Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Hemanth Yadav Aradhyula

Erick Michael Lavoie

Hamid M Golgiri

Ali Hassani

Siyuan Ma

Jonathan Diedrich

Seyed Armin Raeis Hosseiny

John Robert Van Wiemeersch

Bo Bao

Roger Arnold Trombley

Luke Niewiadomski

Vidya Nariyambut Murali

Ryan Edwin Hanson

Bruno Sielly Jales Costa

Nikhil Nagraj Rao

Kyle Simmons

Robert Parenti

Ryan Joseph Gorski

Katherine Rouen

Lawrence Chikeziri Amadi

Tom Nelson

John Michael Celli

Frederic Christen

Bob Bao

Monica Bannurkar

Christoph Kessler

Frank Golub

A computer, including a processor and a memory, the memory including instructions to be executed by the processor to acquire a first image by illuminating a first object with a first light beam, segment the first image of the first object to determine regions that correspond to a first surface material and determine a first measure of pixel values in regions of the first image that correspond to the first surface material. The instructions include further instructions to perform a comparison of the first measure of pixel values to a second measure of pixel values determined from a second image of a second object, wherein the second image is previously acquired by illuminating the second object with a second light beam and when the comparison determines that the first measure is equal to the second measure of pixel values within a tolerance, determine that the first object and the second object are a same object.

Material spectroscopy

A mobile device for remotely controlling the movement of a vehicle and trailer is provided. The mobile device provides a user engagement input for display and use of a control input. The control input may be used to generate a signal for controlling the movement of the vehicle and trailer.

Remote control system for a vehicle and trailer

A vehicle for improved user authentication is provided. The vehicle includes a biometric sensor; and a controller programmed to initiate a biometric authentication of a user within a vicinity of a vehicle using data received from the biometric sensor, and responsive to occurrence of a secondary trigger condition initiated by the user to gain access to the vehicle, complete the authentication to grant or deny access to the user. A system for remote management of lockout states for a vehicle is provided. A server is programmed to receive a lockout notification from the vehicle, responsive to occurrence of a failed access attempt using an access modality, the lockout notification including contextual information with respect to the occurrence of the failed access attempt; and send, responsive to the lockout notification, an indication of an administrative action to be performed by the vehicle.

Progressive lockout policy for deviceless vehicle access and remote lockout management interface

The disclosure is generally directed to systems and methods for receiving proximity characteristics at a nomadic device, the proximity characteristics including mapped obstruction data identifying locations of one or more obstructions of an area surrounding a vehicle; calculating at last one unobstructed pose orientations for establishing a secure connection between the nomadic device and the vehicle based on the proximity characteristics, the unobstructed pose orientation determined at least in part on the mapped obstruction data; and displaying the unobstructed pose orientation on the nomadic device within an array of augmented reality pose orientations on the nomadic device. In some embodiments, the systems and methods include displaying an interactive overlay as a direction to a user of the nomadic device, the interactive overlay coaching the user to locate to the at least one unobstructive pose orientation.

Systems and methods to compute a vehicle dynamic pose for augmented reality tracking

A computer, including a processor and a memory, the memory including instructions to be executed by the processor to acquire a first image by illuminating a first object with a first light beam, determine a first measure of pixel values in the image and perform a comparison of the first measure of pixel values to a second measure of pixel values determined from a second image of a second object, wherein the second image is previously acquired by illuminating the second object with a second light beam. The instructions include further instructions to, when the comparison determines that the first measure is equal to the second measure of pixel values within a tolerance, determine that the first object and the second object are a same object.

A system for assisting in aligning a vehicle for hitching with a trailer includes a vehicle steering system, a wireless communication module, a detection system outputting a signal including scene data of an area to a rear of the vehicle, and a controller. The controller receives, via the wireless communication module, an automated hitching initiation command from an external wireless device, receives the scene data and identifying the trailer within the area to the rear of the vehicle, derives a backing path to align a hitch ball mounted on the vehicle to a coupler of the trailer, and controls the vehicle steering system to maneuver the vehicle including reversing along the backing path.

System and method for remote automated vehicle alignment with a trailer for hitching

A computer, including a processor and a memory, the memory including instructions to be executed by the processor to determine a first measure of pixel values in the first image, acquire a second image, estimate ambient light illuminating the first object based on the second image and modify the first measure of pixel values based on a second measure of pixel values corresponding to estimated ambient light based on the second image. The instructions include further instructions to perform a comparison of the modified first measure of pixel values to a third measure of pixel values determined from a third image of a second object, wherein the third image is previously acquired by illuminating the second object with a second light beam and, when the comparison determines that the first measure is equal to the third measure of pixel values within a tolerance, determine whether the first object and the second object are a same object.

The disclosure describes systems and methods including a mobile device for remotely controlling the movement of a vehicle and trailer. The mobile device provides an intuitive user interface and control input mechanism for controlling the movement of the vehicle and trailer. The control input mechanism uses the tilt and heading of the mobile device to provide a propulsion command and a steering curvature command.

The present disclosure generally relates to vehicle remote parking assistance, and, more specifically, systems and methods for determining a distance between a vehicle and a mobile device during a remote parking procedure. In particular, the systems and methods include selecting a camera lens or focal length for use with a first method of determining a distance between a vehicle and a mobile device based on an image of the vehicle and a digital model of the vehicle.

Vehicle control systems and methods and optical tethering techniques

The disclosure generally pertains to a vehicle maneuvering system that includes a personal communication device configured to provide enhanced feedback during vehicle maneuvering operations. In an example scenario, an individual executes a remote-control action upon a personal communication device such as, for example, by swiping a finger across a touchscreen. The personal communication device communicates with a vehicle controller to maneuver the vehicle. Enhanced feedback pertaining to the movement of the vehicle, such as a direction and/or a speed of movement, is provided via the personal communication device in various formats. Some examples include a directional haptic vibration that moves in the personal communication device in correspondence to the movement of the vehicle (and/or a trailer attached to the vehicle), a spatial audio signal that is produced in spatial correspondence with the movement of the vehicle/trailer, and/or an icon that moves spatially on the touchscreen in correspondence with the vehicle/trailer.

Systems and methods for providing enhanced feedback on a personal communication device used for vehicle maneuvering

The disclosure is generally directed to remotely-controlled automated vehicle parking operations. A driver of a vehicle stands on a curb and launches a software application on a handheld device. The software application uses a camera of the handheld device to capture images of the vehicle that can be observed by the driver. The software application then attempts to obtain a visual lock between the camera and the vehicle. In some cases, obtaining the visual lock may be hampered due to adverse lighting conditions. Light may be transmitted from the handheld device to illuminate the vehicle for better image capture. Alternatively, a command can be transmitted from the handheld device to a controller in the vehicle for turning on a light in the vehicle. After obtaining visual lock, various techniques such as vehicle path prediction and interpolation, can be used for effectively tracking the vehicle.

Systems and methods for executing remotely-controlled automated vehicle parking operations

A computer, including a processor and a memory, the memory including instructions to be executed by the processor to acquire a first image by illuminating a first object with a first light beam, determine a first measure based on a first number of pixels corresponding to the first object in the first image and determine a relative distance measure by comparing the first measure based on the first number of pixels corresponding to the first object to a second measure based on a second number of pixels corresponding to a second object in the first image. The instructions can include instructions to modify the first measure of pixel values based on the relative distance measure, perform a comparison of the modified first measure of pixel values to a third measure of pixel values determined from a second image of a second object, and when the comparison determines that the first measure is equal to the third measure of pixel values within a tolerance, determine that the first object and the second object are a same object.

Growing community of inventors

Dearborn, MI, United States of America

Hemanth Yadav Aradhyula