, when the specific user is outside the mobile body and is not in a situation where he or she can see the display unit, the specific user will not notice any flickering even if the settings of the display unit are changed, and therefore, once it is recognized that the user is a specific user, the first control can be started without any problems.

(Configuration 8) A mobile body control device described in any one of configurations 1 to 6, wherein the setting control unit, when recognizing a start-up operation of the mobile body by a user riding on the mobile body, displays the display unit in the setting state of the mobile body at the time of the previous use, and then, when the user identification unit identifies the user riding on the mobile body as the specific user, starts the second control and sets the display unit to the first setting state after the waiting time has elapsed from the time the second control was initiated.
According to the mobile body control device of configuration 8, when the display state of the display unit is switched from the setting state when the mobile body was last used to the setting state set by the specific user, it is possible to prevent the specific user from noticing flickering of the display on the display unit.

(Configuration 9) A mobile body control method executed by a computer, comprising: a user identification step of identifying whether a user of a mobile body is a specific user; a customization information acquisition step of acquiring customization information including information on a first setting state, which is the setting state of a display unit provided on the mobile body and recorded for each specific user, and a second setting state, which is the setting state of settable equipment other than the display unit provided on the mobile body and recorded for each specific user; and a setting control step of, when the user who boarded the mobile body is identified as the specific user by the user identification step, starting a second control that sets the settable equipment to the second setting state based on the customization information, and starting a first control that sets the display unit to the first setting state after a predetermined waiting time has elapsed since the user was identified as the specific user or after a predetermined waiting time has elapsed since the start of the second control.
By executing the moving body control method of configuration 9 by a computer, the same effects as those of the vehicle control device of configuration 1 can be obtained.

1...mobile body control device, 10...processor, 11...user identification unit, 12...customization information acquisition unit, 13...setting control unit, 14...standby time change acceptance unit, 15...standby time setting unit, 20...memory, 21...control program, 22...specific user data, 50...vehicle (mobile body), 51...meter (display unit), 52...HUD (display unit), 53...touch panel, 60...IG switch, 61...operation panel, 62...door mirror switch, 63...seat switch, 70...electric seat (configurable equipment), 71, 72...door mirror, 74...speaker (configurable equipment), 80...in-vehicle camera, 81, 82, 83, 84...exterior vehicle camera, 90...air conditioning unit (configurable equipment), 91...communication unit, 100...communication terminal, U...specific user

Claims (8)

a user identification unit that identifies whether a user of the mobile object is a specific user;
a customization information acquisition unit that acquires customization information including information on a first setting state, which is a setting state of a display unit provided in the moving body and recorded for each specific user, and information on a second setting state, which is a setting state of a position of an electric seat provided in the moving body and recorded for each specific user;
a setting control unit that starts a second control to change the position of the electric seat to the second setting state based on the customization information when the user identification unit identifies a user who has boarded the moving body as the specific user or when the moving body transitions to a runnable state, and starts a first control to change the position of the display unit to the first setting state after a predetermined waiting time has elapsed since the user was identified as the specific user or after a predetermined waiting time has elapsed since the start of the second control;
A mobile object control device comprising: The setting state of the display unit includes any one of the setting states of the angle, brightness, color, and characters of the display unit.
The mobile object control device according to claim 1 . The mobile body control device according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising a standby time change accepting unit that changes the standby time in response to an instruction from the specific user. The mobile body control device according to claim 1 , further comprising a standby time setting unit that sets the standby time in accordance with a time required for the second control. 5. The mobile body control device according to claim 1, wherein the setting control unit causes the display unit to display a message indicating that measures are being taken to set the first setting state and the second setting state from the time the user is identified as the specific user by the user identification unit or from the time the second control is started until the first control is started. the user identification unit identifies whether a user who boarded the moving body is the specified user, and whether a person outside the moving body who is in the vicinity of the moving body is the specified user;
6. A mobile control device according to claim 1, wherein when the user identification unit identifies the resident as the specific user, the setting control unit starts the first control from the point at which the user identification unit identifies the resident as the specific user. 7. A mobile body control device as described in any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the setting control unit, when recognizing a start-up operation of the mobile body by a user riding on the mobile body, causes the display unit to display the setting state of the mobile body at the time of the previous use, and then, when the user identification unit identifies the user riding on the mobile body as the specific user, starts the second control and sets the display unit to the first setting state after the waiting time has elapsed from the time the second control was started. A computer-implemented mobile object control method,
a user identification step of identifying whether a user of the mobile object is a specific user;
a customization information acquisition step of acquiring customization information including information on a first setting state, which is a setting state of a display unit provided in the moving body and recorded for each specific user, and information on a second setting state, which is a setting state of a position of an electric seat provided in the moving body and recorded for each specific user;
a setting control step of starting a second control to set the position of the electric seat to the second setting state based on the customization information when the user who boarded the moving body is identified as the specific user in the user identification step, or when the moving body transitions to a runnable state, and starting a first control to set the position of the display unit to the first setting state after a predetermined waiting time has elapsed since the user was identified as the specific user or after a predetermined waiting time has elapsed since the start of the second control;
A mobile object control method comprising: